The GirlTech Password Journal has been given a make over for 2009, Dear Readers.

Even pinker than before, this iteration sports a new translucent shell and a new locking mechanism. The remake has been described by some as a drive to keep the girl-facing, biometric speech solution relevant in the current recessionary market-which has slowed the already recently slow biometric market.

The new locking mechanism may be a response to the old fold-over-styled security system that drew criticism for its perceived flimsiness. Version 6 now opens more like a book than a folder-version 5’s design, which numerous Amazon reviewers noted was easily pried open.

“It’s a piece of plastic. A nosy brother…who pries [sic] it open will break the lock,” noted reviewer K. Nettles of 5, adding, “This journal is not going to overcome problems with lack of mutual respect within a household.”

Since we haven’t been able to get a hold of a copy for ourselves, we can’t say whether these issues have been resolved. From pictures, though, it seems that the translucent cover produces new security concerns, namely that the contents are visible.

As for whether underlying speech technology supplied by embedded provider Sensory’s has been improved, we don’t know.

The journals actual ability to recognize a correct password and correctly establish a speaker’s identity has long been the source of critical ruminations in its decade’s long existence.

One review by Jed N. Kaplowitz contends that even though the journal “was so fickle about the way [my daughter] spoke the secret code, it wasn’t fickle at all about who entered it. Her brother’s voice worked just as well to open it, and it turned out my deeper voice opened [sic] it too. I could say a word that was close to the original and it would open,” he writes in an Amazon post titled “Made my daughter cry.”

“My daughter tried using it by hiding it in her room, but she quickly lost interest in it, and now it’s on the bottom of her toy box,” the post adds.

The GTPWJ also has its fair share of devotees of course; it has, after all, been in manufacture for 10 years.

One review by Lydia Cummings gushes “I own one, and it is such a wonderful thing to have!…I know all the secrets to owning it,” before offering a number of tips which require owning a piano and speaking your password at a consistent tone.

I asked Sensory’s CEO, Todd Mozer, if he knew whether there had been any updates for the GirlTech this time around and he wasn’t sure. Apparently, there are and have been a couple of different versions that are on the market.

By our own count there are six GirlTech versions, the Zizzle High School Musical (HSM) Secret Journal with Musical Password, the Bratz Passion 4 Fashion Secret Sign in Journal, and the Hannah Montana Secret Keeper Diary Journal.

Mozer says that the journal is his company’s longest running product, lasting something like 10 years.

“I’ve heard that it’s the best selling girl’s electronic product of all time. I’m confident it’s also the best selling consumer/low cost biometric product in the world,” he writes in an email to Speech Tech Blog.

Since its inception, the product has seen several IC upgrades and three technology upgrades. It’s gotten a ton more physical makeovers, too, and I expect we’ll keep seeing them if they keep selling. I expect my brother Adam B. will keep buying them too…

Well, well. I figured with Christmas upon us it would be kind of a slow week for the blog, but I have figured wrong.

There’s been an outpouring of response to my post about the GirlTech Password Journal (GTPJ). So far, the post has seen more comments than any in Speech Tech Blog history. A number of disgruntled Speech Heads have been writing in to say that they’re dissatisfied with the biometric speech solution. I can’t say for sure, but it seems like many of you out there have been coming to us, having maybe received one of these bad boys (well…girls, really) for Christmas feeling like you got the short end of the stick and looking for answers.

The chief complaint out there seems to be that the GTPJ not only keeps offending parties from reading the journal’s most private thoughts contained inside, but also the authorized user.

One reader put it best when he or she wrote, “MY 6 YEAR OLD SIXTER HAVE ONE BUT IT RUBISH.”

I have to admit, I’m kinda glad that we’ve tapped into a raw nerve here. Not only has it gotten a lot more people looking at the blog (always good), but it seems to be highlighting, in its own roundabout way, a perennial problem in speech: if you don’t spend a lot of money, there is a lot of short end of the stick to go around.

Because of high development costs and the increased centralization and consolidation of major sectors of the speech industry through mergers and acquisitions, this speech stuff has stayed relatively expensive for a long time. For large enterprises that can absorb the big expenses, quality hasn’t been an issue. They can spend the capital to get speech solutions that work with a high degree of accuracy and precision. However, when you’re making toys and are looking to keep costs low and maximize profits, that’s another story altogether.

I remember my sister’s Furby, for instance. That thing recognized what we were saying only maybe 30 percent of the time—and that’s probably being pretty generous. To keep toymaking costs low, the hardware and software on many speech-enabled kid’s products has been less than thrilling. This is particularly egregious when manufacturers make all sorts of promises to kids that the products just don’t deliver. The stuff never seems work like it does in the commercials, and many a child is left bawling mercilessly as his parents tear their hairs from the roots in wild frustration.

This isn’t true all over speech. We’re starting to see some positive movement in price, especially with speech-enabled smart phone apps–a lot of which are really good and free to boot. But speech, like history, doesn’t move in a straight line. So watch out.

I’ve said this all before when I warned “Caveat emptor” at the end of my original post about the GTPJ, but maybe I ought to translate this time around so there can be no question: Let the buyer beware. Yes, buyer beware, dear Speech Heads.

While we were all sleeping and unaware, the once fledgling field of Girl Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Mattel has released a state-of-the-art “Girl Tech Password Journal.”

The journal promises girls a secure voice recognition password system that should allow only the authorized user access to its treasure trove of secrets. The thing is a kind of plastic folder that physically locks itself and opens only when a user speaks the correct password. It also uses some rudimentary voice recognition software to ensure that no one who has surreptitiously learned the password—like say a meddlesome younger brother or a nosy parent—can get in.

Further still, the journal recognizes a few other voice commands like light, date, and time, which provide access to more sundry features found inside. And if that wasn’t enough, Mattel has also provided “double the privacy” with additional analog security features like its Magic Pen and Glow Light. When used in conjunction, the Pen and Light “will reveal [your most private thoughts] only to you. The page will look blank to prying eyes!”

The Girl Tech Password Journal is only one of a steadily growing number of toys that have been coming out with voice recognition technology embedded into them. As voice technology has improved and become cheaper, it has trickled down into all sorts of unexpected places with increased sophistication in its applications.

Girls, before you run out and get one though, a word of caution: the Password Journal has some notable security flaws. As with all voice technology in the toy price range, the functionality is compromised greatly in order to cut costs. This is no advanced biometric solution. We know of at least one parent who was able to get into gain access to his daughter’s most private thoughts by speaking her password over and over in a high falsetto.

Caveat emptor, dear reader.