Eric B. —
June 17, 2009 @ 2:48 pm 
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…
Hope you had a nice weekend! It’s raining here, and pretty miserable. We’ve been out for awhile due to an issue close, but should be back in action this week. Based on some news from RSS feeds, it looks like the day is getting off to a nice start, news-wise. And yes, that is a picture of William Shatner in his Star Trek days. And yes, this post mentions William Shatner as he relates to voice biometrics.