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Microsoft to Develop Voice-Recognition iPhone App Via Subsidiary Tellme
Posted by John Mahoney at 2:15 AM on September 30, 2008
Voice recognition is one if the iPhone gaping-est of holes, but it will soon be plugged by none other than Microsoft. But before you look forward to putting your multitouching fingers all over those glorious nine letters on your iPhone screen, know that MS is only indirectly involved via Tellme, a company they acquired in early 2007 which has a similar app for Blackberries already. But it's a start. And the app looks like it would be pretty useful.
Press a button to start recording and say what you're searching for--the name of a business, for instance, and Tellme will search and locate matches in your vicinity. Great for when you can't stop and type in locations manually. Unfortunately the app doesn't appear to access your contacts for good ol' standard voice-dialing (at least in the BlackBerry version), so that's something we'll still have to wait for. Along with mobile MS Office for iPhone [Yahoo News/CNET]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
RalphWiggum
Posted 2:59 AM 30/9/08
The iPhone's lack of voice dialing is its single greatest deficit as far as I'm concerned. As much as I love mine, having to use the touch interface to find a contact and make a call while driving is down right dangerous.
Microsoft has had a near perfect solution, Voice Command, for WinMo phones for the last several years. Apple really needs to get their sh*t together on this.
RalphWiggum
Blinklink11
Posted 2:56 AM 30/9/08
God, that new picture you just updated it with is great.
Blinklink11
takashimiike 7
Posted 2:41 AM 30/9/08
Microsoft Sync maybe?
takashimiike 7
Alchemistmerlin
Posted 2:37 AM 30/9/08
I was not aware that the iPhone lacked voice recognition.
My crappy $50 Juke has voice recognition...
Alchemistmerlin
MrBlahBlah
Posted 2:28 AM 30/9/08
questionably useful, but a good start, I guess.
I'm sure apple will plug this hole eventually. I mean, if their phone is to be on the market for the next 10 years or so, they need some room for improvement, no?
MrBlahBlah
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 3:18 AM 30/9/08
@Curves Wants a Classic View Default: Be thankful you're not his wife.
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
macslut
Posted 3:17 AM 30/9/08
You've always been able to get the standard TellMe service on the iPhone. It's $5 a month. Create *86 bookmark icon and it's one touch for the service. It won't search your contacts on your phone, but you can store contacts on the service.
Hopefully the official app will be much better.
macslut
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 3:16 AM 30/9/08
@Curves Wants a Classic View Default: Kinda reminds me of the cow tongues you see in the deli section at the supermarket.
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
bpapa9013
Posted 3:16 AM 30/9/08
@Blinklink11: For example:
*Sorry to cover up your credit Jesus
bpapa9013
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 3:16 AM 30/9/08
Wow, and he didn't even need to be 'double dog dared' to do that either..
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Curves
Posted 3:14 AM 30/9/08
Thats an ugly tongue.
Curves
MikeSWelch
Posted 3:14 AM 30/9/08
I've been through countless phones with voice dial and I've never once used it. I also don't personally know anyone who uses voice dial. Is it really that important to people?
MikeSWelch
Mr.SithNinja
Posted 3:13 AM 30/9/08
Most....disturbing....pic....ever....
Mr.SithNinja
bpapa9013
Posted 3:00 AM 30/9/08
@Blinklink11: Giz needs to give out that pic w/out the iPhone chopped in there and make that a chop contest: WWBL: "What would ballmer lick?"
bpapa9013
iaintgoingthere
Posted 3:40 AM 30/9/08
Have you guys tried Voice Dialer?
Several versions ago, it was one crappy app, but it works really well.
Free is the best part about this app.
iaintgoingthere
SerleWinecor
Posted 3:34 AM 30/9/08
I must say I spewed water laughing at that pic. then i gave it a second look... *shivers*
SerleWinecor
Coop
Posted 3:34 AM 30/9/08
How is this worlds colliding?
Microsoft has made software that will run on Macs for years.
Additionally, MS doesn't make phones, they make the mobile Operating Systems that runs on phones.
So it's not a matter of anything colliding, just MS taking advantage of yet another market.
Good for them! And if it brings about more useful software or competition, then it's good for the consumer too. ^_^
Still, maybe this'll get Apple off their duffs to implement their own solution to voice-dialing.
Coop
lpranal
Posted 3:28 AM 30/9/08
@takashimiike 7: I Have a boss that has gone through literally every modern smartphone available and returned them all for not having voice recognition. I think it's a love it or hate it kind of thing, but his logic is "If a ford focus can have it, so should my phone. He wouldn't even look at the iphone because it didn't have it.
lpranal
DigitalSciGuy
Posted 4:39 AM 30/9/08
I value a Mobile Office Suite more than voice recognition. I'd rather not talk to my phone in public unless I'm having a conversation with someone...unless I'm riding my bike, in which case I would appreciate voice recognition...but more often than not I find myself cursing my phone for not being able to edit documents on the go. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when I can't always pull up my laptop to not be able to actively edit Office documents. I've never been frustrated that I can't voice dial, voice command, or dictate text to my phone, even when I used my WinMo phone...
DigitalSciGuy
im2fools
Posted 4:32 AM 30/9/08
Now we know the real reason why Steve Jobs lost his appetite...
im2fools
jkr's bold comment
Posted 4:57 AM 30/9/08
lol, MS will spend millions on development, and Apple will yank it from the app store for "reasons". Nah, j/k, sounds great.
jkr's bold comment
SgtToastie
Posted 5:29 AM 30/9/08
I'm scared for the world, people are already touching and apparently licking their iphones; and now they can talk to it. When a AI app is made for that thing, human contact will become obsolete.
SgtToastie
beekerstudios
Posted 5:16 AM 30/9/08
Why anyone would trust that disgusting pig of a man, is beyond me. We have to live with the OS, but people how can you support a company that now has this luny at the helm. You are just as insane as he is, if you do.
beekerstudios
Ken_Darrow
Posted 6:13 AM 30/9/08
OMG... I just feel sick....dizzy....I think I'm gonna hurl!!!!
Ken_Darrow
Thizizmyname
Posted 5:55 AM 30/9/08
@DigitalSciGuy: Same here, never used voice commands ever on my phone.
But boy would I like to have a mobile Exel on the iPhone...
I know, exel is maybe one of the weirdest apps to use mobile. but I'm responsible of updating a presence-list and doing it on the actual meeting would help me tones of times...
Thizizmyname
bpapa9013
Posted 6:26 AM 30/9/08
You all must appreciate my genius!
Actually I don't care if you appriciate it, I'm just bored...
bpapa9013
bpapa9013
Posted 6:59 AM 30/9/08
@SgtToastie: You've seen boob jiggling app right?
bpapa9013
bpapa9013
Posted 6:59 AM 30/9/08
@beekerstudios: You are talking about Jobs right?
bpapa9013
bpapa9013
Posted 6:56 AM 30/9/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...: There was also probably a "sour Apple" joke in there somewhere that I didn't end up thinking all the way through.
bpapa9013
bpapa9013
Posted 6:54 AM 30/9/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...: I was insinuating that Ballmer doesn't know his apples... geez.
bpapa9013
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 6:48 AM 30/9/08
@bpapa9013: Granny Smith? Don't you mean McIntosh?
[en.wikipedia.org]
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 7:18 AM 30/9/08
@bpapa9013: Well you definitely picked the right facial expression for Jobs.
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 7:17 AM 30/9/08
@bpapa9013: But everything already tastes sour and bitter to Ballmer.
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
bpapa9013
Posted 7:51 AM 30/9/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...: I was rather happy with how that pic of Jobs worked out...
bpapa9013
phuzzy
Posted 9:34 AM 30/9/08
I tried the blackberry app on my phone and it was interesting for about 2 minutes. It was way too slow and buggy, and it was removed 5 minutes after I downloaded it. It doesn't do anything a browser bookmark will do, voice recognition thats actually slower than typing. Brilliant.
phuzzy
rimplestultskin
Posted 9:44 AM 30/9/08
judging from how tellme works on my blackberry, this is ten (and by ten, i mean ten thousand) notches above the usual microsoft shit. and, has a really clean, pretty interface, also very unusual for microsoft (zune users, yeah all three of you, can it for a second) so it will look somewhat at home on the iPhone. completely at home if they remove the windows live logo.
however, if google made a comparable product (as in, one that does voice recognition), i'd probably defect over to google.
rimplestultskin
burnblue
Posted 10:20 AM 30/9/08
@RalphWiggum: Voice Command is indeed near perfect. I had it on a Pocket PC 2003 (2003!) device and it was magical. I'll never accept having to train a voice recognition system again.
Windows Speech Recognition Macros for Vista also shows that Microsoft knows speech. I'm not sure why they needed TellMe.
burnblue
Brau
Posted 8:03 PM 30/9/08
If I were Microsoft, I'd make sure to submit an App with a feature that Apple will find "duplicates functionality and causes consumer confusion", wait for them to disallow it in the App Store, then publicly sue the pants off them. When the media picks up on the story, it would be better negative advertising than all their pointless ads.
Brau
wpns
Posted 10:50 PM 30/9/08
Well, if it's anything like the "voice recognition" in the WinDoze More-Bile 6.1 update on my AT&T Tilt, it'll be completely useless. They went from poor speaker-dependent (does anyone else think "Alexandra" sounds like "Google Maps"?) to utterly useless speaker-independent.
Sigh
wpns
FabianAcarnan
Posted 2:27 AM 30/9/08
This is something very similar to the Live Search app that Sprint has put on many of their phones including the Instinct. Tho it does not control the phone in many ways, it will look up businesses and locations, then you can call, get directions (it will also launch TeleNav/Sprint Nav), forward the information, or save it into your own address book. Its nice in a pinch.
FabianAcarnan