Apple Went to Great Lengths to Obscure its Speech Recognition Interface in iOS 5

[MacRumors]

Apple's latest iOS 5 Beta 5 contains the interface elements for their rumored upcoming Speech Recognition features. The screenshot above (via 9to5Mac) shows a microphone button found on the standard text keyboard in iOS. Pressing on the microphone button will bring up a microphone speech screen where you presumably start speaking.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on an intelligent assistant speech interface to iOS based on their Siri acquisition. This latest screenshot shows how the speech recognition can be called up from any standard text entry field.

We've confirmed that the above interface does exist (in dormant form) in the latest iOS 5 beta 5. Once activated, however, the speech interface isn't yet functional. Apple hasn't included all the pieces required to enable the speech recognition.

But perhaps more interesting is that that Apple seems to have gone out of its way to keep it hidden from prying eyes. Apple's certainly aware that individuals comb through every new developer beta looking for hints of upcoming features. In this instance, they've obfuscated the names of various pieces of the interface. For example, calling the microphone button "forward delete key" and the keyboard pretends to be a "Dvorak" keyboard. The move is a reflection of the increased scrutiny of Apple's moves but also the relative significance of this feature that Apple has gone out of its way to hide.


Article Link: Apple Went to Great Lengths to Obscure its Speech Recognition Interface in iOS 5

 

[TheClarkster]

It's about time they finally copied all these features from Android. I wonder if they held off because they didn't want it to look like they copied from anyone else. I say, who cares! If there is something good already out there, copy it!

 

[apttap]

I hope it actually works.

 

[Menge]

This hiding kind of sucks and it's all due to developers who leak info from the private beta. I wish Apple could seriously go after every single one that leaks these things. You signed an NDA, for god's sake

That little rant aside: yay for voice recognition, if it works well

 

[macduke]

This is a welcome addition, though I will probably only use it occasionally. I'll just be glad to hear the Android fans shut up about it. It's cool but not THAT useful for a lot of people. I wonder if this will somehow tie in with Apple's purchase of Siri and the rumored assistant functionality that has yet to be disclosed in iOS 5. Apple usually adds features only when they've nailed them down pat. What extra will this bring to the table. Just the assistant?

 

[lordmac]

While this is a rather cool feature it doesn't really seem like a big enough one for all the apparent hassle apple went through to hide it. Certainly it is nothing in comparison to the iCloud stuff. Perhaps there is something more unique that apple is doing with it that isn't apparent yet.

 

[Cleve]

Hiding something from 9to5mac doesn't seem possible

 

[haruhiko]

How to activate it? I can't see the microphone button on the keyboard

 

[HMFIC03]

What's the globe to the left of it?

 

[HelveticaNeue]

What's the globe to the left of it?

The button to switch through any international or emoji keyboards you might have active. If you only use English and don't have the emoji keyboards active on your phone you've likely never seen this button before.

 

[Skika]

Why would they want to hide it so badly?

 

[Apple...]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

What's the globe to the left of it?

Edit: I've been beaten!

It's for switching between multiple keyboards (ex: English, Spanish, Emoji, etc.).

 

[delonh92]

This hiding kind of sucks and it's all due to developers who leak info from the private beta. I wish Apple could seriously go after every single one that leaks these things. You signed an NDA, for god's sake

That little rant aside: yay for voice recognition, if it works well

I wonder, you are saying NDA should be enforced. But you and i and many others Read a site that is named Macrumors....

 

[QuarterSwede]

This hiding kind of sucks and it's all due to developers who leak info from the private beta. I wish Apple could seriously go after every single one that leaks these things. You signed an NDA, for god's sake

You do realize this was leaked by an Apple employee.

That little rant aside: yay for voice recognition, if it works well

It will. You can use Nuance's Dragon apps already (Dragon Dictation, Dragon Go!). They're free and work very well. Everything I've read is saying that it should be the same or very similar speech recognition engine.

What I hope is that they integrate it into Voice Control and add a lot more commands. Right now it doesn't even understand "play podcast ..." That's just plain pathetic.

 

[boss.king]

Awesome, I've wanted this for a while now

 

[wordoflife]

This was the top reason for me to get an Android.
Woo

 

[benh911f]

If this functions well inside text messages, it will certainly make the roads safer, due to the whole texting while driving epidemic (which I admit I've been guilty of).

 

[coder12]

What I hope is that they integrate it into Voice Control and add a lot more commands. Right now it doesn't even understand "play podcast ..." That's just plain pathetic.

Even worse is that it fails to comprehend, "Make me a sandwich!"

 

[Menge]

I wonder, you are saying NDA should be enforced. But you and i and many others Read a site that is named Macrumors....

If it leaks from inside Apple it's one thing. If it leaks by some Joe dev outside, who Apple "trusted", then it's what makes me upset because it might tarnish other Apple's view of other devs.

Reading rumors is one thing. Leaking them...

You do realize this was leaked by an Apple employee.

The original article doesn't say that, does it? Only "a reliable source".

It will. You can use Nuance's Dragon apps already (Dragon Dictation, Dragon Go!). They're free and work very well. Everything I've read is saying that it should be the same or very similar speech recognition engine.

What I hope is that they integrate it into Voice Control and add a lot more commands. Right now it doesn't even understand "play podcast ..." That's just plain pathetic.

Sounds good to me! Voice Control is already pretty good at understanding things, but often gets confused with some background noise. Let's see how this copes!

 

[addicted44]

It's about time they finally copied all these features from Android. I wonder if they held off because they didn't want it to look like they copied from anyone else. I say, who cares! If there is something good already out there, copy it!

Note how Apple actually paid money to purchase Siri, and is holding negotiations to licence Nuance's technology.

THAT is how a mature company behaves. When they use someone else's ideas, and technologies, they pay for it.

Google simply goes ahead and steals it.

 

[Apple...]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's about time they finally copied all these features from Android. I wonder if they held off because they didn't want it to look like they copied from anyone else. I say, who cares! If there is something good already out there, copy it!

Note how Apple actually paid money to purchase Siri, and is holding negotiations to licence Nuance's technology.

THAT is how a mature company behaves. When they use someone else's ideas, and technologies, they pay for it.

Google simply goes ahead and steals it.

This. ^

+ 100

Enough said.

 

[Chrisg2014]

... I don't know what to say. No I take it back I just don't know how to phrase it. Um ok here it goes. Why would you talk to your phone to translate to text to be sent to someone. Why not just call them? Oh you just want to leave them a message. VOICEMAIL! Plus there is the possibility of it hearing you wrong. What if you text your mom and say, Mom I love you and it thinks you say Mom eye... not even going to go there. I just don't know. It's kind of taking the fun out of texting.

 

[brock2621]

It's about time they finally copied all these features from Android. I wonder if they held off because they didn't want it to look like they copied from anyone else. I say, who cares! If there is something good already out there, copy it!

Sniff... sniff... smells like a troll in here...

http://postimage.org/image/2j8n2jvl0/

 

[boss.king]

Note how Apple actually paid money to purchase Siri, and is holding negotiations to licence Nuance's technology.

THAT is how a mature company behaves. When they use someone else's ideas, and technologies, they pay for it.

Google simply goes ahead and steals it.

Oh jesus, let it go. They didnt steal from you, Apple is a big corporation, I'm sure they can look after themselves.

 

[kwiiboy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)



This. ^

+ 100

Enough said.

Apple is quite the gentlemen.