Apple's 'Assistant' Seen as Key Feature for New iPhone Hardware

[notjustjay]

If it is true, it had better work worlds better than the current version as "Call Troy" can end up calling Joy or Roy, 5/10 times.

Heh. Reminds me of my previous workplace -- a telecom company that did small-office PBX systems. One of the major selling features was the voice recognition auto attendant.

My boss and I would sometimes work on something at my computer, and when we got stumped on something, he would call someone over to help. He would pick up the phone, press the "voice dial" button, and then have a conversation as follows:

Boss: "John Smith."
PBX: "I heard John Doe. Is that correct?"
Boss: "No."
PBX: "Please say the name of the person you are calling."
Boss: "John Smith."
PBX: "I heard: Bob Smith. Is that correct?"
Boss: "NO!"
PBX: "Please say the name-"
Boss: "JOHN SMITH!"
PBX: "Sorry, I could not understand. Please say the name-"

Me: "Hey boss, just dial his extension... it's 2468."

I never used the voice attendant, because it was so much quicker just to memorize the extensions of the people I called most often.

 

[diamond281]

This might seem a bit of a funny feature for a lot of people but personally, I'm really happy that Apple are doing this.

As a dyslexic, I often dictate essays and lists since its easier for me to record me saying it rather than me typing it. To be able to do this in text messages as a must for me.

Apple's accessibility software in their Macs, iPads, iPhones are much better than the expensive stuff you HAVE to buy for Windows.

Thank you Apple

 

[Chewbaca]

I'm not really going to get too excited about this. It's nothing that hasn't been tried on phones before, and nothing that was any use before.

I have a HTC desire HD with a similar function and I've tried to use it for searching Google before. Some of the stuff it comes up with though... it just seems to have a mind of it's own. I ask it to find 'cinema' and it searches for 'cinnamon baked bananas' kind of thing. And heck didn't Motarolla do this kind of thing like a decade ago?

Who knows, maybe this will be different.

 

[CWT1965]

If I was on a train or in a restaurant and started talking to my phone people would think I have mental issues, I will be getting the new iPhone but this is one feature I will definitely not be using.

 

[rever3nce]

people are so funny when they complain , seriously get over battery life on your iphone. My battery life last forever and i mean that as in at least a full day of use and i use my phone all the time. Try doing a reset or updating software. Close the apps that are running in the task bar etc. Hate when people come here to complain. voice recognition is always a plus for me however, looking forward to this one

 

[yankeex777]

Great. Yet another "article" that refers to a rumour from another site as though it's fact.

Dude the name of this site is MacRumors... You get any and all rumors, even if they arent facts. If you dont like it stop coming

 

[number9]

I wonder if the speech recognition will actually be any good or if it will be just the same garbage we have had on Macs. Which has not seemed to have improved any since it was introduced in System 7 with the AV Quadra models.

No, it's not the same speech recognition that was in pre-Lion Mac OS. They bought Siri, which provides the AI for the phone, and they've licensed the Nuance speech recognition software, which has been available as a third party app on Macs and PCs for several years. They also have Apps (Dictation, Search) that uses this engine and it's very good.

 

[electrovir]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

I forsee heating/cooling problems...

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Dual-core with 1GB of ram is standard for a smartphone now days.

Yeah, but the difference being how operating systems utilize the resources. iOS makes very good use of the A4 + 512 RAM, better so than perhaps some 1.2Ghz dual-core + 1GB RAM combos with android.

I would love to see an A5 iPhone with 1GB RAM. Speeds would be unparalleled.

 

[igazza]

I would agree when using Android, Windows, etc. As for Apple products, I think their Hardware/Software combo are far more efficient then the other devices so 1Gb and Dual-core will smoke the others on performance. Just my thoughts.

yes, especially the GPU in the A5. However no games are taking full advantage of that

 

[ckurt25]

Why issue new software that won't fully work on the current Iphone AND the current Ipad? This doesn't make any sense...

So by this logic they can never introduce new software that EVER requires a spec bump? When the iPhone 8 comes out ALL the software would have to run on the iPhone 4?

 

[merkinmuffley]

I like this. With a device that has a microphone and a processor, I never understood the need to type to the thing. Talking to a device is much more useable for me.

 

[acidfast7]

The german silent cars are a joke. I travelled for four years from Frankfurt to Munich each week and constantly had to tell people to turn down their headphones (1st class cars). The car was usually full of arrogant people watching a movie after work who didn't understand that sound bleeds out of these things. There is nothing more annoying than sitting next to someone with too loud headphones. 2nd class was even worse.

On top of that Germans are so individualistic that the whole car of people is audibly sighing and being annoyed at the noise, but too chicken to say something about it. The same in the cinema. They are able to sit and watch an out of focus movie packed with 500 people in the theatre and there is no-one that is pro-active enough to go out and ask someone to twiddle some knobs..

As an American, I have no problem asking them to turn down their music, in perfect English/German (or getting the staff to make them do it, as well.)

 

[scottparker999]

I'm not really that interested in having a conversation with my phone. Seems more of a novelty feature to me.

Having a colour screen was once a novelty feature, as was a camera and email.

You may be very red-faced if quoted in a few years.

"Just another HHD mp3 player"
"It's an oversized iPod Touch"

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I wonder if the speech recognition will actually be any good or if it will be just the same garbage we have had on Macs. Which has not seemed to have improved any since it was introduced in System 7 with the AV Quadra models.

It's Nuance, so it will be good. If you haven't had a chance to try the Siri Assistant app, give it a try.

 

[Tiger8]

I'm not really that interested in having a conversation with my phone. Seems more of a novelty feature to me.

Yes, but the dictation feature sounds awsome! Having full voice integration anywhere in the OS can do even more wonders to the mobile phone market.

 

[drewtje]

I already can immagine myself talking in a train to the device.... People will look weird probably

 

[paul4339]

I wonder if the speech recognition will actually be any good or if it will be just the same garbage we have had on Macs. Which has not seemed to have improved any since it was introduced in System 7 with the AV Quadra models.

Nuance is best-in-class and has used for a long time. The novelty is how they apply it. I'm guessing with Siri it will work well, but I suspect some of the services I've seen on the demo, will be focused on U.S. initially.


.

 

[Trius]

i've been using voice recognition to make calendar appts for years, 1st Jott, now dial2do........all the way back to my pre iPhone Treo......

Somewhere in 2007.... "iPhone is what? Revolutionary!? PFFFF.. I've had a touchscreen phone for years!!!"

 

[Roessnakhan]

I don't understand (well I understand because its what Apple does) why it won't work on the iPhone 4 - considering Android devices have had similar voice recognition working for a while now (with lesser specs than the iPhone 4).

 

[likemyorbs]

totally agree!

can you imagine a bunch of people walking around talking to their cell phones

that would be crazy

You will look back at this comment in 10 years and laugh at yourself. If you told people about bluetooth headsets 15 years ago they would have said it's just a novelty, can you imagine walking around looking like you're talking to yourself?

 

[Michael Scrip]

To everyone who says voice-input has its share of problems... does Siri work well?

 

[acidfast7]

You will look back at this comment in 10 years and laugh at yourself. If you told people about bluetooth headsets 15 years ago they would have said it's just a novelty, can you imagine walking around looking like you're talking to yourself?

How many people do you actually see with bluetooth headsets? Especially talking into them? Maybe 1% of total phone users. Seriously?

 

[dmaxdmax]

This is getting to be like Hal 9000 in real life

I'm sorry, Dave. Your doctor doesn't want you to buy regular milk.
I'm sorry, Dave. You may not reschedule the dentist and you need to buy floss.
I'm sorry Dave. I cannot dial Wendy. She's just not into you.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

You will look back at this comment in 10 years and laugh at yourself. If you told people about bluetooth headsets 15 years ago they would have said it's just a novelty, can you imagine walking around looking like you're talking to yourself?

People still sound weird when I very occasionally see them walking around talking through a bluetooth headset. They are very rarely used, with the main focus for use while driving.