iOS 5 with Nuance Speech Recognition Enabled in Carrier Testing

[Sedrick]

That's a bit of a dangerous thing to say about Apple.
You know, as when they played catch-up and got into, say, tablets. Or netbooks/ultralight notebooks. Or...

Didn't say they wouldn't make money at it. 😉 Just all this talk about Apple being such innovators when in fact what they do is lay in wait for years watching the cream rise to the top and then get involved, almost begrudgingly. Hardly the innovators they're made out to be.

Geniuses at marketing, sure. Imagine putting products out there that are far more limited than all the other competitor's products, but they still own the market. Very Orwellian.

 

[jonnysods]

This would be super handy seeing as it's illegal to type or use your phone while driving in Canada 😡

 

[mijail]

Didn't say they wouldn't make money at it. 😉 Just all this talk about Apple being such innovators when in fact what they do is lay in wait for years watching the cream rise to the top and then get involved, almost begrudgingly.

Aha! so they waited and waited... and when they sensed that Nokia, Palm/HP, RIM and Microsoft where about to spontaneously crash and burn, they just popped up in place, with nothing of substance, and took the glory.
Now I see! They are not innovators! They are just... prescient!

(I still don't get how the marketing has also managed to turn the rest of the industry upside down since the iPhone, but I'm sure there is some perfectly obvious explanation for that too)

Very Orwellian.

What is the link with Orwell here? The only one I can see is some people's preferences of ideologies over facts.

 

[fahadqureshi]

I would call mine Maximus. "Maximus, what time is it?" ... Oh yeah.

I'm naming mine, Miss Tesmacher... lol.

how about downloadable voices 😉 like for tomtom

me: mr. worf what time is it?
iPhone(worfs voice): captain its time to get ready for work

 

[mjtomlin]

Surely such a big feature would be one they want to beta test in the beta builds, right?

I don't buy it.

No, not necessary when the technology is a tried and tested third party engine that has been in use a long time now. Plugging that engine in, doesn't take much "testing" on the part of those clients that use the technology. All that's necessary is testing the interface.

 

[Ed91]

It would be sweet if the phone could listen and respond, so you could say "iphone where are you" when you lose it under clothes or whatever, and it would respond "over here"

This makes me imagine the coming of the most creepy criminal of all time.

[seedy voice in the locker room]

"iPhone... where are youuuuu?"

[innocent, naive iPhone]

"over hereeee"

[loudening footsteps; deep breathing]

"iPhone... where are youuuuu?"

...

We all know how this one ends.

 

[mjtomlin]

Didn't say they wouldn't make money at it. 😉 Just all this talk about Apple being such innovators when in fact what they do is lay in wait for years watching the cream rise to the top and then get involved, almost begrudgingly. Hardly the innovators they're made out to be.

Geniuses at marketing, sure. Imagine putting products out there that are far more limited than all the other competitor's products, but they still own the market. Very Orwellian.

Except innovation means to rethink ideas. This is exactly what Apple excels at. Innovation does not necessarily mean invention.

No one could argue that Apple is not a company that takes current technology, devices, products and really thinks about what would make them better. And sometimes in the process, they do actually invent a few things to enable whatever change they want to implement.

"limited" is a very over used term to describe Apple's products as well... Yes, they limit the features they add to their products and while techies are comfortable fine tuning and customizing... The rest of the world who are mostly afraid of technology find their use of these products extremely limited due to being overwhelmed by the complexities. Simplifying these devices enables these people to actually use them. So in reality, not limiting a product's feature set, limits people's abilities and desires to use them. And people are much more in tune to their own limitations ...and trying to use a device that enforces your limitations only leads to frustration. A device that enables a person to move beyond those limitations will inspire them and liberate them.

 

[Mr. Gates]

Fail...

How the hell is this going to work for international and regional accents?

I am Scottish and if an American human can't understand me when I ask for a beer on holiday how the hell is an iPhone? I can barely understand a regional accent from 150 miles north of where I live.

I am predicting that this will work well for you Yanks but no one else. I am also predicting that your the only nationality brash and brazen enough to talk into a phone in public, Europeans are far too cool and reserved to do this, as are Asians.

This is just another Facetime. Perhaps used on the first day to check out the tech but after that only used by 1% of end users, mostly geeks and fanbois.

God I hope you at least try !

I can think of nothing more hilarious than a Scotsman yelling into his phone and the phone not understanding.

I've been waiting for this day

 

[mjtomlin]

It will be interesting to see if Apple found a way to have the recognition done locally or if it is sent up to a server farm as Android's does?

 

[benpatient]

Unless you have Swype of course 😛

high-five for Swype!

makes phone typing easy. they don't have that on the iphone yet?

seriously?

 

[mjtomlin]

Nothing wrong with copying. Consumers win in the end. Oh and I'd ignore the idiots constantly attacking Samsung, they aren't true tech enthusiasts. Just sad fanboys.

Except that Samsung has a history of "copying" many other products, not just Apple's; Most of their pre-smartphones were copies of Nokia's phones. Someday, Samsung will have an original thought... Someday.

Furthermore, consumers only "win" when companies are compelled to innovate, develop and advance products. Markets tend to stagnate when they are flooded with me-too products and the true innovators are pushed out. At least until someone else comes along and shakes things up.

 

[mijail]

`[...] Apple [...] what they do is lay in wait for years watching the cream rise to the top and then get involved, almost begrudgingly. Hardly the innovators they're made out to be.

I forgot: does your theory explain away things like Apple's WebKit, LLVM, Grand Central, ...?

I mention them because those projects were not called for and even dismissed / ridiculed when they began. Now some are industry standards, others are becoming so and/or creating interesting ripples in their respective fields... while also being foundation for even more awesome.

Heck, even the iPhone or the iPad can again be seen like that: unexpected, uncalled for, even ridiculed in their beginnings, but finally industry changers.

My point is: you say "they just wait". I say "not only they ARE moving, but they are even building a tunnel just under your feet - and have been doing that for some time now".

 

[DavidLeblond]

No, not necessary when the technology is a tried and tested third party engine that has been in use a long time now. Plugging that engine in, doesn't take much "testing" on the part of those clients that use the technology. All that's necessary is testing the interface.

The clients that use the technology = the entire operating system in this case + all the apps that currently use said operating system. Yeah, I'm pretty sure rigorous testing is probably involved.

You can't just slap something in there like that. Third party or not, that's not how it works. Plus as I said earlier there are probably API hooks that need to be tested (namely NSNotifications.)

 

[unlinked]

I forgot: does your theory explain away things like Apple's WebKit, LLVM, Grand Central, ...?

You do know Apple didn't create WebKit from scratch? I'm not sure KHTML was the best layout engine on the market when Apple forked it but it still isn't exactly the best choice for countering the argument.

 

[mjtomlin]

The clients that use the technology = the entire operating system in this case + all the apps that currently use said operating system. Yeah, I'm pretty sure rigorous testing is probably involved.

You can't just slap something in there like that. Third party or not, that's not how it works. Plus as I said earlier there are probably API hooks that need to be tested (namely NSNotifications.)

Actually, given that Cocoa is an object-oriented API and run-time...
adding a new feature to text input is trivial and usually does not require a recompile by developers. It could simply be an extension of the standard system keyboard, not the developer's app. The same thing happened when Apple added support for physical keyboards... no programmer had to change anything in their code... it just worked. Text input is text input regardless of where it comes from, on-screen keyboard, physical keyboard, voice, etc... the application doesn't need to (or shouldn't) be concerned about that. It's the job of standard input controls to handle the interface for text input, not the app.

In fact the only thing the app needs to handle itself is repositioning its views after the keyboard is slid into view and slid off the screen. This is usually done via NSNotifications only when the keyboard is drawn... these notifications are not invoked when a physical keyboard is attached, and therefore, the apps continued to function as normal.Apple will handle voice input in the same manner; making it work within the current input system.

 

[bluboi917]

That's what customized ringtones are for.

A feature that will excite me is the ability to have the iPhone speak the name of the person calling me, rather than just hearing the ringtone in my headphones. I use the headphones almost exclusively, and my phone is often in my pocket. The phone can speak the contact names to me when i try to call them, why can't it speak that same name, badly pronounced though it may be, to help me know who is calling without having to pull the phone out of my pocket while driving or biking?

 

[Skoal]

" it works almost identically (video above) to the Android operating system’s speech-to-text feature."

Wait I thought only Android copied Apple? Just sayin'.

 

[mijail]

You do know Apple didn't create WebKit from scratch? I'm not sure KHTML was the best layout engine on the market when Apple forked it but it still isn't exactly the best choice for countering the argument.

Yes, I know. So what? KHTML still exists, and still is doing more or less the same than when Apple forked it.
Meanwhile, WebKit has evolved enough to power not only Apple's browsers, but their competition's browsers too (Chrome, ChromeOS, Android, WebOS, RIM, Nokia...).

So: I think it was a good choice to counter the "they only wait" argument because it illustrates a lot of strategy, a lot of investment and even a lot of guts, which has put us (the users) where we are now: not only in a good position, but even able to choose alternatives.

 

[Captainobvvious]

I keep seeing haters call the iPhone "limited" when compared to their competitors like it is a commonly accepted fact that doesn't require any debate.

I also have yet to hear an Android enthusiast give me an example of a substantive feature that Android has that iOS doesn't that limits the device.

I am a tech guy and I can say that even though the "walled garden" approach Apple takes is generally ridiculed as inferior (again as if it were fact that needed no debate) I prefer it.

I know that I am getting quality hardware that is built around the software that is built around the hardware for seamless integration. Everything is designed to work perfectly and smoothly. From top to bottom everything is... integrated.

I know the apps are safe, I know my phone can run every app in the store, I know when my updates are coming...

I am still waiting for one blow hard fandroid to tell me exactly what I am missing... and let it be something big enough for me to put up with the many flaws of Android.

 

[Kavok]

Two things.

1. I want to have touchless speech-to-text. I don't have time to fumble around when I'm driving to find a button on a keyboard to accept dictated speech. I should be able to give it a command word to activate it and then dictate what I need to.

2. I want it to say "Hellooo? Are you still there?" like Portal Turrets when it gets lonely. 😀

 

[ZipZapRap]

I personally love all this back and forth with Android and iOS.

Don't forget us Windows Phoners 😀

NoDo has a basic implementation of voice capability, but Mango is pretty comprehensive.

But you're right. I couldn't give a stuff who invented or pioneered what. I just want to see it implemented well.

 

[MacToddB]

A feature that will excite me is the ability to have the iPhone speak the name of the person calling me, rather than just hearing the ringtone in my headphones. I use the headphones almost exclusively, and my phone is often in my pocket. The phone can speak the contact names to me when i try to call them, why can't it speak that same name, badly pronounced though it may be, to help me know who is calling without having to pull the phone out of my pocket while driving or biking?

That's why I created AutoRingtone and Ringtones Uncensored. I missed that feature, from my Nokia phone.

 

[KurtangleTN]

They should start naming iOS versions like Mac OS X... maybe after condiments or something

iOS 5: Ketchup

You've gotta love the irony of a company suing just competitors for ridiculously vague patents yet they have no problems blatantly ripping two Android features.

 

[bdragule]

I want to have touchless speech-to-text. I don't have time to fumble around when I'm driving to find a button on a keyboard to accept dictated speech. I should be able to give it a command word to activate it and then dictate what I need to.

I was just thinking this exact same thing. If iOS doesn't have end-to-end speech recognition and you have to push buttons to get in and out of the speech prompts (like in the demo video) then this is basically still useless in a car. Ideally you should be able to navigate your entire phone by speech, or at least the core apps.

 

[Captainobvvious]

They should start naming iOS versions like Mac OS X... maybe after condiments or something

iOS 5: Ketchup

You've gotta love the irony of a company suing just competitors for ridiculously vague patents yet they have no problems blatantly ripping two Android features.

Are these features patented in any way or unique to Android?

No...

Since these Android devices would NOT exist in their current form had the iPhone not been released I think Apple has a much better claim to being ripped off.