Proud owner of a new iPhone 3g and STUNNED it doesn't do Bluetooth voice dialing!

[chinl]

Voice dialing might be convenient, but it isn't going to make you any safer while driving. The hands-free laws are political sophistry. There is no evidence that it improves safety. In fact, there have been many studies that have shown hand-free calling is equally as distracting as holding the phone. It isn't the physical constraints, but rather a cognitive task that causes the distraction.

As a bonus, it has been shown that driving while on a cell phone is comparable to driving while legally drunk.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hfes/hf/2006/00000048/00000001/art00018

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en...EMXJ&sig=NGXoE5dN7ODQfssHJ6ka2tAlasU#PPA64,M1

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=570222

http://ppc.uiowa.edu/driving-assess...ownloads/Final_Papers/PDF/5_Strayerformat.pdf

 

[BongoBanger]

Voice dialing might be convenient, but it isn't going to make you any safer while driving. The hands-free laws are political sophistry. There is no evidence that it improves safety. In fact, there have been many studies that have shown hand-free calling is equally as distracting as holding the phone. It isn't the physical constraints, but rather a cognitive task that causes the distraction.

As a bonus, it has been shown that driving while on a cell phone is comparable to driving while legally drunk.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hfes/hf/2006/00000048/00000001/art00018

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en...EMXJ&sig=NGXoE5dN7ODQfssHJ6ka2tAlasU#PPA64,M1

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=570222

http://ppc.uiowa.edu/driving-assess...ownloads/Final_Papers/PDF/5_Strayerformat.pdf

Are measuring hands free or voice activated here? They're not always the same thing.

In any event voice dialling is a nice feature. Never had a problem with it. I wish people would stop making excuses for features that other phones have that the iPhone doesn't.

 

[jeffreyfort]

we need REAL voice dialing

the app dreampod refers to above requires that one "train" the app for each contact. that is hardly real voice dialing -- like I am going to train if for all my contacts. come-on Apple or a developer, we've being doing this on a Treo for years. it can't be that difficult.

 

[mcdj]

You would have been less STUNNED if you read up on the features before buying, and/or downloaded the STUNNING manual.

Seriously, what's with all the DRAMA posts lately?

 

[MadGoat]

Does anyone actually use voice dialing?

I've had it in all my previous phones and not once (well maybe once, to see if it worked) did I ever use it.

It seems all too silly

 

[GoCubsGo]

Eh? You know you can run an app before you start driving, right? It's not like you have to run the app every time you want to make a call, just every time you start driving. You shouldn't expect anything else, nothing in the app store can ever just keep running in the background.

I didn't and don't expect apps to run in the background. This is one feature I love because all other windows-based phones I have had will allow apps to run in the background. I forget to close them and the battery is toast before long.

What I was referring to was that aside from the app sucking in terms of voice recognition, you essentially have to fumble with it regardless. You speak and it gives you a contact on your screen that you must choose. It's not complete voice dialing, even if it worked at all.

 

[aross99]

Does anyone actually use voice dialing?

I've had it in all my previous phones and not once (well maybe once, to see if it worked) did I ever use it.

It seems all too silly

I felt the same way until I actually tried it on my old Moto phone. It was much easier to dial a call by pressing a button on my phone (which didn't require me looking at the phone), and say "call home".

This was practically the only way I called anyone for the two years I had that phone. Say what you want, but was way safer than trying to choose a favorite on your iPhone...

For me, this was one of the features I missed most when I switched to the iPhone last year.

 

[danny_w]

I felt the same way until I actually tried it on my old Moto phone. It was much easier to dial a call by pressing a button on my phone (which didn't require me looking at the phone), and say "call home".

This was practically the only way I called anyone for the two years I had that phone. Say what you want, but was way safer than trying to choose a favorite on your iPhone...

For me, this was one of the features I missed most when I switched to the iPhone last year.

I agree with this. Voice dialing was just about the only way I dialed using my old Sprint Sanyo phone too. Unfortunately the Moto that I got later only allowed you to record one voice tag per entry, but the Sanyo had separate recordings for earpiece and headset, which worked MUCH better. With the Moto whichever one was used to record the tag worked fairly well, but the other mode hardly ever worked. This is what I mean by a "good" implementation.

 

[BOSS10L]

Me: Call Pizza Palace
Phone: Calling Jesus Christ, please hold.

Yeah, but if he can get you the pizza quicker, isn't it worth it?

 

[roland.g]

I don't mind training, b/c I can use nicknames, or Steve Work, Mike Cell, things like that, esp. if I use 2 numbers for someone like my wife or folks. On my Sony Ericsson T610 and my Nokia 8801, I used BT voice dialing on both of those where I just touched the headset, waited for a beep and said the name of the person. It would play back my recorded name saying it found a match and dial. All with the phone in my pocket. When someone called me, if I had my headset in my ear, I would hear my recorded name in my earpiece, and could press it once to answer or hold it down to send to voicemail. That worked pretty well.