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Voice control may endanger your life

S

ss957916

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
861
0
I was driving along in the car enjoying using voice control to play various songs. I said "Play Jack Johnson" and my phone beeped and said "Calling Jan Johnson" - my old boss! Very illegally I was desperately jabbing away at the phone instead of concentrating on the road.

This has happened several times now. As an idea to improve voice control, I'd prefer it if continuing to hold the home button whilst talking allowed the phone to activate a call.
 
Funny, but I suggest you learn how to use it before you kill yourself. Or me.

1. You can always cancel a command by saying "No," "Nope," or "Cancel" after the readback of the command.

2. It works better if you say "Play songs by Jack Johnson," or "Play artist Jack Johnson."

Take a look at the sticky in this sub-forum for more specifics.
 
Ntombi said:
Funny, but I suggest you learn how to use it before you kill yourself. Or me.

1. You can always cancel a command by saying "No," "Nope," or "Cancel" after the readback of the command.
Click to expand...
That doesn't work for me. It just keeps dialling.

And amazing how it gets some things repeatedly wrong.

"call joe" always calls Gareth Collier. How does that sous like joe??
 
If you're so desperate to not accidentally call your old boss why do you keep them synced into your contact list?
 
teiresias said:
If you're so desperate to not accidentally call your old boss why do you keep them synced into your contact list?
Click to expand...

Riiiight. Kind of missing the point but thanks for the input.

Ntombi said:
1. You can always cancel a command by saying "No," "Nope," or "Cancel" after the readback of the command.
Click to expand...

This doesn't work for me - does it work for anyone else?
 
Mine is always trying to call random people.

Even something as simple as "Play The Beatles" leads to a desperate scramble for the cancel call button!

I know it allegedly supports the "UK dialect", but there's a lot of variance in there! I hear it understands Scouse okay...
 
It doesn't understand anything I say, I've noticed! When I say "Call 'Dad'" it comes up with "Calling Ange".. How do "Dad" and "Ange" sound the same??
 
Here's more help for you.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/#basics.voice-control

Apple MANUAL said:
Call someone in contacts:
Say “call” or “dial,” then say the name of the person. If the person has more than one phone number, you can add “home” or “mobile,” for example.

Dial a number:
Say “call” or “dial,” then say the number.

Make a correction:
Say “wrong,” “not that one,” “not that,” “no,” or “nope.”

Control music playback:
Say “play,” or “play music.” To pause, say “pause,” or “pause music.” You can also say “next song” or “previous song.”

Play an album, artist, or playlist:
Say “play,” then say “album,” “artist,” or “playlist” and the name.

Shuffle the current playlist:
Say “shuffle.”

Find out more about the currently playing song:
Say “what’s playing,” “what song is this,” “who sings this song,” or “who is this song by.”

Use Genius to play similar songs:
Say “Genius,” “play more like this,” or “play more songs like this.”

Cancel Voice Control:
Say “cancel.”

For best results:

Speak into the iPhone microphone as if you were making a phone call. Or use the microphone in the included headset.

Speak clearly and naturally.

Say only iPhone commands and names, and numbers. Pause slightly in between.

Use full names.
Click to expand...
I even bolded some of the parts you seem to be having problems with.

I'm not saying it's perfect, because it's obviously not, but learn to use it before you complain that it doesn't work.






colmaclean said:
Mine is always trying to call random people.

Even something as simple as "Play The Beatles" leads to a desperate scramble for the cancel call button!

I know it allegedly supports the "UK dialect", but there's a lot of variance in there! I hear it understands Scouse okay...
Click to expand...

That's because you're supposed to say "play artist The Beatles." Try that. It's a bit counterintuitive, but that makes all the difference.
 
Ntombi has a point in that if you can`t use it properly or it doesn`t work for you then stop using it in the car! :mad:
 
colmaclean said:
Mine is always trying to call random people.

Even something as simple as "Play The Beatles" leads to a desperate scramble for the cancel call button!

I know it allegedly supports the "UK dialect", but there's a lot of variance in there! I hear it understands Scouse okay...
Click to expand...

I can confirm it does!! Though it doesn't respond to "Calm down, calm down, calm down"!!!!!!
 
conch575 said:
It doesn't understand anything I say, I've noticed! When I say "Call 'Dad'" it comes up with "Calling Ange".. How do "Dad" and "Ange" sound the same??
Click to expand...

It works surprisingly well for choosing music.

But the one thing I can never get to work is "call Dad". It comes up with "Ant", so I rename "Ant to "Antony" and I try again. Then it gets "Denis".

I've tried UK and US recognition. Can anyone get "call Dad" to work?
 
"Call Dad" works fine for me. I made a new contact with Dad as the first name, and gave it a single home phone number. I even tried my crappy fake British accent and it worked. I don't have that many contacts, though (20 or so) so it's possible that they're all sufficiently distinct that it doesn't get confused.

Oh and to the others -- "No" "nope" and "cancel" aren't going to work if you only have one number for the contact. The phone will go straight to dialing. I do wish the phone would ask for confirmation before dialing like my old Motorola phone did. That feature saved me from a lot of incorrect calls!
 
Once it starts dialling a number, voice control is no longer active so you can say cancel all you like, nothing will happen.
 
As to the canceling of voice control, it's worked for me several times, and it's in the manual, so if it's true that it stops listening if there's only one number, I'm sorry that I didn't have the specifics of when it doesn't work.


---

@ conch575, "Call Dad" works for me.
 
Ntombi said:
That's because you're supposed to say "play artist The Beatles." Try that. It's a bit counterintuitive, but that makes all the difference.
Click to expand...

How right you are! The user guide/sheet you get with the phone doesn't really make this clear though...
 
Why the heck would you have your old boss in your contacts to begin with? Maybe if you removed them from your phone you wouldn't have that problem.
 
Odid said:
Thread title is a little dramatic, don't ya think?
Click to expand...

Yeah it's more like "Your Idiocy may endanger your life".

Learn to use the feature before you complain about it.

Oh and here's a hint...anything you do while driving that distracts you from driving will endanger your life...that includes a perfectly working voice control system, which you now know, Voice Control is not. So you should be taking extra care when using it while driving (I would say don't use it unless you are stopped or at the VERY least, near no other cars). And driving should ALWAYS be your number one priority. I'm not saying I'm perfect...but I try to live up to that priority as much as possible.

And yeah...having a boss in your contacts that makes you freak out like that when they get called...just not smart...
 
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