Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store
iSpeak: Voice dialing for iPhone 3G
Sunday night on the TUAW Talkcast, we were discussing how much fun this week was going to be from the iPhone software perspective. This announcement from Fonix Speech is exactly what we were talking about.Fonix iSpeak is a voice activation application for the iPhone 3G. There are a couple of operations that you'll be able to accomplish just by speaking a command. You can dial someone by saying a phone number or the name of a person in your Contacts list. You'll also be to whiz through your music library, play a song, or start up a playlist by saying the name of an artist, song, or playlist.
According to Fonix Speech, Fonix iSpeak "includes a run-time engine that sits on the phone allowing users to interact with the personal contents of their Apple iPhone™. Unlike other voice applets that enable voice search of the Internet by sending commands over the airwaves, this client-side application gives users the power of voice interaction with their personal content and eliminates network latency."
There's no word on when the app will actually be available nor is there a price on the website, and the company didn't respond to a phone call. Fonix Speech says that they'll be selling it "directly" and through "traditional Apple distribution channels" -- the App Store, perhaps?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marc Brandon said 7:26AM on 7-09-2008
Nothing new. Makayama have had a voice dial application for iPhone on the market since ages. And it will be available Friday at the start of the App Store. See:
http://www.makayama.com/iphonevoicedial.html
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P.Dter said 1:08AM on 8-16-2008
I've purchased and used Fonix's software on my PocketPC Phone for many many years before the iPhone came into the picture. The BEST voice recognition EVER! Now being on the iPhone and having to settle for Voicedial, iSpeak is one long awaited and VERY welcomed software. Fonix is quick, easy, and NO TRAINING (No Recording Required). Fonix is so far ahead of the development game where as Voicedial is just hitting the drawing board...
Peela said 7:35AM on 7-09-2008
Being in the UK, I think I'm going to wait a while before getting a 3g iPhone
http://www.retail-week.com/Technology/2008/07/3g_iphone__firstgeneration_service.html
Any one else know of availability problems?
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Austin said 7:43AM on 7-09-2008
Is this truly for the iPhone 3G or for iPhone software 2.0?
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RobK said 8:04AM on 7-09-2008
I still find it very hard to believe that the iPhone does NOT have voice dialing built in. Even the cheap $40 cell phones have voice dialing.
How are you supposed to call someone when you are driving? Take your eyes off the road and use the touch screen to dial a number? That is VERY unsafe.
With a regular cell phone you can at least fell the numbers on the phone. You can't do that with the iPhone's touch screen.
I am surprised that no one has sued Apple over creating and selling a phone that is unsafe to use while driving.
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Oseary said 9:16AM on 7-09-2008
Think about it. Why would Apple spend the dev $$, when they could have someone else develop the app, and reap a portion of the profits by selling it on the app store?
The same thing goes for picture messaging.
Or am I thinking that Apple is too nice of a corporation to screw their customers like that?
Hansi said 8:29AM on 7-09-2008
Does this app say the name of the person calling when receiving a call? Most of my old phones have had this feature and it is really useful when using the headphones and having the phone in my pocket
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tom said 9:16AM on 7-09-2008
I have their voice recognition software on my windows mobile phone. Very nice indeed. Look forward to trying it out when I get my iPhone on Friday.
Tom
zsports said 9:21AM on 7-09-2008
All of the reviewers (Pogue, Mossberg, etc.) have been lamenting the lack of MMS and Vocie Dialing. I believe both of these can be handled by 3rd part apps.
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Jonathan Badeen said 9:36AM on 7-09-2008
Apple needs to make this built in... think about it... i seriously doubt this is going to be able to run in the background which makes it pretty useless. If i have to open up an app to do voice commands the purpose of that app has just been defeated. Voice dialing is the only thing i miss about my Razr
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DistortedLoop said 10:33AM on 7-09-2008
I think a lot of that particular concern could be addressed if, like in other smart phones, you could assign custom features to some of the hard buttons on the phone. Example, you could make the mute switch activate voice dialing instead of muting, and use a soft switch for muting.
Already built in to the phone is the ability to change the default action for the double tap of the home button....why not allow more options, such as voice dialing via that method?
Tracy said 10:04AM on 7-09-2008
I don't know if this would be possible through "official" channels, but...
I know that my bluetooth headset sends some specific signal to my phone when I want to voice dial (tap once, it activatse voice dialing... this works on various phones). Would it be possible to have this signal launch a specific application on the iPhone?
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Prometheus25 said 10:19AM on 7-09-2008
This is just silly. Since apps can't run in the background, you'll have to launch this with your finger. Might as well just tap a couple more times and avoid the frustration of voice recognition.
To me, the whole point of voice dialing is so you can dial while the phone stays in your pocket, via headphones, or BT headset. This really needs to be undertaken by Apple, if at all. My suspicion is that they've avoided it because voice dialing always feels "chintzy"--with it forcing you to repeat things and get them exactly the same--especially when you've got a lot of "voice dialable" contacts.
Finally, why would this be limited to iPhone 3G?
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Seth said 3:22PM on 7-09-2008
I have never dealt with a more horrifically bad application than Fonix voicedial. They're the kind of crap that you *resent* having bundled with a phone.
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Irrelevant said 2:30PM on 8-26-2008
vaporware...
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Pramod said 10:14AM on 10-06-2008
PLEASE HELP ME....
I got some problem with Fring. After installing Fring application in iPhone and started to call through this application, but it is showing error msg like, "Voice is not available with 3G connection type".
Anybody know about this error?
Please reply soon...
Thanking you in advance.
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