Voice - 2/5 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Nov

Utter! Goes Beta - Check Out Its Impressive Progress In This 15-Min Video [Download + Developer Q&A]

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News, Videos

Way back in February, a man by the name of Ben Randall demoed an amazing voice control app called "utter!" that he had started developing. The initial video (a whopping 22 minutes long) demonstrated some amazing capabilities - take a look for yourself:

But that was over 9 months ago, and aside from the initial release of the (very limited) alpha, we haven't heard much about the app, though Mr. Randall has kept interested parties updated via his very active XDA thread. In those 9 months, he's made very steady progress, and today he has released the first beta build.

Oct

Nuance Releases Dragon Mobile Assistant, Asks, 'What Google Voice Actions?'

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

For years Nuance's Dragon served as a leader in the world of voice dictation and commands. More recently, though, as Google and Apple move in on the speech control world, the company has a more pressing need than ever to distinguish itself. Enter Dragon Mobile Assistant. This app aims to "expands the natural language understanding and artificial intelligence" of Dragon Go! and "[add] the most popular personal assistant features."

At this point, most of our readers are probably aware of how voice assistants work. This one isn't much different from the usual fare. You can speak commands to set up appointments, make calls, send texts, and perform searches.

Sep

Amazon Introduces X-Ray For Movies, Kindle Serials, Immersion Reading, Whispersync For Voice, And Dolby Digital Plus With The New Kindle Family

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Amazon, Kindle Fire

Today has undoubtedly been a momentous one for Amazon. We've seen the introduction of a new family of Kindle products including the new Kindle Fire and a pair of Kindle Fire HD tablets.

Following today's announcements, Amazon decided to take some time to introduce a few awesome new features those who buy from the Kindle line can expect to enjoy from their new Amazon-branded tablets. In this post, we'll take a brief look at the bevy of new features, starting with X-Ray for Movies.

X-Ray for Movies

X-Ray for Movies, powered by IMDB is a feature that's being introduced exclusively with the Amazon Kindle family, and looks to "revolutionize the movie experience" by providing an answer the question "Who's that guy?" in a single tap while watching a movie.

Aug

Google Voice Search Now Available In Thirteen New Languages

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Google, News

In a post to its official blog that's sure to excite users across the globe, Google has just announced that Voice Search is now available in thirteen new languages. The list of newly included languages, which range from Basque to Swedish, brings the total number of supported tongues up to 42.

In the post, Product Manager Bertrand Damiba explains just what it takes to add a new language to Voice Search – first and foremost, Google must collect "hundreds of thousands of utterances" from volunteers to bring speech recognition up to par.

While this sounds easy enough, Google engineers also face challenges in adding support for new languages – Damiba explains that languages that don't follow predictable pronunciation rules (like Swedish) require that Google recruit native speakers to pronounce thousands of individual words.

Aug

Meet Ubi: The Totally Voice-Controlled Android Computer You Plug Into A Wall Outlet

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Another day, another Kickstarter project. This one actually looks like it could have potential, though. Ubi is an Android-powered speaker system that connects to your local WiFi network. The small black box plugs into a power outlet and is controlled primarily via voice. It comes equipped with colored LEDs for notifications, and an array of sensors including temperature, humidity, air pressure, and ambient light. To round out the specs, the box packs a full-size USB port and a 3.5mm audio jack. Couple all that with an open development platform and the potential is nigh on limitless.

The device appears to be built largely around Google's voice actions and search.

Jul

Thumb Keyboard Gets Updated To Version 4.5 Bringing Continuous Voice Recognition, One-Handed Keyboard, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Thumb Keyboard, one of the most intuitive, well-designed, and practical keyboards available (especially for tablet users) got a big update recently, bringing the app up to version 4.5.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the new update is that Thumb Keyboard now supports ICS' continuous voice recognition, which in case you've forgotten, is the feature introduced with Ice Cream Sandwich that actively listens and dictates your speech. This is a feature I haven't seen in other alternative keyboards, and it's definitely nice to have. Other big additions include gesture support as well as a new one-handed layout for phones with larger displays.

Jul

Google's New Voice Assistant Pitted Against Siri: If You'd Like, I Can Search The Web For Pictures Of A Stallion

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

The uninformed consumer (read: not you, dear readers) may be forgiven for not realizing Google's voice search/voice assistant/Google Now thing is attempting to compete head-on with Siri, what with lacking a name and not being nearly as anthropomorphized. However, Google's voice powers are, indeed, aimed squarely at making the act of finding and using information far easier than Apple's automaton. In this video, the two go voice-to-voice and...okay, let's not beat around the bush. Siri gets thoroughly trashed.

Now, let's be perfectly clear. When dealing with voice searches and natural language assistants, your mileage will always vary. However, in this head-to-head comparison, it is no contest.

Jun

[Editorial] Welcome To Google+: Your Social Network Is Finally Ready, So What Are You Waiting On?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Google I/O isn't even finished yet, and everyone's favorite search company has already shaken things up quite a bit. One of the biggest things Google announced was Google Events. Google said that this new feature would allow users to coordinate events and share them with others. What Google didn't say was that with the addition of this feature, Google+ is ready. Cooked until golden brown and ready to be served. And, guys? It's time to dig in.

By Your Powers Combined

Social networks will continue to evolve as long as people do, but today marked a subtle, yet important transition for Google: the day that the biggest majority of its key features finally became unified in a meaningful, social way.

Jun

Rumor: Google Secretly Working On That Voice Project They Have Openly Released, But More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

You guys remember Voice Search right? That app that every Android user ever has installed on their phone or tablet? Well, the Wall Street Journal, best known for being right about a good number of things, is reporting that Google has "accelerated plans" to launch a "Siri competitor." Our super secret sources tell us that Google will "launch" this competitor in August, 2010.

The WSJ doesn't have much more information beyond that:

Google, meanwhile, has accelerated plans to launch its own Siri competitor that would work on Android-powered devices, people familiar with the matter have said.

We've known for a very long time that Google dreams of producing a Star Trek computer with voice commands at its core.

Jun

[Weekend Poll] Is A Carrier Move To Data-Only Service A Win Or Loss For Consumers?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Carriers, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Google + Motorola: A Match Made In Heaven, Or A Disaster Waiting To Happen?

A few days ago, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed that the cellular industry would be moving towards data-only plans in the next few years, rather than the separated voice, message, and data system that is used today. Under the new system, voice and messages would be billed as data. The question, obviously, is at what rate they'd billed.

Initially, this may seem like a great idea for both parties. Obviously it allows carriers to get a handle on all the services their customers are using (such as Skype for calls rather than normal voice), as well as sneak in some "toll-free" data services.