BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Google’s voice actions for Android: One step closer to Star Trek

Voice actions have arrived for Android smartphones. Google’s latest integration of seamlessly simple solutions has brought about the new feature which allows Android users to simply speak the command.

Google’s software does all the work, connecting you to websites, people and places. Here’s how it works: “To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen.”

Here is an example of a command: navigating to the local Best Buy by saying “Navigate to Best buy”, and your navigation app will give you the directions to take you there.

A second example would be texting a friend by saying their name and then the message “send text to Steve Jobs, how ya like me now?”

A third example could be listening to a song or finding music on your phone, “listen to Broken Bells”

It’s just that simple. The software for Android 2.2 has the following commands built in:

  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • listen to [artist/song/album]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • send email to [contact] [message]
  • go to [website]
  • note to self [note]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]

The next step would be to allow for user-configurable voice actions, until now you will have to make do with a pretty good array of commands from Google. Unfortunately, “teleport me” commands still do not work.

A great hands-on video from Gizmodo showing more realistic processing times.

Mouth On With Android’s Voice Actions (Verdict: It’s Great) [Gizmodo]
Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android [Google]


http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/08/12/googles-voice-actions-for-android-one-step-closer-to-star-trek/

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