Voice

Siri can control Philips Hue smart lighting with a little bit of help from SiriProxy

By chrisoldroyd, Thursday, Nov 22, 2012 a 6:13 am

What could be more exciting than controlling your in-home lighting from your iPad? Yep, you guessed it, controlling you in-home lighting with your voice through the use of Siri. That is now a possibility thanks to developer Brandon Evans who has worked out a way to control the recently launched smart lighting system from Philips.

Martian watch lets you control your iPhone with voice commands and Siri

By chrisoldroyd, Saturday, Aug 18, 2012 a 8:41 am

Since the phenomenal success of the Pebble smart watch on Kickstarter, a few other designers have seen the huge interest it generated and decided to start looking at their own ideas for a smart watch. One of those ideas has now appeared on Kickstarter and instead of a smart watch that is all about the display, this one is all about voice control from your wrist.

Vonage Mobile for iOS offers free calling and texting to other Vonage users

By Simon Sage, Wednesday, Feb 8, 2012 a 5:39 pm

Vonage today launched a new mobile that allows users to send text messages and make calls with Vonage users around the world for free. The app pulls in your iPhone's native address book for quick access to initiating calls.

Nuance acquiring voice-recognition app maker Vlingo

By Andrew Wray, Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 a 12:19 am

Nuance Communications, makers Dragon Dictation and the voice recognition technology behind Siri in the iPhone 4S, have agreed to purchase competitor Vlingo.

Nuance Communications Inc. agreed to buy Vlingo Inc. in a deal that gives the developer of voice- command technology a system that can respond to spoken words with actions such as Internet searches.

Siri can now control Plex media playback using the Siri Proxy [video]

By chrisoldroyd, Sunday, Nov 27, 2011 a 4:37 am

Siri can now control Plex media playback using the Siri Proxy. In case you missed it earlier, a developer created a SiriProxy to control a thermostat and then made the code available for others to use.

UK voice of Siri didn’t know Apple has used him until he saw the TV commercial

By chrisoldroyd, Thursday, Nov 10, 2011 a 10:22 pm

The provider of the voice for the UK version of Siri has been revealed and what makes the story even more intriguing is the fact that the guy who provided all the sounds didn’t even know it was him until he saw Apple's commercial. The voice, known as “Daniel”, was provided by former technology journalist Jon Briggs; but it was not provided directly to Apple. The voice over work was originally done six years ago for a company called Scansoft which was later purchased by Nuance, which subsequently licensed it to Apple.

Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus leaves Apple

By chrisoldroyd, Monday, Oct 24, 2011 a 4:22 am

According to a report from All Things D, Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus has now left Apple. Apple launched Siri with the iPhone 4S earlier this month after buying the company back in April 2010.

Google Voice pulled from App Store due to incompatibility with iOS 5

By chrisoldroyd, Sunday, Oct 16, 2011 a 4:16 am

Google has voluntarily pulled its Google Voice application from the App Store due to an incompatibility with the just released iOS 5 software. If you search for Google Voice it can no longer be found in the App Store.

Apple working on system wide voice recognition "Assistant" for iOS 5?

By chrisoldroyd, Saturday, Jul 23, 2011 a 4:57 am

It looks very likely that Apple will be delivering a fully integrated voice recognition service into iOS 5 when it is released in the fall. 9to5 Mac has uncovered a setting screen which clearly shows a toggle switch for a service called Assistant. The Assistant service will supposedly take voice input to a whole new level, allowing you to control all the core operating system actions with voice. This is not the first time we have seen information pointing to system wide voice recognition and control.

Nuance release Dragon Remote Mic, use your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch as a wireless mic [video]

By chrisoldroyd, Monday, Jun 13, 2011 a 10:53 pm

Nuance has released an iOS application that turns your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into a WiFi connected microphone. The app runs in conjunction with Nuances’ just updated Dragon NaturallySpeaking software.

In conjunction with the launch of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5, Nuance introduced the Dragon Remote Mic App, a free application on the Apple iOS app store which makes it possible to use an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as a wireless microphone for Dragon via a Wi-Fi network connection. Many customers have requested to use their smartphones and other mobile devices with Dragon to have more flexibility with how and where they dictate with Dragon. The new Dragon Remote Mic App takes advantage of the nearly 200 million iOS devices in use today, and transforms the device into a wireless microphone that easily captures dictation and controls applications on your PC.

Of course, it is widely rumored that Nuances’ VoiceOver technology will form a major part of iOS 5; when it is eventually released in the fall. Only yesterday we saw some evidence of setting screens for the voice integration in the latest beta release.

There is some bad news if you are considering picking this free app up from the App Store. You will need to buy the PC software which starts from $99 as an upgrade from a previous version. There is no Mac version either, it is PC only!

Take a look at the app in action in the video after the break. If any of our readers have the software and try out the app, please let us know how it works in the comments!

[Free - iTunes Link]