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Microsoft Voice Command for Pocket PC : potential not yet fully exploited - Star Trek style voice conversation with Pocket PC not ready yet January 09, 2004 [Pocket PC phone] | By anonymous 1. Microsoft fails to deliver on promise: Voice Command for Pocket PC is not a program worth buying. Not yet. We have just tested it and although it has big potential, we describe below what is missing to make it a killer application. There are some people for whom current version of Voice Command may be satisfactory, although it misses some crucial features. In this description we provide you unbiased information, that will allow you to make informed buying decision. After installation, and after assigning Voice Command to some button of the Pocket PC, the program is ready to use, although it is recommended for you to adjust your microphone settings according to the instructions provided with the program (in the Help content). How it works? It works so, that after your press the "Voice Command key" a small microphone icon appears in the title bar and a special wake sound is played, a sound that denotes that you can speak and give voice commands. If you tap on this microphone with a stylus, then you get such a message: 
... where you can see, that you can always say "Help" or you can just say "What can I say?" (in case currently open application is directly supported by the program) and the Voice Command program tells you (with the built-in speech-to-text generator) what voice commands are available. So what can you do with this program? Unfortunately not much. You can do the following things: dial phone numbers (Hands-Free Phone feature - in case you have Pocket PC Phone Edition), start programs from "Start Menu", control and get spoken information from Calendar, Contacts and Media Player. You cannot however ask this program to read aloud for you inbox messages. You cannot control Microsoft Reader to read eBooks aloud. You cannot read web pages opened in the Pocket Internet Explorer. Finally it is worth mentioning, that this program is very limited in functionality: you CANNOT control by voice the behavior of all (any) software applications. What is missing to make it a killer application? First of all one should be able to ask (by a voice commands) this program to read contents of any standard Pocket PC applications like Pocket Internet Explorer and Microsoft Reader. Secondly we should be able to control by voice just any application - saying something like "select next button, select next button, press button!" or "type Hello comma new line I am writing to you this letter"... etc etc. This program should be GENERIC - working for voice recognition and speech-to-text generation (!) for all applications, not just limited to a tiny number of pre-defined applications. In a current version Microsoft Voice Command for Pocket PC simply fails to deliver any worthwhile features, featuers that would justify buying it (itīs not cheap: $39.95) and that would justify installing it (it not only takes free memory of Pocket PC but it also slows down an operating system a bit). Having said that all, we must admit however that Microsoft Voice Command for Pocket PC has huge potential:
We were the first, who have revealed information about the Microsfot Voice Command for Pocket PC - click here to read our story from October 25, 2003 - much before anybody else has written that it will be sold at Handango. In a matter of fact we got even scorned by Heather Arrington from Handango for revealing link to Microsoft Voice command at Handango before it even was announced: This is Heather Arrington with Handango. Can you please tell me how you found Microsoftīs Voice Command product on Handango.com? It is not yet live on our site. I understand your need to post breaking news on your site, but the initial link to Voice Command was never activated - meaning customers could not purchase or download the application. In the future, please work with me when linking to new applications. I can help ensure your articles are accurate. ... and later on she got angry at us and refused to answer any emails. Sorry! Our primary purpose is to deliver interesting and reliable information to readers, not to please Handango or even Microsoft! * * * * * Related links:
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