Speech in Mango

[Tyralak]

This could be a major advantage for WP7

Look who’s talking: Speech in Mango

 

[mperdue]

After reading the article I found myself wondering "why?" If I talk and it is sent to you as a text message that is read out loud to you and you answer me in the same manner wouldn't it make more sense to just talk to the other person? After all, that would eliminate the texting charge and the errors introduced by voice to text and text to voice conversions...

 

[Steve Mehs]

So this is a big brew haha? *Yawn* Most of this stuff Android has been able to do since Donut or Éclair. Speech to text, voice guided navigation, navigation dictation, voice calling, voice search and so on. Yeah Android doesn’t read the text back to you, but like Mperdue said, what really is the point? Just call the other person! And as someone pointed out in the comments in the article, the Vlingo app takes what Android can already do one step farther. I used Vlingo a while back and was pretty impressed what it was capable of but removed it since I had no real use for most of the additional functionality it provided. Another instance of Microsoft trying to bring their operating system where Android was a year and a half ago. Way to go Microsoft! Two gold stars for you!

 

[stonecold]

I have an app for android that was put on from a Motorola update that when your driving it will speak text messages to you.

 

[Tyralak]

So this is a big brew haha? *Yawn* Most of this stuff Android has been able to do since Donut or Éclair. Speech to text, voice guided navigation, navigation dictation, voice calling, voice search and so on. Yeah Android doesn’t read the text back to you, but like Mperdue said, what really is the point? Just call the other person! And as someone pointed out in the comments in the article, the Vlingo app takes what Android can already do one step farther. I used Vlingo a while back and was pretty impressed what it was capable of but removed it since I had no real use for most of the additional functionality it provided. Another instance of Microsoft trying to bring their operating system where Android was a year and a half ago. Way to go Microsoft! Two gold stars for you!

Except it's done right in this instance. Also, it's both text-speech and speech-text with a cloud based adaptive vocabulary.

 

[Ronnie-]

They do have a point, even if I see that this is nice. If you are talking to make a text, and they text you back and the phone reads it to you, why not simply call the other person? Thats basically what you are doing anyway.

 

[diogen]

Thats basically what you are doing anyway.

No, it isn't.
The new communication mediums - e-mail, SMS, forums (like this), etc. - exploded in usage primarily because unlike a telephone conversation an immediate response is not expected. You, the receiving end, decide whether to answer in a minute or in a week.

Not saying WP7 does this better than others and/or this feature is of high value, just phone conversation requires immediacy, others - don't. Regardless of whether the message is text or audio.

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

In the meantime, Mango RTM is in the wild and successfully installed on a dozen or so WinPhones...
Windows Phone Mango RTM leaks into the wild, offers tropical sweets for the daring -- Engadget
Build 7720, get it here - xda-developers

Diogen.

 

[Tyralak]

They do have a point, even if I see that this is nice. If you are talking to make a text, and they text you back and the phone reads it to you, why not simply call the other person? Thats basically what you are doing anyway.

You're assuming the other person is in the same position you are. They sent you a text for a reason, likely because they couldn't talk on the phone or didn't want to. This is strictly for the convenience of one party.

 

[Ronnie-]

I see it as similar enough, but point taken.

 

[diogen]

An interesting statistics that adds to the picture
Pew Internet Study: ’13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone’

The survey of 2,277 adults found that 13 percent of cell phone users had faked checking their phone or being on it to avoid human interaction. The younger demographic, 18 to 29-year olds, cited the highest percentage of this behavior with 30 percent saying they’d avoided contact with someone by checking their phone.

Indicates just how far are people ready to go to avoid live human interaction...

Somehow reminds me the Seinfeld joke:

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two!
Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

In the meantime, Mango RTM is in the wild and successfully installed on a dozen or so WinPhones....

Aside from those "homebrew" Mango updates, the first official launch is expected next week from Fujitsu (?!)
Fujitsu IS12T Mango phone ready to launch August 25th, already accepting preorders? - Engadget

Diogen.