Google's Nexus One censors your voice-to-text input, we #### you not
By Richard Lai 
posted January 24th 2010 4:49PM
posted January 24th 2010 4:49PM
We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent.
Kudos for caring, but it wouldn't hurt to have an on / off option either -- after all, it's not like we're asking for pinch-to-zoom here, and we'll promise to use a swear jar.
I love my Nexus One
@teesquared
Oh, #### that #### right up the ###.
they didn't agree this was the "superphone", those ######## !!!
what a bunch of #### sucking #### faces
@teesquared How's the 3G, multitouch, and now voice censorship treating you?
@teesquared You mean you ####ing love it, right?
@Nerdtalker
My 3g support has been freaking awesome...T-Mobile FTW!!!
meh @ multitouch....it's so OVERRATED beside it's only a matter of time before Google blesses us with it
STAY MAD!!!
@teesquared
Ditto for me
@teesquared
Watch out... they could un-censor it, then charge you a nickel for every swear word you say on their phone... which brings up the old adage, "If I had a nickel every time you swore..."
Google's huge-### swear jar will be pictured in the Guinness Book of World Records, just you wait!
@pachi72
yeah, overrated! Don't get me wrong, multitouch is cool but I like the idea of using ONE hand whilst browsing the interwebs
@pachi72 It seems proper useage of 'is' and 'are' is overrated as well.
@John D gah - nothing worse than a typo when alerting one of a grammar faux pas.
@teesquared Pointless concern-troll blogger is concerned.
@teesquared
lol obviously you don't know much of anything about multitouch... Even with multitouch you can still text with 1 or 2 hands. It's not specific to using it only with 2 hands.
"Sure, but five minutes later you'd sober up to regret and lingering annoyance."
English much?
Oh please tell me, @manifest3r, how exactly does one suck a ####?
@cybrian
Lol! Great Donnie Darko reference!
@teesquared
I can imagine people trying to break this using exotic colloquialisms.
@John D
Also overrated is the proper spelling of words like 'usage'!!
@teesquared
I only ever use one hand.
@pachi72
so you mean that everything that is ever in a hack makes it important......?
Symbols means the same as the real thing. And everyone knows the meaning of ####. What's the point?
"Ass" "Jackass" and "crap" are perfectly acceptable.
"it's not like we're asking for pinch-to-zoom here, and we'll promise to use a swear jar."
The AOSP 2.1 source has been released. Cyanogen just figured out how to make multitouch smooth and less "hacky" in the browser, and multitouch in the 3D gallery should not be hard to do either. It's very easy to root your Nexus One (Google has even made it an official route this time).
Anyone who really wants multitouch will be able to get it fairly easily. I think Google is being extra cautious regarding Apple's "gesture patents."
@coolbho3000 And of course, compiling multitouch implementations of the browser and gallery from source so that installing them does not require the installation of a new ROM or root is not difficult either.
@coolbho3000 let's not forget that dolhphin browser now, and xscope!
@coolbho3000
Thank you sir.
Engadget, I'm starting to resent you for failing to acknowledge this.
@Flix C We want to know why Google doesn't ship it by default. My car would be excellent at autocross, but MB doesn't ship it with a cage and harnesses. Would you say my car is a race car?
@Flix C
Tell you about an update for your phone that's not made by Apple? Here? On Engadget? Seriously!
@coolbho3000
Ok, so they're being extra cautious because Google and Apple have not worked closely together on products or head members on the opposing company's board in the last year?
@Nilay Patel
So, you're saying pinch-to-zoom makes a phone a smartphone, is that it? Blackberries are certainly smartphones, but you'd be daft to try pinch-to-zoom on a Curve, Bold, or Pearl.
I mean, yes, it's strange how Google gives people the tools to take advantage of multitouch and doesn't use them themselves, but one feature does not a smartphone make.
@sweet greggo I know you read our site regularly enough to have seen this, don't even play at this game. http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/21/nexus-ones-unitouch-browser-falls-victim-to-cyanogen/
@MowDownJoe I think Nilay's point is that the Droid (Milestone) gets native pinch-zooming outside the US, while Google has yet to provide a direct answer for why this feature is not available on the same hardware in the US. He wasn't giving a definition for smartphones.
Sure, it could well be a patent issue, and it could well be an easy hack, but US consumers are still given a crippled device either way. Consumers should be getting products without major functions disabled for no reason.
@Richard Lai
Here's how I read Nilay's analogy:
crash-cage = multi-touch
race car = smartphone
Race cars have crash cages. Android phones (car type N) do not have multi-touch (crash cages). Since race cars (smart phones) have multi-touch (crash cages) and car type N (Android phones) does not, car type N (Android phones) != race car (smart phone).
@MowDownJoe Naw, he meant Google says the Droid is a multitouch device, but without pinch-zooming installed by default, it's hard to let that one pass.
@Richard Lai I have heard a definitive answer from an Android engineer on the official IRC channel.
Multitouch is not in AOSP, and was added to the non-US Sholes as a vendor-specific modification by Motorola themselves. Motorola could not do that with the Droid because of a distribution agreement: Google controls the software of the Droid (probably as much as they control the software of the Nexus One, if not a bit less), while Motorola controls the software of the Milestone (though the Milestone build is heavily based on Google's).
This is also why the Milestone's 2.0.1 update lagged so much behind the Droid's. It's not up to Google whether to push an OTA or not because they don't control the Milestone.
@coolbho3000 This is also why there is no multitouch in Maps, even on the Milestone. Google completely controls Maps, while Motorola can go crazy with the Browser.
@MowDownJoe No, I meant that my car is quite capable of racing, but it's not sold with the ability to do so. So... it's not a race car. Same with Android in the US -- it's capable of multitouch and you can add it yourself with hacks (just like you can weld a cage into a car), but it's not sold that way, so... it's not a multitouch phone.
#### this #### man!
- Sent from my Nexus One.
@kgod0wnz
Google also censors other words e.g - Ch#na, A##le
@kgod0wnz
Yeah, they censor B##g, from M#######t.
@Alan Smithee
Blog and Machinist?
I see nothing wrong with that
@Alan Smithee well ####, I had to read that twice to under stand it.
I'm an idiot.
@Cam hopefully #### won't misinterpret my #### about cats for a #### statement. ####?
Yeah, they should at least give you the option to turn it off. mother####ers.
@AndroidRokz Its so that you won't accidentally text #### instead of muck, duck, huck, or luck, and similar situations. It's not as redonk as the zune twitter story.
@AndroidRokz
Vlingo does this same thing, but has the option to turn it off for people who aren't little ####ches.
@AndroidRokz
Agreed! I like how MS did this and there was a shit storm (which I agreed with). An option would be the adult thing to enable, ha ha.
@Badison
*Oops, MS did something similar I meant!
@AndroidRokz
A certain golfer would have wanted this feature turned on by default