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Microsoft partners with Audible to enhance Windows Phone voice recognition, available for WP 7.5 and up

Siri, S Voice -- well, now Microsoft's got its own answer to those rival voice services (sort of) and it's coming in the form of a partnership with Audible on the Windows Phone platform. The company's very own Kevin Gallo took to the stage at today's Summit in San Francisco to demonstrate the enhanced feature running on Windows Phone 8. Though the Redmond-made OS has supported voice commands since the platform's seventh iteration (née Mango) by allowing users to launch applications, it can now also help users search, as well as play audiobook files. In the demo, Gallo was able to skip a chapter ahead, pause and resume listening to his selected Game of Thrones title. And lest the WP faithful feel left behind with the seemingly endless spate of Apollo-only goods, the company's making this application this integration available to handsets running WP 7.5 and up available for WP 7.5 handsets starting later today, though it hasn't specified whether users will be able to take advantage of those voice controls.

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