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Nuance Dragon Mobile Assistant launches on Android, but only on ICS for now
Dragon Go! has been given the elbow, with the slightly more professional sounding Dragon Mobile Assistant taking its place. Nuance has expanded on its predecessor's verbal commands, with new functionality for maps (you'll be able to bark direction requests at the new app and it'll plan the route), alongside a hands-free wake-up feature activated by saying "Hi Dragon" -- we hope you have a high embarrassment threshold. Other Siri-esque features include weather updates and dictated SMS and email responses. The beta app can be downloaded below, although compatibility is limited to Android Ice Cream Sandwich and above for now. Nuance is promising more features and increased availability later this year.
Nuance launches Dragon Go! for Android, available today for free
As if its acquisition of Swype wasn't enough indication, Nuance has been working on its goal of dominating the Android speech recognition market, one step at a time. Today the company's pressing forward once again by introducing its Dragon Go! app for Google's mobile OS. The app focuses on verbal commands, giving you the ability to ask it to perform internet searches, make dinner reservations, buy movie tickets, play music on services like Pandora and Spotify and the list goes on. If you crave the specific details, make your way beneath the break and have a gander at the press release below.
Jailbroken iOS 5 devices get Siri0us, tap into Nuance's dictation servers (video) (update)
Sure, it's leaps and bounds away from all the parlor tricks that Siri is able to perform, but now, jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch devices -- that have been upgraded to iOS 5 -- may access the dictation portion of Siri's prowess. Thanks to Siri0us, the free app available through Cydia, users will gain the option to speak messages and search queries rather than type them, which could be a huge time saver -- unless there's a series of mistakes, anyway. Rather than accessing Apple's own system, the app works by tapping into Nuance's Dragon Go servers for speech recognition. Rather subversive, don't you think? If you'd like to get in on the fun (before Nuance breaks up the party), just check the video following the break. Update: Well, who didn't see this one coming? Nuance has pulled the rug out from under Siri0us, and the app has been yanked from Cydia while the developer searches for another speech recognition server. Happy hunting, dude.
Will Dragon speech apps remain in the app store for iPhone 4 owners?
It was a bit of a shock to learn yesterday that the terrific Siri app, now owned by Apple, will get pulled from the app store. It's being done, I'm sure, to encourage people to get the Siri technology built into the new iPhone 4S. Although an interview with the co-founder of Siri indicated that they had to cut some corners to get the app to work on "older" hardware. Still, it seems, shall we say, small of Apple to kill an app that seemed to work just fine, and did some of the tasks that the new incarnation of Siri will do on the iPhone 4S. One bright spot for those sticking with their current phones are the Dragon apps from Nuance. Dragon Dictation will take your voice and turn it into text for a note, an email, or a text message. Dragon Go!, which we have reviewed very positively, does much of what Siri does, connecting to Yelp, Google Maps, Open Table, various search engines and other web services so you can ask about a weather forecast, directions to any destination, and even the latest sports scores. Like Siri, the Dragon apps are powered by Nuance speech recognition software, and the processing is done in the cloud. Both the Dragon apps are free and work fine on the iPhone 4, 3GS, 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch, and the iPad. A Nuance spokesperson assured me today that both apps are doing very well, and the company has no plans to pull them from the App Store. Together the apps can give you a rough approximation of what Siri on the iPhone 4S can do, but it doesn't have the same integration with iOS as Siri so it won't be as slick. I'm hoping Apple will reconsider what I think is a customer hostile decision to yank Siri. How about you? Do you think Apple should have pulled the plug on the Siri app?
Daily Update for September 29, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Dragon Go for iPhone gets smarter
Dragon Go!, the all-purpose voice recognition search app from Nuance, is getting a significant upgrade today. In fact, it's almost a preview of some of the functionality we suspect will be in iOS5. The free app lets you speak conversationally with your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Say things like "What's the best steakhouse in Kansas City", or "Find me some pictures of Lady Gaga", and the app will parse what you said and nearly always return useable results. The update, which should hit the App Store today, adds many more options, including the ability to launch popular movie and TV streaming services; get direct access to more of the most popular names in mobile content, like Spotify; get answers to the toughest of questions from Wolfram|Alpha and Ask.com; and, find friends on Google+. I tried some of the new functions, and was impressed. For instance, I said "Watch Mad Men on Netflix," and Dragon Go initiated a Google search. When I clicked on the resulting link, my Netflix app launched and the show started. I also successfully searched TUAW for articles and had it define words using Dictionary.com. For apps that require a login, you'll have to set up Dragon Go! to link with those apps, but that's not a difficult task. Vlad Sejnoha, chief technology officer at Nuance said "We're deeply invested in continuing to evolve Dragon Go! with new features, more content providers and richer app integration, and ultimately opening new doors for the consumer mobile destination experience. This is another step towards the mobile semantic web, and we've just gotten started." These new services join Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube and many others that were already built into the app. I find Dragon Go! and Siri (now owned by Apple) to be two of the best demos for the iPhone around. If you already have Dragon Go! you should see the update today. If you don't have it, download it and impress yourself and your friends. %Gallery-135166%
Dragon Go! is a must-have voice search app for your iPhone
Like the proverbial genie in the bottle, you can ask a lot of Dragon Go! and have a pretty good chance of the app granting your wish. Dragon Go! is the latest free app from Nuance, creators of Dragon Dictate for the Mac and Dragon Dictation for iOS devices. In this latest app, Nuance has delivered what they consider the next generation of voice search, and after several days of testing I have no reason to doubt it. Here's the deal. Speak just about anything to Dragon Go! and it will try to parse your meaning and bring up the right set of tools to complete your search. Ask for news about Libya, or news about Libya from the New York Times and the app complies. Ask for reservations for 2 at a favorite restaurant and Open Table is queried. Directions from your current location to the nearest hospital will launch Google Maps with the route. Say a product name, like JBL speakers and an Amazon page comes up with the JBL speakers Amazon sells. It gets better. Ask it to play an artist on Pandora, and if you have the app installed it will launch and start playing the artist you asked for. Say "Play the Beatles" and if you have the Beatles on your device the music will play. You can also direct a query to a particular site. I tried "stories about Apple TV on TUAW" and it brought up a list from our website. Then a tough test. I asked to see pictures of obscure character actor Whit Bissell and the images popped up right on cue. Check our gallery. Holy Moly! No app is perfect, and every so often Dragon Go! botched a search, but most questions I asked delivered useful answers. It may seem like the app has a bit of overlap with Siri, which is also powered by Nuance Technology. There is some, but Dragon Go! reaches deeper and takes you to the appropriate place on the web, rather than try to contain the info within the app itself. The sources Dragon Go! is using are displayed at the top of the screen. You can change those sources manually if you want. The default search engine is Google, but Bing and Yahoo! are fine if you'd rather use them. I found Dragon Go! an extraordinarily useful app in day to day use. I can only scratch the surface of its capabilities in this review. You must try it for yourself. I was often wishing this kind of technology was built into my iPhone at the system level, and I'll bet Nuance wishes it were too. Of course with Apple buying Siri, we may see something similar. Dragon Go! is free, and iPhone-only at this point. According to Matt Revis, VP of Product Management at Nuance, the app is US English for now. It will come to Android sometime in the future, and also to the iPad. For all intents it replaces Dragon Search, which is not as full featured. The app will continue to function, but it won't be downloadable from the US app store. My guess is that most people will replace it with Dragon Go! anyway. I'd seriously recommend you download and give the app a test drive. It's a great iPhone demo, and I think it will work its way into your daily routine. Share your experiences with us, and tell us what you like and what you don't like. %Gallery-128357%
