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Ford's SYNC learns 100x more voice commands, integrates Nuance technology
We'll be honest -- we weren't the biggest fans of SYNC from the onset, but that had more to do with its insistence on playing Run DMC on our request for Naughty By Nature during a cross-town CES run than anything else. Now, Ford remains one of the few automakers that actually bothers to update their navigation systems on a consistent basis, and while SYNC is still far from perfect, it's getting a rather significant update today. The introduction of MyFord Touch brings the amount of commands that SYNC understands up to 10,000 -- that's a pretty big jump from 100, where it began. Following in BMW's footsteps, Ford is also integrating voice control technology from Nuance, which allows drivers to speak "more naturally" to the system rather than having to memorize a few hundreds first-level snippets. Unfortunately, we still think voice control within vehicles is too slow; much like Windows Vista, there are simply too many confirmation prompts, too many forks in the decision tree and not enough of an overall benefit to chose it over handling things with your digits. Feel free to disagree and pick this up on your 2011 Ford Edge, but be sure to view the video past the jump before getting all hot and bothered.
Dragon for Email hits BlackBerry, turns your voice into a QWERTY keyboard
Okay, your voice isn't literally turning into a keyboard, but you know what we mean -- Dragon for Email is exactly what it sounds like, an app that brings Nuance's well-known speech-to-text technology to the BlackBerry platform with a special emphasis on composing emails. That's a perfect fit considering that email has remained BlackBerry's main raison d'être over the years, and it sounds delightfully unobtrusive considering that you merely need to press and hold your phone's side key while composing an email to kick off the dictation. Even better, it's free from App World for a limited time, so you might want to get in on that while the getting's good.
T9 Trace lets you Swype through your text messages
You may or may not yet be aware of the Swype virtual keyboard (comes preloaded on the Cliq XT from Motorola), but you'll definitely be hearing about the T9 Trace from Nuance. This is because, although it's fundamentally the same thing as Swype (but from a different maker), the T9 Trace is on offer from the company behind the T9 predictive text dictionary that pretty much everyone from your 7-year old nephew to your octogenarian grandpa has used. The big idea here is that you trace out the word on your virtual keyboard without lifting your finger off, with short stops at each letter you want to add being taken for input. Once you get over the seemingly unintuitive idea of abandoning those woodpecker taps for the grace of tracing, it promises to be a real fun and rapid way to input text. Nuance has bundled the whole thing with error correction, word prediction and auto-completion, while supporting 70 languages. The company has yet to tell us when the T9 Trace will be showing up on phones (touchscreens only, for obvious reasons), but you can check out video of the competing Swype implementation after the break.
Dragon Dictation and Search now updated, supports iPod touch
If you lust after Dragon Dictation [iTunes link] and Dragon Search [iTunes link] and own an iPod touch, your prayers have been answered. Nuance, the creator of both apps, now has updated versions of the free apps that allow 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch devices to dictate and search all they want. Of course, you'll need a microphone if you don't use the Apple-included headset/mic. iPod touch users were sorely disappointed when the Dragon apps came out last month, but they should be happy now. In addition to the iPod touch support, the new version of Dragon Dictation has an enhanced UI, and now the app can figure out that you are done dictating when there is silence. This is configured on the iPhone settings menu, rather than in the Dictation app itself. There is also an opt-out button if you don't want the app to send your list of contacts to the Nuance server for enhanced recognition. Dragon Search also has an updated UI and sports some bug fixes. I think the major complaint against the Dictation app is the 20-second limit on length of the audio clip that will be processed into text. That may be to keep the bandwidth to the Nuance servers low, but I think it is the only real weakness the app has. I think it's likely we'll see more updates of these apps with extended features. The apps are free for now, but Nuance has said they may not be free forever, so if you crave an app to send a quick email or text, or search the web using only your voice, best to get off the dime and download these puppies.
Nuance outs free Dragon Dictation for iPhone
Talking on your phone is one thing, but talking at your phone makes you look like a crazy person. Of course, virtually everyone on the Engadget masthead is crazy in one sense of the word or another, so we have absolutely no qualms about the release of Nuance's Dragon Dictation for the iPhone, which uses the company's NaturallySpeaking engine to let you transcribe pretty much whatever you like. Of course, seeing how the iPhone lacks multitasking, it uses the clipboard as an intermediary -- talk into the Dragon app, then move over to wherever you want the good and paste 'em. It's free for a limited time, so you might want to grab this one sooner rather than later.
2010 BMWs boast improved Nuance voice control system
BMWs aren't exactly lacking for technology these days, but it looks like the new 2010 models come packing a little something extra to make your life even easier. As Nuance Communications is all too happy to announce itself, the new vehicles boast an improved voice control system from the company that promises to allow for a "more conversational dialogue between drivers and BMW navigation and entertainment systems." That, naturally, gets paired with BMW's own iDrive system, and includes some Sync-like abilities to search for music by voice, as well as a new "One-Shot Destination Entry" feature to let folks enter a destination address in one simple voice command. It can even apparently recognize several different language in parallel, letting a French-speaking driver, for instance, search for a German song title or English album title.
T9 Nav now available on S60 3rd Edition
Nuance's T9 division -- you know, the alpha keypad tech found in virtually every phone sold today -- has rolled out its shiny new T9 Nav software after going through beta last year, offering device-wide searching for device settings, applications, contacts, media, test messages, and pretty much anything else you can think of from one convenient location. Naturally, the app uses T9 to work its magic, which should feel right at home for pretty much anyone who's ever used a phone with a numeric keypad. For now, it's only available for S60 3rd Edition devices, and it'll run you €16.95 (about $22) from Nokia's Software Market.
Nuance launches Nuance Voice Control 2.0, hello feature phones
We've had opportunity in the past to play with some of Nuance's voice control software -- in an alpha state -- on a Windows Mobile handset and to say we were blown away is an understatement. Things like voice dictation for messaging and handset control were loaded with wow factor, but sadly, it fizzled away, or at least appeared to. Nuance launched Nuance Voice Control 2.0 today, and this package is headed to feature phones -- in some 20 languages -- via carriers and OEMs as a value add for customers. With NVC 2.0 your set will offer voice activated dialing, by just saying a name, voice activated web search, SMS and mail dictation, music search, and just about anything else that a service operator wants to add. Sure, we've all tried various speech to text engines, but this one -- at least the version we tried -- is truly something that we'd dive to pick up, if the integration is done well. We're going to get together with Nuance at Mobile World Congress next week to get some proper hands-on time, but until then, check the video of it in action after the break.
The 'high fidelity' nature of MMOs
Inspired by a few days of dedicated holiday gaming, veteran MMO designer Raph Koster offered up an opinion on the state of modern game development. Playing titles like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and BioShock, he notes the 'intense' nature of most of the best-selling titles this year. He then ties this in to a recent Rolling Stone article about the modern face of music. That article discusses the pervasive role of music in America today, and the resulting requirement to 'amp up' the volume to be heard in public places.He directly relates this to the loss of nuanced sound this results in, making a sly dig at the quality of these single-player experiences. IE: by being 'bold and brassy', these titles pale in the realm of quality compared to quieter, more thoughtful titles (like, say, Portal). Steve Danuser, better known as Moorgard, concurs with his assessment. He notes that Massive games in particular are arguments for broader, more varied experiences. While I'm obviously a fan of Massive titles - and very much agree that the breadth of content you can cram into them is one of their strengths - I can't help but think they're missing the point here a bit. I'm willing to agree, generally, with Raph's argument that truly single-player games will eventually be extinct. There's absolutely no reason that BioShock or Mass Effect couldn't have some sort of shared-world or co-op component (CoD4 and Halo 3 already do).That said, I bristle a bit at the notion that the big releases of 2007 have no nuance. Several of these titles, as with MMOs, have enough breadth to allow for more than just one activity. While 'shoot things' is the marquee entertainment in Mass Effect and 'stab people' is the main draw for Assassin's Creed, both have other activities in them; certainly Raph isn't going to sit there with a straight face and say the storytelling in Mass Effect is completely without nuance? Even BioShock, which is fundamentally a shooter, offers moments of quieter contemplation. I found the storytelling-via-voice-logs extremely effective, and made it a point to search out and listen to as many as I could. Where do you fall here? Are console-oriented single-player titles too much flash for you, or do you see possibilities in Rapture's destroyed beauty?
T9 predictive-text input developer purchased for $265M
Tegic might not be a household name, but it's a solid bet you've used their software -- the company is responsible for the T9 predictive-text input system that's installed in virtually every cellphone out there. That makes Tegic worth about $265 million, apparently, because that's how much voice-recognition firm Nuance just dished out to Time Warner for the company. (Disclosure: Time Warner is our parent company's parent company.) Nuance is on a buying spree lately, having bought VoiceSignal, BeVocal, and Dictaphone in the past year -- the goal is apparently to control much of how users interact with their phones, be it voice, touch, or text. Here's hoping Nuance doesn't make any sweeping changes while they chase that rainbow -- at this point we're so hard-wired for T9 that it's difficult to imagine that it's licensed software and not, say, a fundamental property of mathematics. 4663 5825, 4897.[Via RCRWireless News]
World's fastest texter gets pwned by voice recognition
A young lad by the name of Ben Cook might be able to school his pals with his lightning-quick text messaging skillz (he even prefers plain ol' multi-tapping to predictive text) but one company set out to prove that the world's fastest texter is still no match for voice recognition. Nuance Communications is gearing up to release its Mobile Speech Platform to carriers -- a system that'll ultimately allow users to dictate SMSes, among other tasks -- and they obviously needed some high-profile way to get the word out, like picking on Ben Cook, for example. For the contest, Nuance pitted its software against Mr. Cook and two Nuance employees packing QWERTY and T9 devices, throwing them each this little tidbit of everyday conversation: "The razor toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygo centrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." Our world record holder finished in 48 seconds -- not bad, considering he was doing it without any predictive assistance -- but the software spanked everyone with just 16 seconds on the clock. Now we just need to take a hard look at why one would dictate an SMS (versus, say, placing a phone call) and we'll be jumping right on the bandwagon.
