VoiceControl
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Windows Phone's music app now lets you start playlists using your voice
When the Windows Phone 8.1 preview rolled out, its music app was underwhelming; you couldn't use Cortana voice commands for everything, and it was fairly buggy. Both of those gripes are gone now that Microsoft has updated the music client with its latest mobile OS in mind. You can now use voice to do most anything, including starting playlists by name; you no longer have to go hunting for that collection of hot summer jams. Problems with unexpected black screens should also be gone, and interface transitions should be smoother across the board.
Android is reportedly getting voice commands everywhere
Outside of the Moto X, hands-free voice commands on Android are limited; pick up a Nexus 5 or Galaxy S5 and you'll find that "OK Google" only works at the home screen. If Android Police's sources are accurate, though, you'll soon get to bark out orders no matter where you are in the interface. Google is reportedly trying out an "OK Google everywhere" feature (mocked up here) that, much like the Moto X, is always listening and responds only to your voice. It might also pay attention to what you're running. If you're browsing snapshots, for example, you could tell your phone to "share this photo."
Here's how to chat with Windows Phone's new assistant outside of the US
Don't despair that Windows Phone 8.1's signature virtual assistant, Cortana, doesn't officially work outside of the US -- as it turns out, there's a fairly easy way to try it in other countries. Pocket-lint notes that early adopters can chat with Cortana by choosing US language, region and speech in their phone settings. Provided you can live with American spelling across the interface, everything works as expected -- you can find local shops, call friends and set reminders using only your voice. You'll still have to wait until later in the year to get a truly localized version of Microsoft's digital companion, but you can at least see what all the fuss is about right now.
The PlayStation 4 is getting a game you can play using your voice
Voice-controlled gaming isn't quite as easy to pull off on the PlayStation 4 as it is on the Xbox One (that Kinect comes in handy), but Iridium Studios is out to prove that it's no big challenge. The developer has revealed that it's bringing its crowdfunded squad strategy title, There Came an Echo, to Sony's console. As on the PC and Xbox, you can order your team around using little more than your voice. While the gamepad is very much usable, it's not completely essential to finishing your mission.
Chrome's hands-free voice search is coming to everyone, no add-on required
If you've wanted hands-free Google voice search (à la Android's Now Launcher) on the desktop, you've so far had to install a Chrome extension. No more -- the company has released a Chrome beta that builds the feature into the browser. Any time you visit the Google homepage or open a new tab, you can say "OK Google" to ask a question or perform a command, such as scheduling a reminder. Testers running Chrome in US English should see the feature go live sometime within the next few days, and a matching Chrome OS update is coming soon. Don't worry if you'd rather not be an early adopter. Google typically releases finished versions of the software several weeks after the beta, so touchless voice search should be available to every Chrome user before long.
Intel's smart headset understands you even when you're offline
Intel claims that its Jarvis headset's voice recognition makes it smart, but we've seen voice commands on Bluetooth earpieces before -- what's so special this time around? It's all about offline support, the company tells Quartz. Unlike many wearables, Jarvis can process complex voice requests without talking to a server. That's most helpful when there's no internet access, but it also leads to faster, more natural interaction than you typically get from the likes of Google Now or Siri. You won't necessarily have to buy Jarvis to reap its benefits, either. Intel hopes to sell its voice recognition technology to phone manufacturers, so your handset may be the only smart device you need.
Ivee Sleek is a voice assistant that controls your connected home via WiFi
By this point, most of us are accustomed to being able to talk to our laptops and phones to get them to do what we want (some of the time, at least). Now, Ivee Sleek is here to give you the same control over all those WiFi-equipped lightbulbs, thermostats and door locks we've been seeing lately. Sleek looks like a standard alarm clock, but when hooked into your home network it taps AT&T's Watson voice recognition technology to give you voice control over your abode. It's not quite natural language speech system, but Ivee's CEO Jonathon Nostrant informed us that, while direct commands like "make the temperature to 72 degrees" works best, you can also tell Sleek "I'm hot," and it'll turn on the A/C, too. The device is also compatible with Z-Wave devices from Iris and Staples Connect thanks to those platform's WiFi gateways. We got to see (hear?) Sleek control a plethora of devices in Ivee's booth here at CES, and came away impressed. To get Sleek listening, Ivee pulled a page from Google's playbook -- a simple "Hello, Ivee" gets you started (there's a physical button that accomplishes the same thing). Commands were interpreted correctly without fail and the fact that Sleek lets you know with audio cues when your message is received we found to be a nice touch. However, during our demo, there was a few-second delay between speech, recognition and execution. When we asked about the delay, Nostrant told us that the wireless interference in convention center was the culprit, but he assured us that the Sleek works much more quickly in residential settings. As for the device itself, build quality looks to be pretty good. Black and white versions are available, with soft touch plastic surrounding the thing and uniform seams all around. Should Ivee have piqued your interest you can pick one up today for $199 at your local Staples.
ZTE's 5.5-inch Grand S II lets your friends unlock the phone with their voice
After a brief tease last week, ZTE has at last revealed the Grand S II. The Android 4.3 smartphone has all the necessary ingredients of an early 2014 flagship, including a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel sensor up front. However, its real centerpiece is its voice recognition, which is more elaborate than ZTE hinted at a few days ago. The Grand S II will recognize multiple users' voices; unlike the Moto X, you can let friends and family unlock the phone solely through speech. Other voice features are familiar, but welcome. You can take photos with spoken commands, and a My-drive mode tweaks the voice recognition for quicker hands-free control while in the car. We're not big on the 16GB of built-in storage, but the hefty 3,000mAh battery should last longer than the 1,780mAh pack in the original Grand S. About the only mystery left is the Grand S II's launch schedule, but we hope to learn more about that in the near future.
Moto X Touchless Control update lets you speak your unlock code
You no longer have to give up some of the Moto X's voice commands if you want to rely on security codes. An update to the smartphone's Touchless Control app lets you speak a PIN code to unlock the device; as long as you're not worried about eavesdroppers, you can check private messages without poking at the screen. You won't even have to unlock the phone as often as before, since the upgrade expands the range of Google Now voice instructions that work while the handset is sleeping. You'll need to be running Android 4.4 KitKat on your Moto X to use the improved Touchless Control, but it's otherwise ready to download through Google Play.
Xbox One Kinect shrinks minimum distance requirement to 4.6 feet
Microsoft said it improved Kinect on the Xbox One, and now a leaked setup manual indicates how little space it requires to operate. The PDF NeoGAF spotted notes that a minimum 1.4 meters (just over 4.5-feet) between the user and Microsoft's new do-all sensor is all that's required. For those of us with cozy living quarters, this could be a bit more generous than the last one's recommended six to eight-foot gap. We've reached out to Microsoft for an official comment and will update this post if we hear back. Until then however, we're hoping that November 22nd will mark the end of us rearranging our living room to play the latest Dance Central.
Battlefield 4 for Xbox One may get Kinect-based look controls
If you've wanted to immerse your body in a first-person shooter, you've typically had to use a complex simulator. Battlefield 4 may soon provide a decidedly simpler (and cheaper) alternative. DICE's Patrick Bach has revealed to Xbox Wire that the game may use the Xbox One's Kinect sensor for head-tracking look controls, such as leaning around a corner. Voice commands might also be available, Bach says. There's no guarantees that BF4 will get the new input methods, but DICE may have competition as an incentive. Infinity Ward recently hinted to Official Xbox Magazine that Call of Duty: Ghosts could use Kinect for more than navigating menus, so there's a chance that at least one of the two games will have motion control in the future.
Xbox One voice commands will only work fully in some launch countries, languages
Earlier this month Microsoft trimmed the list of countries where its Xbox One will launch to 13, and now it's revealed the new Kinect voice commands will only support all of its features in some of them. Pointed out by a thread on NeoGAF, a disclaimer on Xbox.com listed only a few countries with support for voice commands at launch. Since then, MS Director of Product Planning Albert Penello has responded with more details, explaining that, at launch the Xbox One will support eight languages / dialects: English (US), English (GB), French, Spanish (MX), Spanish (ES), Italian, German and Portuguese. That said, some voice features -- like the "Xbox On" command -- will not be available everywhere at the start, with only the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany set to receive them out of the gate. As Penello explains it, users will select their language first, and then get a list of countries it's supported in. Confused? A more thorough explanation is coming to the Xbox website at some point, and Kinect's supported languages are expected to grow with updates after the system launches -- whenever that launch is.
DirecTV adding voice search to its iOS and Android phone apps, beta coming this summer
Now that it's finally got an Android tablet app to speak of, DirecTV is returning its attention to phones: the company announced today that both its iOS and Android applications will be receiving voice search starting this summer. As the company describes it, the app is meant to address the age-old problem of there being "nothing on TV." (And also, the fact that searching for things on your television is damn tedious.) In particular, you can use the app to search by person, title, channel show time or genre, using commands such as "find comedy movies," etc. Like other voice-control services, too, you can give follow-up instructions like, "with Bill Hader" and it'll narrow down your results instead of starting a new search. Considering DirecTV whipped up its own search algorithm from scratch, it seems to work intuitively. Still, the fact that the landing page is filled with sample queries suggests there's very much a right and wrong way to ask for what you want. If you're using the app away from home, you can set your DVR to record different shows. When you're on your home network, though, you can have the search results show up on your television, at which point your phone transforms into a remote you can use to scroll through menus and the like. With the TV, too, you can wade through various programs, as well as search for sports content or ask the app to switch to a certain channel (saying either the channel name or number will work). You can even tell the app to go back through menus, but you can't use your voice to access features like the settings menu. No word on when the beta will roll out, except that it'll happen sometime this summer.
Panasonic 2013 Smart TVs wield Nuance Dragon TV for voice control, text-to-speech
Panasonic and Nuance have been close partners on TV voice recognition in the past; we now know that they're getting a bit cozier for Panasonic's 2013 Smart TVs. The company's newer LCDs and plasmas with voice recognition use Nuance's Dragon TV for voice-only control of basics like volume as well as content and web searches. The engine will also speak out content and menus if you need more than just visual confirmation of where you're going. Panasonic's refreshed TV line is gradually rolling out over the spring, so those who see a plastic remote control as so very 2010 won't have long to wait.
Dragon Mobile Assistant 3.0 can share locations, call meeting numbers for you
Nuance has long wanted Dragon Mobile Assistant to do as much of the heavy lifting as possible for common Android phone tasks. The newly available 3.0 beta is shouldering even more of the load, including responsibilities that can still involve separate apps with rivals. It's now possible to share map coordinates, or ask for someone else's location, through simple requests. The refresh will also skip the drudgery needed to dial a conference call or an important friend: set a calendar event with phone numbers and passcodes attached and Dragon can punch in the numbers itself, right on cue. As a final touch, the upgrade brings truly hands-free text messaging that includes both spoken incoming messages and voice-dictated replies. The beta remains free and will work with Android 2.3 or above; if Google Now and S Voice aren't pulling enough weight, there might be some relief through the source link.
Dragon Mobile Assistant beta for Android updated, lets your voice launch apps and music
Nuance has refreshed its Dragon Mobile Assistant for Android to let you do more stuff using speech alone. The beta app now allows you to set alarms, launch apps and play music, in addition to its existing hands-free prowess that covers making calls, getting directions, updating your Twitter status and waking up your device from slumber using a "Hi Dragon" greeting. The voice-driven personal assistant, which hitherto worked only on ICS and up, also now supports devices running Android 2.3. (And no, you can't customize your phone's nickname. It has to be Dragon, not Snuffy.)
Xbox 360 Dashboard update hands-on (fall 2012)
Is it Fall again already? Must be time for another Xbox 360 Dashboard update. Every year Microsoft Drops the console a little bit of code to match the descending leaves, delivering new features, interface tweaks and additional content to hide behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall. Redmond's latest update isn't quite the overhaul it gave the gaming rig last year, but minor changes can have big effects. Join us after the break to see the machine's latest update, and what it means for you. %Gallery-168426%
Chrome experiment explores new types of navigation, degrees of embarrassment
What you're about to see, should you choose to click the source link below, is far from perfect. On the other hand, it's clearly had a lot of effort and expertise put into it -- not only by HTML5-savvy coders, but also by a troupe of performers from the Cirque du Soleil. It's called Movi.Kanti.Revo, which is a fancy way of saying Move.Sing.Dream, and it involves navigating through an ethereal and slightly laggy landscape using only swaying gestures, your singing voice (mournful sobbing sounds also worked for us) and a bunch of APIs that conveniently fail to work on FireFox, Safari or Internet Explorer. It's well-suited to those with a mic and webcam, preferably sitting in a open-plan and bully-ridden workplace, and if you don't like it there's always Bastion.
Telenav's Scout gives iOS users offline navigation in exchange for ten bucks
We know that iOS 6 will bless iPhone users with some in-house-made mapping, but that hasn't stopped Telenav from bettering its own Scout navigation offering for Apple's favorite handsets. Scout now does offline navigation by letting users download maps of the west, central or eastern United States over WiFi only. Plus, Scout now takes voice commands, so on your next road trip you can tell it to find the nearest Whataburger whether you have cell signal or not. Interested parties can head on over to the App Store to get their download on, but you'll pay for the privilege -- offline navigation costs $9.99 a year or $2.99 a month, though the free, data-dependant version of Scout for iPhone still includes speech recognition. Still not sold? Perhaps the video after the break will persuade you.
BlackBerry 10 gets voice commands in latest dev update (video)
Those lucky enough to have their hands on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device were treated to a nice little software update this week. While some were having trouble just getting it installed, others were able to fire it up pretty quick and found a nice surprise waiting for them -- voice controls. Hold down the play/pause button on the side and you'll be prompted to speak a command and offered a unified search interface. Sound familiar? It should, Android and iOS have both hopped on the speech recognition bandwagon, and its becoming an expected feature of a modern mobile OS. The fine folks over at N4BB were able to give the suspiciously familiar sounding virtual assistant a run through and, lets just say it's a bit rough around the edges. Of course, thanks to the limitations of the alpha quality software there wasn't much to actually test anyway. To see it in action check out the video after the break.
