subject: The Iphone 4s-an Introduction To The New Speaktoit Application [print this page] One of the attractive features of the new iPhone 4S is the excellent Siri voice recognition software that comes supplied with the phone. There are however some impressive alternative services that are available from the iTunes App Store. We take a closer look at the new Speaktoit application, the newest voice recognition service to become available for the iPhone.
The new Speaktoit application for the iPhone 4S uses the famous Dragon Dictation voice recognition software to ensure that the software can easily respond to your question regardless of regional accents. The service offers a very simple and clean user interface that makes full use of the excellent resolution that the phones Retina display can offer. Your personal assistant takes the form of a cartoon character on the screen and a large microphone icon is located beneath this. To ask your phone a question simply tap the microphone icon and speak away. Once you have asked your question it appears on screen in a similar format to how SMS message conversations appear on the device. Unlike many similar applications this new software can do much more than simply search the web for answers to your questions. Speaktoit interacts with a large number of the native applications that can be found on the phone. This means that users can post social networking updates, compose e mails and check directions by simply speaking to their phone.
When we tested the application on our iPhone 4S we spoke with quite a broad East Anglian accent and the software managed to correctly respond to about 50 per cent of our commands. When we toned down the accent a little this figure increased to around 90 per cent which we were very impressed with. When the application speaks back to you all words are pronounced clearly and precisely although the speech is a slightly slower pace than you can find on Siri so it does not always feel as though you are having a fluent conversation with your phone. There are lots of customisation options available. You can change the gender of your assistant and also their hair colour and clothing. If you feel this element is not necessary it can be disabled so you are simply presented with a blank screen and your microphone.
Although Speaktoit for the iPhone 4S does not quite scale the heights achieved by Siri it is still a very impressive application that offers a visually attractive layout and excellent voice recognition. The nice thing about this software is that it will offer further improvements with any future updates that are made available.
