voice

Why I'm still frustrated with Google Voice

Remember those fateful words that no kid ever wanted to hear from their teacher: You've got so much po-tential? "Potential" is a compliment when you're just starting out in your field, and veiled disappointment after you've been in it for years. The sentiment describes exactly how I feel about Google Voice.

Let me just say that I've been using Google Voice on mobile since the apps first premiered for Android and iPhone -- and I continue to use it every day on both platforms. In fact, I depend on it for my job.

As a cell phone reviewer, I'm constantly testing new phones. Google Voice gives me a centralized place to access my family and friends' calls and texts. Since they only see the message or incoming call, it doesn't matter which device I use to reach out.

Google Voice has a ton of features, many of them exceedingly useful, like call forwarding, free texts to the U.S. and Canada, visual voice-mail transcription, and international texting.

Yet messaging delays, lack of MMS support, the iPhone app's instability, and the Android app's incomplete integration into most devices weigh it down (Sprint's Android phones are a partial exception for the last point.) As for those tragicomic garbled voice-mail transcriptions I've spoken about before, I've simply come to accept them.… Read more

Study: Siri is just all right with most iPhone users

According to a new study, most people who have access to Apple's Siri voice assistant think she's just fine -- they just don't want her around all that much.

As part of its quarterly "Market Focus" report, Parks Associates today said that in a polling of 482 iPhone 4S owners in the U.S., more than 50 percent of respondents said they were "very satisfied" with Siri. About a fifth of the group said that they were simply "satisfied," and some 9 percent said they were "unsatisfied."

According to … Read more

Google Voice eyeing carrier tie-ups beyond Sprint

Sprint's reign as the only carrier to integrate Google Voice into its cell phone service could be coming to an end.

"We are having discussions with other carriers about this," Vincent Paquet, Group Product Manager for Google Voice, told CNET in an interview. He declined to name specific carriers.

Google's Paquet added that the existing partnership, which lets Sprint customers easily turn their handset number into a Google Voice number, has been successful.

Google Voice gives users access to visual voicemail that you can read on the phone or online, personalized greetings, and cheaper international calls, among other perks.

Although anyone can port their phone number to a Google Voice account, Sprint's offering doesn't include the $20 porting charge, is simpler to set up online, and let you unlink the Sprint phone if you already have an account. … Read more

Google+ Hangouts now calling any phone

Video chatting in Hangouts is busting out of Google+.

Video calls among two or more Google+ users was the big draw when Hangouts launched, but now Google has flipped the switch the allow Google+ users to make phone calls to almost any phone number, not just within the Google+ ecosystem. That means that users will be able, for example, place a voice call from their computers and reach friends or family on their land line or cell phone.… Read more

Google Voice puts voice mail in your ICS call log (hands-on)

If you use Google Voice, and you have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on your phone, life is going to get a little bit more practical.

Starting now, you'll be able to view and play visual voice mails that you receive from Google Voice right in the phone's native call log. The feature only works on Android smartphones running the latest version of the operating system, and only if you head over to the Google Voice app settings and turn on "Voicemail display."… Read more

Phone scammer or trustworthy solicitor? Software calls it

Should you trust that official-sounding guy on the phone trying to talk you into transferring cash from your account to his? Well, we're going to go out on a limb here and say no, but in case that's not so obvious, new voice analysis technology out of Japan promises to help spot the scammers for you.

Nagoya University and Fujitsu have created software they say can automatically identify situations in which one party might "overtrust" the other. It does so by detecting changes in voice pitch and volume level that can occur under psychological duress.

By combining this technology with keywords such as "indebtedness" or "compensation" that are characteristic to a specific type of remittance-soliciting phone-phishing scam called furikomesagi, the researchers have developed a setup now being tested in collaboration with the National Police Agency of Japan and the Bank of Nagoya. … Read more

New Android voice assistant, Robin, rides shotgun

SAN FRANCISCO--There's another new voice-response assistant that wants to date you: Robin, an Android app launching today at the Launch conference. This one is built for speed, though. Robin is designed specifically to be your in-car voice assistant.

Like Evi, and unlike Siri, Robin keeps your conversation in its head. If you ask for directions to location, and then later ask, "what's the parking like there?" it will know where "there" is. Also, it reads all information back to you, instead of displaying it and requiring you to look at the screen.

Like the … Read more

Google may be planning Siri rival for later this year

Google could be cooking up a new voice assistant designed to out-Siri Siri.

The company is said to have a new system in the works dubbed "Assistant" designed to help people complete tasks by voice. And if Google's plans come together, Assistant could debut in the fourth quarter, according to TechCrunch.

Citing information from a source, TechCrunch said on Friday that the search giant would control all of the layers involved in Assistant. But Google would let third-party developers tap into the system to create their own unique apps, a marked contrast from Apple's Siri, which … Read more

Ford adding Facebook features to Sync

To look up an event location on Facebook, Ford wants drivers to ask Sync for directions--and put down the phone.

Ford engineers are testing how drivers can use the Sync AppLink system to tap into Facebook with voice commands. The automaker says social integration is the next evolution for its voice-controlled Sync system, and accessing Facebook events is just one example already being developed.

In a demonstration for CNET, SyncApp Link Product Manager Julius Marchwicki had Sync announce upcoming Facebook events, his RSVP status, and the venue locations. The next steps, he said, would be to get directions to the … Read more

Panasonic TVs will be good listeners

Soon LG and Samsung won't be the only TV makers to offer the ability to control your TV by talking to it.

Yesterday Nuance Communications announced that its Dragon TV voice control platform would be shipping with some Panasonic TVs in Europe this year.

Plans for a US introduction were not announced, and a Panasonic representative I spoke to didn't have any additional details. I don't expect the company to incorporate voice control into its already-announced 2012 TVs, via some kind add-on USB microphone for example, but it is a possibility. I'd be surprised if 2013 … Read more