(Credit:
Nuance)
There've been some dictation apps before, but now Nuance, maker of the world's most popular desktop dictation software, is invading the App Store with its own.
Dragon Dictation (link opens iTunes), which is based on the desktop Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, lets you do pretty much everything you'd use the iPhone's keyboard for, but with your voice.
That includes using the iPhone's clipboard for cutting and pasting, as well as saying your latest Twitter or Facebook update aloud (warning: Saying "Just ate a sandwich LOL roast beef LOL" aloud may frighten those around you). The app's still pending approval, but it should be out very soon, at which point it'll be free for a limited time. LOL!
CNET editors' note: Some people have expressed concern about a passage in the app's end-user license agreement that states that Nuance "collects and uses: the names of individuals and companies that appear in your address book in order to improve the quality of service." Nuance responds to the worries here.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.
Tired of fumbling around the iPhone's onscreen keyboard to send a text message? Soon you can skip that altogether, as long as you can speak English properly.
(Credit:
Promptu)
This is thanks to a new iPhone application that Promptu, a talk-and-type mobile phone application developer, introduced Monday called ShoutOUT. The application is going to be the first voice-to-SMS application for iPhone users in the United States.
The application lets you dictate text messages instead of typing on the iPhone's touch-screen keypad. It also allows for checking the transcribed messages for errors and make corrections if necessary before sending them out to the intended recipients.
This seems an overdue application for iPhone, considering the ubiquity in the usage of text messaging. According to Gartner Group, by 2010 the total number of sent text messages will reach 2.3 trillion.
I wonder if this app also means you can send text messages while driving in California, where since Januray 1, texting and reading text messages while driving has been banned. It's not that I think people should text behind the wheel, just that if speaking on the phone via a hand-free device is allowed, sending text without using your hands should be, too.
ShoutOUT will soon be available at Apple's App Store. For now it's unclear how much it will cost. A non-English version of the application will also be available to European users.
(Credit:
Sony)
Well, that's one way to do it. After having lost so badly to Apple in the Walkman World it once dominated, Sony is at least making some music with alternative devices. But its latest player is one we never saw coming: a dictation recorder.
Tech Digest says it has only 1GB or 2GB of built-in storage, so you may still want to hang onto your regular MP3 player--after all, you'll presumably want to use some of that space for voice recording too. But it looks a lot better than other attempts by Sony, most notably the "Walkman Bean." Besides, if you really want to relive Sony's glory days in music, there's always this gold-plated cassette version.
Whenever we hear the word "dictation," we recall those cliched movie scenes of executives calling secretaries into their offices to take shorthand. But products like the "Digital Pocket Memo 9600" from Philips remind us how far technology has evolved the practice.
When used with its new docking station, the device can transfer dictations through a local network or the Internet to a transcriptionist or voice-recognition system without a computer, according to Gizmag. Real-time encryption and password protection ensure security, and a bar-code reader can be used to scan patient or client information and attach it directly to dictation files for simultaneous transfer.
Maybe doctors with illegible handwriting can use them to send prescriptions too.
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