Everybody chuckled when Tellme, a mobile voice company snapped up by Microsoft almost two years ago, released its smartphone voice search application for BlackBerry, instead of for Windows Mobile. Thanks to a new native application that will be released on Windows Mobile 6.5 phones this coming fall, the ribbing may entirely subside.
On Wednesday, Tellme announced the application's features and its shipping plan. Like rival voice services for smartphones, you click a hardware hotkey to initiate the program's digital ears, and from there you can begin a search, call a number, or dictate a text message. This last feature will be new to Tellme's Windows Mobile app.
(Credit:
Tellme)
Tellme's application will offer more voice services than the straight voice search that Yahoo Mobile, Windows Live Mobile, and Google Mobile App are currently capable of, but after watching Tellme's demo here at CNET, it appears that it won't be as fully stocked as Vlingo when it's released. Vlingo--a free voice service for BlackBerry and iPhone, but not yet Windows Mobile--adds greater dictation powers, including launching native applications, updating your status on Facebook and Twitter, and reading back e-mail messages.
Another notable difference between the two is the fact that Tellme is integrated into Windows Mobile at the network level--which one would expect from an acquired company--and that at launch, it will only search using Microsoft Live Search. We understand the prerogative, but the app is much likelier to succeed in offering choice.
Like many contemporary mobile apps, Tellme for Windows Mobile will also use GPS or cell phone tower triangulation to localize searches, making a search for "weather" or "movie theaters" serve up businesses in your neighborhood. It's hard to say exactly how Tellme will stack up to its competitors, but when it comes out alongside Windows Mobile 6.5 we'll let you know.
Tellme for Windows Mobile phones will be available beginning Wednesday to manufacturers that want to load it onto Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. Come autumn, the general public will be able to find it (in English) on the phones, in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and directly from Tellme's mobile-optimized site.
Mobile users away from their computers have had a handful of options for directory services in the past couple of years. There's TellMe (555-TELL), FREE-411, CALL-411, and GOOG-411 to name some of the free ones. There are also the official ones from each of the carriers that are billed a la carte--and usually at a high price.
This morning FREE-411 (one of the older services of the crowd) has announced a partnership with a useful driving directions service Dial DIR-ECT-IONS to help people find phone numbers and addresses for businesses or residential listings along with step-by-step directions for how to get there. The service starts next month in three major cities (Los Angeles, the SF Bay Area, and Chicago) and then nationwide in April.
This is immensely helpful if your handset isn't on a data plan, or you're away from a phonebook or map. Competitor TellMe, which is owned by Microsoft, has had such a mixed feature using its downloadable phone app, but no such service for its text, or 800-based phone services.
Get Google maps on your phone now, using 1-800-GOOG-411
(Credit: CNET Networks)Users of Google's free 411 service (1-800-GOOG-411), can now get maps sent straight to their phone. Once you've found your listing, just say "map it" to get a text message containing the address and a link to its location on Google Maps mobile. Users also get a link to turn-by-turn driving directions.
Since writing about the service in early April, I've become a regular user. Nine times out of 10, it works like a charm, while occasionally the voice recognition can and will fail--and when it does, it's often quite amusing.
If you're looking for a more flashy mobile mapping tool, TellMe's downloadable Java app gives you 411, maps, and directions in one slick interface. Assuming you have a data plan, it's free to use. Google's mobile offerings also link up to one another, including their mobile search, and mapping. For nondata plan types like me though, this new service is good way to cut data usage to a minimum.
[via Official Google blog]
The first Web 2.0 Expo is behind us, and it was a good show. In addition to dozens of interesting panels (including, if I do say so, mine), there were about 115 companies presenting on a crowded expo show floor, and six interesting company presentations during the "Launchpad" sessions that ran on Monday and Tuesday.
With Webware.com's Josh Lowensohn and News.com's Erica Ogg, we picked our Top 5 Web 2.0 services from the conference. They are:
- Tellme, which has a new downloadable app for getting useful 411-like info on your mobile phone. (news)
- Octopz, a very slick collaboration service we covered a few days ago. (hands-on)
- Dapper, which can make any Web site into an RSS feed or widget. (field report)
- Coghead, a Web-based database that just came out of beta. (hands-on)
- Spock, the upcoming people search engine. (preview)
Play the video for the full rundown.
Three new products were demo'd today at the Web 2.0 Expo, rounding out the big product launches at this conference. (Yesterday's news came from Spock [review], InPowr, and Webex.) Today the pitches came from the following companies.
Swivel makes a great data exploration service. See previous coverage on Webware and ZDNet.
No new product news from Swivel, but the company is announcing that the OECD is an official partner to the company now. Swivel is a killer demo. If you like playing with data, this is definitely worth trying out.
Vidoop has a new system that replaces passwords with picture categories. See this morning's coverage.
One thing I didn't mention in this morning's post: Each computer that you use Vidoop on must be authorized, and that happens via a confirmation message sent to your mobile phone.
TellMe launched a free directory listing service to compete with Google's new 411 system. TellMe is adding a visual component to their old-school voice-recognition-based information retrieval service (1-800-555-TELL). The system sends you text messages for your results, and will map them too (it fires up your phone's browser to display it). Also new from TellMe: A downloadable client app to make accessing the TellMe data even easier... although it seems a little weird for a company based on voice response to release a standard phone app.
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