How cool is that? Talking about what I did last century!! I mean, I've been a gadget fan forever, but last century my dad gave me an old Palm Pilot, onto which I installed an ebook reader and some ebooks. I used the calendar on the device until my brother introduced me to a better one, but my problem was that I never had the device with me when the annoying little, reedy squeaking that was the alarm went off. It wasn't my "everything" device. I expended much effort and money over the years searching for this device.
I thought I had it a year and a half ago when I got the N78, which, if you've read my previous posts, came pretty damn close. It would, at least, give me my calendar functions in a device I always carry with me. Obviously I always carry it with me because it's a phone, and I hope that some one will actually call me. The fact that I receive relatively few calls is a source of constant disappointment.
I do have a new phone now, which is coming equally close to that "everything" device to which I aspire. It's a Nokia (of course, I wouldn't want to face the wrath of my brother!!) 5800, and to make it even more desirable, it's got a nifty red stripe round the side - I'm sure that helps make it go faster... I like the full screen, although one needs to use a certain amount of caution with some apps which tell you they're not compatible with the phone - Mobipocket, for example, the first app I always install on my devices. If you put it into full screen mode (very useful on the somewhat small screen of the N78) you can't actually get it out of this mode, because there's nothing on the screen to press, there are no buttons which will bring up a menu. All you can do is read your book (the volume control knob will allow you to scroll up and down through the document) and exit the app. In the end I uninstalled and re-installed, because the default is NOT full screen. One thing the phone's really great for is browsing. I mean it's nothing on a full monitor, but it's pretty damn good for something that spends most of it's life in my pocket/handbag. And I keep a pretty small handbag - I'm just saying. I like it more than the N810 for browsing, although the screen is smaller, because I can choose which orientation I like.
It's got to be said, though, the reason I went for this phone was because it has a great application from the Ovi shop called Banner. Oh, and I managed to get the handset for free, and reduce by £10 my monthly contract. While getting the full on web-browsing bolt-on too. Let's hope my delight lasts me the 24 months for which I've signed up this time!
However, and you know I'm going to say this, I'm digressing. Allow me, if you will, to get to the point.
Google have, without fanfare (that I noticed, anyway), produced what they call Google Mobile App. This little app on your phone allows you to search by just saying what you want to search for. Yep, that's right, just speak into the phone. Now I don't know about you, but I've been expecting much of voice recognition since I bought, at huge expense, I might add, a copy of Dragon Dictate Naturally Speaking last century (oh, and there I go again!) While it's really not a very prominent thing, I sort of expected more voice recognition because I watch a lot of Sci-Fi, and assumed that by now I'd be talking to my computer, not having to type it all in. And I always thought it'd be such a brilliant thing to have on a mobile device. It'll save all that pairing with keyboards, or trying to type stuff on a T9 keyboard. Or even trying to type stuff on the onscreen qwerty of the new phone (or the slide out of the N810). Just hold down one of the (admittedly very few) buttons on the phone, and speak. Phone does the rest.
I will say this - voice recognition requires a lot of thought and training. And I don't mean on the part of the computer. You have to be fairly concise about what you want to say, otherwise the programs I've used will attempt to translate background sounds, which come out a bit silly. However, if you've got a pretty good idea of what you want to type in it seems to be good. I've not used it since I lost that somewhat expensive copy of Dragon Dictate. Oh well. I think that was installed on the Laptop I got last century!
OK, the Google search application is fairly limited - it'll only search the entire web for me. This has a lot to do, I believe, with the fact that the application said it wasn't compatible with my phone, and possibly the fact that I don't have many actual buttons on my phone - it wants me to press C to search. However, within the application, it searches pretty well on the matches it finds, and it seems to understand what I say fairly well. It wasn't 100%, by any means, the search for "The X Factor" turning up searches for "PX", which seemed somewhat random. My search for "Windows Server 2003" was spot on!
I will admit that the phone comes with a rudimentary voice search option - sadly it doesn't seem to understand my overly cultured tones, and when searching for my mum, came up with the suggestion of Jeannie, a lady in my contacts list. Since when did the word MUM sound anything like Jeannie? Trying to find Google (it is an application, after all), the phone can't even find a match.
In conclusion, Google has come up with a pretty good tool here, one that I truly wish was compatible with my current phone. I wonder if having that banner application will make up for the slew of incompatible programs which will half-work over the next two years? I also believe that while Nokia are clearly the greatest phone manufacturers in the universe, they need to spend a bit more time on their voice recognition tool. And the Morph - they need to get that realised, too. I bet when they do, though, I'll find that none of the apps I want is compatible again.
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