Fonix VoiceCentral 2.0 for Windows Mobile Pocket PC

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.fonix.com/page.cfm?name=news&amp;id=1472">http://www.fonix.com/page.cfm?name=news&amp;id=1472</a><br /><br />"Fonix VoiceCentral 2.0 is a totally interactive, hands-free software application for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone devices that enables users to access Personal Management Information (PIN) tools simply by speaking. VoiceCentral 2.0 incorporates our award-winning Fonix VoiceDialT software, while adding several other significant capabilities."<br /><br />This sounds pretty good. According to the press release, it can read your email to you. I'm buying at <i>any</i> price if it will read books out of Palm Reader to me while I drive. 8O

[Anthony Caruana]

According to their web site

Fonix is developing the VoiceSuite solutions for the following operating systems:

* Microsoft Pocket PC Phone Edition 2002
* Microsoft Smartphone 2002
* Symbian
* Palm

No Windows Mobile 2003 - that can't be right- can it?

[Jonathon Watkins]

Hmm, I tried a previous version of this, but uninstalled it after trying to listen to it while commuting in the car. It was too hard to understand the voices.

I'll give this a go and see if they have improved it.

[mpovolo2]

Does anyone know if the latest version will dial bluetooth handsets.

thanks

[Jon Westfall]

I have 2.0, so I'm willing to answer as many questions as I can.

I use it on my I-Mate, and it works fine under Windows Mobile 2003. The only reason I use MS Voice command over it is that MS voice command gives me voice control over media player. I've found the Fonix product to have about 95% recognition, and you can selectively turn off menu items (So if you constantly say "Launch Ostia" and it launches tasks, you can simply uncheck tasks).

The only problem I had with 2.0 is when I purchased it, it sent me a serial number for 1.0, and it took about 2 weeks of chasing Fonix tech support to get the right number.

If you have any more questions, post here and I'll try to answer.

Jon.

[possmann]

How does it work for selecting names say out of your contact list and then dailing a phone number? How is the name recognition there? Does it give you choices if it finds more than one name? How about choices of which number to dial - mobile? home? work?

I'm thinking of something like this for my smartphone. I wish MS Voice would ahve come out for the Smartphone platform as well - bad move on their part me thinks as you'd want that on a true phone more than just a PDA without any phone capabilty...

[gohtor]

That's something Microsoft voice command could have done but didn't bother to do (email dictation).

Just like what I learned from HID (Human Interface Design) course that the voice dictation is so far only good enough for brief sentences. about 1-2 at most. after that the monotoneous voice gets annoying to the normal user and things become uncomprehensive unless you really concentrate on listening.

for a single sentence or 2 the designers become more careful on the quality of the sentence so it is short and to the point. by the time the user hears it, it has ended and they only need to absorb/comprehend what is said from those 2 sentences and nothing more.

if it was continually dictating you may find that sometimes you need to backtrack because you are trying to dwell on some thoughts from a sentence just spoken and the speech has just continued to rant on.

Anyhow I guess the other features makes this program more useful to some than others.

Robert Huie
www.dptechno.com

[joelevi]

I'll have to give this a try... After two weeks of troubleshooting with Microsoft on the phone, and hard resetting my iPaq 4155 over four times.

When Voice Command tries to announce an appointment it pops up a Voice Command error and turns Voice Command off.

SO... let's hope Handango will give me my money back so I can try this (or something similar).

[Jon Westfall]

How does it work for selecting names say out of your contact list and then dailing a phone number? How is the name recognition there? Does it give you choices if it finds more than one name? How about choices of which number to dial - mobile? home? work?

I'm thinking of something like this for my smartphone. I wish MS Voice would ahve come out for the Smartphone platform as well - bad move on their part me thinks as you'd want that on a true phone more than just a PDA without any phone capabilty...

You simply say "Call &lt;name> at &lt;mobile, work, home>". If you just say "Call &lt;name>" It will ask at what location (i believe..). You also have a dial a number option. The nice thing is that Fonix displays the name &amp; phone number on the screen so that you can visually verify numbers, unlike MS Voice Command.

[Pat Logsdon]

If you have any more questions, post here and I'll try to answer.
How large is the installation footprint, and about how much Program Memory does it use while it's running?

Thanks!

[JoshB]

Anyone try this on a Smartphone yet? I love MS Voice Command on my iPAQ 4350, and I've used Fonix voice products before, so I know they're good. I'm just kind of sceptical that the current batch of Smartphones (like my MPX200) have enough horsepower to pull an application like this off.

I'll download and try the trial, and see how it goes, but if anyone else has already tried this, post here and let us know! :D

JoshB

[mplumpe]

I'm thinking of something like this for my smartphone. I wish MS Voice would ahve come out for the Smartphone platform as well - bad move on their part me thinks as you'd want that on a true phone more than just a PDA without any phone capabilty...

Remember that Voice Command requires Windows Mobile 2003, and there are currently no available Windows Mobile 2003 devices available in the US, where Voice Command is sold. Microsoft has announced Voice Command for smartphones, see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Jan04/01-08VCMomentumPR.asp

[Anthony Caruana]

Remember that Voice Command requires Windows Mobile 2003, and there are currently no available Windows Mobile 2003 devices available in the US, where Voice Command is sold. Microsoft has announced Voice Command for smartphones, see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Jan04/01-08VCMomentumPR.asp

Hang on...Windows Mobile 2003 devices are sold the world over. As far as I know the device I bought in Australia is no different to the ones in the US.

What is the REAL reason Voice Command is not sold outside the US?

[possmann]

So we have Fonix and Voice Command... hmmm FonixCentral for $29.95 and VoiceCommand for $39.95

Is there a difference on the MS side that is worth the extra ten bucks (US)?

Has anyone tried the other Fonix products?

[mpovolo2]

Can anyone tell me if you can dial a bluetooth handset with this app?

thanks

[Jon Westfall]

If you have any more questions, post here and I'll try to answer.
How large is the installation footprint, and about how much Program Memory does it use while it's running?

Thanks!

Takes up about 2 - 3 megs depending on how many voices you choose to install (I know, huge...), doesn't take up too much memory while running though - and it can stay running the background without slowing down overall system performance.

Jon.