GadgetFreak

I watched the movie "Her" on a flight a couple days ago and really liked it. I thought it was a very good movie. Beyond that, however, I want that phone. And I'm not talking about a phone that would do aural sex with ScarJo's voice, not that that would be a bad thing, but the basic stuff. Things based around reliable voice control through a wireless headset. It did voice to text with a very low error rate and acted out commands like "read recent emails" as well as more complicated stuff.

I currently have a Moto X and an iPhone 5. Siri does some things, the Moto X as well. Any suggestions on the latest for voice control on those or other platforms? What do you do with voice control? What do you wish you could do with voice control that you can't do? Thanks.

ScottC

Try this one:

http://www.nuance.com/for-individual...tant/index.htm

Need

Well Nuance is the backbone of Siri and Google Now. Their own version is Dragon. I have Dragon on my lenovo flex 15 and it is really not as good as Siri in term of the amount of things it would respond to correctly.

And between Siri and Google Now, I would pick Siri too. While Google Now is a little faster, it is a bit more mechanical while Siri is definitely more personal.

I also have Samsung s-voice (Also powered by Nuance) on my phone, but it is much worst than either Siri or Google Now. But that could change as Samsung maybe buying Nuance.

GadgetFreak

Thanks. I haven't tried that, I didn't know it was available. I use Dragon a lot on my iMac and my assistant uses it to transcribe dictation. I find it quite accurate overall. I'm downloading it now, I'm anxious to try it.

ScottC

They are two totally different things. Dragon runs processing on your machine, Siri, Google Now and others do cloud processing. Then there is the artificial intelligence behind each one - again - totally different from Dragon on your desktop.

Need

I have Dragon Assist on my laptop. It is the desktop version of Dragon Mobile Assist which you linked. Dragon Assist is very similar to Siri or Google Now. It does use cloud processing when you ask it to search for things like traffic or weather.

When I said Siri is the best is not the speed or the data return. It is more that you could ask a question in different ways and it will understand you. For example, if I ask Dragon Assist "Show me the traffic". It just go search for the term "traffic" on google. My laptop is connected to WiFi and it should know my approximate location but it doesn't understand that I need the traffic around my current location.

All 3 could understand what you are saying and I think that part is powered by the same software made by Naunce. But I think Siri is "smarter" in understanding what you really want to ask by guessing at the missing parts of your questions.

IsleOfMan

I think the movie is "Her"...

That said, I think Google Now is advancing MUCH faster than Siri and, with the Moto X, you pretty much have the most "hands-off" implementation of it to date (with always-on listening). Outside of a few Easter Eggs, though, I don't think you're going to get the level of conversationalism you're looking for right now.

GadgetFreak

Duh. I can't believe I posted the wrong name. I'll change it. Thanks.

One really disappointing thing is that I can't seem to send emails from my exchange account in Android, only my gmail account; although there may be a workaround I am missing.

IsleOfMan

Now that Google has put the stock email client in the Play Store, I bet this will change in the coming months.

HDQDD

For the same reasons you mention, I prefer Google Now. I don't need Siri's poor attempt at a sense of humor, I need fast responses and valid info.

On a side note, Siri actually got worse on my iPhone after upgrading to iOS 7...

ou81two

What interaction are you looking for is the better question.

GadgetFreak

Right. Mainly to be able to have it read emails to me and let me send emails and texts. I installed the Dragon app on my Moto X. I can't seem to send emails with it. It also seems to have temporarily at least displaced Google Now, which no longer responds to voice commands.

I have also been trying Siri more and it does a good job of both sending and reading emails, at least really the last message. I think it can do more. I'm also opening apps with it which is nice.

I will keep playing around with both Dragon and Siri.

rybob1

Dare I say it? Microsoft's Cortana built into the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 release does all of that well. I've been running the developer preview for 2 months, and have yet to have it misunderstand my dictation. More and more apps are using the service to allow you to tell Cortana to do things within other apps as well.

wco81

The phone in the movie is doing far more than speech recognition and text to speech. It's basically suppose to be a "strong AI" which has consciousness like human beings.


Now, they simulate being able to anticipate what you want by collecting data on your habits and using it (against) you.

Siri and Google Now will probably tell you about some exciting opportunities presented by such and such a sponsor some day. Well Google Now more likely than Siri.

GadgetFreak

I was thinking of the phone before OS1 (ScarJo) was installed on it.