Fonix Speech, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix Corporation, has announced the release of Fonix iSpeak — a voice activated application for the Apple iPhone 3G. Users can initiate several operations simply by speaking the command in natural language. Fonix iSpeak connects the user by just saying the phone number or by saying the name of a person in the contacts database. Additionally, users will be able to navigate their music libraries and launch a song or playlist simply by saying the name of the artist, song, or playlist.
Fonix iSpeak is the first of several anticipated product releases that support the growing mobile device and gaming industries and is at the core of the efforts of the company to focus its efforts on these markets.
“The powerful and dynamic tools provided by Apple have allowed the Fonix team to quickly and efficiently develop Fonix iSpeak(TM) for the Apple iPhone 3G,” says D. Lynn Shepherd, Fonix Sr. VP product engineering, in the press release. “The feature rich iPhone is easy to use and our robust embedded speech interface will further create a positive and natural user-friendly environment which will further illustrate the dynamic features of this phone.”
Fonix iSpeak, includes a run-time engine that sits on the phone allowing users to interact with the personal contents of their Apple iPhone. Unlike other voice applets that enable voice search of the Internet by sending commands over the airwaves, this client-side application gives users the power of voice interaction with their personal content and eliminates network latency.
Fonix iSpeak will be available for release directly from Fonix Speech Inc., and expects to be available through traditional Apple distribution channels.
Source: Fonix Corporation
Good for California.
I presume this will only work on a jail broken iphone?
How does iSpeak get onto the iPhone??
the announcement says it’s for the 3G… exclusively?
“expects to be available through traditional Apple distribution channels.”
That has to mean the App Store. Right?
Here’s the link to the press release…
http://www.fonix.com/pr/20080707.pdf
and the contact info of someone in the company to ask questions about this product…
Michelle Aamodt
(801) 553-6736
investorrelations@fonix.com
MDN oversight – “Thanks to “Don” for the heads up.
I’m guessing there will be lots of voice-activated apps, as that is one definite area of opportunity for 3rd Parties that Apple has not filled. That and cutnpaste.
@The Great Apple Fanboy Massacre
So, nothing better to do with your time than troll Mac discussion sites looking for a fight?
….dude, he has a point. He may not be a troll. If someone has something to say about Apple that isn’t all cute and rosy, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a troll.
As for moi, I do not mind paying a little bit for an application that allows me to voce dial, voice access my data and music.
Hmmm… now let’s see my Nokia 95 (nor any “smartphone from Nokia) does not have voice activation of any kind! Hmmm and for $1350 Australian. That’s a deal.
OrI could use the Morotola K1 and have it rarely understand a simple command like “call home” which it interprets as “dial Graham” – similar but not the same and when you pay from flagfall, you don’t need many of those to just give up.
What I have learned about Apple products and the 3rd Party products that go with Apple products (for the most part) is that they are well done and professional.
Castigating based upon a press release without real world tests is pointless. It is indicative, IMHO, of someone who is looking for a reason to make themselves look big by climbing on top of other rather than lifting others up.
Nuff said.
@@ AAPLguy
Believe me, he is a troll. All he does with his posts is try to start flame wars. He’s on here all the time. It’s sad, really. He appears to have no life, no friends. He just comes here for a fight.
This is the wrong place to come for a fight…the only myth left now is price and games, and we all know that longterm the price is less. Games are pretty much nullified by boxes. The real and only argument left is AutoCAD, and that is due to AutoCAD’s CEO’s refusal to recognize anything Apple, not due to Apple itself.
The guy makes a good point. My $99 Palm Centro has voice activation. My old Motorola i870 had voice activation. This is something that should be part of the iPhone.
Lets call the iPhone for what it is. An average smart phone with incredible web browsing.
i’d rather have the option to pay for better voice recognition done by a company that knows how to do it right than a so-so built in option. And competition between third party devs should drive improvements. I’m not thrilled there wasn’t a built-in solution at the iPhone launch, but i’m looking forward to selecting a voice recog app that works for my needs.
Somebody with a Palm Centro is calling the iPhone average?
Lol.
Underwhelmed
Did you miss what the story said? It will give you voice control of the whole device…not just voice DIALING (a throw back term if there ever was one…how long have we had keypad phones?)
What that means is that other programs on the phone will be made useful via voice control similar to, but I assume superior to Microsoft’s Synch system now built into some cars. I don’t believe it’s at the level of accuracy however to permit the addressing AND the composition of an email (or even cooler…the recording of and sending of a voice file as an mp3)…but that’s not far off. <h2>Show me another smart phone that does that.</h2>
I’m an original iPhone owner, and I have to agree that the lack of at least voice dialing is important. Apple already has good voice recognition software built into OS X, so why not have at least a portion of that in the iPhone?
Any other mobile phone I have had which had voice commands worked only occasionally. The device simply didn’t recognize easy, common commands, or required me to say them in a manner so very different from everyday speech to make it useless (especially having to repeat commands several times). Maybe Apple hasn’t developed something better, and thus won’t include voice commands until it has a quality voice recognition app.
Granted, Apple has been working hard on the SDK and adding other features, so maybe voice dialing/control has been pushed back. However, it should have been included in the first place.
Aha — the naming ambiguity has struck already!
Advertised as being for “iPhone 3G,” I assume this app is actually for iPhone Software 2.x, which will be running on both iPhone EDGE and iPhone 3G.
In an environment where the 2nd gen of a device is distinguished by its 3G data technology, we need a clear differentiation between the OS and the device, and it should come down from Apple. Lots of people who CAN use this software won’t because of the improper nomenclature in the release.
“@ AAPLguy
….dude, he has a point. He may not be a troll. If someone has something to say about Apple that isn’t all cute and rosy, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a troll.”
so, you haven’t read his other posts then…..
@underwhelmed by iPhone,
I have a Palm Centro with Sprint. What function are you referring to, because there are more than one.
Are you talking about the Voice Command feature by Sprint? Or are you alluding to Nuance mobile VoiceControl? Both use “the airwaves” for the command to travel from your phone to a remote server running the application. Then it sends back the signal to which your phone responds.
In the real world, latency is a BIG problem. The response times touted on the Nuance website are nowhere near my experience. I just love <cough> dictating an email or SMS text just to find an error message telling me the SSL socket was busy.
If a client-side app could do the same thing as Nuance’s app, I’d lap it up in an instant!
I never found voice activation all that great to tell you the truth. Maybe it has gotten better but I found it to be more of a hassle than a benefit.
Voice dialing sucks, imho. For the time it takes for me to say it out, say it again (‘cos the feature doesn’t work properly), say it in a different manner (‘cos it sucks camel balls), i could’ve just dialed the damn number and get it over with. And i don’t hurt my hands/fingers doing it the “old” way either. Not to mention the fact that i avoid looking like i’m scolding an invisible idiot standing in front of me.
I have not used the voice dialing feature for years, and i don’t miss it at all. If somebody someday comes out with one that truly works, i wouldn’t mind shelling out a few bucks for it. Till then, it won’t be missed at all.