No Voice Control for iPhone 3G, iPod Touch and first gen iPhone
One of the main features of iPhone 3G S is called Voice Control, which allows you to place a call or play music just by using voice commands. It’s not part of the iPhone OS 3.0 as everyone presumed. The reason behind this can be attributed to the faster processor and larger amount of RAM in iPhone 3G S, which makes it more suitable for an intensive task such as Voice Control. Even the current generation iPod Touch, which has a support for a mic which you can Skype with, doesn’t support this feature. The iPod Touch is a bit faster in performance than the iPhone 3G, so Voice Command could be touted as a main selling point to give users a reason to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S.
So, if after upgrading your current iPhone to OS 3.0, you find this feature to be missing, now you know why it’s not there in the first place at all.
We all keep complaining put still go to the trough to drink in the apple.
Okay, I admit that I should have researched the voice dial thing before I bought my iPhone 3G. I waited for the 3G because I wanted to let apple get the bugs worked out of the system, so I resisted getting a first gen iPhone. When the 3Gs came out I went for it. Technically that IS my fault, but COME ON! I was so excited to go get the coolest, most advance phone on the planet, that I did not even THINK of asking about the voice dial feature. WHy? Because I assumed that it would be there. My stupid free LG phone that came with my Verizon contract three years ago had a voice dial feature that work almost flawlessly and never needed any training or pre-recording. So I am stupid to have assumed that the most advanced, userfriendly smartphone on the planet would have that feature. I think not. Shame on you, apple. This was a huge mistake. Voice dialing, without having to touch my phone (just a simple touch on my bluetooth earpiece) was the the most useful feature I have ever used on any phone. And my iPhone 3G can’t do it. And you know the worst thing? I still love my iPhone almost as much as myself. Frakkin apple… I hate you… I love you… NO!!! I Hate You!
Before the new iPhone 3gs (I still have the 3g) I bought an app called ‘Vocalia’. It isn’t internet based, it resides on your phone. No ‘voice tags’ needed, it just pulls from your contacts with no training necessary. It does it really well, they have constantly been upgrading it. If there are multiple choices for a contact you can speak to choose which one you want too.
After the 3.0 software upgrade, Vocalia can now also control the iPod functions as well, and does Safari bookmarks. It too scrolls available commands across the screen if you want it to. So it’s functionality seems to be the same as the iPhone3gs, and since I keep it on my 1st home page, sliding to unlock and clicking on Vocalia is not too much slower than holding the home button for 2 seconds in my eyes.
Also, from another article I read (http://www.maccast.com/2009/06/19/how-to-use-your-iphone-3g-s-voice-contol/) , you ALWAYS have to hold the home button for 2 seconds to re-activate the Voice Command for different functions, it doesn’t constantly run in the background – “About my only complaints are that you have to constantly go in and out of Voice Command mode using the hold button technique described above”. So that’s just like an app that always closes and has to be re-opened, like Vocalia.
So this leaves me really confused on how the new Voice Command on the iPhone 3gs couldn’t be duplicated on the 3g. Other than, of course, to market one more difference between the two models.
G’day from Australia. Thought I’d chip in my 10c. I’ve recently upgraded from 3g to S. Voice control has been 99% accurate. But it still doesn’t satisfy my need. I’m a plumber by trade and quite often getting down and dirty under some old house. Can’t always touch my phone (dirty hands, hands full etc). Few years back I had a S.E. p800 touchscreen ( read: PRESSscreen! ) PDA gadget with the stylus and all. It was marvelous tech at the time. Built to compete with Nokia 6600 and earlier ( and first ever nokia cam phone ) 7650. The S.E. was a complete failture in terms of user friendly, battery, etc. However, it handled voice commands in a way that I think is the future of this technology. It had a feature called “magic word”. You recorded a unique phrase in your own voice and the phone was constantly “listening”. When detected, you could say, “answer, reject, call, dial, etc etc”. This meant you could make AND take a call without touching your phone. Reason for failture? Battery life was halved when “magic word” feature was on.
Until you can operate a gadget without touching it, voice control & command is just a fancy feature. Why would I hold a button for 2 seconds, say “next track”, and wait for the bloody thing to change tracks when I can double tap home and do it in a second? I admit it’s good for dialling. But the 2-second-button-bashing kills it. Just pressing power + one of the volume keys together would have made more sense (hold the iphone in your right hand, thumb on power, index finger on volume, or even easier in left hand).
Anyways, great device, God I hate Apple. Da’s my 10c worth.
Has anyone noticed that using voice control for contacts that are just business names (i.e. they have no first and last name) doesn’t work? It’s a pain in the a$$. Am I doing something wrong? Seems like the only workaround is to go into the contact and add a first and/or last name. Then it works fine.
I think its all just making more money and advertisement stats to sell the newer models.
I mean camera is also a crap even in 3gs they give 3MP while other phones are minimum 5MP or 8MP
check out http://www.makayama.com/iphonevoicedial.html
what is voice control for? Everytime Im playing my music from my iphone, voice control takes over and interferes? What do i need to do so this stops happening.. Its annoying and once it starts it keeps beenping.. HELP me..
I try to get my voice control up by holding the home button, but it doesn't come up!
I try to get my voice control up by holding the home button, but it doesn't come up!
Back in the early 90s I had a Windows 3.1 PC 486/33mhz with 4MB ram and a Soundblaster 16 that came with speech recognition program. It worked FLAULESSLY and let me run commands, make shortcuts, even dial numbers with netspeaks legendary webphone. that was almost 20 years ago!!! So please Apple, do not insult our intelligence that you could use a software update. I had all the iphones so far, the original 2.0, the 3G (jailbroken) and now the GS. I see very (if any) differencies in the 2 latest. the only thing that found convenient was the camera / picture integration and the editing video functionality although its crippled. The compass SUCKS! totally useless. Battery life is the same junk. For those of you who are seriously thinking of buying the GS, stick to the 3G and jailbreak the crap out of it. I speak from experience.
The basic fact is that the iphone 3G is quite capable of instituting the SOFTWARE controlled voice command available in the 3GS, as well as the video recording abilities.. However apple wishes you to upgrade to a shiny new EXPENSIVE 3GS!! and if they backpedal now and allow it in a newer firmware update then they are just going to cop more flack for lying in the first place lol. My old Nokia N90 had voice dialing and even minor application support (calculator, clock etc) at the press of a button on the side, don’t tell me the iphone 3G can’t process it how dumb do you really think we are steveo
On another point all together, I do not understand why there has now technically been 4 generations of iphones and they still haven’t put a low resolution camera in the front side of the phone to allow video calls!! I mean come on apple as if that wasn’t something you SHOULD have done with the release of the 3GS…