Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

Anything that makes it a WHOLE lot less likely that I have to tap, type or otherwise fidget around with my phone is a huge win in my book!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s

I just downloaded it now--seems to work pretty slick! Brings up another question--is there voice recognition on the N900 at all so far?

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

really nice. need to try it out. But more cool than usefull in my book.

EDIT: that guy looks like a cartoon!

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

I dunno.. like I said, anything that helps me tap less or not have to type with a keyboard is a HUUUGE advantage, in my book.

Also, yes! I had that exact same impression! He totally looks like a Doug-type scrawny guy, right? :)

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

I think the usefulness of this feature is dependent upon the accuracy of the voice recognition. I have tried the voice search feature on my HTC Desire, and found it to be hit and miss. I personally will always prefer a hardware keyboard to other forms of input, due to the greater accuracy and control. It's nice to have voice recognition for certain activities, though.

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

I've been pretty impressed with how nearly perfectly accurate the voice recognition has been on my Droid under 2.2. I find that if I speak naturally with a natural flow, it works very nearly perfectly. (If I try to intentionally speak slower or something, it seems to throw it off, ironically.)

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

I need this!!!

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

very nice feature I like it a lot, but the funny thing is if I speak to my phone while I am home it doesnot recognize anything. Because I am not talking in english.

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

Can't wait to get this on my Captivate.

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

Voice recognition is one of the things I thought I'd miss when I came to N900 from Symbian.

This post makes me realise that (for me anyway) VR is something I have in fact not missed, apart from showing off. The multiple homepages, touchscreen icons & widgets on N900 have mitigated the need for a VR application shortcut.

I could never get VR for contact selection to be consistent enough to be useful if there was any background noise (eg when driving).

I would be interested to see how Android might have improved VR, but cannot say that I have Android Envy in this respect.

Do you still need to press & hold a button to activate VR on Android? (no time to watch the video yet)

When VR is like it's portrayed on Star Trek TNG it'll be really useful, but until then I believe it's more of a gimmick than a tool.

Re: Android gets voice commands (tap a lot less!)
 

I've had plenty of driving background noise with no problems in speech recognition so far. I mean--I really am impressed with how well it seems to work. I've seen it make mistakes, sure, and a severe amount of background noise will throw it off too--but then it doesn't seem any worse than when I'm talking to a HUMAN on the other side of the phone trying to understand me. So far, pretty spot on.

Activating it seems to only happen one way that I know of:
You can tap the Voice Search app icon to launch it

Near as I can tell, there needs to be some way to tap something to say, 'I'm giving you a command', otherwise (the Star Trek way, of just looking into the distance and saying 'computer!') you're being listened to constantly and that would be both problematic as well as a constant drain on the battery. I'm only slightly disappointed that the bluetooth heaset "voice command" button doesn't do it. Could at LEAST hack a little Starfleet badge to chirp at a touch for commands and then execute the speech command. :)