Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

The N900 does not come with voice dialing out of the box. Here we have the new top of the line flagship phone from Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone company, and I want them to provide voice dialling for it. However, perhaps they expect the community to make it happen. What is your view? Would you want Nokia to provide it, or do you believe Nokia can expect the maemo community to provide it?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

What if it's not a feature that you are particularly interested in?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

You want balanced polls? :)

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Well the thread is called "do you want voice dialing on the n900". I would assume "no" would be an option.

:D:D:D

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Yes, granted. I first considered three optional answers, where "I don't want it" was the third answer, but decided to leave it out and focus on what I see as the key issue, i.e. how does the community see that it's likely to happen - i.e. I have an agenda. I still kept the title as I want maemo members attention and the alternative seemed less clear in its statement. There could be another poll for want/don't want.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

That's what I figured, just busting your chops ;-) I think I'd have to go with both answers personally.

The phone functionality has often been described as an afterthought and I think a little polish from Nokia would go a long way for how the device is received in the mainstream. People expect things like MMS and voice dialing these days (and people also don't consider that anyone might have a differing opinion/usage pattern than themselves).

As for the second option, seeing a community developed solution would be really awesome, even if it was in addition to something Nokia came up with. This is one of the things that really drew me to the N900. Every time I browse through this forum and see some cool idea posted, or evolved into a project I'm really impressed and glad that I chose to go with a device like the N900.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Do I want it? Yes, it could come in handy. Do I use it? Nope never got it to work on any of my cellphones reliably. It's faster for me to speeddial a person.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I agree. The potential of the N900 is just mindblowing, and to my mind seems better than any other phone out there. If I were a Linux programmer there is no doubt in my mind I would get this unit. The fact is, I'm not, and stillI got interested in it. I was all set to get a WinMo device (still may). I like anything that provides choice.

There are existing features on the N900, such as VOIP calls with web cam that I find really, really convincing and can almost be enough for me to buy the phone outright. There's also a little bit of a revolutionary aspect to it that I believe only a company such as Nokia could make happen (I certainly hope they stick with that VOIP enabled cam), which really appeals to me. The maemo user community is part of that, as well.

However, there are also some omissions on the N900 that just seem daft if they want to have mass appeal, which I believe it will need to be a revolutionary item or killer app, and not just stay within an inner circle of tech savvy people. I do understand that the next gen may be different, but why not make it happen right now?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

My E65 does it. I asumed N900 does it to.
Voice control is good when you've no hand
free and can not look at the phone.

Driving a car is such a situation.

Using the E65 you've to press a small button on
the side. This is not easy without looking at
the phone.

A nice feature when it is done well.

wire-less

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I totally agree. Driving is one such scenario. I use the BT head set all the time. Furthermore I believe it's better from a radiation stand-point. Convenience as well - leave the unit safely stashed away when it's not necessary to take it out. The lack of a convenient voice dial service is one reason I did not get the HTC TP2 - you have to activate the phone in order to use the wire-less head set.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

no, i dont. i have had in all the phones i had and never used it. and most of the contacts that i have are not the usual name and the software can never get that right when i say it so no not for me. and speed dial is better. but i would love to see the speech to text, where i can talk and the phone would encode that in text and send it. would love to have that feature.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Yes. I'd love to see that as well. It seems to take a lot of computing power, though. I know there are programs for Windows OS (Dragon Naturally Speaking, Windows Vista speech to text) but they require powerful computers or else it takes too long to execute. The OQO was able to do it with one giga of RAM, just. I believe there are some cloud based utilities that provide this, for a substantial fee, of course, and tied to certain phone providers only. Furthermore, I understand (well my understanding is based on the past few days acquaintance with maemo, so it is very limited) there currently are no voice recognition apps for / in maemo.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I want mind dialing!!!!

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Had it on many phones and never used it. Frankly, there are a lot of other 'things-other-phones-take-for-granted' that are a lot higher up my wish list. I don't do phone calls when I'm driving. Like to think think about, you know, driving.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I can see that. As someone else said, user preferences vary. My job requires me to drive and talk, and in some countries it will be illegal to handle the phone (I believe Canada in one such country, which is one reason the BlackBerry watch is out - where you can see incoming messages, caller id etc, without taking your phone out).

What are the "things-other-phones-take-for-granted" you'd like to see?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Having an extra feature is always welcome if it doesn't hinder the device performance or general usability. I have to admit that I haven't used the feature since 2000, before my first smartphone. So I for one ain't gonna miss it. But I guess a lot of others would like to have it.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Seeing how many users keep posting "I don't miss feature X, because I don't use it", I really wonder how Nokia ever sold models other than the 1200.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Because every feature is the "dealbreaker" for someone.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Nokia should provide voice dial along with mms, videocall and communications long. All these features that we take for granded in series 60, sooner or later, will come in maemo, too.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I've got pocketsphinx compiling and packaging (and flite too for that matter) for Fremantle if anyone's thinking of actually implementing a voice dialling feature.

Not sure how well it performs (the digit test worked for me at least), and I need to optify it before pushing to Extras-devel.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I used voice dialling on my previous phone - nokia E65 and use it on my E71 - when driving, with a bluetooth headset. It "just works" for me. My wife also uses it with her E65.

Just press the button on the headset, the phone greets you with a twiddle sound, speak the name, it dials. press button to hang up.

It's a lot better than phones of a few years ago where you have to teach them the sound for each contact, it's now speaker independent. Quite impressive, actually. When I switched from the original and great 6310i to the E65, I spent ages trying to find out how to teach it before I realised it didn't need it!

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Haha I could never get it to work on my phones (though the last phone I owned before I switched to TMobile recently was 3 years old). I think a combination of my slight accent + fast speaking + unusual names to pronounce pretty much had me giving up on voice dialing.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

No.

You should have added that in the poll too :)

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Want it, have used it, missed it with the first two iPhones... honestly thought it was going to be included on the N900.

The whole "I don't want it because I've never used it" mantra needs to be retired already.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Hmmm, had it on all of my phones, never used it, so i vote no! :) - think it all depends on how you use your phone? - not as important to me as most of the other functions :)

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I have no need for voice dialling. There's no option in the poll for that, so I state it here.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

i have an E71 and voice dialing was merely a dream that never materialized. it sucks.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Mine worked OK. (And works OK on the E75)

It's not great, as it requires some training to be most accurate. Both on your part and the phone's part. It helps me to turn on the name announcement, as it will reliably recognize you when you say the name like the TTS reads it.

Additionally, consistently selecting the correct entry from the popup list (at least for a while) helps adapt it to your voice.

It's not perfect on S60 by any means, but it's certainly useful..most of the time.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

ah it actually learns? i never actually used it because i was so taken aback by how hard it is for it to recognize the right name lol. I figured using speed dial was more efficient heh.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I've seen quite a few posts on here mention that speed dial is more efficient. Regardless of whether you think it is or not whilst driving or cycling you would need a cradle to effectively manage this unless you hold the phone in your hand. As this is illegal in an increasing number of countries this ought really to be addressed at some point to allow the phone to be used.

First option would be a decent cradle and a selection of speed dials. As you would have to look at the screen for this it's a tad less safe IMHO.

Second option allows S60 style functionality via established bluetooth protocols. I know some people have had issues with S60 dialing but most people I know it generally works for. If not then training function?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

On my N85 speed dial is usually more efficient, but when I've got my hands full, the voice command features really are handy. Note you can launch apps and do other actions by voice too.

Ideally, there are a lot of commands I'd like to be able to give a maemo phone and get answers

'is there traffic on Hwy 101?'
'what time is it?'
'get new engadget podcast'
'play new engadget podcast'
'when does gamestop close?'
'what is this song?'
'show me youtube funny cats videos'

certainly, software isn't quite there yet integrating stuff like that, but should be possible given the current hardware...

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

An extra option is always welcome. but I have never used it though i have it in my current phone.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

This poll is completely ridicilous if we can't say NO
(Ever heard of suggestive questions?)

I never ever used voice dialing in the last 10 years

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Thanks for keeping it alive though, Tom.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I won't dial while driving (or biking). The danger of using a phone while driving has very little, if anything, to do with doing it one-handed or not. In fact a British research project (which I read about in New Scientist a few years back) indicated that hands-free was even worse.

If I receive a call, or need to make one, I pull over and stop the vehicle. If that is not an option then the call simply has to wait, there really isn't any reason it can't wait.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

Michal Jerz on MySymbian.com wrote

"Voice dialing is TOP PRIORITY for me. I took the N900 today with me and while I was driving I could not dial anyone other than directly from the device. When I take out the N900 and call someone from there, then audio works perfectly both ways via my car's HF/audio set, there's just no way to DIAL the ****ing number or contact as there's neither voice dialing nor synchronization of phone book via BT with other BT devices.

It's hard for me to believe that after having voice dialing in ALL, even the lowest-end, phones for so many years they "forgot" about it on the most powerful device of theirs. Crazy."

So the N900 is very hard to use in your car. What would it take for the phone book to sync with other devices over BT? Do you believe that is likely to happen through an app from this community? Hmm, come to think of it, perhaps I could put that in a separate poll?

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

I'm on the road 3 hours a day, I use a bluetooth headset, it would be very useful.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

yeaa, it is better to have it,,

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

The full research done actually said that it was comparible to having a conversation with someone in the car and slightly more than listening to the radio.

The stats on this can be banded around all day but whilst it is legal then the option from technology would be appreciated.

Re: Poll - do you want voice dialing on the N900
 

LOL ...

No vote : It s useless ... i didn't want it.