# Hands-Free Texting Announced! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568 "2009-04-01T12:54:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/21 "2010-03-19T15:46:29Z")
> [@Jodi](#): > > And if they could tether the phone to a base with some sort of cord, so you didn’t lose it, that would be great, too. Oh, and this might be crazy but stay with me here – how about phones that could be used by any member of the public, so we didn’t all have to carry our own? People could pay per call, and maybe the phone company could put the phones in some kind of stationary shelter, like a booth. Never work – if you started putting those “phone booths” out in public, newspaper reporters would start using them to change from their business wear into Spandex outfits. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/22 "2010-03-19T19:21:38Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > This sounds so exciting! dude, just get a headset and talk for jumping jebus sake … Look at it.. dial the phone talk to text talk to text turns it into words at the other end they talk to text back your phone turns it into words Does nobody see how freaking silly this is? ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/23 "2010-03-19T19:31:14Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > dude, just get a headset and talk for jumping jebus sake … > > Look at it.. > > dial the phone > talk to text > > talk to text turns it into words at the other end > > they talk to text back > > your phone turns it into words > Does nobody see how freaking silly this is? My first thought was “how is this any different than a phone call?” except of course you get the nifty computerized “voice” that can’t properly pronounce some words. Fun! Sprint apparently does something like this too and I have been getting text-to-voice messages on my landline phone. Most annoying phone calls ever. It sometimes takes the caller (texter) two or three messages to get the point across because the computer voice is so bad at it…and acronyms…just forget it. Nothing funnier though than a computer-generated voice saying, “Double You Tee Eff”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/24 "2010-03-19T21:17:30Z")
I actually got kind of excited because I thought that it meant that I could speak a message and it would send someone a text message. (Or, hell, just being able to go straight to voice mail on peoples’ phones.) I know some of ya’ll don’t really ‘do’ texting, but it is very handy to send information without demanding the immediate response that a phone call does. My sister’s at a concert; do I call and risk that she forgot to silence her phone, or send a text? Send a text. But then I gotta type all this out… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/25 "2010-03-19T21:20:47Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > I want some kind of personal transport so I can go to the other person and talk face to face. Actually, you could combine the two. If the personal transportation machine were linked to a texting device, and the PTM had some sort of circular attachment in the front, you could link everything together and compose texts by violently swerving the wheel like a set of semaphore fags. What could be more convenient? ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/26 "2010-03-19T21:39:13Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > dude, just get a headset and talk for jumping jebus sake … > > Look at it.. > > dial the phone > talk to text > > talk to text turns it into words at the other end > > they talk to text back > > your phone turns it into words > Does nobody see how freaking silly this is? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/27 "2010-03-20T00:01:53Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > compose texts by violently swerving the wheel like a set of semaphore fags. Why do I picture them spelling out YMCA? 😃 What we really need is a way to place a hard copy of the text in the recipient’s hands. Some sort of service to deliver the text message to a special box in the recipient’s house should do. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/28 "2010-03-20T00:52:40Z")
Bahh. Get back to me when I can easily video teleconference with other people in the same room. THATS when all this technology crap will really start paying off. Of course, maybe all this talk to text, send text, text to talk stuff will have us all sounding like Stephen Hawking…maybe us all sounding smart in combination with large doses of positive thinking will actually make us smarter. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/29 "2010-03-20T02:24:09Z")
You know what happens when a set of semaphore fags start signaling to each other? Penis ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/30 "2010-03-21T04:41:47Z")
My Droid has Voice to Text, and it works surprisingly well… most of the time. A few days ago we had some confusion on who was bringing one of my kids home from practice. I finally got it worked out and wanted to let my wife know so I spoke “YoungSpud Got A Ride.” It translated it to “YoungSpud God of Light.” I decided that was too good to waste so sent it on. Got a call a few minutes later… Whaaat??? The best part is the real name for YoungSpud is a short version of the name and there are several possible spellings… the Droid got that part right. But that is just Voice to Text… and there is Text to Voice, but this idea of Voice to Voice directly would be a huge deal. I’m talking huge on the level of Alexander Grahm Bell huge! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/31 "2010-03-21T05:48:40Z")
Next thing you know, they’ll be making books outa paper. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568/32 "2010-03-21T06:21:43Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > you could link everything together and compose texts by violently swerving the wheel like a set of semaphore fags. What could be more convenient? Looks like someone’s been using the new Voice 2 Post feature 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-texting-announced/491568.md?page=1)