You know, you’d THINK this would be a very easy question to find an answer to… but it isn’t. Or I’ve been working too hard, and I can’t find anything on the net anymore. 
Or maybe both.
Anyway, three people in my family are getting new phones on the Sprint family plan, and I really need to know which one will be best for VR software. Which ones support it? Which are better than others? I just KNOW that the smart people here know the answer! 
Almost no phones support VR in hardware (to the best of my knowledge). The network handles it. You thus have to ask the provider which phones they support for VR tasks.
Siri on my iPhone works exceptionally well for me. Inserting thing is that my wife and I have identical phones but Siri has a difficult time understanding her. Lower, more resonance in my voice? Or is Siri like me – prone to not listen to her.
Huh?
The Android system has VR software and Siri does it as well. They don’t reach out to the network with what you say and have it translated into commands and sent back.
Just as a test (to confirm what I said because I rarely use the VR stuff), I put my phone in Airplane mode and tried it. Couldn’t do much without the internet, but it certainly recognized what I said and turned it into words on the screen.
To the OP, what are you trying to with the VR software? Do you want to use it to “type”? Launch Apps? Set alarms? Different phones have different abilities. I think Siri can handle most of that stuff. I don’t think Android can launch and app like that (but I don’t play with it much), but it can do voice->text pretty well.
I’d like to use it for anything possible. I’m trying to avoid using too many apps, because they’re such time-sucker-uppers. (That’s officially now a word, btw. I have a lot of carpal tunnel issues, and I’m TRYING to use VR on the desktop and laptop… it doesn’t always work out, unfortunately… but the less I have to use a touch screen/kb on a phone, the better. Unlike a desktop, there is just no way to do it with truly good ergonomics, as far as I’ve ever been able to figure out.
There are third party apps you can add to an Android device to do things like launch apps.
To the OP:
iPhone, Android, Blackberry certainly have VR. I don’t have any experience with Windows Phone in it’s current implementation, but back when I was making Windows Mobile devices around 2007, we had the capability. I assume it’s built in and better now.
If you get any of the even partially popular smart phones, you’ll have VR.
Which one works best? That’s really hard to say. Many of them use the same abse engine from Nuance. But audio quality could play a role in how well it works for you. Also, accents make a difference. I don’t recall if phones have a training mode like computers do, to help it understand the way you speak.
My best advice is to play with a friend’s phone, or go to a store. You don’t need to find the best - you need to find one that is good enough for you’re needs.
I have never been able to find exactly what I want in voice recognition in cell phones.
What I want is a phone I can tell “Dial eight-oh-two five-five-five one-two-three-four”, and have the phone dial the number. I have a phenomenal memory for phone numbers - I never have to look them up. So, I don’t want VR as currently implemented, where you enter a number and give it a spoken key phrase (“Call home”). I don’t want to bother maintaining a redundant directory on the phone, I just want to tell it the number to dial.
Just about any phone had VR. My Sprint flip phone from 2006 even had VR capability. This thing had a VGA camera, if that says anything abut it’s age.
Both my BB10 and my Android phone let me do that. They both responded with something akin to “Do you want to call eight oh two five five five one two three four now?” I said yes, and it dialed.
(The examples in the phone show using the phone book to dial a contact. But it happily took the number anyway.)
Can’t you just say “Call Joe Blow”? As long as Joe Blow is in your directory, it should call him. At least mine does. (Android)
There’s actually a whole plethora of things you can do with voice command. The hard part is remembering what phrases to use.
My iPhone 3GS can do that, too. It has simple VR software built in that predates Siri. I can control the iPod with voice commands, too. So, a newer iPhone with Siri is magnitudes more sophisticated (than my 3GS phone) and could do practically anything you want it to do.
Remember, I do not want to maintain a redundant directory on my phone. :rolleyes:
Not sure what the roll eyes is for.
It’s no longer redundant. You don’t have to make a voice recording for every contact on your phone. (Like you used to) Just say whoever, and if that name is on your contact list, it will recognize it and dial it.
My experience is that most “Smaet Phones” are smarter than their owner. I know mine is.
Dragon Dictation app is spooky good.
The desktop version of Dragon is okay… for some weird reason, it refuses to work with Adobe shortcuts. Not that this aspect would REALLY be too useful on a phone…
How would it be redundant? Next time you call the guy, hit “store number” and type in his name. From then on you can just use the voice command to dial.
The reason the exact feature you ask for doesn’t usually exist (assuming it doesn’t) is that 95% (ass-pull) of mobile phone users use the address book. So there’s no need for it for the vast majority of their customers.
I believe Dragon is powered by the aforementioned Nuance.
My 2006 flip phone that came free with a no-contract plan could dial by speaking digits. Likewise the $30 phone that eventually replaced it. I suspect every cell phone since at least 2006 can do this. Does anyone know of a cell phone that can’t?