Google's new iPhone Application - what happened to it:
Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington had this to say:
"Google’s voice recognition search application for the iPhone ... will likely go live sometime Monday, we’ve heard ... Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review.
...
Who knows why Apple delayed the application, or why they tend to treat every application developer equally poorly ... But in this case Apple really screwed up in our opinion ... This application will, quite simply, sell iPhones. Lots of them."
I want this!
Date: 11.17.08 Posted by: Daniel Wilson
-
replyWow. If it works like this video, I think it will be the biggest hit Google's had in a long long while. Will they make this available for blackberry? And why wouldnt they be making this for their android thing?
Anyone try this yet?
Date: 11.18.08 Posted by: Casey Ward
-
replyHas anyone heard of any news yet? I thought this was supposed to be out on Monday?
I haven't yet but someone else has
Date: 11.18.08 Posted by: Taylor Beatty
-
replyHere is Michael Arrington from Tech Crunch's review:
Let’s compare that video to my actual results. First, the big letdown is that you can’t search contacts by voice - you have to type for that, and it’s not really worth using the app just to do that when the normal contact application works just as well.
Also, it’s important that there is very little background noise when you use the app. A steady hum from an electric heater six feet away from me confounded the app on speakerphone. The noise from a car, certainly, will prohibit speakerphone usage while driving. The results below were done in a silent room with the phone held up to my ear, and I spoke as clearly as I am able. The demo results are shown on the left, my actual results are on the right.
First query: Pictures of the Golden Gate bridge at sunset: Results were perfect.
Second Query: How big is a giant squid?: Crazy results - I got “public citizen times square”
Third Query: Movie Showtimes: Results were perfect, and it used my location
25 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit: Results were perfect
The contact search also went exactly as the video showed, but it’s a little misleading. You can’t search contacts by voice, only by typing. The video shows that, but by that point you’re all hopped up on voice goodness and you don’t really realize that its all typing at that point, which is little better than using the normal contact app that comes with the phone.
Overall, other than the one snafu with the giant squid, everything went well. But the voice recognition is far from perfect, as the demo video suggests. And the limitation on contact search is a letdown.
Judging from his view, I think it went rather well - thats not bad for a voice software. I can just imagine the new possibilites of the near future: We'll all be lazy and never lift a finger again - we'll just speak it.