Windows Phone to add slick speech-to-text

By Suzanne Choney

Windows Phone will add more sophisticated speech-to-text features that will let you do all your commands for calls, text messages and instant messages using your Bluetooth headset when you're driving.

"It?s handy even when you?re not driving since it can slash the time you spend typing," wrote Bill Pardi on Windows Phone Blog. The improved speech-to-text features will be added as part of Windows Phone's update this fall. The update, known as Mango, reportedly will add more than 500 new features to the mobile operating system. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal.)

Right now, Windows Phone lets you use Bluetooth to make calls via the headset, but the advanced features will also let users do these things, according to Pardi:

• Make a phone call by name or nickname
• Redial a number
• Call voicemail
• Search Bing
• Turn on the speakerphone
• Start an app while in a call
• Navigate Maps

Alex Perez Avila, a Windows Phone program manager, said on the blog he believes these features will help set Windows Phone "apart" from the crowd. Windows Phone uses Microsoft's Tellme cloud service for voice recognition and transcription: "No one else has it," he said, "and we think customers are really going to like it."

Others who have previewed the Mango update agree. "???Watch out Apple, Google: Windows Phone's Next Big Update Is An Absolute Home Run," said Business Insider.

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Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/05/7263900-windows-phone-to-add-slick-speech-to-text-update

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