Red's Ramblings v.2

When people ask me about the new iPhone 3GS the feature that gets shown least is the voice control. Not that it’s not notable but because I just forget its there. Having said that when I have used it (when I remember) it is very good. I’m amazed at how accurate it is even with a lot of background noise. It also seems very tolerant to regional accents.

I have however had had a problem with similar names. No matter how much I tried to pronounce Jayne Smith it always came up with James Smith. It wasn’t until I realised that the leading S of Smith was causing the problem and causing Jayne to sound like James. The solution was very simple. Instead of saying “Dial Jayne Smith Mobile” I just said “Dial Jayne Mobile”. Luckily I don’t have any other Jaynes in my phone, or Janes for that matter but if I did I suspect that at that point I would be told of the multiple matches and I could clarify with a full name in the knowledge that James Smith was no longer in the possible results.

I didn’t find any instructions on voice control in the box but the following is available on the Apple support site.

Call someone in contacts:
Say “call” or “dial,” then say the name of the person. If the person has more than one phone number, you can add “home” or “mobile,” for example.

Dial a number:
Say “call” or “dial,” then say the number.

Make a correction:
Say “wrong,” “not that one,” “not that,” “no,” or “nope.”

Control music playback:
Say “play,” or “play music.” To pause, say “pause,” or “pause music.” You can also say “next song” or “previous song.”

Play an album, artist, or playlist:
Say “play,” then say “album,” “artist,” or “playlist” and the name.

Shuffle the current playlist:
Say “shuffle.”

Find out more about the currently playing song:
Say “what’s playing,” “what song is this,” “who sings this song,” or “who is this song by.”

Use Genius to play similar songs:
Say “Genius,” “play more like this,” or “play more songs like this.”

Cancel Voice Control:
Say “cancel.”

For best results:

• Speak into the iPhone microphone as if you were making a phone call. Or use the microphone in the included headset.
• Speak clearly and naturally.
• Say only iPhone commands and names, and numbers. Pause slightly in between.
• Use full names.

By default, Voice Control expects you to speak voice commands in the language that’s set for iPhone (the General > International > Language setting). The Voice Control settings let you change the language for speaking voice commands. Some languages are available in different dialects or accents.

Change language or country:
In Settings, choose General > International > Voice Control and tap the language or country.

Voice Control for the iPod application is always on, but for security you can prevent voice dialing when iPhone is locked.

Prevent voice dialing when iPhone is locked:
In Settings, choose General > Passcode Lock and turn Voice Dial off. Unlock iPhone to use voice dialing.