So where is TellMe going to go next?

facetheduke

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I haven't seen any press regarding where TellMe on Windows Phones will be going from here. What updates are expected? Has there been any official word?

Would it drop in an incremental update? Or Tango? Or would we be waiting a year for Apollo?
 

fifthGear

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Just a guess: First steps would be to integrate it into the existing mango "core" functionality. For example, ask it to read somone's latest status, update your own status on FB, schedule an event on the calendar, add a to do, locate and start turn-by-turn directions to nearest Starbucks. I'm primarily thinking of sorts of things you may want to do hands-free (e.g. while driving).
 

jeremyshaw

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Make it more useful (accurate). Maybe have the search screen default to "listening" mode, even when the normal Bing search input box is there. That way, I don't have to waste time pressing and holding the "windows" key (something this OS seems designed to reduce - wasted time - very nice, IMO).
 

Reflexx

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It's actually pretty close to reality in the lab. At least that's what I've been told by associates that are involved in the voice recognition industry. Apparently they went to a conference where some MS tech was demonstrated. One of my associates, a chief scientist for a linguistics company, bought a Windows Phone partly because of what she saw.
 

BostonSammy

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I really don't need it to find me a wedding cake... although I wouldn't mind it finding me a husband ;)

The conversational style of siri is not that important to me... I can't see myself asking it if I need an umbrella today, for example. I also don't care about the silly stuff.

What tellme needs is more commands... I would like to see these in Tango:

Schedule - for calander
Add - for tasks and contacts
Play - for music, video and games
List - for one note
Remind me - for reminders
Set - for alarms
 

N8ter

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I really don't need it to find me a wedding cake... although I wouldn't mind it finding me a husband ;)

The conversational style of siri is not that important to me... I can't see myself asking it if I need an umbrella today, for example. I also don't care about the silly stuff.

What tellme needs is more commands... I would like to see these in Tango:

Schedule - for calander
Add - for tasks and contacts
Play - for music, video and games
List - for one note
Remind me - for reminders
Set - for alarms

The keywords you listen are ambiguous at best. That's why Siri shines. It uses contextual breakdowns to eliminate a ton of ambiguity.

So for example Add can theoretically be used to add a song to a playlist, schedule a meeting, or add a task. It can be used to add a contact to your phonebook, or add an item to a list. Maybe even add a contact to an ongoing conversation tibstart a group chat. Siri recognizes obvious keywords as well, but goes beyond them.

Keywords have always been terrible as a standalone solution, and that is why most consumers have shied away from speech tech in devices beyond the hyper trivial use cases. Conversation style interaction is way superior to them.

What matters most is the accuracy. Some systems are not that accurate and others fall allover over themselves when they face certain accents or people people who twnd to speak at a higher rate (fast talkers).

I find TellMe to be really good for dictating text messages, though. I like being able to walk down the street without holding my phone, LOL.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
 

BostonSammy

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The keywords you listen are ambiguous at best. That's why Siri shines. It uses contextual breakdowns to eliminate a ton of ambiguity.

So for example Add can theoretically be used to add a song to a playlist, schedule a meeting, or add a task. It can be used to add a contact to your phonebook, or add an item to a list. Maybe even add a contact to an ongoing conversation tibstart a group chat. Siri recognizes obvious keywords as well, but goes beyond them.

Keywords have always been terrible as a standalone solution, and that is why most consumers have shied away from speech tech in devices beyond the hyper trivial use cases. Conversation style interaction is way superior to them.

What matters most is the accuracy. Some systems are not that accurate and others fall allover over themselves when they face certain accents or people people who twnd to speak at a higher rate (fast talkers).

I find TellMe to be really good for dictating text messages, though. I like being able to walk down the street without holding my phone, LOL.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
I would want those commands to do all those thing... my point is that I would always be using it in a way where I tell it to do something... I would not ask it silly questions like Is it raining in San Francisco or What is the meaning of life.
 

selfcreation

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i hope they make it more like SIRI ,,,, rolf... seriously.... SIRI is awsome ...

if you have a Iphone 4S ,, ask SIRI to marry you and see what she says.. ROLF.

for a MS /WP ****** to say siri is AWSOME ,,, it must be .. hehehe



WHAT IS TAHT!!! is that the Tellme we have now in the youtube VID? .. its sounds like SIRI... my phone doesnt say * HELLO ALEX* WTF lol... i want my WP to KNOW ME!!!! hehe

when we getting that update? lol
 

jalb

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Siri is okay. My wife got a 4s, and it was fun to play with for a while, but I find it to be mostly a novelty. It reminds me of SmarterChild from a bajillion years ago on AOl, but with more context crunching.
 

selfcreation

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it is fun to play with LOL...

things iw as asking it

- where can i bury a dead body . ( it found local swamps ,forest and sewers) HAHAHA that was my FAV
- what is SKYNET protocols ( was also funny )
- tell it it sucks ( haha )
- ask it to marry you.
- do i need a umbrella today?
- and a bunch of actual useful question , i was sort of blown away on how it knew absolutely everything. From time and temperature in specific areas , to what hockey teams were playing tonight.
or who Won the last F1 race.. pretty sick


im sorry but anyone who says it SUCKS. it just jealous and trying to hide it , cause SIRI (not the Iphone ) but SIRI is a AMMAZING peace of tech specially considering its in BETA

how usefull it is in really real life ,,thats an other question doh.... its just a gimmick , like 3D phones
 

podsnap

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SIRI is clever, but I'm not sure amazing is right.

They have lots of fun little easter eggs in there as you have found, Se1fcr3ation.

But completely unintentionally I ended up with a SIRI vs TellMe occurance the other day.

I was talking to my girlfriend about a trip to India. We were wondering how far the Taj Mahal was from New Delhi.

Since we didn't have a computer handy I picked up her iPhone 4S and asked SIRI (thought it would be a good test). At first it didn't understand me, when I got it to understand it simply said that it could only find businesses in the US (which is way off being close to what I asked).

So I picked up my WP7 and tried with that (used the same phrase "How far is the Taj Mahal from New Delhi?"). It got it first time and came back with the distance in the first result (and I could read the result without having to click on it).

So yes, SIRI has a wow factor to it and can be fun to play with but I'm not convinced it's better in every respect.

Where is obviously scores over TellMe is where you can set an alarm or enter a calendar event via voice which can be useful.
 

martin_strahilovski

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N8ter

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I would want those commands to do all those thing... my point is that I would always be using it in a way where I tell it to do something... I would not ask it silly questions like Is it raining in San Francisco or What is the meaning of life.

If you're lying in bed and just woke up asking Siri if it's going to rain today doesn't seem like a silly question. It's a totally legit question.

You can also potentially ask it things like "What is traffic looking like on the way to work?"

Siri is Beta. It will most likely be improved decently in the next iPhone (along with a design revamp and better hardware) and Apple's iOS will continue to improve as well.

The iPhone 4S isn't selling hot just cause of Siri. It's selling hot because despite using the same design as the iPhone 4 the Hardware is a massive upgrade and the OS got probably the biggest update it's ever seen. Siri is not the only feature in iOS 5 that is exclusive to the newest iPhone model.

Siri's easter eggs are for fun, because what's wrong with it having some fun in it. But focusing on the easter eggs whilst ignoring all the good merits of the software is beyond disingenuous.
 

N8ter

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SIRI is clever, but I'm not sure amazing is right.

They have lots of fun little easter eggs in there as you have found, Se1fcr3ation.

But completely unintentionally I ended up with a SIRI vs TellMe occurance the other day.

I was talking to my girlfriend about a trip to India. We were wondering how far the Taj Mahal was from New Delhi.

Since we didn't have a computer handy I picked up her iPhone 4S and asked SIRI (thought it would be a good test). At first it didn't understand me, when I got it to understand it simply said that it could only find businesses in the US (which is way off being close to what I asked).

So I picked up my WP7 and tried with that (used the same phrase "How far is the Taj Mahal from New Delhi?"). It got it first time and came back with the distance in the first result (and I could read the result without having to click on it).

So yes, SIRI has a wow factor to it and can be fun to play with but I'm not convinced it's better in every respect.

Where is obviously scores over TellMe is where you can set an alarm or enter a calendar event via voice which can be useful.

The only respects that matter are:

Speed: Siri round trips over the air as fast as TellMe or Google Voice Search.
Accuracy: Nuance is more accurate than TellMe or Google Voice Recognition.
System Integration: Siri wins there, with Google and TellMe following.

That's really all people care about in a voice recognition system.

What drew a lot of "normal folk" to Siri was the fact that it allows them to use layman's terms to interact with the phone - something no other smartphone voice recognition software really allowed them to do before. Basically, it made it usable for the average person. We may be able to memorize countless syntax rules for Google/Vlingo/TellMe/Dragon Go/etc. systems easily, but can Gramps and Uncle Joe be realistically expected to do that? Furthermore, will the phone even understand them, or will it cut off and just use an incorrect input instead of prompting them for a correction (I heard x, did you mean y?)?
 

Pronk

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SIRI is clever, but I'm not sure amazing is right.
So I picked up my WP7 and tried with that (used the same phrase "How far is the Taj Mahal from New Delhi?"). It got it first time and came back with the distance in the first result (and I could read the result without having to click on it).

While this is an interesting little test, what it's done there is basic voice to text search, and it's by luck that the hit you got was top of the list. I did it too (same phrase), and top hit for me was something about New Dehli airport. The next one down was a local Indian takeaway!

I think the fact Siri has a certain level of comprehension is what makes it stand out. And hopefully that'll come to TellMe soon as well.
 

podsnap

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I'm not sure about your first few points N8ter but you're certainly right about the 'layman's terms' point.

As I said, being able to say, "Set an alram for 8.30am tomorrow." is really nice (I haven't tried setting a calendar date so don't know how well that works) and is clearly way beyond TellMe in that particular area.

Being able to ask if you need a jacket though is more of a gimic (especially since we are all different, I have a friend who only wears a jacket if it gets below zero!).

However, being able to ask "Will it rain today?" and have an audio response is more useful than TellMe which gives a list of weather sites. That said, in my experience (and having watched others) it very often doesn't understand or just says "Ok" or a similarly useless response (but then it's beta).

Hopefully the arival of SIRI will push MS to improve TellMe.
 

jalb

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Tried to do math with Siri last night and it didnt pan out at all. Got the idea from a review site, which said Siri could do math. We ended up (my son and I) having fun asking it silly questions again. Still reminded me of having fun with SmarterChild with my friends back in the day.

When they do improve it, I hope they dont roll out Siri 2 with the next iPhone and artificially restrict the current iPhone from getting the improvements, but it wouldnt surprise me, becuase lets face it - that's the way Apple rolls.
 

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