Recent versions of iOS have made your voice a much bigger part of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch usage experience. Now, it’s possible to use your voice to do many commands with Siri, and to type things out with your voice. Here’s how to use iOS’ voice actions, available on iPhone 4S & 5, iPad 3, 4, & Mini, and iPod touch 5th generation.

Siri is very easy to use. Call up Siri by holding down either the home button or the play/pause button on your headset remote. Siri can respond to a variety of commands, most of which can be seen by tapping the (i) after the “What can I help you with?” text. This shows all the commands that you can speak to Siri, including actions as diverse as sending tweets and getting sports scores.

Siri’s options can be configured by going to Settings->General->Siri. Here, it’s possible to change the language, the default info that Siri will work with, and to enable Raise to Speak.

The other big feature is the ability to type with your voice. Just tap the microphone button next to the space bar, and say what you need to say. Enunciate clearly for the voice recognition to be more accurate. If a word may have multiple possible interpretations, a blue squiggly line will appear underneath the text. Tap the word to get alternate suggestions.

Now, saying the name of a punctuation mark will generally add that in to the sentence you’re speaking. This is especially annoying if you want to talk about how awesome the Jurassic period was. In many cases, using the word “period” in a sentence will default to the punctuation, but if you see that blue squiggly line underneath the preceding word and the punctuation, then you can tap that and a new suggestion that includes the actual word “period” should be suggested. Sometimes the voice recognition will intelligently actually put down the word “period” but it varies on a case-by-case basis.

Finally, do you want to use large capital letters to get people’s attention, but just don’t have the heart to convey your anger through your fingers? Just enable caps lock by double-tapping the Shift key before enabling voice typing.

Hopefully these tips have helped you use the speech-to-text functionality of iOS.

Mercedes Benz has announced that it will use Apple’s Siri voice activated personal assistant software currently available on the iPhone 4S to drive its new “Drive Kit Plus” system that will allow drivers to access and control their iPhone apps with their voice while driving. “Drive Kit Plus” will be integrated with Mercedes Benz Digital Drivestyle system which transmits and formats iPhone screens to in-car screens.

Using “Drive Kit Plus” drivers will be able to control their music, change radio stations, send texts, make phone calls, update their Facebook and Twitter accounts, or even control their Aupeo Personal Radio. “Drive Kit Plus” will also integrate with Garmin GPS systems to provide drivers the ability to find directions and routes through voice commands.

This new, Siri-powered feature is slated for a debut at the 82nd International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland on March 8th and will make Mercedes Benz the first auto manufacturer to integrate Apple tech into their in-car systems.

(Abridged – With serious apologies to Clement Moore)

Twas the week before Christmas, and at 148Apps
All our writers were writing, and no one took naps.
The reviews were written and posted with care,
In hopes that our readers would soon find them there.

The staff were nestled and ready for sleep,
with visions of iPads, and not jumping sheep.
My iMac in sleep mode, my iPhone now mute,
I settled my brain and sighed a large, “w00t.”

When out of my office there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to my iPad I flew like a flash,
And searched for an app I could boot in a dash.

The light of my iPhone on the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a ping from the app store; new apps are now here.

When a little old email arrived on the spot,
I knew in a moment it must be Jeff Scott.
More rapid than IMs his websites they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now GiggleApps! now, 148Apps! both .com and .biz!
On, Android Rundown! On, BestAppEver! That’s all there is!
From the greatest new games, to the best apps of all!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

He spoke not to me, but to my device,
And Jeff quickly asked Siri if I had been nice.
Her answer was good, so he connected Wi-Fi,
And filled my gadgets with even more apps to try!

His work here now done, he gestured with a wave,
And called for his assistant, the jolly Rob LeFebvre.
But I heard them exclaim, as they logged off for the night,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Siri, the app that is billed as your personal assistant, was bought by Apple recently. While no official announcement has been made, the proper FTC merger announcement making it all but official.

Siri is a voice controlled app that interfaces with lots of web based services providing you access t data like movie show times, events, local businesses, etc. Take a look at this demo video of Siri to get an idea of the power of the app:

My guess is that we’ll see Siri integrated into the OS to replace the less than stellar Voice Control. It would make great sense to increase the quality and the features of Voice Control. Hopefully we’ll see this in iPhone OS 4, but if not I’d expect it quickly after in an update.

Go ahead and grab Siri and give it a preview right now. How would you like to see Apple use this technology on the iPhone?

FREE!

Siri Assistant

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-02-05 :: Category: Productivity

[via TechCrunch]