Google Introduces New Android Features 271
adeelarshad82 writes "Google introduced the next generation of interaction with its Android operating system by introducing a set of new features. The most prominent one is the voice-driven actions. Google executives outlined 12 new 'Voice Actions for Android,' including phone calls, reminder e-mails, direction search, and music search. The app is called 'Voice Search,' requires Android 2.2, and is available in the Android Market now. Voice actions can be triggered by clicking the 'microphone' icon on the screen. Saying 'call John Smith at home' will trigger the contacts list and voice dialer, 'find art museums in Amsterdam' would launch a Google Maps application, and 'listen to Ace of Base' will search for music from the artist on Pandora, Last.fm, or another music application. Another improvement worth a mention is 'Chrome to Phone,' allows users to click on a new 'mobile phone' icon to send links, YouTube videos, even directions, to the phone. So far, the features are exclusive to Android phones and US English, although the capabilities will be moved to other languages and other operating systems (including the iPhone) in the future."
Add reader CWmike: "JR Raphael takes a first look at Voice Actions for Android, and tells you how to get voice control even if you are not on Froyo."
Yay (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if this will work as good as my Google Voice recognition... recent message: "Not long way because I thought they were. What slobs. I know that there is You know one before the other but sorry about the got a computer Yeah, and Over. For for."
Can't wait to see these voice actions in action!
Improving battery life would be a better strategy (Score:3, Insightful)
While I congratulate Google on this achievement, I think Google and Android would be better served if there were better results when it comes to today's Android phones and battery life.
Just imagine what the the headline "Android phones can now maintain battery capacity at greater than 80% after an average day of use" would create.
The buzz and positive publicity with this kind of information would be priceless.
Re:Can it answer questions? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, if you are like most of the people I've seen with an iphone you could ask any of the twenty people sat near you. They'll probably tell you who it is too.
Re:Just need to shrink it down a little (Score:3, Insightful)
It should just be *tap*
Enterprise.
Yes captain?
Re:Would be interesting if Android was actually op (Score:3, Insightful)
The OS is open source, that is it. The market is not core functionality of the OS, you can make your own damn market. You have to get a license from redhat to use their repositories. Same fucking thing.
Heck you can even get the apk and install it on your device that lacks the market.