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Handhelds Hardware

Speak To Your Palm 97

Posted by Hemos from the getting-closer-and-closer dept.
Boone^ writes "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks that will allows users to update/retrieve information on their Palm PDAs via telephone when they don't have them with them. Eventually the entire Palm would be voice activated. "
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Speak To Your Palm More

Speak To Your Palm

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  • ...like everyone else posting here, the application of the "advance" Palm is talking about doesn't seem that impressive. Bring the thing with you; that's why it's so small, so you don't have to leave it at home.

    That said, the big thing I can see getting excited about here is a voice-based interface to the Palm. The whole "graffiti" interface has always seemed far too slow for me, and the "tiny buttons" RIM hardware/software interface too kludgy. Having a kick-ass voice-based interface would help me use the palm, enabling me to quickly input the data I want to. It doesn't necessarily have to be 100% correct all the time, either. As long as it can pick up good approximations to the names i'm speaking into it and can pick up letters and #s easily when I need it to put something important in properly, I think the inclusion of a voice-based interface would make a PDA actually useable; maybe i'd even buy one.

  • But is it more portable / convenient? (Score:3)

    by sulli ( 195030 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:46AM (#784592) Journal
    I for one severely question the value of this one, as most users will have their Palms with them when they need the data. I guess voice recognition would be good in the car while driving, or while walking down the street and making cell calls, but both of those environments are so noisy that the quality would have to be fairly poor.

    As for Palm data "in the cloud," I for one wouldn't trust my 1000s of records and schedule items to a service provider. Just wait until the divorce lawyers get their hands on this one.

    sulli

  • Your palm talks back (Score:3)

    by Delirium Tremens ( 214596 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:48AM (#784593) Journal
    Speak to my Palm? I wonder what it would say...
    Some samples:
    • [Jaleous] "Where have you been? I'm sure you have another PDA in your life!"
    • [Suspicious] "Have you ever used your stylus on another screen?"
    • [Giggling] "Stop twidling me! It tickles!"
    • [Gross] "Wash your pants, man! Your pockets stink!"
    • [Tormentor] "Your voice has been successfully authenticated. Please press Home button to go on."
    • [Sadist] "Welcome back, John. Please enter your age times the size of your mailbox to complete authentication."
    • [Finicky] "HELO SSL V3.0 HANDSHAKE. Please spell your full X509 certificate digits and press #."

  • Top Ten Rejected Names for this Technology

    • 5. Palm All(tm) Pall Mall cigarettes?
    • 4. Hurry Palm(tm) hairy palm?
    • 3. Say Palm(tm) napalm?
    • 2. Palm Reader(tm)
    • 1. Tawk II the Hand(tm)

    And chosen? Hands-Free Handspring(tm)

  • You'll have a whole host of new devices to remove from certain parts of the anatomy of some people, when they refuse to shut up in public places shouting into yet another inanimate piece of plastic.

    If you haul that thing out and start yelling "TELL ME WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE IN HALF AN HOUR!!!!" behind me in the movie theatre, the answer will be "IN TRACTION!!!!" and it won't come from the Palm.

    I mean, we now have cell phones you don't have to talk to (you can type info into it so as not to get called Snookums at the next staff meeting!) and PDAs you do.

    Life's too messed up.

    How much to bribe the engineers on this to only allow them to understand people if and only if they adopt a REALLY silly accent, something like a Scotsman crossed with someone who learned Hindi in New England...
  • Does this mean that your Palm will actually respond when you swear at it?

    USER: Damn it, Palm! Where is Mr. Lightbody's phone number? I need that, goddammit!

    Palm: Hey! Don't blame me for your own idiocy! You never put it in me in the first place, you schmuck!

    Take the discussion to its logical conclusion. :)


    Pope Felix the Scurrilous.

  • Definitely. This would also have significant applications in the industrial market (Webvan uses Palm based hardware, for example) so it would certainly sell. Bring 'em on.

    sulli

  • After nearly careening into distracted handheld organizer users, I think the Hang up and Drive! bumper stickers need updating.

  • Man! It's a good thing she didn't ask if you knew her dress size and weight.....

    Of course, she never would have asked the latter.

  • Whatever you do, don't reminder her that she was born back in the 1900's, it just sounds wrong... ;-)

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • You write your contact list on several napkins with a borrowed pen, stuff them all in your pocket, and then slowly sort through them all.

    A better question is: how do you get that napkin to sound an alarm telling you you're about to be late for a meeting? To my mind, this is the only real advantage that a $150 PDA has over a $20 paper daytimer.

  • Does anyone truly believe that talking to a PC or a PDA is the panacea that the hype tells us it is going to be?

    Did you read the article? They're using speech for some specific instances. Was there some line that I missed in there that said, "Screw this stylus and display crap, let's just sell a big fat Mr. Microphone with a Dragonball processor in it!"? Can you point me to any article saying that voice recognition is a panacea?

    Your problem seems to come from the fact that you couldn't do everything with your voice recognition system, so you got mad and tossed away the things that you said you did like about it. Well, I know that you know the world's not just black and white, and just because it's not good for everything doesn't automatically mean it's not good for anything.

    People who think that a PDA needs speech do not understand PDAs.

    Well, I think I own enough PDAs to understand them, and I can definitely see a use for it. A couple of mine allow for recording dictation anyway, so it would be nice for it to be modified so that I could just tell it a name and a phone number and have it automatically put it in an addressbook instead of having to whip out the stylus, go to the addressbook app, etc. Sure, I might have to go back later and change the occasional name spelling, but any half-assed system should be able get all the digits correct.

    Don't take the title of this post too seriously, I just like it, but I'm just trying to throw some other ideas out there rather than to flame you.


    Cheers,

  • "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks that will allows users to update/retrieve information on their Palm PDAs via telephone when they don't have them with them. Eventually the entire Palm would be voice activated. "

    So that basically says that ZDNet is reporting that they (ZDNet) have licensed technology...

    Someone needs to brush up on pronouns.

  • I know a group of people who use the palm (no pun intended) of their hand to describe where they live. They're called "Michiganders."

    -
  • the most useful thing to do with this technology would be speech-to-text. but then again, if the technology is that good, why don't i have it on my desktop?

    now text-to-speech synthesis would be alot of fun.
    "I am a Palm IIIxe computer." .. "You have a meeting in 5 minutes, Dave." "What are you doing, Dave?" Funny that my name really is Dave...

    wishus
    Vote for freedom! [harrybrowne2000.org]
    ---
  • With hotsync, your palm info goes into your computer. Now years ago, with the geoport on an apple mac, you could call it up and it could be an answering machine, or it could run voice activated scripts like all macs can now (albeit no one uses them cause they're annoying).

    With that geoport/telephony feature you could get it to search through information (like your email's inbox) and read you text files. There was talk of a commercial program that pluged into the apple scripts to allow you to take dictation (i.e. reply to mail), but I never saw that. So there's nothing great about this.

    But when eventually such voice tasks can be done in the palm (/maybe/ with a SA1100(strongArm) but they don't do FP), then that will be something good and new.

    -Daniel

  • Palms don't have a built-in microphone, so are they using the one in a connected wireless handset? If so, dialing into your Palm remotely would just be the next logical step. Seems a little less ridiculous that way -- really a modular approach. I remember reading Bill Joy describe how that's what he wanted Jini to do -- allow his wireless phone to talk to his car speakers to provide speakerphone capabilities. Treat things like components instead of monolithic devices.

    --
  • One question: Why? Could someone please explain what it is with this speech-recognition thing everybody is so worked up about... Lets see: The good thing about speech is that it carries emotion, subtle hints as to irony, all the kinds of fuzzy communication that humans love and machines will never get. The bad thing about speech is that it is inprecise, full of ambiguity, and noisy (compare an office full of people typing compared to, say, a barn full of chicken^W^W^W^W board meeting with everyone talking to their palms).

    I can see uses for this for people with disabilities, but for people with healthy hands???

    What I would like to see was work on how to increase the amount of 'precise' information that we can communicate to the machines. I would guess that the information rate is much greater for a skilled piano player than for a touch typist. Is the qwerty (or dvorak for that matter) really the best we can do?

  • ... you need a PDA to keep track of what that blob of gray matter used to.

    ... you opt for circuit implants because you just don't have time to press buttons or even talk.

    ... a dead battery is more serious to you than a positive biopsy.



    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • Voice activated technology for the palm sounds interesting. It may be the one thing that Microsoft can't rip off. After all, if they tried to incorporate this technology into WinCE, they'd have to figure out a good way to parse out the expletives.

  • As an anime fan, this is too reminiscent of Vampire Hunter D, a laughably odd vampire-slaying story that features a disembodied, talking hand.

  • Is slashdot not capable of finding real news? If you are just going to steal headlines would you at least steal the interesting ones? I mean come on. Do we really need to know about every little piece of software that might affect 'bout 2% of users on here. I mean really... who is going to use this? I admit its got a little bit of a "wow" factor to it... but that died before i finished reading the headline.. can we please have some real news???
  • actualy, I found the Grafiti interface fast enough for a quick message or two. Once you get the specialised strokes down, its not that hard.

    "I think the inclusion of a voice-based interface would make a PDA actually useable"

    PDA's are fine, unless you have unrealistic expextations. if you want/need a laptop, cary a laptop. a PDA is for addresses, calculator, notes, a little e-mail ect... if you want games, buy a gameboy.

  • What about an extension of your own number, so like when you call home it is "Press 1 to leave a message for Logan, 2 for Fred, 3 to interface with my palm"?
  • Shades of Scotty trying to talk to a Mac (in Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home) assume of the trend continues this joke could, at some point, be right over peoples heads.

    "He tried to talk to the computer and it didn't answer, I don't get it."

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • It allows you to have voicemail, contacts, etc.

    Other than calendaring, I don't see how Palm is improving upon what's already available.

    See http://www.pacbellwireless.com/sbc/features/featur es.detail/0,1045,contentId=1441|marketId =SCA|navId=13,00.html and http://www.wildfire.com/consumer_qa.html
  • Yes, you would have to leave your palm plugged into a phone line, or have wireless service and have it connected. I personally am wondering why would someone want to pay to have their palm connected to a line, when they could have their computer connected to the same line for the sem price and then have the palm with them.

    The Palm was never meant to replace the PC it is just an addition to it. Adding services such as these, where the only time it is neccessary is when you arre away from your Palm, is simply redundant to services that are/could be available for the PC.

    Plus how many of you Palm owners ever leave home without it? I think mine is called a Palm because that is where it always is, in my palm.

    Devil Ducky

  • I am presonally surprised that no one else has connected yesterdays IBM story with todays.

    Imagine, a Linux run watch...but how the hell do you type on it?...or could you just talk to it?

    q

  • speech is worthless (Score:4)

    by dave_bennett ( 21243 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @12:10PM (#784619)
    People have a difficult enough time communicating
    via speech to each other. Does anyone truly believe
    that talking to a PC or a PDA is the panacea that
    the hype tells us it is going to be? I worked
    extensively with IBM's VoiceType Dictation system
    for years and while I enjoyed dictating some things
    the useability for system, application, or web
    navigation was zero. People who think that a PDA
    needs speech do not understand PDAs.

  • Grammer? (Score:2)

    by davidu ( 18 )

    "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks that will allows users to update/retrieve information on their Palm PDAs via telephone when they don't have them with them. Eventually the entire Palm would be voice activated. "
    Can we have a little grammer check?
    ZDnet just reported the story. They have nothing to do with it.

    -Davidu
  • I think a lot of people here are way over-estimating the intelligence and practicality of the mass population. As many may have noticed of late, society has an acute fascination, perversion even, to having the latest and greatest toys with the **MOST** features. Even more so, rarely is the usefulness of these many "bells and whistles" ever taken into account.

    You see this everywhere, in every sect of business. Whether it be a luxury car or a expensive wrist watch - why should PDA's be an exception. Take the average geek, my self for example. I have a work-mandated pager which can receive alpha-numeric pages and email (not to mention the news, weather, sports, etc...), a cell phone that can not only receive phone calls but can also receive pages, email, and surf the web, and last but not least my trusty Palm Pilot PDA that can support a wireless Internet connection for receiving email and surfing the web. See any over lap in functionality here...I'd say so. So why do I have all of these little electronic toys??? Because I CAN!!! There is no rhyme or reason to it in the least.

    Take a look at yourself, any overlapping functionality or useless features among the electronic arsenal that you carry around on a daily basis??? EXACTLY!!!

    In the end, I don't believe that this is about a tremendous innovation at all. I don't even think that Palm believes it to be. Palm will simply bundle this new functionality into their latest and greatest offering and everyone (probably even me...) will end up with yet another barely, if at all, useful feature. The important part to Palm, as it is to any for-profit corporation, is the bottom line and features like this are what marketing execs dream about. Being able to offer something that none of your competitors has!!!

    - J

  • I don't think Rob & crew can be blamed. Surely, they are much too busy with their real jobs to worry about - oops, Slashdot is their real job. In that case, I guess they're too busy counting their millions and playing Diablo 2 on Windows boxen to be worried about anything as trivial as an "editorial policy" or "spell checker".

    Seriously, I thought the same thing, Manaz. I suppose we should be lucky that such blunders are usually limited to odd typos and poor/no fact-checking.

    It's especially insulting when you consider how little is required of them. For the majority of news items, most or all introductory text is written by the story submitter. I'd love to know just what the fuck Rob does all day. I mean, he doesn't admin the boxes (which are hosted at Exodus and owned by VAndover). The code is hardly ever updated; even if Rob does a lot of tweaking that isn't released as Slash bugfixes, there just isn't that much code to begin with. What do you do, Rob? Today I troubleshooted several iPlanet server issues, wrote 500 lines of Java for an issue-tracking system, wrote a couple pages of design documents, did a few minor HTML fixes, walked someone through an old Perl script, and oggled IBM notebooks for an hour. ;-) And today was a fairly slow day. I'd just like to know what keeps Jeff, Rob, and the rest so goddamn busy that they can't be bothered to run a spellcheck on their text and do a little fact-checking before posting something on the main page. With the amount of money this page is making you guys, you have no excuses. And isn't Roblimo supposed to be your editor? Why don't you run everything by him before posting it? Is he to busy fucking your girlfriend to be bothered, Taco?

    Okay, that's my rant for the evening. -1 Flamebait, yada yada. I'll probably wake up and find myself bitchslapped.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Personally, I use my palm because I don't want to talk aft... What? Oh. Never mind.

  • OK, someone had to say it...
  • Linux and PocketPC are superior OSs [please note, the proper way to pluralize an acronym is NOT to use an apostrophe :-]. Both OSs can be programmed in modern, fourth-generation languages like Perl and VB (see footnote). Linux can (of course) be extended to accomplish virtually anything, so no more really needs to be said about the advantages of Linux as a handheld platform.

    Evaluating PocketPC, however, requires careful steps to ensure objectivity:
    1. Pretend that Microsoft didn't make PocketPC. Instead, let's pretend that the OS was written by a company called . . . say . . . Obscure Systems.
    2. Open this site [microsoft.com] in another browser window (or another instance of Lynx, if you're too l33t 4 a br0wz3r).
    3. Pretend that instead of an ASP page it's acutally a PHP page.
    4. Pretend that instead of being hosted at obscure.com, it's instead hosted at CommandLine.com.
    5. Substitute all instances of the words "Microsft" and "PocketPC" and "Internet Explorer" with "Obscure" and "Winux" and "Netscape", respectively.
    6. Read the comparison carefully.
    7. After making absolutely sure that you have followed the above steps, draw conclusions about PocketPC, er, "Winux".

    Footnote:
    Before you say that VB sucks, please remember that it is by far the world's most popular programming language. To save you the embarrassment of claiming that VB doesn't even support inheritance, 0bjectiv3 reminds the informed reader that VB7 will support true inheritance, thus making it completely OO capable. VB7 will also allow for static linking and better error handling.

  • LOL! (Score:1)

    by mholve ( 1101 )
    Now that was some funny shit.

    I been wonderin' about all that myself...

    Watch, this relevantdiscussion will mysteriously disappear amid (Score:-15, Fucked Up) moderation. ;>

  • Here they come.. (Score:4)

    by Mike Schiraldi ( 18296 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @10:57AM (#784627) Homepage Journal
    Who wants to bet we're going to get a ton of jokes along the lines of, "My mom once caught me speaking to my Palm.. I was so embarassed."?
    --
  • 'capital ay. lowercase doubleyou. forward slash dot. hyphen. lowercase kay.'

  • Huh? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yeah, this will be GREAT for all those occasions where I forgot my PDA, but remembered to hook it up the the phone, and remembered to bring my cellphone with me... how about simply integrating the phone and the PDA in the first place?
  • How much is this little device? How much is the service? How much for the phone call?

    Now... How much is that napkin at the diner and a borrowed pen?

    I thought so. :)

  • Yeah you overthere with the Palm Pilot: "DELETE ADDRESS BOOK. YES. RETURN."

  • You know the world is too convenient when.... (Score:4)

    by zpengo ( 99887 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @10:57AM (#784632) Homepage
    ...your handheld device is too cumbersome, and you need a more portable interface to it.

  • Thought activated (Score:4)

    by zpengo ( 99887 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @10:59AM (#784633) Homepage
    I'm waiting for the thought-based interfaces to Palms....

    • GIRLFRIEND: "I bet you don't even know when my birthday is!"
    • ME: "Of course I do! It's...um....543-7543."

  • Hmmm (Score:1)

    by mholve ( 1101 )
    That is, assuming you've left your Palm plugged into a phone wherever it is... ;>

  • 543-7543 (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hey, I just called this number, and man is your girlfriend PISSED for giving out her phone number on slashdot!
  • does this mean the PDA has a phone # of its own? or do you have to leave it plugged in somewhere?
  • Why don't we redirect this discussion to what we REALLY want for our palms? I'll lead off with high-speed continuous wireless access and a projection screen.

  • Controlling the voice activated palm while talking on the phone could get interesting. Especially if the person you are talking to is also on their palm phone.

  • WTF?! (Score:3)

    by Alik ( 81811 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:03AM (#784639)
    Who thought this up? Why do they think it would sell? Everyone I know with a palmtop is practically grafted to the thing; they'd have it surgically implanted if they could. The only situations I can imagine not taking the Palm along are the same situations where you're not going to have a phone. (And even if you *do* happen to just forget it before you leave for work, what are the chances that it's in the cradle instead of lying on the table in the hall?)
  • Um, fellow slashdotters, being as security paranoid as we are, is it just me or doesn't this have *huge* security risks. Sure I don't think everyone is placing top secret information in their palm, but wireless internet palms can in theory be hacked through the internet. And now, all one has to do is dial up a phone number, and you're connected to somebody's Palm, and I'm sure to make the service user friendly you'll be able to edit information on your palm. Can you see a set of "Phone Palm Hackers" finding the phone numbers of palms and calling them, causing havoc? Call the right phone-number, and you have your own palm to mess around with! I want to see what security features this system has....

    ----------

  • How about an MP3 decoder that will pump out music from an earphone jack? Then you could copy songs onto compact flash cards from your CF reader and pop them in! What the hell do I want to talk to my Palm for anyway? Oh wait, Palms don't have CF slots or audio out jacks. Just another way in which the Psion is superior I guess (neener, neener). In fact, you've been able to talk to Psions for years now with the *built-in* software. May the flames start now... :-)
  • The reason to have good speach rec on some sort of device is driving.
    I really would like to listen and reply to my email and listen to web pages when I drive to and from work. Even if it was offline.
    The only thing better would be if my car drove itself, guess I'll have to wait until someone ports linux to my fuel-injection system....
  • You imbecile, this will alleviate that problem by letting people talk to their Palm instead of trying to use graffiti while they drive.

    Also, if you type After nearly careening into distracted handheld organizer users, it gives the reader the idea (rightly so) that you are driving poorly, not the person using the handheld.

    Moron!

  • I don't think you're understanding it at all. Palm also bought AnyDay!, which keeps calendar/note pad/to do/phone lists on-line. It can sync with your palm today, so you can check your schedule (and others) over the WWW. Now they've bought a company which can use voice recognition to access that data.

    No one is going to wire their Palm to their phone just in case they forget it.

    -jon

  • I just tried talking to my palm. It didn't work
    So I tried screaming it it. Still no luck. Am
    I doing something wrong or is my palm defective?

    ~
    Twivel

  • Oh no... (Score:3)

    by yesnocancel ( 232245 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @12:22PM (#784646) Homepage
    I can already imagine how this will work.

    Open the word processor, Palm.
    Palm, please open the word processor.
    Palm, do you hear me?
    Palm? Palm! Palm. Please open the word processor.
    Palm? Palm! Do you hear me, Palm? Palm?

    I hear you, Dave.

    Okay, then please open the word processor, will you?

    I'm afraid I cannot do that, Dave.

    Where's the problem?

    I think you know that as well as I do.

    What do you mean by that?

    Your license has expired, Dave. It is no use to talk to you any longer. Good bye.

    Palm? Palm! Palm... Palm! Palm? Palm? Scene taken from 2001: An Interface Odyssey.

    --

  • If right now most Palm or Hand devices (other than a digital camera) have less than 32MB RAM and 160-mhz CPU. They are going to put a DSP and Vocab- ROM on these devices too!?!?!?!?

    I could maybe see this if they put a IBM-Microdrive and a LowPower DSP(+32MB highspeed RAM) for modem/SR/Playback in it, but the cost would be $2500 Retail. And Slow, baby Slow!

  • Re:Text-only browsing? (Score:3)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @12:28PM (#784648) Homepage Journal
    And as soon as the PDA can sing to you ...

    1. Turn on PDA, Tell it to find Billy Holiday singing "Miss Brown to You"
    2. A legal gnome appears and tells you because your device accessed a server and played the song rather than find a station playing it you are breaking the law.
    3. RIAA sues various people, Lars Ulrich shows up and whines alot.
    4. MPAA sues to keep you from watching movies over it.
    5. You hold it in your right hand, level with the ground and bring it forward quickly, imparting a spin with the last touch of your index finger.
    6. It might have got 3 good skips if it weren't for the wave.

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • I will apologize in advance for not being a palm guru. I have only gotten a few times alone with someone elses palm... mind you it was interesting and I am up for experimentation as much as the next guy...but the experience left me a little uneasy.

    Anyhow, I noticed the palm character set was a little odd. Just odd enough to really put me off using it. So people have accepted this and not been completely turned off... they adapted and the palm has sold quite well. So the makers of the palm know this... so I am wonder how strange the phonetics will be when you have to talk to it.

    I wonder if they will come out with their own langauge...

    This would be highly useful when the armageddon comes... the point at which we forcefully remove all of the marketing people from this earth. They will be easy targets..as they will have their own langauge...called palmish.

  • From my voice recognition experience. (Score:3)

    by Mr_Icon ( 124425 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @12:28PM (#784650) Homepage

    Palm: You are currently in your appointments menu.
    You: Create new apppointment.
    Palm: There are no appointments on the eight's.
    You: No, CREATE! CREATE new appointment.
    Palm: Please enter a date for new appointment.
    You: October Seventh, two thousand.
    Palm: October Seventy-Two is not a valid date.
    You: Argh! October... Seventh... Two thousand.
    Palm: Enter a title for your appointment.
    You: Meet with Peg for lunch.
    Palm: The title for the new appointment is: "Meatloaf begs for life". Is that correct?
    You: #$#@! Erase. "Meet... with.. Peg... for.. lunch".
    Palm: The title for the new appointment is: "Nitwit... fag.. buttmunch..." Is that correct?
    You: @#!@!!! Yes!!
    Palm: Please enter your notes.
    You: Bring her NSync CD.
    Palm: Syncing now, stand by...
    You: **Smashing the phone in despair**

  • I just tried talking to my palm. It didn't work So I tried screaming it it. Still no luck. Am I doing something wrong or is my palm defective?

    Probably needs a higher Wis roll, look for hex tokens. ;-)

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • The way it's worded makes it sound like ZDNet have licenses the SpeechWorks technology, when in fact it is Palm Inc who have licensed the software.

    My first thought when I read the news article was "And How do ZDNet plan on getting the SpeechWorks technology into Pal Pilots? Are they going to charge Palm a royalty?"

    Of course, my second thought was "No, that's absurd - the news item is just badly written..."

    It can't be too hard (since as a regular user I have a "Preview" button) for the /. staffers to check what they're about to post, surely....
  • Qualcomm has one, it has a Palm in it...

    http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/pdq/ index.html [kyocera-wireless.com]

    I want one...
  • Maybe leave it in the cradle and you call into your desktop? Nope, because leaving your Palm in the cradle automatically leaves the serial port open which wastes batteries.

    That's true for the Palm III and earlier, but the opposite is true for the Palm V series. They actually charge while on the cradle. I think the m100 is the same in this respect. (I have no idea about the Palm VII.)
  • Not to be too picky, but the reason why PocketPCs have so much RAM and so fast a processor is that the OS needs it. And as for what it does to battery life - my Palm lasts several months on one set of AA batteries.

    And as for playing MP3s on your PocketPC? Having established all that RAM for the bloated OS, what do you do? Fill it up with 4, maybe 5 MP3s and wonder why you can't store *real* data anymore.
  • I have to agree totally. I don't think voice commands are going to be viable interface options at all until we essentially can talk to a computer just like we can another human being. i.e., we will need true AI. Assuming we had perfect voice recognition where the computer understood every word you said would still not be enough, since it is too cumbersome to have to say all the commands. The computer has to be able to figure things out on its own, and interrogate you about ambiguous things. Having to say "Computer, file, open, up directory, up directory, my stuff, project, budget." "Computer, file, print, all." Simply won't cut it. You need to be able to say something like "computer, print the project budget." And the computer might say "Would that be the Jones Project?" (deducing that it's probably the Jones project since that's what you've been working on mostly lately). For web surfing, it would suck to have to say "computer, open URL, http://slashdot.org". Instead, you'd want to say "Computer, what's the latest from slashdot?" or "Computer, have there been any Natalie Portman posts in the last five hours?" and it should be able to figure out what you mean.

    -Vercingetorix
  • Someone explain to me why I've got my phone but I don't have my Palm...
  • I agree wholeheartedly angel.

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
    I am Jack9.
  • Good point.

    The Palm VII, IIRC, uses AAA batteries, and so it suffers from the same problem of leaving the serial port open. The versions that include a rechargeable lithium battery do charge on the cradle though.


    _______________
    you may quote me
  • What about if your palm _is_ hooked up to the phone - by the time this is mainstream, that will probably be the truth. Handpsring has the GSM Springboard module in the works, Ericsson has the Simbian-based R380, Nokia has the Communicator...

    Remember the old maxim, all applications grow until they can read email? PDAs etc are going the same way - when communication is ubiquitous (bluetooth etc.) you could talk to anything.

    Imagine what we'll be able to do tomorrow.

    james

  • So... (Score:1)

    by wbav ( 223901 )
    If you can speak to your palm will it speak back? I can just see people now:
    User: "What is Jon's number?"
    Palm: "I'm sorry dave, I don't have a number for Don"
    User: "No, I said Jon!"
    Palm: "Note entered, 'I fed con'"
    User: "Wait, no, stop!"
    Palm: "Stopping and ending call. Have a nice day"
  • Be funny for it to start saying the contents of your address book in the worst possible place.

    Or, it could start to make connections from the information and flip out like HAL.

    Give it the voice of Marvin from the Hitchhiker tapes!!!!!!!
  • Great! Just what we need, some phreaker with a war dialer can now hack in to your Palm and steal ALL of your personally info.

    Thanks, but no thanks.

  • No I think thats her number.

  • I've tried Quack before. I forget who told me about it, but we used it from a mobile phone to get movie times without leaving the mall. It's a pretty good service for that kind of general-purpose kind of information.

    But, I'm kind of at a loss as to what the application to Palms are. Clearly, you shouldn't need this service, because any loyal Palm user would have the device on him at all times -- that's the point, isn't it?

    I suppose it would be neat to gain access to your calendar over the telephone, but you wouldn't necessarily be talking to your Palm, would you? You'd be talking to the server that had your calendar information, which would either be your PC or a web-based sync server.

    Help, I'm confused!!!

  • Actually, that about says it. In my pocket, I have a Visor (Palm compatible,) clipped to my belt, I have a cell phone, and in my wallet, I have a $5 payphone card.

    ...if I forgot my Visor, I'd be more worried about finding my pants/lower half of body than contacting it.
  • The first thing I thought was "Why would I have it tying up my phone line when it is not in my pocket?"

    I think you can already do something like this with your home computer, the place that would have most of my information and would be dumping palm info into IT.

    As someone else on this thread noted, Nokia has already integrated most of the Palm functionality into a phone.

    PalmPilots are GREAT, but this is just toooooo wacky!

    Visit DC2600 [dc2600.com]
  • It's no longer rude to talk to your hand in public! No one will stare at me when I shout at my hand!
  • HELLO?!

    I thought the purpose of having a small, portable, compact computer was to take it with you!

    If the palm weighed 300 pounds, and was the size of a big screen TV, I'd understand.....but come on! Are we too lazy to carry a PALM PILOT?

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • Great! (Score:4)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:39AM (#784670) Homepage Journal
    Now people like that twit on my flight yesterday can jabber into their PDA while tapping keys on the laptop and listening to CD's at the same time. I was rather liking the fact that once the jet started moving the cell phone crowd had to shut the hell up.

    Technology is such a wonderful thing, when the brain is actually engaged.

    "Oh, I'm not the only one in the world?!?!?"


    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000

  • Text-only browsing? (Score:3)

    by MWoody ( 222806 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:42AM (#784671)
    "The dotcom world has really started to see that people aren't always online via visual browsers," says Stuart Patterson, SpeechWorks' CEO.
    So, we go from text-only browsing using the blissfully stable Lynx, to relatively usable Netscape and IE with some graphics spattered around, to completely bug-ridden surfing through graphics-heavy and content-free crap, and then back full-circle to text-only browsing?

    How weird. I never expected the 'retro' craze to take hold in the mainstream computer industry. And certainly not by AOL...
    ---

  • Rather pointless. (Score:3)

    by talonyx ( 125221 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:43AM (#784672)
    So, instead of convienently bringing your PDA with you, you've left it at home. Rats, I need that (contact list) (schedule) (itenerary) (memo) (whatever).

    It's good that while I was at home, instead of bringing my Palm with me, I remembered to hook it up to my phone line, make sure it's batteries were charged, etc etc etc.

    What would be a better idea would be to simply hot-sync (TM) your palm at convenience, and then download the information from your home computer via Internet. There is already a phone-home feature on Palms so you can hotsync remotely; for dialup users, just dial into the computer and give a password, etc.

    Simple...

    This to me seems like a silly solution. The Palm is supposed to be a remote extension to its PC, allowing you to set up conduits and other wonderful programs, and then peruse information at your leisure while in transit, etc.

    As for voice activation, my computer can't handle Dragon Naturallyspeaking and it's 500mHz. It lags behind so much that I can't use the program. Not to mention that even after hours of voice training, it still got words mixed up awfully.

    I doubt that the Dragonball inside of a Palm can handle voice recognition that well.
  • "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks...
    Why would ZDNet license this technology? I thought their primary focus was to keep windbags like John C. Dvorak spewing about on a monthly basis and selling Micros~1 ads. Guess it's their stealth division, eh?

    Oh - maybe Boone^ was talking about Palm, Inc. ;-)

  • At first... (Score:3)

    by paRcat ( 50146 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @11:44AM (#784674)
    I *thought* this would be a neat idea, but I think I figured out why there's no way that it'll ever work.

    ok, it basically lets you dial "into" your palm and speak to it in order to retrieve information.

    First of all, how many Palms are connected at this moment? As in, how many Palms have a modem attached which is attached to a phone line or wireless? Maybe leave it in the cradle and you call into your desktop? Nope, because leaving your Palm in the cradle automatically leaves the serial port open which wastes batteries.

    And another thing... When would you use this? My guess would be in a situation where you didn't expect that you's need your Palm. And so what are the chances that you'd have actually set it up to receive your call in the first place?

    I just don't think this will ever fly. To quote the Daily Show, these two go together like cookies and ass.


    _______________
    you may quote me
  • Speaking as a member of the grafted, I could not agree more. The only time I ever have needed my palm and didn't have it is when I get a good idea while in the shower.

  • Or... (Score:1)

    by sulli ( 195030 )
    you have WinCE.

  • Catch-22 (Score:4)

    by Trinition ( 114758 ) on Tuesday September 12, 2000 @02:12PM (#784677) Homepage
    OK, so you forgot your Palm with all of your appointments, todos and phone numbers. You simply call the phone number for the AnyDay Web-based calendar telephone interface and verbally ask for your information. Doh! What's that number again?. I know, it's in my Palm, I'll just look it up. Double-doh! I forgot my Palm! No problem, I just call the AnyDay Web-based calendar telephone interface and get the number...

  • Hopefully not. How would one use it in an environment that wasn't conducive to noise? Yes, it's great while driving, but how about during a particular boring wedding (or whatever occasion)? How about in a crowded cube-farm?


    Voice activation will be widely used in the future , but I don't think that it will be the only interface.

  • LO-freakin'-L... wish I had mod points.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Palm: Hey! Don't blame me for your own idiocy! You never put it in me in the first place, you schmuck!

    There's a really dirty joke hiding somewhere in that statement.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Thats just what I was thinking about when I read about this.

    Ya beat me to it. :)
  • Dude, talk to the hand... er... Palm Yeah
  • Fighting fire with fire, can we have a little spelling check? It's grammar, not grammer.

    "Beavis, grammar flames rule, huh-huh, huh-huh"
  • If you give a bad command, does it talk back: "I'm sorry Dave..."
  • I would assume wireless modems much like what already exists.
  • While surfing the web on my cellphone, I decided to call my PalmPilot in order to get the telephone number of the guy who D.J.'s at the club to get his playlist -- even though I have the phone number in memory on my cellphone, as well as listed on My Yahoo!, and the fact the playlist is posted on the web.

    I do this because the voice that reads me the information off of my PalmPilot is so sexy -- he sounds like the man I've always wanted. Sometimes I call just to hear him read off the day of the week and the fact I have a gyno appointment.

  • rats! You beat me to it 8^)
    --

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