Target's Official App Gives Early Look at Nuance's iOS 5 Voice-to-Text Feature

[Phillip Swanson]

Target recently updated their iOS app. Not a particularly noteworthy occurrence, unless you’re a sophomore in college looking for a cheap futon. However, Target may have accidentally debuted iOS 5’s voice-to-text feature powered by Nuance.

A voice-to-text added to the shopping list feature in Target’s app caught TheNextWeb reader DaringFireball's attention. The feature operates almost identically to how leaked information and screens show Nuance’s rumored voice-to-text technology working in iOS 5. Oh and what company is powering Target’s voice-to-text technology? Nuance.

I downloaded Targets new app, and I agree with iDownloadBlog, if this is how well iOS 5’s voice-to-text feature is going to work, sign me up. It’s accurate, fast, and convenient. The feature simply adds a microphone to the keyboard and when a user wants to talk and have text appear on his/her iPhone all they need to do is touch the microphone and talk.

iOS 5 is due out soon, and the Apple leaks are giving the Interwebs a collective heart attack, but this gem found in Target’s new iOS App eases some of the worry that Nuance’s voice-to-text functionality could somehow be lackluster, or non-existent.

If you want to try the voice-to-text feature out yourself Target’s app is free in The App Store.



Source: iDownloadBlog

[VaderForce]

Works pretty good for with my Australian accent :-)

[Lloyd1941M]

Thank you for sharing！

[AUZambo]

Cool....it does work very well.

[Ryry506]

Apple does need to add voice to text

[mmaboi21]

Nice cover and catch Phil.
This is a very much needed feature for iOS 5

[NiteStar]

Wow. It works flawlessly in my tests. If this is what will be added with ios5, I'm stoked.

[southfrisco]

FACTS:1-Nuance licenses their tech to anyone willing to buy (including Target).2-iOS5 beta is close to gold master (ready for public) and there has been no indication in the iOS5 beta keyboard that voice to text will be integrated.3-If Apple was going to use Nuance integrated in iOS5 wouldn't they purchase a license that would cover their third party app developers? Thus if this was the case they would have offered it as a feature in iOS5 beta saving third party publishers the cost.Voice to text will eventually come to iOS but I just don't see it in iOS5 beta. I don't believe the rumors at all and don't see voice to text in iOS as being anything more than another bullet point that Apple can potentially add next year when iOS6 beta comes out.

[digitalreflex]

Works great for me too, excited for more apps to take advantage of this.

[Bernie-Mac]

FACTS:1-Nuance licenses their tech to anyone willing to buy (including Target).2-iOS5 beta is close to gold master (ready for public) and there has been no indication in the iOS5 beta keyboard that voice to text will be integrated.3-If Apple was going to use Nuance integrated in iOS5 wouldn't they purchase a license that would cover their third party app developers? Thus if this was the case they would have offered it as a feature in iOS5 beta saving third party publishers the cost.Voice to text will eventually come to iOS but I just don't see it in iOS5 beta. I don't believe the rumors at all and don't see voice to text in iOS as being anything more than another bullet point that Apple can potentially add next year when iOS6 beta comes out.

FACT: The lack of a feature in a beta or preview does not solidify it's absence in the final release.

[sziklassy]

This is one of those things that can only be judged when used. I have seen great voice to text applications (google does it right throughout their Android OS) and I have seen it implemented poorly (Apple's current voice search, even with it's limited features, doesn't work nearly as accurately for me as does Google's).

When using my iPhone 4 this is probably the biggest feature I miss. On my EVO I almost never type out a thing when sending SMS unless it is meant to be private and I happen to have an audience at the time.

FACT: The lack of a feature in a beta or preview does not solidify it's absence in the final release.

While you are right in that it doesn't solidify anything, it does give us a strong suggestion. The point of a beta is to test features. With a feature as big as this, one would expect Apple to want anyone and everyone to give it a go so that more bugs are found before going gold rather than after.

[Bernie-Mac]

While you are right in that it doesn't solidify anything, it does give us a strong suggestion. The point of a beta is to test features. With a feature as big as this, one would expect Apple to want anyone and everyone to give it a go so that more bugs are found before going gold rather than after.

One would expect Apple to do a lot of things but they aren't the most orthodox company, are they?

[Matthew_Madlock]

Apple does need to add voice to text

Agreed the only area that android had or has better than iOS depending on if you believe this nuance stuff (I do) is the text to speech and pull down notifications/ notifications in general, otherwise iOS prevails.

[Stumbows]

This is one of those things that can only be judged when used. I have seen great voice to text applications (google does it right throughout their Android OS) and I have seen it implemented poorly (Apple's current voice search, even with it's limited features, doesn't work nearly as accurately for me as does Google's).

When using my iPhone 4 this is probably the biggest feature I miss. On my EVO I almost never type out a thing when sending SMS unless it is meant to be private and I happen to have an audience at the time.


While you are right in that it doesn't solidify anything, it does give us a strong suggestion. The point of a beta is to test features. With a feature as big as this, one would expect Apple to want anyone and everyone to give it a go so that more bugs are found before going gold rather than after.

Except for the fact that they don't need to test it for bugs as they didn't write the code. Nuance did and they would have quite extensive testing I would assume. Therefore they could actually get away with slipping it into the Golden Master without having had it in beta because of that fact that didn't in fact write the code.