As promised, here are some screen shots of Yahoo OneSearch Voice in action on an AT&T Blackberry Pearl 8120.
The installation was pretty simple. I went to http://m.yahoo.com/voice, clicked yes to a couple things and the install went ahead.
One troubling note was a disclaimer on the install page that deserves more investigation later on: “For devices that support WiFi, please make sure to turn off the WiFi option before starting the application.”
I chose not to change permissions on the device at install time, so I was instead forced to approve the changes the first time I ran OneSearch.
I learned quickly that I had to hold down the Call button while speaking. Once I discovered that little detail, I was able to speak into the phone to find the status of a flight (that I am not going to be on) or look for a sushi restaurant in town. (I actually ate at the first restaurant listed last night–the Unagi was spectacular.)
What is startling about OneSearch Voice is how quickly I was able to get going with the application. Having spent a lot of time with Dragon voice recognition software recently, I expected there would be some period of training to get the software accustomed to my voice. But there was none at all. The first two questions I asked it (while holding the button down, of course), yielded exactly the results I was looking for.
OneSearch Voice is available now for BlackBerry devices, and Yahoo expects to have the software available via operators on new devices sometime this summer.