Voice-Recognition

I keep being pleasantly amazed at how good the voice-recognition is on my iPhone.
I keep my grocery-lists on it, mainly because I’m always carrying it, so can enter things immediately.
I had been keying into my iPhone’s virtual-keyboard before. That virtual-keyboard can be irksome.
My hairdresser, a techno-geek, suggested I try voice-recognition. It’s what he always does; and he’s the guy that got me into a SmartPhone.
I was leery of that because of how awful the voice-recognition was on my car’s Microsoft Sync.
“Please say a command.”
“Call Cathy,” I say.
It calls someone else, like my railfan friend down in Altoona, PA.
So I was leery of trying my iPhone’s voice-recognition.
But my iPhone is pretty good at taking commands.
“Call Cathy,” I’d say.
It would call Cathy, unlike my car.
So I tried voice-recognition on my iPhone.
First was a text.
I texted my brother in northern DE, and it goofed a little, but not enough to disable communication.
So I didn’t edit.
Then the other day I decided to try voice-recognition on my grocery-lists.
CHALLENGE TIME:
“Naproxen-Sodium,” I said.
“Naproxen Soon,” it cranked.
Wow, a simple edit, and faster than that virtual-keyboard.
“Bananas,” I said.
“Bananas,” it cranked.
Wow; not bad!
That night I tried another challenge.
“Canned chicken,” I said.
“Canned chicken,” it cranked.
The next morning I said “oranges.”
It cranked “oranges.”
When I compare this to the voice-recognition in my car I’m pleased. Would that Ford had engaged Apple instead of Microsoft.
What I hate most is the voice-recognition in my car putting through a phonecall into the hinterlands I can’t get out of.
If I command it to call my brother (“Jack”), or my niece’s husband (“Kevin”), it will do so.
But it’s unreliable.
There’s my railfan friend in Altoona, PA wondering why I called.
Thanks Sync for making me look stupid!
Disconnect my iPhone from Sync, and it will actually call who I commanded through voice-recognition = I can depend in it.
Bill has to stop counting his billions and get his act together.
“We’re working on it,” he always says.
Steve already has.

• “My railfan friend down in Altoona, PA” is Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”). I’m a railfan myself, and together we chase trains down in Altoona.
• “Bill” is Bill Gates, founder and head-honcho of Microsoft. “Steve” is Steve Jobs, recently deceased of pancreatic cancer, founder and head-honcho of Apple Computer. —The iPhone is an Apple product.