Two Slashes

Microsoft may be known for Windows and Office and their fun little grip on the computing world, but they certainly aren’t known for a lot of their smaller technologies, and especially not for their voice recognition.  Some people still remember the incident during one of their demos prior to Windows Vista’s launch showing off just how much work went into the product in the first place (hint:  not much, at least at that point) and decided to make a subtle jab with the title of the post.

Someone must have taken the proverbial Q-tip to the Redmond campus, though, or at least picked up a pair of hearing aids.  It seems that Microsoft’s at it again with a new tech demo just in time for the Mobile World Congress, this time designed for Windows Mobile phones (like my Treo Pro).  Called Microsoft Recite, it’s not so much speech-to-text as it is an intelligent voice recorder.

My previous PDA, the Palm Tungsten|T2, also had a voice recording feature, though I rarely put it to use.  If you can keep the recordings straight and organized (something I never bothered to do), then the idea has potential for you.  But, at least in my experience, having to listen to every recording you have on you just to find the one little tidbit of information you need means it’s often more efficient in the long run to just have a handwritten/typed notepad open and draw or key the relevant information in rather than vocalize it.

Recite is designed to change that, though, because it offers a vocalized “search” feature.  After recording whatever notes you have onto your phone, you can tap Search and speak what you’re looking for; if you’re lucky, the relevant audio clip you recorded earlier will begin to play.  At least, that’s the theory.

Even in demo form, the software works reasonably well.  From a functionality standpoint, it works well enough to consider making it a daily-use tool, but I encountered a few accuracy issues that might make me think twice about relying on it as my only method of note-taking.  And while the interface could benefit from being touch-enabled for devices with a touchscreen (like mine; it took me a few seconds to figure out that I couldn’t tap the delete icon to remove notes), the interface is (and I can’t believe I’m saying this about a Microsoft product) somewhat intuitive.  It responded quickly (or at least well enough for my tastes), and there’s not a bunch of clutter floating around the screen making it look like the second coming of Microsoft Office.  Not that there’s much to the application in the first place, though.  (Click the screenshot – or here – for an animated GIF of every screen you’ll be staring at.)

I can see this as possibly being useful for reporters, as they can quickly pull up tidbits of interviews without having to cycle through gobs of unrelated and unnecessary recordings, provided they remember at least something their subject was saying.  Students too might find some benefit, but I personally wouldn’t have too much use in an educational capacity.  (My excuse?  It’s the major.  Everything’s already digitized. )

It’s a small app, and if you have a Windows Mobile phone with a little free space, it’s at least worth a shot if you work best with audio and carry around a cassette recorder in your shirt pocket.  Otherwise, stick with my personal favorite, Evernote.