Tag Archives: microsoft

Review: Windows Speech Recognition

As of late, I have been experimenting with an essentially hidden feature that lies inside of Windows 8. It was present in Windows 7, but has been expanded upon in the more recent versions of Windows. This “hidden” feature is ‘Windows Speech Recognition‘. Much like Apple’s ‘Siri’ for their mobiles and tablets, W.S.R. allows for the user to control their device via speech. The user will say something, and then the computer will act accordingly, and is great for those who are lazy (like myself) who just want to get around their computer without having to reach to their keyboards, or mice. W.S.R. does not only control the computer, but it also allows for the user to dictate: take for example, a Word document to user wants to edit. Instead of having to type their document, said user can simply speak into their microphone and the program will attempt to type out what you had said to it. The program is actually surprisingly accurate and can understand many accents and dialects.

However, the program does not come without flaw. As much as you can navigate the computer basically, when it comes to more advanced operations, Windows Speech Recognition just does not cut the cheese. For example, the program does not have the ability to navigate webpages, which I think is its biggest problem. It only recognises control elements; meaning it can only use buttons, text fields and menus etc. that are part of the program’s interface itself, and it cannot recognise elements on a page. Considering I spend a lot of time on the internet instead of using actual applications, it isn’t really that useful. Sometimes, it’s just better off to use the mouse when navigating, which I believe is a shame.

Pros:

  • Effortless navigation
  • Dictation is very accurate and is good for those who cannot be bothered to type and just want to say what they want in their documents etc.
  • Is very fast in analysing your commands/dictations.

Cons:

  • Can be very tedious
  • Does not support navigation of web-pages
  • Depends heavily on the quality of your microphone; cheap ones, and ones that come with laptops for example may not be picked up well by the program.

I really like the idea of W.S.R. and in some case is very useful, however, in a lot of situations the program is just too tedious to use and you’d be better off just doing it the normal way.

Rating: A* A B C D E F… G?

c-grade: It’s pretty good.

XBOX Rant – Microsoft at Their Best

It just gets better. Looks like Microsoft are forcing people with XBOX 720 consoles to install their games to the system. You may think ‘what’s wrong with that, PS3 does it?’ The problem is what Microsoft intend to do with that feature. They are planning to implement a one system only install – meaning pre-owned games or friend’s games will not work on your console. This is probably one of the worst mistakes they have ever made for so many reasons.

I’m sure everybody likes times where your friend(s) bring round games which you don’t have so you can play together and have fun. Of course, now this is deemed impossible as you now have to own a copy of the game each. I’m sure that everyone likes to go down to the store and spend less money on a pre-owned game that works just like the brand new ones. This is also phased out.

This is just one of Microsoft’s stupid ways of getting more of the dosh. But I personally think that their greed is going across the line here. People are going to be spending so much more money on these things that the prospect of an XBOX 720 seems ridiculous. The console cost, plus XBOX Live costs and now game costs altogether will just stop people from wanting to buy one, as they don’t want to be broke by the end of the month.

I strongly disagree with their decision to do this and it would be much wiser to leave these features as-is. Like I said with the iPhone; people will still buy the product. But I feel as if sales will be brought down as a result of this. Let me know what you think about this matter in the comments.