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.

New Videos Soon To Arrive

OK, everybody.

I know I have said this many times before, saying that I would come back hopefully to do more videos. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes I will upload one video and have done with it for a few months. When I say I’m coming back now, I’m not guaranteeing that I will come back and upload content all the time. Half the time when I say that, it never works out. So, I’m posting this now to tell you that I’ll be uploading a few videos in the future. Some of these videos could include:

• Some sort of Java tutorial
• Continuation of my earlier Flash Pro tutorials on how to make a simple point and click game with AS3.
• Continuaton of my Unity tutorials (since these are seemingly popular)
• Possibly some Cinema 4D

Getting used to some new software, so new content should be even better than before. Hope you enjoy the new content. :3

 

iPhone 5 Rumours Are Back

Rumours have been going round recently that there will be a new iPhone which is supposedly going to be released this Autumn (Fall). The iPhone 5 is supposed of have the 4G LTE support that the new iPad has, and some ports have been moved around and made smaller so better components can be added in. (not specified.) The screen is also bigger, due to the home button being resized down by half, and there is also rumours that there is actually a complete re-design.

Fan Made iPhone 5

Review: Nintendo 3DS

Hey readers, this time I’m reviewing the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo’s newest portable console. First of all, even when I was unboxing this I knew it was gonna be epic. And I was right. The graphics are amazing, I was stunned when I first turned it on. There are so many improvements not only to the graphics, but to the interface. Not only is the 3DS more responsive, it’s entire UI has been revamped to suit the user much easier and it is much easier to get to things.

It's nice isn't it!