Nuance intros Dragon Remote Microphone for iOS
updated 03:20 pm EDT, Mon June 13, 2011
Reminder of tech missing from iOS 5 beta
Nuance has released Dragon Remote Microphone, a free app for iOS devices. The software is relatively simple, serving as input for the company's Dragon and NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software. Users must be within Wi-Fi range of the target computer, and in the case of NaturallySpeaking be running at least v11.5 on a Windows system.
Much more had been expected of Nuance last week, when Apple hosted WWDC 2011 in San Francisco. Apple is thought to be using technology from Nuance and Siri to develop advanced voice commands for iOS 5, such as complex search strings. Commands in iOS 4 are restricted to simple music and calling options.
No new voice technology was announced for iOS 5 at WWDC, prompting speculation about what had happened. The bottleneck may have been Siri's technology, which allegedly wasn't integrated in time. Apple could still be preparing to implement advanced voice in time for iOS 5's launch in the fall; it might even be holding on to the feature as extra luster for new iPhones and iPods.
