Miles's blog

Sometimes new technology really impresses me.  The whole idea of having a computer write you speak has been around since the invention of computers, but now they seem to have really perfected it.

I recently bought a new iPad.  One of the nice features is a microphone button on the keyboard that can record what you say and fill in the field.  For example, I can punch the mic while using the map feature and say “chipotle” and the iPad will understand me, and plot all the Chipotle. (None will be in Stamford, as the closest Chipotle is in Darien.  This has made Chipotle, the staple of so many lunches while I was at the D.A.s office, somewhat of a treat which I indulge in when I go to New York.)  I love this.  I am not the greatest typist in the world and typing on the iPad keyboard is not the easiest thing.  Now I can just talk.

I try to speak clearly and slowly and enunciate, just like when I used to go to court.  Or what I aspired to when I used to go to court.  I used to write a big reminder on top of my pad of paper with my closing argument notes—“Slowly”— to remind myself.  This did not always work, as legions of court reporters (Sherry, primarily) would remind me.  I always liked court reporters but the feeling was not mutual.  You know those pads of paper they use, which are packaged kind of like bricks?  Yeah, the edges are sharp and they hurt.  I learned this painful lesson from experience.

This “talk to your device” technology is central to the iPhone4S use of the assistant “Siri.”  I have not bought a new phone, but I love the commercials. I am reluctant to believe Siri functions as well in practice because every time I have gone to the Apple store and tried to use Siri it either fails to understand me or ignores me.  Very similar to all those court reporters.

I noticed while doing a Google search the other day that in the search bar there is a small microphone.  I pressed it and sure enough it opens a window that says “speak now.”  You can then speak your search request.  Unlike the iPad mic which you have to press the button to indicate you are finished, the Google version stops after a few second of silence. 

Neither of these works simultaneously while you are talking.  They both record what you are saying and then fill in what you said.  The Google search will always be short, of course, just a few words, but I tried the iPad one for a lot longer.  It allowed me to get out about half of the Gettysburg Address.  Perhaps a minute or so.  The dictation will fill in commas and periods if you say them.  It will capitalize a line after a period.  It did not make a paragraph where I said to, but did put in the word “paragraph.”  I am impressed.

So I thought I would test them out.  Google got my name right except it spelled my last name “Madoran.”  Pretty close.  The iPad got it right.  The iPad correctly spelled “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”  Google couldn’t handle that and broke it down into four words.  IPad could not handle “antidisestablishmentarianism” (that is a real word, you can look it up) but Google could.  IPad had “Anti-disestablisment carry Nessim.”  I don’t know who Nessim is, but I like the sentence.

Neither one handles Latin so well.  I tried “res ipsa loquitur” which Google fills in nicely when you are typing.  However, trying to talk to the Google search I got “Race it’s a lot better.”  IPad came up with “Race it’s a lot quicker.”  I did not try “ejusdem generis” because I have no idea how to pronounce it.

IPad had no problem with Kofi Annan, but Google came up with “coffee I’m on” which I liked but would be of no help trying to find articles about what is happening in Syria.

Amazingly they do well with homophones.  I said “I led the leader to the lead mine” to the iPad and it got it right.  Google had two choices, the second was correct, the first was “I read the leader to the lead mine.”  When I tried “I read the child the red book” Google got it right and iPad put “I read the child the Redbook,” which is accurate, but perhaps not good parenting.

I will have to be careful using it. I used the talking keyboard for an email to Noel.  It wrote his name as “knoll.”  Fill in your own joke here.