The Future iPod…Today (No iPod Needed)

I saw about 50 articles today on the next generation iPod that will ‘speak’ the name of the song you are listening to. The thing that got me is that everyone is going nuts over this as being revolutionary. David Pogue even quoted Apple as saying "the new Shuffle is the world’s first talking music player, thanks to a new feature called VoiceOver." First? Wow, that’s impressive.

Then I whipped out my Fuze, went to Settings – Voice Command and made sure the Media selection was checked and the option ‘Announce media selections’ was checked and enabled Voice Command. I also mapped by PTT button on a short press to launch Voice Command then opened Windows Media Player and went to town.

What can Voice Command do with music?

Say

• Play anything to play all media.
• Play music to have Voice Command guide you through selecting music.
  (Variant: Play media).
• Play album, to choose from available albums.
  (Also: Play artist and Play genre).
• Play <album> to listen a specific album.
  (Also: Play <artist>, Play <genre> and Play album by <artist>).
• Next Track, Previous Track, Play, Pause, or Stop to control Windows Media.
• Turn Shuffle On to play tracks randomly.
  (Also: Turn Shuffle Off).
• What song is this? to hear about the current track.
  (Variant: What track is this?).

Examples

• Play Artist
• Play Scott Bishop Band
• Play Album by Scott Bishop Band
• Play Rock
• What track is this?
• Stop

And since you probably always have your phone in your pocket what’s the sense of having a second device taking up room especially when you already have its best feature? Voice Command has been out a few years now and comes standard on the Fuze so it’s nice to see that Apple finally invented.