- Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting
- Enterprise Accounting Software
- Financial Management Solutions
- Small and Medium Sized Business Accounting Software
- Treasury, Cash and Risk Management
- Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
- Business Intelligence Software
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Enterprise Performance Management
- Reporting and End-User Query Tools
- RFID-- Radio Frequency Identification
- Warehouse Management Software
- Customer Experience Management (CEM)
- Customer Information Management
- Sales and Marketing Software
- Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
- Facilities Management and Maintenance
- Electronic Medical Billing Systems
- Healthcare Inventory Management
- Employee Benefits Administration
- Employee Relationship Management (ERM)
- Human Resources and Payroll Software
- Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Workforce Planning and Management
- Enterprise Content Management
- Information Lifecycle Management
- Advanced Planning and Scheduling
- Integrated Manufacturing Solutions
- Manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (MERP)
- Product Life Cycle Management (PLM)
- Project Management Solutions
- Resource Planning and Scheduling
- Web, Video and Audio Conferencing
- Data Center Power Management
- Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC)
- Cloud Computing Applications
- Database Planning and Implementation
- Enterprise Application Integration
- Enterprise Application Integration Middleware
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Business Service Management (BSM)
- Business Technology Optimization
- Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM)
- Enterprise Resource Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
- IT Service Management (ITSM)
- Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
- Technology Planning and Analysis
- BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Network Configuration Management Software
- Fraud Detection & Prevention
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention
- IT Security Frameworks and Standards
- Threat and Vulnerability Management
- Virtual Private Network Security
- Data Center & Storage Solutions
- Network Attached Storage (NAS)
- Remote and Offsite Data Storage
- SAN Virtualization and Consolidation
- Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
- Application Performance Management (APM)
- Enterprise Systems Management
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Software Configuration Management (SCM)
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Electronic Catalog Management
- Electronic Commerce Interchange (EDI-XML)
Posted by Jared Newman
on June 18 2013
Nuance's Dragon Mobile Assistant app for Android has just received a big update, including a Driver Mode that automatically starts listening for voice commands and reading notifications when you're behind the wheel.
Driver Mode is supposed to prevent you from ever having to touch your phone in the car. Instead of fiddling with buttons, you can simply say "Hello Dragon" to begin a voice command. Driver Mode can be set to turn on automatically when your phone connects to the car's Bluetooth system, docking station, or by audio cable. In theory, Dragon can also turn on Driver Mode when the car starts moving by detecting the phone's GPS location.
The motion detection feature is most interesting, because many cars still don't have built in Bluetooth or a docking station for Android phones. However, I didn't have much luck getting this feature to work properly.
While driving around my neighborhood with GPS tracking and motion detection enabled, Dragon's Driver Mode never activated on its own. Strangely, background voice detection did engage on occasion when I opened the Dragon app, but I couldn't reliably duplicate this occurrence. Besides, having to open the app defeats the purpose of automatic voice detection.
It doesn't help that Dragon's settings menu for Driver Mode is confusing. Under Driver Mode settings, there are options to turn on background voice detection and read aloud notifications. However, these are actually options to permanently turn on these features, whether you're driving or not. Their placement within Dragon's settings menu is misleading.
To make things worse, turning on voice detection and read aloud notifications can be a big battery drain, and caused my HTC One to become hot. Also, each of these features, when enabled, create a persistent icon and line on the Android notification bar.
The good news us that if you have one of the other connection methods available, Dragon's Driver Mode works much more reliably. When I plugged in an audio cable, voice detection and read out notifications both switched on immediately, and they turned off as soon as I unplugged the cable. And thanks to the new update, you can now have Facebook notifications read aloud to you while you drive, and can dictate entire emails.
With a Bluetooth connection, docking station or audio cable, Dragon's new Driver Mode can be a handy hands-free solution for Android phones. Just don't expect the driving detection to work nearly as well.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
« Solar-powered smartphone charging stations land in New York CityNEXT ARTICLE
Why I'll miss skeuomorphism in iOS »Martin Veitch's inside track on today’s tech trends
Keri Allan looks at the latest trends and technologies
Trevor Clawson on the outlook for UK Tech startups
Do you think your smartphone is making you a workaholic?
Do you think your smartphone is making you a workaholic?
Yes
No
I'm working on keeping a work-life balance