March 6th, 2009
Microsoft Recite: pointless, tiresome, plain awful
It’s about time I wrote a ranting Friday post. I’ve been taking a look at the Microsoft Recite beta program, which is meant to help you record, search, and retrieve mental notes and reminders using speech. The problem there is the key word: “meant”.
After using this for 20 minutes, the rage bubbled over and I ended up screaming in a fit of rage. Maybe it doesn’t understand my British accent, let alone northern accent; regardless of such, it doesn’t work.
It’s difficult to describe how I feel about this without getting fired. Suffice to say, it’s not worthy of even looking at.
In theory, you are able to record a voice note using your in-built microphone on your Windows Mobile device. From there, you can search within those notes and ask questions back, which then yield the results, playing back the note you previously made.
My colleague Matt Miller, annoyingly disagreed:
“I had a chance to use it on my Palm Treo Pro and think it is a handy utility, especially to use while you are in a place where you cannot write something down (such as while driving).”
Some important points:
- Not many students have Windows Mobile devices, because they crash, they’re slow and they’re bloody expensive;
- Students would rather use a Post-it note or a slip of paper to remind them to do something;
- It just doesn’t work, or at least if it does, not for me nor my friends.
If anyone else has any luck with it, feel free to leave a comment and let me know.
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
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