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Overview:
 If
you are a take-charge sort of person or if you are a little lazy, you?ll
wonder how you survived without voice command on your Windows Mobile 2003-based
Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone Edition. It is a virtual assistant that provides
a simple and convenient way for you to access your pocket companion with intuitive
voice commands.
While it is primarily designed for use with the Pocket PC Phone, it works equally
well with any Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 or Windows Mobile Second Edition.
The idea of hands-free operation is not only a convenience but a practical safety
feature as well. It will bring up a name in your contact list, an appointment,
call a friend, or launch any program. It will even play your favorite tune or
audio book and backtrack or advance as you wish. If you get tongue tied and
don?t know what to say, just say, ?What can I say?? and it
will tell you what you can say. Nothing could be more intuitive or easy to use.
As long as the program works so well, why does it not have greater depth for
such things as editing? I hope that future versions will pay attention to other
common tasks and operations and incorporate appropriate commands into the program.
Increased consumer demand has now driven Microsoft Voice Command to the shelves
of retail outlets. Previously it was only available for download on Handango.com
where it is, of course still available. Actually, this is a significant event,
for it is the first time that Microsoft has made a Pocket PC product available
in retail stores.
For a boxed version of this best-selling voice-controlled software, you may
visit any of these new retail partners: CompUSA, Fry?s, Amazon, Microcenter,
J&R, MobilePlanet, CRW and distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
In addition to Voice Command, the new Entertainment PocketPak is also now available
in the retail stores mentioned above. Entertainment Pocket Pac features ten
popular Pocket PC game titles, and is perfect for ?in-between? times
while on the go. It costs $29.95 or three bucks a game, which I suppose isn?t
too steep overall.
 Microsoft
Entertainment PocketPak includes:
? BlackJack -- Lose your shirt playing BlackJack on your Pocket PC.
? Chess -- The classic game of chess.
? Cinco -- Cinco is a word game where you try to guess a word by matching
letters in other words.
? FreeCell -- The Solitaire card game that's become a desktop favorite.
? Hearts -- A card game where all hearts and the Queen of Spades are to
be avoided. It's also infrared-play enabled.
? Minesweeper -- Find the mines before they find you.
? Reversi -- An ancient Chinese tile game -- the person with the most
tiles when the board is full wins. Infrared-play enabled.
? Sink the Ships -- Fill a grid with ships, then hunt out your opponents.
Also infrared-play enabled.
? Space Defense -- Stop the incoming lasers before they destroy your outposts.
? Taipei -- Tile matching game -- remove all the tiles to get a fortune.
If you haven?t tried Voice Command, you owe it to yourself to establish
a more intimate relationship with your pocket companion and to get on speaking
terms with it. I think you will come to agree with me that not having Voice
Command on your Pocket PC is like having candy without chocolate.
Note: For a more in-depth review of Voice Command, see the review of Voice
Command in PocketPC Life by Tim Hillebrand
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