| Software Author: |
Fonix Corporation |
| Title: |
Fonix TimeTalk Alert (TTA) and Commander |
| Cost: |
TimeTalk Alert is $29.95 and Commander is $19.95. |
| Reviewed By: |
Matthew Miller |
| Storage: |
TimeTalk Alert is 8.4MB download and minimum 2MB on Pocket PC and Commander is 1.8MB download and 300k on Pocket PC |
| Rating for TimeTalk Alert: |
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| Rating for Commander: |
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Fonix Corporation recently released Fonix TimeTalk Alert (TTA through rest of review) for the Pocket PC. The application works on all Pocket PC 2000 and 2002 devices using a MIPS, SH3, or ARM processor. TTA is a Text-to-Speech program that speaks your upcoming Calendar and Task appointments so you can be doing something else (i.e. driving) and be reminded of your upcoming appointments. The program can also be used to listen to your next four calendar or task events by clicking on the appropriate icon. There is also a digital clock feature that reads aloud the current time in quarter, half or full hour increments.
Fonix has created two very clear voices using the concatenative technology that includes inflections, intonations, and pauses. You can select from either Roger or Jessica and each voice will take 4MB of RAM on your device. I selected Roger for my review and evaluation. You can also select from nine other voices that are digital and together take up about 1MB. I tried these voices, but was not very pleased with them and have enough RAM to use a quality voice. If you are RAM limited, they will work fine for you but just will not sound as human and pleasant.
When you first start the TTA application a splash screen goes by followed by the main screen. The main display is skinnable and comes with three skin options built-in; Professional, Elegant, and Contemporary. You can also create custom skins by using these as guides. There is a speaker icon in the upper right corner that can be tapped to turn off the voices as they are speaking. The display is separated into 3 blocks; the Next Alert Area contains details of the next alert in you Calendar or Task database, the Calendar Events area contains a list of the next four alerts, and the Tasks Due area contains the next four alerts. You can tap the icon on the left to hear the alerts in each area spoken. If you tap the event itself, you will be taken to the Calendar or Task application and you will see the TTA popup. The popup allows you to jump back to TTA or minimize the program.
Main Display with Elegant skin
Main Display with Professional skin
Main Display with Contemporary skin, my personal favorite
The Options screen has 3 tabs at the top to customize your options. On the alert page you can enable alerts and set how and when you want to be alerted. You can customize what will be said for the alert message and select a .wav file as the chime sound. TTA comes with several sounds, but you may also load your own .wav files. You can also have TTA announce the time at 15 minutes, 30 minutes and every hour. I tested this and it did not announce the time unless my device was on. The final tab allows you to select what voice will be speaking the alerts and the volume of your device. Changing this volume level will change your device volume level. You can't have different levels for the alerts and your device.
Tools menu
Alert options screen
Chimes options screen
Speech options screen
When an alert is activated, an alert popup will appear graphically when an alert is spoken. The alert popup will appear on top of the current screen and the current screen will fade in the background. You can then tap OK, Snooze, or Repeat. You can also choose to completely exit TTA rather than minimizing it and a warning message will popup to make sure you really want to completely exit the program. However, I started several programs and PPC 2002 closed TTA while managing the memory and I never received a warning message. Thus you have to watch to make sure too many programs are not running and push TTA to exit. There is also a detailed help file that is loaded on your device and can be accessed from the main TTA display.
Alert Pop-up
Help file
TTA also has a digital clock function that will display the date and time. This is a handy function to run while your device is docked on your desk. You can hear the date spoken if you tap the upper half of the display and you can hear the time spoken if you tap the lower half of the display.
Digital clock function
There is a FAQ section on their site that answers basic questions you may have. Fonix Corporation has a User's Discussion Forum although there was only one comment in it when I visited the site.
Fonix Commander is a speech recognition program that allows you to launch certain applications or tasks using your voice. The list of supported commands varies with your processor and basically includes all applications installed in ROM and TimeTalk Alert. I have an HP567 that came with Mobile Conversay and thus did not find Commander useful. Mobile Conversay allows you to choose any program you loaded on your device to be launched and I did not like the limitations of Commander. Commander could be useful to those who have a Thumb-type keyboard and want to launch applications using their voice, but you still have to use your stylus to create a new document or open documents in the application. If you don't say anything or Commander doesn't recognize your words, the application takes you back to the home menu, which I personally never use on my 567. I tested it in a quiet room and found the distance of 100% recognition to be about 1 foot away from my mouth. It does do a nice job of recognizing what I say and does launch the application quickly.
Bars represent volume through amplitude meter
Bottom Line: The TimeTalk Alert program is well worth your money if you regularly miss appointments or are on the road and want your upcoming alerts spoken to you. I work in an engineering office that is very quiet and can't really use this program unless I am out and about and find it is great for when I give demonstrations on the power of the Pocket PC. Fonix Commander may be useful to you and if you buy the TimeTalk Alert application from their site and get if for free then you may want to keep it on your Pocket PC. However, I cannot recommend purchasing Commander for $20 and am disappointed that there is no trial for users to test out the application.
You can buy both programs directly from the Fonix site and now Fonix Commander is included FREE with TimeTalk Alert. TimeTalk Alert is available for $29.95 from PocketGear. You can also download a free 15-day trial. Commander is available for $19.95
from PocketGear,
but no trial version is available.
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