[Q] Problem with Voice Actions/Vlingo??? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989

I am quite frustrated, and wondering if there is a problem with my phone, or if I could have made some sort of unintentional setting change for my SGS2. I have had the phone for 2 weeks with no problems, but all of a sudden today my Google Voice Actions and Vlingo will not work. From my best assessment, it is not hearing my voice or not hearing it well enough to make anything out. Whenever I speak something into the phone -- and I have done this on this phone and my HD2 so I'm not new to speaking my requests -- it will sometimes immediately come back and say "No Matches Found". Once in a while it will open a browser window, and try to searc for 1 or two or three letter gibberish words: i.e. "bh", or "fns", or "g". It certainly does NOT recognize ANYTHING it used to! Just for fun, I downloaded JEANNIE, which seems to be another voice-action-type program. That also does not work. The microphone icon doesn't seem to light up much (which further makes me think it cannot "hear" me, and the program responds with, "pardon?" Phone calls I make are ok -- people can hear me -- just not these programs!! IS there a setting that I could have changed that prevents the programs from hearing my voice?? BTW, I did try to go to the Voice Actions app in MANAGE PROGRAMS and erased data, but that didn't help.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I'll take it back to the store and see if they'll exchange it or know what's going on!
Thank you all for your reading this and for your help!
Wingmann

Did you reboot or at least kill and restart the app?

uninstall it and then reintall it i just tested mines and i hav no issuses but ive only had my sinse thursday plus i rooted mines and removed most of the carrier apps

dude vlingo sucks man, the galaxy version is so much better

Does anyone know how, when in car mode, to get VLingo to navigate to a contact (say Home, for example)? You would think this would be a basic function for a hands-free program in car mode, but I can't figure it out. Everytime I say "Navigate to Home", it tries to take me to some Home bakery or something like that. Can I even navigate to an address I give it with this thing?
I know it's been overhyped, but Siri is the one thing from that fruit phone I wish this phone had. Don't get me wrong. I was so close to getting the "other" phone, but opted for the Samsung instead. And after playing around with the iphone, I'm glad I did. But Vlingo seriously makes me want to punch it in the screen sometimes.

Well, I figured out how to get Vlingo to go home. Go to Vlingo->Settings->Voice talk Settings->Home address and type in your home address. Now you can say "Navigate to Home".
But after using it more, I see more problems with it. Vlingo can navigate to restaurants, but not contacts. It can call contacts, but not restaurants. WTF Vlingo?!? Can we get all of the above please in the near future?

Related

Extra Security

How can I prevent my phone from being answered and displayed, unless a password is provided?
The current security, only prevents you from using the device, but if there is an incoming phone call, you are able to SEE it and ANSWER it.
Thanks
switch it off in comm manager then lock your device
LOL that would be a solution but i prefer to have the phone on.

			
				
By the time you put in your password, the caller will have been directed to voicemail.
You can try "slide 2 unlock"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=353008
It is showing your incoming calls too but you can set it to use the slider to answer this call.
You can still answer the phone with S2U on. Why would you want to do this anyway?
As one of the contributors has said, by the time you had entered a password to answer the phone the caller would have dropped off. Boyfriend/girfriend trouble perhaps?
WB
You Guys are incorrect about the call going to voicemail before entering the password. My Motorola Razor, has this type of security built in.
You cant view the caller, answer it or do anything with the phone until you put in the password. I put my phone down alot and people have a habit of answering my phone.
I got a question also about the security
I ONLY want to lock my sms/email/mms with a pass..
Most phones can do that but windows mobile not..
Help?
i guess no one knows how to do this
have you googled?
this one may fit the bill, I especially like the hard reset option, loads of fun to be had by finding ya mates device entering the password incorrectly a few times and then forcing a hard reset
http://www.totalpocketpc.com/PS_4.0_Website/default.html
http://classic.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=18993&associateid=17
All Hardware Buttons Become ‘Disabled’ While Device is Locked.
that program is no good, it still allows incoming phone calls to be displayed and answered while device is locked
is there any kind of help out there
Did you try the magical "SILENCE" function ? activated it, then no one will know when your phone is Ringing or new SMS are coming EVEN you left the phone at the meeting room . And the BEST of it, YOU CAN LEFT THE PHONE ON !!! ( Like I do when I'm sleep or at the gym).
i want to hear the phone but if i chose not to pick up, then i wont. The whole point of security is soo OTHERS cant get to your phone.
always put your phone in your pockets
ughhhh someone got to know
Hmmm ... sounds like what you're seeking is a very personal enhancement that nobody using a WM device has needed until now. If nobody has offered a usable suggestion, and you can't find anything with an Internet search, then, as I see it, you have only two options:
1) Go get that Razr
2) Take advantage of WM's extensibility, and write your own cutomized app. You can do it in PPL or MS C++ ... maybe a few other languages. If you do a good job, you might even be able to make a few bucks on it
-pvs
pvs said:
Hmmm ... sounds like what you're seeking is a very personal enhancement that nobody using a WM device has needed until now. If nobody has offered a usable suggestion, and you can't find anything with an Internet search, then, as I see it, you have only two options:
1) Go get that Razr
2) Take advantage of WM's extensibility, and write your own cutomized app. You can do it in PPL or MS C++ ... maybe a few other languages. If you do a good job, you might even be able to make a few bucks on it
-pvs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1)
2) Amen !!!

SMS-like or SMS replacement software options

My wife and I both now have WM phones (mine is a Tilt 2, hers a Pure) and we don't want to spend money on text messages to each other, since each text message would count twice... once for her receiving and once for me sending. (on a pay per use plan it would be $0.40 each!).
I was looking for other options. Push email is o.k. but often times there can be a minute or more delay, and my early tests of push gmail are not producing any confidence that it would push reliably.
So then I was thinking IM. It looks like IM programs would be battery hogs, and have to stay running in the background, and could easily be accidentally closed. Also, when the phone goes to sleep it seems like they then switch you to "offline".
So am I missing something? What are my sms like, non sms options?
Also does anyone have any small programs that would set up a auto-soft reset on a repeating schedule, it would be great if I could start the morning with a fresh phone. Thanks.
boufa said:
My wife and I both now have WM phones (mine is a Tilt 2, hers a Pure) and we don't want to spend money on text messages to each other, since each text message would count twice... once for her receiving and once for me sending. (on a pay per use plan it would be $0.40 each!).
I was looking for other options. Push email is o.k. but often times there can be a minute or more delay, and my early tests of push gmail are not producing any confidence that it would push reliably.
So then I was thinking IM. It looks like IM programs would be battery hogs, and have to stay running in the background, and could easily be accidentally closed. Also, when the phone goes to sleep it seems like they then switch you to "offline".
So am I missing something? What are my sms like, non sms options?
Also does anyone have any small programs that would set up a auto-soft reset on a repeating schedule, it would be great if I could start the morning with a fresh phone. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, any non-sms messaging app for your phone would obviously use data (3G or EDGE connection) to communicate, and would need to be left on all the time to be able to receive incoming messages and notify you in real-time...so battery drain would be in direct proportion to that.
The best solution I've ever seen for that is Palringo, a free IM-integrator app that can connect you through most of the common IM networks (yahoo, AIM, Google talk, etc), or just direct through it's own (if I remember correctly)...meaning that as long as you and she both have the palringo client installed, you don't necessarily have to use any of those services to be able to IM each other. It's also free, and I seem to recall that it can be set (but isn't by default) to stay connected even when the phone goes to sleep, but don't quote me on that part.
It would be great if one of these programs had a "listening" service that would run in the background and then notify you of the "call" similar to an email.
I have seen a few online, (my research has just begun) that indicates "push notifications". Sound interesting, the data connection would remain active all the time that does not bother me.
I seem to have lost the setting to switch the "x" button from close to minimize. That would solve the issue with accidental closing the program. It would have to be managed via the task manager.. no biggy.. and then if I can find a soft reset scheduler it would keep the open programs from overwhelming the phone.
boufa said:
It would be great if one of these programs had a "listening" service that would run in the background and then notify you of the "call" similar to an email.
I have seen a few online, (my research has just begun) that indicates "push notifications". Sound interesting, the data connection would remain active all the time that does not bother me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you'll find one, please let me know
lost the setting to switch the "x" button from close to minimize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's the other way around. default for winmo is minimize, there is
an htc bundled app called taskman. it's in settings - task manager which is making apps close when you click X
plenty of other apps can change that too
and then if I can find a soft reset scheduler it would keep the open programs from overwhelming the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i made myself app doing change on backlight settings every morning and evening, I changed it for you to do reset
give it a try tell me if it's working for you and if error will pop up let me know what's it saying, at least line number

Google Voice Actions - Your Experiences

How you all finding this?
It can dictate a text no problem, but doesn't seem to pick up the TO: field for me.
So if I say "send text to bob how are you" it will fill in "2 bob how are you" in the message field and leave the TO field empty. how are you getting on? It's still pretty cool. And you can say things like "call 08665242424" and it gets that perfect. Although when I say "call Joe" it just won't find the appropriate entry on my SIM card.
hey,
So far with the actions, i had a little bit of troubling getting it to call my contacts e.g. "call Paul C" an it suggests everyone else in my list with the surname C except "Paul C" also the text thing doesnt seem to work at all, but i have found it's very good at web searching and also when you have already entered the texting menu, i think once it gets the support for different countries it will be really good and fun to use.
At the minute its more of a novelty, but it could become very very useful.
We had a lot of fun earlier as what I said and what the phone thought I said was so different!
e.g.
Send a text to Teresa to say hello
=
Send a text recycle au
I did manage to get the thing to give me directions to Skegness (although I was trying to call somebody at the time).
Maybe I need to lay on an american accent and try again
But... But... But... It worked so well in the little video!
Very hit and miss for me. If it works, it works spot on 100% and great. If it fails, it fails epically.
Same here. If it works, it works, if not, well I just hope I'm not showing it off to a friend as it can make an ass of itself.
The text action? Doesn't work for me at all. Neither does setting an alarm. Getting directions is perhaps the most reliable voice action of all. Calling people is hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just doesn't complete the action. I'll say, "Call Claire XYZ Mobile", and it displays a list of 'did you mean?' options. The top one is usually right, but when I click it it Googles it as a search term!
The Alarm is still in development
the fact it requires a data connection means its learning as it goes. Recording 10000s of new words per day and linking them based by region. In time it should be able to learn words with accents etc so well that its hard to fool.
at the moment it is certainly more novelty than technological wow. but.. I think it will get there. I wish you could "teach it" by sampling your address book. I mean you click on a contacts name and then say it 5 times and the google learns how this name is pronounced in your region. then it recognizes it next time. I think they'll get there. this is a good start.
If it learns as it goes, then all those who set theory phone to US English may not be helping out develop the software for their own language if each voice request is sent out with a language tag from the phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
How do I know what version of "voice search" I have?
I used the QR code from the google blog and and doesn't recognize some of them.
For example, it will recognize "note to self I am cool" but it will ask to do a search instead of noting to self.
It picks up very few words I say correctly. Usually "call" it always gets correct. Brilliant concept but not very practical for the masses yet.
-----------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
I've found this terrible so far, 0% success rate! Even speaking in most clearest English with no background noise.
Maybe you have more success with an American accent??
But the odd thing is that the previous "search by voice" and technologies such as Translate both recognise voice really really well.
As with most of you, no success at all.. another interesting thing is set it to US English and hold it up to your speakers and play the guy from the Youtube video talking and it fails to get correct anything he says as well so I would like to know how they got 100% success rate in the video.
I have had limited success with it set to US english, one big problem is the "listen to" command, it insists that I need to install a music player, I have spotify installed (which is on the approved list) but voice action does not appear to recognise that it is there.
thejinx0r said:
How do I know what version of "voice search" I have?
I used the QR code from the google blog and and doesn't recognize some of them.
For example, it will recognize "note to self I am cool" but it will ask to do a search instead of noting to self.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is looking for the nearest psychiatrist, as it has deduced you are in urgent need thereof
Like the previous voice to text, it mainly accepts US english inflection, for the moment being.
However in my fake mafioso-US-english accent I could manage to type some emails, but I couldn't, for the hell of it, make it recognize the 'to' field most of the times. I think you really have to speak it all together "send email (no pause) to xyz (pause) how are you ?"
Too many "SERVER PROBLEM" .... not good.
OK, I've figured it out. It works and works just as accurate as in the Google vid. You just have to speak at your normal pace and the phone no more than around 6 inches away.
I can use US and UK accents to get it working. I've moved around enough to know them well.
-----------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
I have tried it for directions, navigation, voice dialing good.text message no go on generic htc sense 2.2.
Northern irish accent.
Just saying one word searches for pizza, thai, pubs god tho.bruins up google search entries by location.plus point
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

[Q] Transferring phone contacts into Pioneer DEH-X6600BT

It's not happening and I am frustrated.
I just got this system installed two days ago. My Bluetooth connects and I can play music and answer or make calls, but my contacts and phone history will not sync over to the receiver.
I click yes on the dialog box when it asks to transfer the information, but it never transfers. I called Pioneer once but the rep was not much help. He suggested I delete the phone from the receiver and start over again. I did that. I called the installer and he suggested I do that as well as turn Bluetooth on and off. I did that.
I am going to go see the installer Monday if I can't get it figured out. It appears I am doing everything I should be doing but it seems the phone is blocking the transfer. I even tried selecting all my contacts and sharing them with Bluetooth and then the receiver but the send file fails.
Any suggestions as to what might be blocking this sync?
Hey I have the same deck as you and what you are trying to do is not possible for the time I spend with it and if you did manage to sync them what are the benefits? Look at your contact list when you leave your phone behind but can't do anything with said contacts because you don't have a phone? Doesn't make much sense right.
That dialog box that comes up when you first pair with the deck is asking you permission to access the phone contacts and not download/sync them.
When your phone is connected you can push the phone button and will let your scroll through your contact list and press the button again to call. Well that's all I remember what to do when I used the phone part of this deck, which is not a lot.
Hope this cleared some things up.
Also if I'm completely off base and you are having trouble with the contacts not displaying or showing when someone calls, then you got a bad unit.
max53389 said:
Hey I have the same deck as you and what you are trying to do is not possible for the time I spend with it and if you did manage to sync them what are the benefits? Look at your contact list when you leave your phone behind but can't do anything with said contacts because you don't have a phone? Doesn't make much sense right.
That dialog box that comes up when you first pair with the deck is asking you permission to access the phone contacts and not download/sync them.
When your phone is connected you can push the phone button and will let your scroll through your contact list and press the button again to call. Well that's all I remember what to do when I used the phone part of this deck, which is not a lot.
Hope this cleared some things up.
Also if I'm completely off base and you are having trouble with the contacts not displaying or showing when someone calls, then you got a bad unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Gilbert for the reply.
When I push any of the phone menu buttons, I don't get any information. It just says "transferring."
I decided to call Samsung yesterday and twice got on remote access, but both times I hit the wrong button on my stereo and the calls were lost. When I called the third time I started speaking with someone who was going to get me back to the remote access department and he asked me how many contacts I was trying to sync over. I told him about 1,800. He said, "Whoa, I can tell you from experience that generally car stereo receivers only sync up to 900 contacts."
So, I worked all night last night on my contacts. They were a mess and even if this doesn't work the guy did me a huge favor because I was able to shave my contact list down to 564 and unlinked them all from old Verizon backup assistant and Microsoft Exchange contacts. It was an ugly job that truly needed to be done.
Anyway, I have not tried to allow access yet. I am going to try in a little while and then I will report back in.
Well, it's been ugly, but things are working out .... weirdly!
After cleaning up my stock contact app, the contacts finally became visible but they are still being linked in with Microsoft Outlook contacts. I have tried every which way for them not to show up. I even deleted everyone of them from my computer and they are still showing up when I Bluetooth the stereo.
Well at least you got it working for you and seemed like you overwhelmed the unit with all those contacts.
But I find that strange that you can't get those contacts from showing up. So you deleted those outlook contacts from your computer but did you on the phone? Also have you disabled contact sync of the outlook account in the settings?
Also you could try to unpair your phone and pair again and see if that helps.

Bixby ... is worthless for handsfree use

Does anyone HATE Bixby as much as I do ? I really wish someone from Samsung would read this. I hate it when Microsoft uses the public to beta test software, but Samsung has gone WAY TOO FAR! If the software is not ready, don't implement it yet!
I've been a Note user since my Note 2. I've ALWAYS relied on S-Voice to do two major things for me. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but it's been very helpful for me. One is creating an appointment while I'm driving. The other is calling customers while I'm driving. I assume you see the 'driving' portion of my need. I need and want it to work TOTALLY HANDS FREE! I use a Motorola bluetooth on my ear during my waking hours. I use it to call Bixby. I WILL NEVER hold that stupid button to talk to my phone. Very stupid idea Samsung! I will never have Samsung, Google, Amazon, or anyone else listen to me talking (or singing horribly) all of the time waiting for that magic phrase. Never happening! Sorry. my wife listens too closely as it is. I don't need the cloud to listen to me too! I ***** and gripe a lot!
On my old Note 4, and through the different versions of S-Voice (none of them publicly released for that device ... only installed via ROOT), there have been problems, but its worked almost 95% of the time. Now that I paid $1000 for the new flagship phone, I'm finding myself unable to do the same things I've been doing on my Note 2, Note 3, and Note 4 devices for the past five plus years. Since obviously I've had it more than 14 days, I can't return it.
Bixby DOES NOT work handsfree. Neither does Google Assistant either. But S-Voice actually did! Saying commands to Bixby like these produce very odd results. They worked perfectly with S-Voice.
"Create an appointment Joe Smith at 8am tomorrow morning" ... with Bixby, it will be named something like "APPOINTMENT JOE", but most likely it will be set to 8 o'clock TODAY and not TOMORROW! Sometimes it doesn't even pick up the time and it's set for 12 Noon! It also DOES NOT repeat your request, like S-Voice did. I have no idea while I'm driving if it got anything correct. So far, I've LOST a half dozen appointments because I don't know where, when, or even if they were saved. They disappeared after confirming for it to be saved. If it does get saved, it's almost always incorrect and I have to manually edit it.
Now I've tried the way they recommend making an appointment, by saying to open calendar ... blah blah ... but that doesn't work either. It stops to ask "what would you like to name this event?" ... well, you reply and it stops. So much for handsfree. I have to reach for my phone to complete creating an event, something so basic is beyond Samsung's Bixby.
This one really gets me riled up! When I say "Call Teresa Adams", sometimes it will pick up the contact correctly, but a majority of the time it won't. It thinks I said "Theresa" instead of "Teresa". The same thing happens with a lot of other names, like "Bird" instead of "Byrd", "Smith" instead of "Smyth". Or "Jon" instead of "John". It cannot find the contact to call ... meaning it's not longer handsfree. I have to pick up my phone to make a phone call while driving. In some states, it's illegal to even HOLD your phone while driving! These are only a few of the issues I've seen with Bixby. But the inconsistency of pulling names from your contacts is HIGHLY FRUSTRATING!
Another one that burns me up ... this happens for totally unknown reasons. I'll ask Bixby to do something, and the reply I get is just totally off the wall. It will come up and tell me I have to install UBER to do that. WHAT THE HELL? I don't need UBER for ANYTHING!
I had to rename my wife's contact. I guess have too many names with 'Teresa' along with a last name, It NEVER called the right one. It would find five other names (and not all were Theresa or Teresa). So I've rename her contact to 'THE WIFE', and yet ... a few weeks ago, I asked Bixby to call 'THE WIFE' and it dialed my neighbor 'Peewee' instead. He got a great chuckle out of the fact that my Note 8 thinks he's my wife. I find it disturbing it can't even do the VERY BASICS. If Bixby was my true personal assistant on the job. they would be fired instantly and shown the door.
What have I done to remedy this issue for myself? You're not going to believe it, but I still carry my Note 4 (with Verizon service) and use it to do the stuff my new and expensive Note 8 cannot handle. I use my Note 8 as my business phone, but Bixby is useless for me. I don't want my so called assistant to pull up photos I took last week based upon some request. That stuff I should do with it in my hands.
NOTE TO DEVELOPERS OF ALL ASSISTANT APPS:
1. Must be able to function COMPLETELY HANDS FREE using bluetooth.
2. Must be able to respond with audible prompts and continue the process after an answer has been given.
3. Must verify and read back the information received correctly BEFORE saving the event (or calling the number selected)
4. Must be able to save a calendar appointment/event WITHOUT asking which app to use to save it. (this is a Google Assistant issue more than Bixby). As far as I can tell ... ALL CALENDAR APPS access the SAME CALENDARS! Duh! Why ask? Bixby wants to save to the Samsung calendar, but that can be changed and it will remember which calendar to save the requested event (and future requests). It should ask which calendar to save it to ONLY once, and use that as a default.
5. If you're going to release a REPLACEMENT software program, at least make sure it's CAPABLE of doing what the previous version could do first.
I've ranted long enough ... but haven't said all there is. I find it sad that I have to carry around my 4 year old device to do something so basic that my new expensive device cannot do without being coddled into doing my bidding. I refuse to switch to another device. If I wasn't locked in, I'd go back to using the Note 4 and never give Samsung my money again.
Whew ... I feel a little better, but I know I'm only blowing off steam. No one who reads this will be able to change anything. So I'm stuck carrying around two devices for now to do the basic stuff I've been doing for the past five years. Feels like we're moving backwards, doesn't it?

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