Ars on Windows Phone 8
- Windows Phone 8 to provide an escape from carrier update tyranny
- No Windows Phone 8 upgrade for current phones
- Windows NT coming to phones with Windows Phone 8
- Windows Phone gets ready for enterprise
- Windows Phone 8’s new, even more personal Start screen
Windows Phone 8 will be built around the same core components as Windows 8 and will support the development of native code applications. It will also boast a set of new APIs that not only fill out gaps in the current platform, but also provide some unique capabilities not found on the competition.
Since Apple first showed off Siri, conversational speech systems—allowing the phone to be controlled using some approximation of natural speech rather than rigidly fixed commands—have become all the rage. Siri is, however, essentially a sealed system that can’t directly interact with third-party applications.
Windows Phone 8 will include a conversational speech recognition system based on the TellMe technology used in Windows Phone 7. There’s a twist, though: Microsoft is making an extensible system. Application developers will be able to add new nouns and verbs to TellMe so that users can use the same conversational style to perform specific actions within applications.
Read More:
Beyond the kernel: Windows Phone 8’s Siri-like speech, VoIP integration, NFC Wallet
