Other Sites

Press released edited by Applelinks senior editor Kirk Hiner

Speakables, a voice recognition software company with offerings tailored to entertainment applications for the digital home, announced the release of Speakables for iPhoto. Speakables for iPhoto is the newest addition to the company's Mac OS X entertainment suite, including Speakables for iTunes (the first voice recognition program to enable users to launch iTunes playlists) and Speakables for TV (the first voice control for popular Mac-based PVRs). Speakables was developed by speech recognition experts, including a key developer of Apple’s Speech Recognition technology.

Speakables for iPhoto is the first voice recognition software product to let users launch iPhoto Slideshows by simply speaking the name of the Slideshow. It works with Speakable Items, Apple's voice recognition application, already included in the Mac OS X platform. Previously, users were not able to launch Albums or Slideshows using Speakable Items alone.

Adding Speakables for iPhoto to its portfolio further reinforces Speakables' strategy of encouraging Mac/PC adoption as the entertainment hub for the digital home.

"iPhoto was made for the digital home," said Deborah Quinlan, president of Speakables, "Who wants to invite guests to gather around the desktop to watch slideshows of the latest family vacation when you can watch them on the big screen? And to really impress them, and never budge from the couch, of course you will want to launch them by voice!"

The company is encouraging consumers to view the TV as a "living picture frame" for displaying alternate forms of slideshow content such as art (sister unit, NWINDOWS.com, provides a variety of catalog slideshow content that will now for the first time be voice-enabled via Speakables for iPhoto). As a digital home company, Speakables is positioning itself as providing a more convenient means to control this and other computer-based content being viewed on home TVs.

"Voice command is the killer app for the digital home. We are extending its use from what was primarily a productivity tool to controlling entertainment oriented computer applications away from the desktop, in relaxed areas of the home like the living room or bedroom," says Quinlan. "The intention being that in these relaxed areas, it can be more convenient and, of course, more impressive to use voice command than other input devices."

Speakables for iPhoto is immediately available from the Speakables website for $10.