Palm Pre Voice Dialing

The Palm Pre is a sophisticated phone that runs on a sophisticated OS. Well it's sophisticated enough for some authors to write books on how to use the Palm Pre and webOS. However, for all it's cool features and capabilities the Palm Pre still lacks some basic functions.

For instance, Palm Pre voice dialing was not available at launch. This surprised a lot of users because it's a basic feature and can be found in "dumb" phones. Perhaps it was left out because the carrier and the manufacture were in a hurry to release the smartphone. That might be spot on since it took about 6 minutes to release the webOS handset.

But hey, the lack of voice dialing was also one of the top complaints with the iPhone.

Voice dialing is a feature that allows users to speak a name to dial a number instead of entering a number manually or choosing it from the phone book. It's a useful feature for users who needs to make calls while driving.

Of course, Palm has recognized the problem. The company promised to deliver Palm Pre voice dialing can be added later through an over-the-air update. However, are there any solutions or steps on getting voice dialing before the update?

Well, there's a temporary Palm Pre voice dialing solution. It's the BlueAnt's V1 Voice Controlled Bluetooth Headset. This device can do Voice Command / Voice Dialing on the but is limited to 9 numbers.

Here are the steps on Palm Pre voice dialing via BlueAnt's V1 courtesy of the Everything Pre forum:

You can assign 7 of the 9 to preset names, i.e. (Call Home, Call Office, Call Favorite, Call Speed Dial 6, Call Speed Dial 7, Call Speed Dial 8 and Call Speed Dial 9), the last two are Call Googs 411 and Call Voicemail and are fixed.

You set the the 7 numbers by pressing and holding the Volume Down Button for 3 seconds after you are finished with the last call that you want to assign.

For example if my "home" just finished calling, I would press the vol down button for three seconds and a voice would ask me what preset I want to assign the last number received and I would reply..."Call Home."

You do this with the 6 other calls you receive and then you have all there is.

There you have it. It's not ideal but it works for now. I hope that Palm delivers voice dialing in an update soon.

That's it for this post. Tune in to this blog for more mobile phone news and information.