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安卓听写系统支持的语言也比苹果多得多-第1页

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I am writing this paragraph on an iPhone. But I am not typing it on the phone's virtual keyboard. I am dictating it using a little-known feature that allows you to employ your voice instead of your fingers wherever text entry is possible on the device.


第一段文字我是在一部iPhone上写的，但我没有在手机的虚拟键盘上打字。我是使用iPhone上一个鲜为人知的功能进行听写输入的。该功能可以让你在手机上任何可以写入文本的地方用语音代替手指输入。



And now, for this paragraph, I have switched to an Android phone. Once again, I am composing these words using only my voice, and not typing them on the virtual keyboard.


现在开始写第二段，我改用安卓(Android)手机了。我还是只靠语音把这些词组合在一起，而不是在虚拟键盘上打字。



Those two paragraphs, dictated as emails and then cut and pasted into this column on a computer, required far fewer corrections than you might think, given the bad reputation for accuracy that voice input on digital devices has acquired. I only had to add a comma I'd forgotten to specify in the first paragraph and capitalize the word 'Android' in the second.


以上这两段文字是作为电子邮件听写输入的，然后我在电脑上通过剪切和粘贴将它们插入这篇专栏文章。鉴于数码设备语音输入功能给人的印象是准确性很差，我可以告诉你，我听写输入的内容所须纠正的错误可能比你想象的要少得多。在第一段中，我只须添加一个我忘记明确说明的逗号，而在第二段中，我只用把"安卓"一词首字母改为大写就可以了。



For me, a daily user of virtual keyboards, the process was quicker and more accurate than typing would likely have been, even for the relatively short blocks of text typically composed on phones.


对我这个每天都会使用虚拟键盘的人来说，听写输入比打字速度更快、更准确，即使在输入一般在手机上编写的小段文本时也是一样。



So, on the suspicion that dictation on smartphones might prove useful for others as well, I've been testing it heavily over the past week. I used a top phone with Google's Android software, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and an Apple iPhone 4S. In general, I found that, while dictation could occasionally fail badly, it worked surprisingly well in a wide variety of environments and applications.


那么，在智能手机上进行听写输入对其他人来说是不是也同样有用呢？为此，上周我进行了大量测试。我使用了一部装有谷歌(Google)安卓软件的顶级手机──三星(Samsung) Galaxy Nexus和一部苹果(Apple) iPhone 4S。总体而言，我发现听写输入虽然偶尔会很失败，但它在多种不同的环境及应用程序中都有令人惊喜的表现。



On both leading smartphone platforms, I found that relatively short dictation -- such as emails, texts, tweets, Facebook posts and notes -- was at least as accurate, and often more, as typing on a glass screen. It was better in quiet environments, but did OK even in most noisy places like grocery stores, coffee shops and carwashes. It was also faster, since, as long as you don't have to correct numerous errors, speaking is usually faster than typing on glass.


我发现，在这两种主要的智能手机平台上，比较短的听写输入──比如电子邮件、文本、推文、Facebook帖子和记事笔记──准确性至少可以说是不亚于虚拟键盘输入，而且通常还会更准确一些。听写输入在安静的环境中效果会更好，但即使是在杂货店、咖啡馆和洗车行这种最喧闹的地方效果也还算可以。听写输入的速度也更快，只要你不需要纠正大量错误，说话一般会比在显示屏上打字快。



For this review, I am not mainly referring to Siri, the voice-controlled feature on the new iPhones, which can do things like tell you the weather, or stock prices. Nor am I discussing the 'voice actions' on Android, which can perform Web searches and other tasks. Both can also help with some text dictation. I concentrated on a much simpler feature of both platforms: a small microphone key that's included right in the phones' on-screen keyboards.


在这次测评中，我主要不是谈Siri。Siri是新版iPhone的语音控制功能，可以告诉你天气或股价等信息。我谈的也不是安卓的语音命令功能"voice actions"，该功能可以执行网页搜索和其他任务。以上两种功能也都能够帮助用户进行一些文本听写。但我测评的主要是两个平台上一种简单得多的功能：是手机虚拟键盘上一个小小的麦克风键。



Android phones have had this microphone key for a couple of years, and Apple added it to the latest iPhone, the 4S, last fall, and to the new iPad, when it came out last month. But I'm guessing that many users of these phones either haven't used this special key, or haven't even noticed it.


安卓手机设置这个麦克风键已有几年了，苹果则是去年秋季刚在最新版iPhone 4S中加入这个按键的，上个月推出的新版iPad也设有这个按键。但我估计很多用户可能没用过这个特殊的按键，甚至根本就没有注意过。



While the microphone keys work a bit differently on the two platforms, they are basically similar. When the keyboard appears, ready for you to type, you can instead hit the microphone key and simply dictate what you want to say. The phones then send your spoken words to a remote server, which rapidly translates them into text and sends them back to the phone's screen. If corrections are needed, you make them by typing, though both platforms make this easier by indicating the likeliest errors, and suggesting alternatives.


这两个应用平台上的麦克风按键用起来有一点区别，但基本相似。当屏幕上出现虚拟键盘可供你打字时，你也可以按下麦克风按键，把想说的话听写出来即可。手机随即会把你说的话发送给一个远程服务器，服务器迅速将它们转换成文本，并将其发送回来，显示在手机的屏幕上。如果有一些错误需要纠正，你可以通过打字来纠错，不过这两种平台都可以提示可能性最大的错误并提出替代方案，让纠错变得更简单。



A couple of caveats are in order. I didn't compare dictation to typing on a phone with physical keys, whose devotees are often speedy and accurate. Instead, I thought the apt comparison was with a virtual keyboard, which is becoming the norm on phones, but is still a source of frustration for many users.


下面有几点需要提醒读者注意。我没有对听写输入和在配有实体键盘的手机上打字进行比较（使用实体键盘打字通常既快又准确）。我认为合适的比较方式是将其与虚拟键盘对比，虚拟键盘正成为手机的标准配置，但许多用户仍然觉得用起来很不爽。



I also didn't try dictating a long document, like this column, because phones are rarely used for lengthy composing.


我也没有尝试听写像本篇专栏这样的长文档，因为手机很少用来编写长文。



I found that both platforms' dictation systems worked well enough for me to recommend them. In case after case, both phones got it right, or close enough to require little correcting.


我发现这两个平台的听写系统效果都很不错，值得推荐。在一次次的测试中，两种手机都能正确地显示出语音输入内容，或者几乎不用怎么纠错。



But there are differences. Android has an advantage in that, in the newest version of its operating system, it displays the dictated text almost in real time, lagging just slightly behind your spoken words. On the iPhone, the system only reveals its rendering of your dictation after you've tapped on a 'Done' button.


但两者也有一些区别。安卓有一个优势，那就是最新版安卓操作系统会几乎实时显示听写的文本，只比你说话稍稍滞后一些。而iPhone系统在你按下"完成"按键后只会显示正在处理你的听写内容。



Android's dictation system also supports many more languages than Apple's -- 40 languages and dialects, including Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew. On the iPhone, only English, French and German are currently supported, though Apple says Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish will be added later this year.


安卓听写系统支持的语言也比苹果多得多──有包括西班牙语、汉语、阿拉伯语和希伯来语在内的40种语言和方言。而iPhone目前只支持英语、法语和德语，不过苹果称，今年晚些时候将添加汉语、韩语、意大利语和西班牙语。



However, I found the iPhone 4S worked better than the Galaxy Nexus in noisier environments. For instance, in a crowded shopping-mall food court, while neither phone was perfect, the iPhone understood me to say: 'I am dictating this email from the very noisy Court at Montgomery Mall on the iPhone' -- missing only the word 'food' and capitalizing 'Court.' The Android phone mangled a very similar sentence as: 'I am dictating this email on droid phone from the bearing noise for it montgomery mall.'


但我发现iPhone 4S在比较吵闹的环境中效果比Galaxy Nexus好。比方说，在购物中心熙熙攘攘的美食广场上，这两种手机表现都算不上完美。我的原话是："I am dictating this email from the very noisy food Court at Montgomery Mall on the iPhone."（我正在蒙哥马利购物城很吵的美食广场上用iPhone口授这封电子邮件。）iPhone理解了我说的话："I am dictating this email from the very noisy Court at Montgomery Mall on the iPhone."──只漏了"food"（美食）这个词，并将"Court"（广场）首字母大写了。安卓手机则显示出一个非常相似但错误百出的句子："I am dictating this email on droid phone from the bearing noise for it montgomery mall."



Google notes that, unlike Apple, it supports many phones, and that the results might have differed on another model, with better noise cancellation. Apple says the iPhone 4S does have noise cancellation. And, in any case, the two phones' results were more comparable in quieter settings.


谷歌指出，与苹果不同的是，安卓系统支持许多手机，如果使用另一种降噪效果更好的机型，测试结果会有所改善。苹果称，iPhone 4S的确有降噪功能。在比较安静的环境下，这两种手机在所有测试中的表现都是不相上下。



Apple's system also did better at capitalizing proper names, like Stradivarius, or Red Sox, or even Google (which my Android phone, ironically, always rendered in lowercase). But Google says it will be updating its dictation feature in weeks to better handle proper names.


苹果系统能够更好地处理专有名词的大写问题，比如Stradivarius（时尚品牌斯特拉迪瓦里）、Red Sox（波士顿红袜队），甚至是Google（谷歌）。让人哭笑不得的是，我的安卓手机总是把Google首字母小写。但谷歌称，公司将在几周之内升级听写功能，以更好地处理专有名词。



On the other hand, I found that, when Android did err, it had a more extensive and easier to use manner for correcting those mistakes than the iPhone did. Android was also more reliable; sometimes the iPhone returned no text at all.


另一方面，我发现安卓在出错时，有一套比iPhone更全面、更容易使用的纠错方式。安卓也更可靠一些，有时候在听写完成后iPhone根本不显示任何文本。



Still, I found these differences less important than the fact that, for me, the results on both platforms were impressive. On both, if you say words like 'period' or 'comma,' you generally get the punctuation mark (though both try to make the distinction when you actually want a word like 'period.')


不过，我认为与这两个平台出色的性能相比，这些差别都不是那么重要。无论是iPhone还是安卓，如果你说"句号"或"逗号"等单词，一般都会显示为标点符号（但当你其实是想把"句号"这样的词作为词语输入时，这两个平台都会试图予以区分。）



And, in test after test, both did a good job. Errors were generally fewer than if I had typed the words quickly.


在一次接一次的测试中，iPhone和安卓都有出色表现。一般来说，错误会比我快速打字时要少。



Both have a downside: Because they do the transcription on their servers, and they are anxious to improve, they do retain some information about what you're saying. Both companies say they respect your privacy, but, if you worry about transmitting your messages or notes to Apple or Google, don't use dictation.


但这两种平台都有一个缺点：它们是在服务器上进行转换的，而且两家公司都急于改进系统，所以会保存你说的一些信息。两家公司都表示它们尊重你的隐私，但如果你担心把自己的信息或记录泄露给苹果或谷歌，就不要使用听写输入。



Otherwise, especially for those who find typing on glass clumsy, the microphone key on Android and the new iPhone is something you might want to add to your arsenal of ways to use your phone.


除此之外，这两个平台的其他方面都很不错，如果你觉得用虚拟键盘打字很麻烦，不妨将安卓和新版iPhone的麦克风按键添加到你的手机使用方略中。



Walter S. Mossberg

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