VoiceKeys review [iPhone]

Most people are cautious of the propaganda surrounding jailbreaking an iOS device these days, and the proliferation of jokes at the expense of companies such as Apple that we're seeing in The Simpsons, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, South Park and others suggests there's a genuine consumer storm brewing over device ownership.

We're all pretty satisfied nowadays that jailbreaking isn't an illegal, underground piracy practice, that requires you to sacrifice a virgin goat to unlock an iPhone from Apple/God. But a lot of people never get around to browsing Cydia (the "other" app store), and are therefore unaware just how much jailbreak software leads the way. A lot of features we see in new iterations of iOS were first seen on Cydia.

VoiceKeys is one of those features that will, without doubt, appear as an official feature that Apple will label as yet another revolution. But it's here already, and worthy of recognition.

Like many jailbreak apps, VoiceKeys isn't another icon on your home screen. It's a modification of the operating system that integrates itself with your existing roster of apps (any apps, that is - not just jailbreak ones). It brings Google's voice recognition engine to play anywhere you might use the on-screen keyboard.

The best method for activating the voice recording is simply by holding the iPhone to your ear while the app is running and ready for text. The LDR blanks the screen (as it does during a phone call) and triggers the voice recording which is then sent to Google for background processing. VoiceKeys quickly returns with Google's speech-to-text output and drops it into whichever text box you're currently editing.

There's no particular limitation to where it can be used. If the keyboard pops up within an app, VoiceKeys is there too. Accuracy seems to be quite hit and miss, particularly with a heavily-accented drawl like this reviewer's, and isn't really up to the quality of Dragon Dictation. But if you speak slowly - or, more accurately, clearer and make sure each and every word is pronounced in its own right - then the result is pretty impressive.

For actions like texting while driving, or sending quick stock replies to emails or IMs, or searching in Safari, VoiceKeys adds a level of speed to your iPhone usage that would even surprise Mr Jobs. Not that he'd admit it until Apple reinvents this particular wheel, as it inevitably will.

A few other options are added to the context menu when you select text, too, such as copying everything below the opening selection, or copying all the text straight to the clipboard (as opposed to selecting it, and then copying it manually). These aren't essential features, but it's a nice add-on that makes you realise Apple still hasn't done everything it could with the long-awaited copy and paste function.

So if you're iPhone, iPod touch or iPad is jailbroken, there's absolutely no excuse for not installing VoiceKeys; even if it's just so you can say "Voice recognition? I've been doing that for ages," when Apple eventually adds it to iOS 6. Or probably 7.