Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser

08 May 2013 Tech Blog » Internet » Google Chrome » Speech Recognition » Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser You can use Google Chrome as a free voice recognition software to write longer emails and documents without even installing anything on your Windows or Mac computer.

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Meet Dictation v2.0, a web-based speech recognition app that will transcribe your voice into digital text using the Chrome Speech API. You can also install Dictation as a Chrome App.

Unlike the regular Chrome web apps that are nothing but fancy bookmarks, the Dictation App for Chrome will run entirely on your computer.

Getting started with Dictation in simple. Just plug in the microphone to your computer, click the Start Dictation button and watch as your spoken words are magically transformed into text. You can also use a few voice commands like:

Say “new sentence” to begin a new sentence. Dictation will automatically add a period to the previous sentence and capitalizes the first letter of your new sentence.Say “new paragraph” to move the cursor to the next paragraph.Say “stop listening” to exit the dication mode. If you wish to resume recording, hit the “Start” button again.

If you make a mistake, or if Chrome makes an error while recognizing your speech, simple click the incorrect word and edit it inline. The entire notepad is editable as it uses the contenteditable attribute of HTML5.

The first release of Dictation happened in August 2012 and much has changed since then. The Web Speech API is now part of Google Chrome though you still need an active network connection for Chrome to connect to the speech recognition servers.

The new version of Dictation App does sport a few extra features. One, it will auto-save your work in Chrome’s local storage so you can close the browser and your session would still be available the next time you Dictation.

Also, you can now export your transcriptions to Dropbox and Google Drive from Dictation itself. Please watch this YouTube video for a quick demo.

The Speech-to-Text support in Chrome is mostly accurate but because the API is still experimental, you are not allowed to submit Packaged Apps to the Chrome store that use the Web Speech API.

Related: Add Speech Recognition to your Website

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Run the iOS Simulator in your Web Browser

You can run the iOS Simulator app in any Windows browser and test your web designs without even having an iOS device.

The iOS Simulator is primarily targeted at Apple developers for them to develop iPad and iPhone apps on a Mac. That said, if you create websites, you can also use the iOS Simulator app to test your web designs on an iPhone or iPad without actually having the device. The iOS Simulator includes the native Safari app that is very close to the real thing.

The iOS Simulator app is only available for the Mac but if you are Windows or Linux, you can use the Browser Stack tool to run the “official” iOS Simulator directly in your web browser without installing any software.

To get started, create an account at Browser Stack and then choose “iOS” as the platform. Put your website URL in the input box and choose an iOS device – they offer the iPhone 3GS/4/4S/5 and iPad 1/2/3 loaded with various version of iOS. You can also switch devices while you are inside the iOS Simulator (see the above screenshot).

This is like you are connecting to a remote Mac using your browser and that computer is running the iOS Simulator app. While you are inside the Simulator, tap (i.e., double click with your mouse) the Safari icon and launch any of your websites.

Unlike the fake emulators, what you are now using i very similar to the actual Safari app that available on a physical iOS device except that you have to use the mouse and not touch gestures to interact with the app.

The free plan offers 30 minutes of testing. And in addition to the iOS Simulator, Browser Stack also includes emulators for various Android devices.

Also see: Test your Website on Mobile Phones

« SEO Tip for Blogs – Don’t Waste the PageRank » Geotag your Tweets with any Random Locationabout the authorAmit Agarwal (@labnol) is a personal technology columnist and founder of Digital Inspiration, a widely-read tech and how-to blog since 2004. He also wrote this book. Email: amit@labnol.org Topicshow-to guides apple ipad adobe pdf google docs dropbox facebook twitter wordpress youtube google adsense india inc. screencasting software tips presentations gmail Evergreen05/04/2012

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Track the Browser Size with Google Analytics

The browser window size is a more important metric than screen resolution and you can use Google Analytics to track that number.

Google Analytics reports the “screen resolution” of the visitor’s computer but skips the other important metric which is the size of the browser window. These two numbers will be approximately similar if the browser window is kept in maximized state but not otherwise.

Take a look at the example below. The screen resolution of the desktop is 1920×1080 (this is the number recorded by Google Analytics) but the actual browser window size (where your website is displayed) is a little over 900×600 pixels.

Google Analytics displays the Screen Resolution and not the actual Browser Size of the visitor.

The screen resolution is a less-useful metric and what you really need to know is the actual size (or range) of the browser window of your visitors. This data can be easily gathered through Google Analytics – simply copy-paste the following code snippet just before the closing tag of your website template:

It calculates the actual height and width of the browser window and then rounds off these numbers to the nearest 100. For instance, a browser size of 985×1190 pixels is recorded as 1000×1200 pixels. You can then access this data in Google Analytics through Content -> Events -> Overview and then choose “Browse Size” as the Events Category.

Once you know the popular “ranges,” you can update the site layout and placement accordingly so that visitors can see all the important elements on your pages Above the Fold without having to use the scroll bar.

Also see: Getting Started with Responsive Web Design

« Play any YouTube Playlist with VLC Media Player » How to Search Google Images by the Exact Sizeabout the authorAmit Agarwal (@labnol) is a personal technology columnist and founder of Digital Inspiration, a widely-read tech and how-to blog since 2004. He also wrote this book. Email: amit@labnol.org Topicshow-to guides apple ipad adobe pdf google docs dropbox facebook twitter wordpress youtube google adsense india inc. screencasting software tips presentations gmail Evergreen05/04/2012

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