[west3man]

You'd have to look at the phone the same amount of time to hit the button or key required to call via voice dial or speed dial.

The only exception is bluetooth voice dialing, but I was under the impression damn near every phone from 2005 on with bluetooth did this.

Some Bluetooth earpieces allow the user to initiate voice dialing from the headset. No direct phone manipulation necessary.

I was jealous that so many non-Treo phones could do that while I always had to pick up my phone for voice dialing (which I had to pay for from a third party). Eventually, I just gave up on voice dialing because, as you said above, I had to pick up the phone, anyway.

Money down the drain, in the end.

[west3man]

The Treo phones have such great contact-lookup features that I just haven't found voice dialing with a BT headset helpful at all. To me, it's much easier to dial "jsm" to dial John Smith on the keyboard than to use a voice dialing. With BT, I have to: (1) make sure my headset is charged; (2) make sure I'm voice-dialing the correct number for the contact with multiple numbers; and (3) make sure I'm not dialing someone else by mistake. If I had a good car kit, I might feel differently.

I use a wired headset from theBoom.com. It's expensive, and more geeky than a bt headset, but theBoom headsets are the best headsets made, in my opinion. I can make work calls with my kids talking in the back seat, or with music playing in the background. No one knows I'm not sitting in my quiet office.

Harv Laser used to really talk up those headsets, back in the day. I still think of his enthusiastic reviews (and sincere rants :-) ) on the topic, from time to time.

Storage is a big part of my concern, though. I like to be able to put my headset somewhere out-of-the-way without being choked or inconvenienced. Bluetooth headsets can stay on my ear or, in some cases, around my neck, pretty easily.

I thought the Boom would be too bulky or cumbersome. (I'm glad it works for you, though. I'd love to experience that kind of functionality.)

[1812dave]

*Looks at title of forum*

Y'know we're discussing the PALM PRE, right?

There's one hard button in the center and to the best of anyone's knowledge it sure as heck doesn't turn on the phone application. On THIS phone you'd have to activate the phone app from the launcher or a keyboard shortcut.

Nobody's talking about how it works on other phones with physical buttons.

OF course we are discussing the Pre. My point is without a hard key, there is no possible way to voice dial without looking at the phone. EVEN IF THERE WAS AN APPLICATION for it, as all apps require touching the screen, since there is no physical key dedicated to voice dialing. ie, major omission in this day and age for a phone that many people would like to use in their car, without endangering themselves or others.

At this point, with lack of expansion for media cards, and now this, it's looking like a Pre successor might be the better value, if Palm address's the Pre's shortcomings. Sorta like how the Storm came without wifi...enter the Storm 2 with wifi...

[hypocaffeinemia]

My point is without a hard key, there is no possible way to voice dial without looking at the phone.

Actually, that was sort of my point-- why the lack of voice dialing was a non-issue on this device as even if it would have it, it wouldn't be superior to speed dial.

ie, major omission in this day and age for a phone that many people would like to use in their car, without endangering themselves or others.

Consider it a safety feature.

You shouldn't be dialing or holding the phone while driving anyway and it is illegal in many states. If you want to voice dial, use bluetooth for a handsfree experience. Your fellow drivers will thank you!

[GrantCalibre]

You'd have to look at the phone the same amount of time to hit the button or key required to call via voice dial or speed dial.

The only exception is bluetooth voice dialing, but I was under the impression damn near every phone from 2005 on with bluetooth did this.

I love this feature on my Blackberry, probably one of my favorite unexpected bonuses of a qwerty keyboard. Holding "D" speeddials my dad, etc. If you can touch-type, then you can find the right letter on your Pre without looking, and thus speeddial someone without looking. If not, you might have to briefly glance @ the phone to make sure you're holding the right button. I have voicedailing on my blackberry and never use it. Not a dealbreaker for me.

[anon(45821)]

Some Bluetooth earpieces allow the user to initiate voice dialing from the headset. No direct phone manipulation necessary.

Hopefully this is how the Pre will handle it. Press headset button once to initiate voice dialing, Pre stays in your pocket

[scoobdude]

did this get confirmed as working? in the video they said no, but was wonder if someone tried via BT yet?

[kenc3dan#WN]

I can't believe this is still an issue with smartphones more than 6 years after the lamest Motorola feature phones mastered this feature.

The distinctions that interest me regarding convenience and safety are...
-Tag-based voice dialing vs. Speaker-independent voice dialing
-Handset- vs. Headset-initiated dialing

If you have headset-initiated speaker-independent dialing you can just hit the button on the headset and say any name in your contact list without any training or tagging. My Motorola e815 does this instantly and without error.
This is a BASIC feature and is totally lacking in the iPhone. (Not that I care since it has no keyboard.)
I hope the Pre has it. Can anyone confirm this?
If the Pre doesn't have it within 6 months I will most likely buy the HTC Touch Pro 2 despite it's underlying terrible OS.

Bummer.

[mikesm]

I know. I just keep a V3 RAZR as an extra line on a shared minute plan. The RAZR does bluetooth voice dial great, and has speaker independent voice recognition. Keep the contacts updated is a pain, but if I need someone I usually don't call, I would use my old BB which had everything updated.

Looks like I have to do the samething with the Pre. Though it looks like the 3.0 OS from Apple will finally enable this for my wife's iPhone.

Hopefully an addon is coming that will fix this for the pre as well.

[mygenesys]

Voice dialing is a necessity - both directly from a phone and from a bluetooth device. In some locations like Chicago, a person can not legally drive and hold a phone at the same time.

If you are using bt, there should be no need to touch a phone - just poke the button on the headseat and say "call John". If you aren't using a bt device, the phone should be equiped with a call button that works the same way. It is ten times easier to just hit a button and say "call Jon" than to have to look it up in a directory and sellect it.

I can't believe that Palm just can't get this right! I have had several inexpensive phones and this worked flawlessly with them, but buy a $500 Palm and it stinks.

I was a Palm user long before they started making phones and I loved their PDA's. I believe in brand loyalty, so when they came out with phones I bought a 700wx. Bluetooth and voice dialing stunk with it so the day that the PRE came out I bought it, but it also stinks so I am returning it today.