A quick look at an in-car gadget we looked at earlier this year – the Voiceworks V1.
This is a small hands-free kit that clips to the sunvisor of your car and talks to your smartphone via Bluetooth. As well as allowing you to place and receive calls hands-free, it can also let you send and receive text messages in response to a spoken set o voice commands. The Voiceworks V1 can also accept dictated emails, and read new email messages to you as you drive.
Now, obviously texting whilst driving is dangerous and illegal, and even using a hands-free kit isn’t a good idea as you’re taking your attention off the road, but we know that some drivers still can’t live without checking their messages. iPhone users have Siri, and Android users have apps including Evi, but this little Bluetooth car-kit can be a nice solution. Here’s what it does:
- Send texts and emails via spoken commands and dictation
- Texts and emails received can be read out while you’re driving
- Receive and answer phone calls
- Receive and answer text messages and emails
- Streaming music from your mobile (A2DP)
- ASR Voice answer
- Phonebook for 300 contacts
- Digital Signal Processing and echo cancellation
In order to listen to messages, you’ll need to download dedicated Voiceworks software, and this is available for Android, Blackberry or Symbian handsets.Note that after the first year of use, you’ll need to pay a further £30 a year subscription to be able to use the service.
To find out more, Pete and Carl caught up with Craig Johnson from Voiceworks, and our interview can be found on the following link:
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The Voiceworks V1 was originally around £65, but it’s now available for around £25 online at Amazon UK. For more, see our Voiceworks V1 Review.