Perhaps the most novel new voice-command feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is the “open microphone experience,” which lets you activate voice input just by talking to your phone–instead of pushing a button. All you have to say is something like “Navigate to 501 Second Street in San Francisco,” and as long as your phone understands you, you’ll be on your way with Android’s voice-guided navigation. Voice Actions is integrated with Android’s Google Maps app that includes free turn-by-turn directions (U.S. There is one obvious advantage that Voice Actions has over Siri and that’s turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation. Apple appears to have improved its voice command features with Siri, at least for iPhone 4S owners. My iPhone 3GS, for example, is obsessed with playing Radiohead, no matter what I ask it to play. However, in my experience, the iPhone’s pre-Siri voice control wasn’t particularly reliable. Some of these voice command features, such as calling a contact or playing music, were also part of the iPhone’s previous voice control features. Android can open a webpage directly using commands such as “Go to Wikipedia.” You can also open webpages using both services, though Siri first routes you through a web search and makes you select a result. There are a number of features in which Siri and Voice Actions can do the same thing–such as dictating text messages and emails, playing music, calling contacts from your address book, searching the web, and dictating notes.
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