Google’s App Gains Cachet
I’ve had Google’s app on my iPhone since it was released, but I have rarely used it. I thought of it more as a gimmick than a useful feature. In case you aren’t familiar with it, I’ll provide a brief explanation. After launching the app, you can raise the phone to your ear and speak a word or phrase that you wish to search for. The application listens to your speech, transcribes it, performs the search, and returns the results. I suppose it could be handy if you are on the move and need to look something up, but don’t want to stop to type. I think I have used it in such a fashion once or twice.
I was recently writing something in which I wanted to use the word “cachet,” but I couldn’t remember how it was spelled. All I could think of was “cache,” but as that is a different word with its own meaning, it kept me from using the auto-complete feature in my dictionary widget to find “cachet.” I knew how to pronounce the word, and Google’s app came to mind. I turned on my phone, spoke the word, and sure enough, Google promptly returned a list of results containing the word “cachet.”
Update: Something happened to the second half of this post when I saved it. I just discovered that it was incomplete and have re-written it. I’m sorry for the incomplete post.