Rokr e6 voice recognition

[jgro]

Recently flashed my Rokr e6 w Ahman hybrid firmware and one of the first things I wanted to try was the voice recognition. Took awhile to finally figure out how to properly use this, so I'm putting a little "how to" here to help others.
1. First of all, I was looking for the 'training' feature for the VR, since that was what I was used to, but this VR doesn't have any.
2. Best way to get started is turn on the Talking Phone feature for the Contacts List Readout and listen to the way it is pronounced. That's the way that the VR wants to hear it for recognition.
3. If the phone pronounces it too weirdly, you have a couple of options:
A. Spell the name a different way so the phone pronounces it more closely to the way you want to say it. Like instead of "Jaimie", spell it "Jaymee" (which the phone pronounces ok).
B. Change the name for your contact. The phone doesn't do well with 1 or 2 syllables. Instead of a name like "Eddie", put in first and middle name like "Edwin Albert", or something off the wall like a nickname.
4. If the phone is confusing the name you want with something else in your contacts, (e.g. was confusing some names with "Walmart") rename the other thing that is getting mis-chosen. I renamed "Walmart" to "Walmart Store".
5. As a last resort, try to pronounce the name like the phone wants it pronounced.
6. Go to the "Voice Commands" list in Applications and go thru the list to see which commands are available.
7. Make sure to wait for the tone after the phone tells you to "Please say a command or name"
8. I know that the Ahman firmware instructions say you have to turn on at least one of the "Talking Phone" features for the VR to work, but I tried it without that and the VR works just fine with them all turned off.
9. There's no way I know of to get the VR to stop once you press the button. You just have to wait for it to get tired of asking. Correction, I did find a way. Go into the Task Manager in the menu of the Apps list and do an End Task on the TTS item.

It's really worth it to get the VR working well so you can dial your phone in bright sunlight without having to hunt down a shady spot first. It's also fun to do stuff like say "check date" and watch other peoples mouths drop open as your phone tells you the date. Someone asked me "did your phone just talk to you?" and I answered, "Sure, doesn't yours talk to you?"