Recite is one of the more innovative things to come out of Microsoft's Windows Mobile team in the past few years, a voice-based note-taking tool that gave users a quick way to say whatever was on their mind, archive it, and retrieve it later by speaking any keywords from the recording. The company
offered it free of charge to owners of WinMo 6 and 6.1 devices earlier this year -- but Microsoft taketh away just as quickly as it giveth, apparently, because it's already pulling the plug on the tool at the end of December, which never actually made it out of "Technology Preview" status. Unfortunately, the client / server nature of Recite means that even existing users won't have a chance to keep using it, though Microsoft is offering tips on how to transfer voice notes up to a PC for archival. The app was genuinely cool, so we're hoping it's just being pulled in preparation for integration with a future version of WinMo -- they do say that the "ability to capture notes and reminders is an area we are still focused on and we will continue to consider your feedback to build out these rich experiences in upcoming products," after all -- but for the time being, the bell's tolling.
[Via
Ars Technica, thanks Sima]
posted Oct 3rd 2009 2:51PM
Maybe because MS bought and will be rolling out an integrated version of TellMe, which has been up and running for some time? TellMe's recently released BB beta works pretty well, I'm using it on my Storm.
If it was so cool, why didnt we hear much about it from engadget? You diss winmo so much anyone would think there was nothing good in it.
Point out the good stuff once in a while then maybe the company might not think no one wants it and shuts it down.
There are cool "apps" for winmo too, just not all in one convinient place to be lauding it up everytime they reach new millionth download.
Not a lot to say about it -- it's an incredibly simple app (by design) and we wrote about it once when Microsoft announced it.
Maybe engadget mobile could start a new series where they highlight one app for each of the major platforms, each with a short review.
While the userbase totaled 3 people, they discontinued it as they knew there was going to be a slow news day and you would have nothing else to whine about...
I was a big fan of the app myself. Very elegant, simple and powerful the way smart phone software should be. I can only hope TellMe duplicates the functionality ant that is why they are pulling the plug on Recite. By the way, the software went through at least three upgrades and these were never reported on Engadget.