CES 2008: Microsoft shows "Tellme" mobile software

Talk to the phone

7 January 2008 5:33 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

As part of Bill Gates' keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division previewed a new version of "Tellme", Microsoft’s integrated voice-and-visual mobile service that enables people to use voice commands to say what they want and see the answer on their phone’s screen.

The new service uses GPS capabilities to identify the caller’s location, giving more relevant results.

Tellme, a version of which is available already on AT&T Wireless and Sprint phones, will be available in future versions of the Windows Mobile software.

A person can call the web on a mobile phone and say "movies" and the software will recognize where the person is located and send a list of the cinemas closest to that location to the person's phone.

As demoed on stage, future versions may also offer the ability to purchase movie tickets from a mobile phone and share the movie information with friends and family via a text message.