We reported yesterday that the fifth beta of iOS 5 was seeded by Apple to developers.
Included in the OTA update is Nuance-powered speech-to-text capabilities. Previously, only snippets of code supported the theory of Apple including voice recognition in iOS 5. However, this can now be confirmed by screenshots posted by 9To5Mac.
The screenshots don’t show how the feature will function, how well it works or when it can be used. From the screenshot it appears that a microphone icon will appear on the keyboard, when the voice-to-speech feature is enabled. Users then talk to the phone, after that the text will appear in the text field.
The site also reports that this feature only works with iPhone and iPod touch. Support for the iPad could come later, as this is just a beta and the final version of the feature may look completely different.
iOS 5 was originally previewed at WWDC ‘11, this year in June at Moscone West in San Francisco, CA. During the keynote, features like Twitter integration, “cut the cord” and iMessage were revealed. No actual release date was announced apart from that it will be released “this fall.”