Speak Up: Voice Interface Debuts 
 
by Rebecca Sykes, IDG News Service 
April 10, 1998 

 
General Magic today announced MagicTalk, a user interface that responds
verbally to voice commands. 

MagicTalk will be part of General Magic's Serengeti voice and data network
service for mobile professionals, which is expected to be available mid-year,
according to a statement from the company. With MagicTalk, users will be able
to access their e-mail, voice mail, calendar, address book, and other stored
information by speaking, the statement said. 

MagicTalk is designed to be intelligent; that is, to contain humanlike
attributes such as the ability to learn and to understand natural language,
the statement said. For example, MagicTalk is programmed to have a
personality appropriate to a personal assistant and can understand a user
even when the user interrupts what MagicTalk is saying.