Google Chrome 11 was released today and, clean new logo not withstanding, it's got one cool feature that stands out above the others: Speech-to-text. You can now fill out various text fields (wherever a little microphone icon pops up) simply by speaking into your computer's mic input. Google points to its popular Translate app as one usecase where the new feature can be particularly useful, but if you've ever had to transcribe an audio recording before, you already know just how valuable speech-to-text can be. The browser now also enables text-to-speech.
Google has been improving its voice technologies for quite some time-- its voice controls for iOS and Android are often cited as best-in-class.
You can get Chrome 11 fresh out of the box here.
[CNET]
