The Tech Bookshelf

Do you have few names in your iPhone address book that voice control just can't seem to figure out? Thanks to this little trick I learned from Donald Bell at CNET.com you can make that run more smoothly.

The iPhone gives you the ability to add phonetic spellings of names as well as nicknames. For this tip I use the name of T.J. Houshmandzadah. If you saw the ESPN commercial from a few years back, you know why. Obviously I don't know Mr. Houshmandzadah and this is not his real phone number.

1. Open the contact in contacts and click "Edit"

2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select "Add Fields"

3. Select "Phonetic Last Name", "Phonetic First Name", or pretty much anything you want to add. I chose Last and Nickname. 

4. Spell it phonetically the best you can. While the iPhone does offer accented characters (long a, etc), I tested it out and they don't seem to work with voice control.

5. Click done and and spell more names phonetically if you choose more than one field to add. For the nicknames you should also try to spell those phonetically.

 Now give it a try by holding down the home button for a few seconds until voice control comes up, then say "Call.." and the contacts name or nickname.  The iPhone will repeat back their first and last name.

You can catch the fill CNET.com for reference here.