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Coinciding with the Gemini release of Live Search Maps last week, the mobile team launched new search services featuring a major update for the client application [PR here]. The slickest new feature by far is the voice recognition on the client. Instead of thumbing in a query you now just speak it naturally; speaking "Hotels in Dallas" or "Home Depot near Richmond" does exactly what you expect it to do. The recognition is surprisingly good - you can speak really naturally; no need to put your robot accent on. In fact, a friend from India was visiting last month and she was impressed that in most cases her accent was ignored and her query was recognized perfectly. For the queries that didn't work, she turned to her 'John Wayne' impression and re-tried with success

Although the Blackberry version was also updated the voice input feature is only included in the Windows Mobile version right now. Both versions have the same high quality maps optimized for small screens, turn by turn directions, gas prices, real-time traffic, movie theater showtimes and movie information, Business ratings and a ton more. Read more on the Live Search Blog.

Better yet, just try it out! Visit Live Search Mobile from your PC to learn about all of the features for your phone. from your phone, WinMo and Blackberry users can install from wls.live.com. All other phones can browse to m.live.com.