Term: “Voice Over” Under Attack

There’s probably nothing I can do about this on my own, yet I am one voice, and I’m not gonna shuddup.

In the new world of phones-doing-everything-computers-used-to-do, some of the nomenclature is changing.  We’re all pretty copacetic with the term voiceover or voice over representing that thing we do.  Voice acting.

Now cell-phones are moving in.  I railed about this in a previous blog.  Turns out I was right…and wrong.  The iPhone 3GS uses a new feature called voice-command, but it also allows for a VOICE OVER feature.  (iPhone users, go to Settings —->General—->Accessibility).

According to the Apple website, the voice over feature offers:  “…instead of memorizing hundreds of keyboard commands, or endlessly pressing tiny arrow keys to find what you’re looking for, with VoiceOver, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then gesture with a double-tap, drag, or flick to control the phone.”

OK, great for all those rare individuals who actually prefer or HAVE to use the iPhone this way…but for the rest of us, safely nestled in our world of voice-acting…get ready for the onslaught of misunderstanding:  When you hear the term “voice-over”  from now on, you may have to qualify exactly what the speaker or writer is referring to.  And what THEY are referring to as voice over has nothing to do with what WE refer to as voiceover.

Don’t believe me, just read THIS article, to see how easily the cell-phone industry has accepted this term as their own.

Scary.

CourVO