Getting back to the iPhone, wireless carrier AT&T has reportedly developed a trick that will allow modern mobile handsets, including the iPhone, to recognize voice commands without the need for voice recognition software.

According to AppleInsider, the company's research project, known as "Speech Mashups", is based on AT&T's existing WATSON speech engine. The new project places the feature on the web as a service that can be accessed from any location where a high-speed Internet connection is available.

As long as the software used to access Speech Mashups obeys certain web standards, particularly an AJAX framework and JavaScript, the technology can capture voice commands, interpret them at a remote server, and send them back to the device in a language a website or program can understand without installing a dedicated application or plugin.

AT&T has gone on the record to state that the technology can be used for IP-based TV boxes as well as Blackberries and smartphones, though its primary focus will be the iPhone, which currently lacks native voice recognition of its own and, up until the release of the iPhone 2.0 firmware, had no support for such a feature through isolated native applications.

The technology is still in development and remains in AT&T's labs for the time being.

As always, let us know what you think over in the comments or forums.