Voice Recognition

A lot of you viewers probably have iPhones and iPads with voice recognition software.
I am not really a tech-y person. Meaning, although I am actually decent at computer programing, I prefer to read than acquire new appliances or applications. So I don't really know the details.
There's dragon software or something, which types what you say....
But that's about all I know.
Anyways, today I had my first GROUNDBREAKING experience with such technology. At our school, we have acquired a "Mac Cart" which is a sleek white cart of computer ports containing 30 Mac Books. We've used these several times so far this year, and this year they were utilized for science research. Friend A (who I will call Clarissa on this blog) and I sit together, and we were each presented with a lap top.
"Clarissa"'s had a rather small circle with a picture of a microphone in a green bubble present. It seemed to be registering our voices.  Yet we could not seem to delete it or put it to any remotely useful purpose.
Over the course of our science period, random windows and applications kept popping up as we discussed the lap tops for no reason.
OR SO WE THOUGHT.
So yeah, as you have already figured out, this mysterious bubble was sound recognition software, which opened documents as we named them. Soon we had also made this discovery and put it to good (if not entirely educational) use at once.
It was a great pleasure to, out of no where, bark "Switch to Chrome" and have the little window pop up... Enjoyable.
So as you  roll your eyes in disgust at my lack of tech-knowledge, all I have to say is "Oh yeah? Well I was the one who opened iTunes with my voice, so ha!"
All you people with shmancy apps, I'm catching up to you!
~Julia