HTC One S

I recently upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and decided I'd check out the voice command stuff since I never have before. So I've found that it's kinda a pain to use so far. I can't get it to work correctly at all in the dialer, and everything else just seems kinda pointless. However, during all this I stumbled across something called "quick launch." This happened when I said "launch, and whatever app I said." A box pops up that says "open quick launch." I opened it, and a list of all my apps comes up with a heading that says quick launch and the little gear looking settings logo. You click on any of the apps and you end up back in the regular applications menu having no idea what I just did. So I repeat what I did this time when inside the quick launch menu I press the back button. This takes me into another list which shows every letter & number with the capability of being assigned an app. Before an app is assigned, the field shows "search + a." I assume that is the command for the assigned app, but it really doesn't make sense nor do I understand how to apply it. So there it is. What is this quick launch? Does it have anything to do with voice commands? If so, how does it all come together? If not, what is it, and how do you get voice commands to work so that they serve any useful purpose? Thanks.