Ah, Siri. The promise of having your own full-time flunky,ready to perform menial tasks that you don't have time for, is a big part ofthe appeal of the iPhone 4S, and one that has captured the public imaginationlike few other phone features have. Is it wrong to expect such slavishattentiveness from your other platforms? Here's how you can get Siri-likefeatures on the platform of your choice.
Be warned though that while talking to your gadgets mightstill be in its infancy, the future, where we will be voice-commanding, evenconversing with them, isn't that far away.
FOR YOUR ANDROID PHONE/TABLET:
App-savvy Android owners have, in all fairness, had voicerecognition capabilities for a while now. For instance, Voice Actions, a Googlefeature introduced for Android 2.2 devices, lets users call contacts, sendmessages and email, complete common tasks like playing music, finding a locationon the map, searching the web etc. Part of Google's Voice Search, the appexpects you to use set phrases instead of the conversation language you can usewith Siri, and doesn't always return a voice-result, forcing you to read theresults off the screen.
Another alternative, albeit awkwardly named, is theSpeakToIt Assistant. Unlike other assistants, this one actually presents youwith an animated person on screen with whom you can talk to, and even customisetheir appearance. It handles most tasks such as making calls, checking weatherand searching for answers to questions with elan, and even transcribes messagesand status updates for Facebook and Twitter. And while other alternatives existin the form of Vlingo, Edwin, Jeannie and Eva, the most promising one by far isIris. Yes, if the name sounds familiar, that's because it is Siri speltbackwards, and its developers have no qualms about their inspiration (Irisstands for Intelligent Rival Imitation of Siri). The interface is similar andwhile it is no equal to Siri at this point, its developers have been updatingit frequently.
FOR YOUR PRE-4S IPHONE AND IOS DEVICES:
With Siri not legitimately available for any iOS devicesother than the 4S, iOS users were left out of the Siri party, this despite theiPad2 sporting hardware that is capable of performing the Siri gymnastics. Yes,iPhone users have had Voice Control since the 3GS, which you can use to performsimple commands like "Call Neha" or play a song from your library, but that'spretty much where the functionality stops.
For more, try the Vlingo Voice App,which uses voice commands to let users dictate an email, send a text message orupdate their social network status, in addition to the regulars - making acall, finding someplace on the map or just a plain old web search. Unlike Siri,you will have to keep Vlingo's lingo in mind and say one of four commandsbefore the request: find, search, social update or call (Vlingo is availablefor Android, Blackberry, iOS and Nokia platforms). If it is just web searchyou're interested in, the Google app for iOS allows you to use voice commandsinstead of typing in a search query. And since it ties into Google, the app canuse location to help you find movie times, local businesses etc.
(Nuance has a number of excellent Dragon voice command andcontrol apps that are not available in the Indian App Store)
FOR YOUR MAC OR PC:
Why should smartphones have all the fun? PC users on Windows7 can head over to Start > Control Panel > Ease of Access > SpeechRecognition, and click on "Start Speech Recognition". Go through thewizard to detect your microphone and then take the highly recommended tutorial- it's a little lengthy, but will help you learn how to use speech recognition,while training your computer to learn the way you speak.
Once done, you can useSpeech Recognition to do a number of things, like open or switch to programs,minimise or close windows and more. On a Mac, head over to System Preferences,then click on the Speech options to enable the feature. Once calibrated, theSpeakable Items feature on the Mac lets you do a ton of things without liftinga finger. Granted, it doesn't have the conversation value of Siri, but ifyou're in the mood for truly awful knock-knock jokes, you can even command yourMac to tell you one!
Courtesy: Gadgets and Gizmos
