Virtual assistants, on your phone
Your
smartphone can now act as your butler. Here are some virtual assistant apps you
can download to make life easier
Love Jarvis, the virtual assistant that Iron
Man keeps snapping orders to? Would you like to have a virtual assistant? Now
you can set up one on your phone to help you get your life in order.
Assistant.ai
Free on Android, iTunes
and Windows Store. In-app, or additional feature purchases starting from Rs.53.65 onwards
The app lets you choose an avatar for your
personal assistant. It gives you news, and lets you search for specific terms
and phrases on Google, find locations through Yelp, open the calculator, ask
general knowledge questions and get answers from Wikipedia, make calls, send
texts and emails and update the calendar and tasks list. If you want some
entertainment, it can update your Facebook and Twitter pages, and play music
and videos too. In addition, it can also navigate, translate and open other
apps installed in the phone, and can be customized as well.
OK Google
Free on Android, iOS and Windows Phone
Holler “Ok Google” into the microphone of
your phone and the voice search feature will find what you’re looking for. This
includes quick translation to other languages, searching for an item or nearby
places, calculations, weather information, flights, songs, navigation, asking
general knowledge questions, setting reminders, and more. It also lets you
track packages, and book event and flight tickets. If you ask for a
restaurant’s location and then wish to see the menu, the assistant will show
you the same restaurant’s menu. The Now feature provides information such as
traffic conditions on the route to your office, weather updates, and meetings
and news you might be interested in.
Siri
Free on iPhone
Siri converses with you through voice to send
messages and emails, schedule meetings, make phone calls, and analyse your
requests to open other apps. It can wake you up, play your favourite song, tell
you the scores of matches or the prices of stocks you are following, and give
you directions and reminders. It can take dictations in English and Hindi and
post notes, emails or social media updates. If you say something like, “Tell my
husband I’m running late”, Siri will send him a message. Apple is working
actively with car manufacturers to integrate Siri into their car’s infotainment
systems.
Robin
Free on Android
Meant as a voice assistant for the road,
Robin lets you text by voice, find local places to go to, navigate using your
phone’s GPS—it even tells jokes. You can ask it for weather information, set
reminders and alarms, and get information on parking and traffic conditions. You
can personalize the app by getting it to address you by whatever name you want.
Robin activates when you press the microphone button or gesture a hello by
waving your hand in front of the phone.
Xperia Ear
To be launched this summer
How about a wireless earpiece that acts like
your personal assistant? Experia Ear is an exciting technology by Sony. It is a
compact, wide-angle lens camera that fits into your earlobe, and can either be
attached to your clothes or worn around your neck. Using a proximity sensor to
detect if you’re wearing it or not, it whispers to you the latest on emails,
missed calls, weather updates and breaking news. You can connect it to your
Android device via the near-field communication (NFC) wireless method or
Bluetooth. It’s hands-free, and uses facial and voice detection to hear you. It
can also capture images by acting as a remote for the paired smartphone, and
can play music, audiobooks and podcasts.
Hound Voice Search & Assistant
Free on Android and iOS
Don’t like to swipe or tap many options to
get the information you want? Ask Hound a question, and it will immediately get
back to you with the results. Hound activates when you say “OK Hound” to the
phone and has a very conversational tone. It can tell you about the weather,
search local places for you, navigate, search and book hotels with specifics
like Wi-Fi and breakfast included, book a cab, make phone calls, send text
messages, execute Web searches, set the alarm, check your flight status and
even translate words across multiple languages. It is only available in the US
currently, and we cannot wait for a global roll-out.
Cortana
Free on Android, iOS, Windows phones and PCs
Microsoft’s offering for its Windows phone is
now available on Android smartphones as well as Apple’s iPhone. Cortana can
help you find things in your phone, manage your calendar, track courier
packages, find files, chat with you and tell jokes if that is what you need to
improve your mood. You activate the assistant by saying “Hey Cortana” and
speaking into the mic. Apart from reminders for tasks, there is a “Remind Me”
feature to return calls if you missed one or declined to take one earlier.
M by Facebook
Free on Android, iOS, Windows and Web
A hybrid of human and virtual, M is a
text-based assistant that opens up in the Facebook Messenger app. This could
define the future of virtual assistants, simply because the human element has
not been ignored. Each demand you make is being looked at by a human too.
Facebook has hired an undisclosed number of team members to cater to your
personal demands. This unusual assistant, which was launched for select users
late last year and is in the beta stage, can have food delivered to you, as
well as sketch for you.
Source | Mint – The Wall Street Journal | 6 April 2016
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming
Event | National Conference on Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence
(NCFL 2016) during April 22-23, 2016.
Note
| If anybody use these post for forwarding in any social media coverage or
covering in the Newsletter please give due credit to those who are taking
efforts for the same.
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