voice assistant
Latest
Google Assistant gets its long-promised John Legend voice
It took the better part of a year to show up, but John Legend's Google Assistant cameo is finally available in the US. Ask the AI helper to "talk like a Legend" and the singer's dulcet tones will greet you when issuing certain commands, such as asking about the weather. Naturally, he'll have answers for questions about his own life, such as his wife Chrissy Teigen or his favorite type of music (take a wild guess). Some of those answers will be canned, but others will take advantage of WaveNet speech synthesis to deliver a customized response.
Qualcomm's new chips power 'smarter' AI-connected speakers
Smart speakers still have a lot of room for improvement. How often have you had to shout a command over your music, or had to endure mediocre sound for the convenience of using your voice? Qualcomm believes it can do better. It's unveiling chips that should lead to more powerful smart speakers. The QSC400 system-on-chip is meant to deliver a quicker and more intelligent response for voice assistants, even when it's very noisy. They can stay in standby for as much as 25 times longer (and thus wake up faster), handle more on-device AI and more effectively recognize your voice from a distance.
Samsung will let you remap the Bixby button on older phones too
If the Bixby button on your Samsung Galaxy phone doesn't get much use, you might prefer to make it open another app. Samsung noted the remapping option when it revealed the S10 lineup this week, but if you have a slightly older Galaxy phone (namely, Note 9, S9, Note 8 or S8), you can customize the button too if your device is running Android Pie.
Anyone can publish a skill on the Alexa Store now
Amazon is opening up its US Alexa store to let anyone share skills they've created for the voice assistant. Until now, it's been the domain of developers, who have already added more than 80,000 skills to the store.
Waze adds Siri Shortcuts to its iOS app
Waze is playing even more nicely with Apple after it enabled CarPlay support back in September. The latest version of its iOS app lets you use Siri Shortcuts to find your way to a destination. You'll be able to set up shortcuts for things like your morning commute, the drive home and directions to your favorite places.
Why is Google taking over Vegas for CES 2018?
Google doesn't usually have a big presence at CES, but that's changed in a big way this year. You can't help but notice that the monorail circling the Las Vegas Convention Center bears huge letters saying "Hey Google!" Just below, Google has set up a huge, multistory monument to the Google Assistant booth in the convention-center parking lot. It's still under construction so it's hard to say exactly what's going on in there. (Also, there's a superfluous spiraling slide on the side of the booth and a weird Google Assistant ball-pit game near the convention center's main entrance.)
Amazon's voice control speaker is now available for all
While not every gadget Amazon throws to the wall sticks (cough Fire Phone), the Echo voice-controlled wireless speaker was a surprising smash. Though it's been on sale for quite awhile by invitation only, Amazon's now put it up on pre-order for anyone who wants it. As a reminder, here's how it works: you activate it by saying "Alexa" or whatever else you want to call it, then ask questions or give commands much like you would with Siri or Google Now. From there, the always-on device will hit Amazon's cloud and give you the weather, sports scores, Spotify songs and more.
Listen to Microsoft Sam sing 'The Piña Colada Song'
Microsoft's Sam has many talents. But what does he do when he's finished helping users install their shiny new copy of Windows XP? Turns out, he kicks back, fixes himself a Piña Colada, and lays down the vocals for perhaps the definitive version of Rupert Holmes' Escape. Take a listen:
Apple files patent application for 'intelligent automated assistant,' sounds like Siri
Siri's managed to make it into several Apple devices now, so it doesn't shock us to spy the company's attempt to patent the polite (somewhat frosty) tones of its voice navigation system. A pretty deep patent application filed today describes an "intelligent Automated Assistant," with the claims describing an application that is guided through the user's speech -- and all wrapped in a "conversational interface." So far, so Siri. The filing elaborates on Apple's earlier filings, explaining how this digital assistant furthers the users' demands with additional requests for speech-based information -- hopefully resulting in that map location or a movie booking you were after. This "user intent" is then put to use, launching an additional app or performing the specified function, while non-speech input (presumably like the ability to correct your requests in text form) get a brief mention. We do get plenty of description on commands though, with some pretty thorough response tables and examples of "anchor text" -- something that the automated assistant tries to pluck from your ramblings in order to make sense of them. The full version resides at the source below, if you're looking for 51 verbose pages explaining Siri's inner workings.
Google to challenge Siri with its updated Google search app
Google's Search app for iOS will soon receive an update that'll improve the voice assistant component and bring it on par with its Android Jelly Bean counterpart. The upcoming version of the search app takes advantage of Google's experience with speech recognition and its Knowledge Graph, which tries to make connections between different pieces of information. For iOS users, the updated Search app will let you ask a question using natural language and receive a spoken answer. You can ask Google whether you need an umbrella, and it will tell you the current weather conditions. The range of information available via voice search spans everything from local movie listings to the height and weight of your favorite sports star. It's a small improvement, but one that Google says is vital in building the search engine for the next generation. This is a sentiment echoed by developer and entrepreneur Ndav Gur, who says that queries based on concepts, not keywords is the future of search and that apps like Siri and Google Search are "on the cusp of an entirely new thing."
Voice assistant 'Nina' lets any app obey commands, makes speech your password
Voice recognition technology from Nuance is all over the place -- in everything from Smart TVs to Beemers. But today, in response to the growth of device-specific voice assistants like Siri and S-Voice, the company wants to take things down a different route: launching a mobile SDK for iOS and Android that any third-party app can employ. Baptized "Nina," the voice assistant won't only be able to understand instructions, but will also identify the speaker using vocal biometrics. That means Nina could potentially pay a bill, arrange a bank transfer, book a vacation or even interact with government services without ever requiring you to enter a password. The video after the break shows just how intimate things could get -- assuming you're able to find a spot where the two of you won't be overheard.
Apple sued over Siri in China
After settling a US$60 million lawsuit with Chinese company Proview, Apple now faces yet another costly lawsuit in China. This time the complaint focuses on Siri and is initiated by Zhizhen Network Technology, a Chinese company with its own voice assistant software. According to a report in M.I.C. gadget, Zhizhen claims that "Apple's Siri infringes on one of Zhizhen's patents so-called 'ZL200410053749.9', which is a patent for 'a type of instant messaging chat bot system' called Xiaoi Bot." The lawsuit currently is in pre-trial negotiations. You can read more about Zhizhen and the Xiaoi voice assistant on M.I.C. Gadget's website.
Unofficial S-Voice app gets gagged, Samsung waits for its flagship hero
Did you get a chance to download Samsung's voice assistant APK over the weekend? Don't bother trying now, as Samsung (or Vlingo, which is behind the app) has locked down access for unauthorized devices -- namely anything that isn't a Galaxy S III. According to xda-developers, S-Voice's command requests are being rebuffed once Vlingo's servers detect any phone that's presumably not inspired by nature. There's just over a week to go, however, and soon you'll be able to shoot the breeze with your new smartphone love all you want.
Study: 87% of iPhone 4S owners use Siri monthly
Parks Associates surveyed 482 iPhone 4S owners and found that 87 percent of respondents use voice assistant Siri at least once a month. Most people (55 percent) are satisfied with the service and use it to make phone calls and send text messages. About a third of users, however, are not using all of Siri's features like playing music, sending email and scheduling appointments. If you fit the above profile and you're not sure what else you can do with Siri, check out this lengthy primer to the service by our own Erica Sadun. [Via The Wall Street Journal]
Siri's Japanese performance not as good as DoCoMo's voice assistant
Apple added support for Japanese in iOS 5.1, but the roll out isn't going as smoothly as expected. According to a Kotaku report, Apple's voice assistant can apparently only handle simple and universal Japanese phrases. When it comes to complex phrases, Siri stumbles while its competitor Shabette Concier performs flawlessly. Shabette, a recently-launched voice service from wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo, is targeted specifically for Japanese customers and supports maps and local content. It is supposedly faster and less rigid than Siri. You can check out the Japanese video below and head to Kotaku for a phrase-by-phrase analysis of Siri's performance against Shabette.
iPhone owner sues Apple over Siri
Sure, Apple's Siri voice assistant isn't perfect. Sometimes there's network connectivity problems, sometimes background voice interferes and sometimes Siri is just plain wrong. It's for those reasons (and others) that Apple launched the service as a "beta." Despite the beta tag, at least one iPhone customer is not happy with Siri and is taking Apple to court, says a Wall Street Journal report. The suit was filed by Robbins Geller on the behalf of Brooklyn resident and iPhone 4S owner Frank M. Fazio. The lawsuit says Siri is "at best, a work-in-progress" and claims that Apple falsely advertised the service in its commercials. The complaint says, In many of Apple's television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie. In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S's Siri feature, a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri. The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages. As expected, Apple has not publicly responded to this complaint.
Siri may pose 'competitive threat' to Google, Eric Schmidt tells Senate subcommittee
Back in September, Google chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt sat down before a Senate antitrust subcommittee to discuss his company's competitive practices. As you would expect from anyone in his situation, Schmidt spent much of his time defending Mountain View's position atop the search industry, and cited several competitors as evidence of its fair play. The exec's list of "threats" featured some of the usual suspects, including Bing, Yahoo and Amazon, as well as Siri. "Even in the few weeks since the hearing, Apple has launched an entirely new approach to search technology with Siri, its voice-activated search and task-completion service built into the iPhone 4S," he wrote, pointing to a handful of publications that characterized Apple's voice assistant as a "Google Killer" and Cupertino's "entry point" into the search market. "Apple's Siri is a significant development -- a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search," Schmidt explained. "Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information." Granted, it's not terribly surprising to hear Google talk up its competition -- especially before a panel of politicians devoted to rooting out anti-competitive practices. Yet Schmidt's comments do mark a noticeable shift from the stance he assumed last year, when he denied that Apple and Facebook posed a "competitive threat" to Google's search operations. As he admitted, "My statement was clearly wrong." Check out the full hearing at the source link below.
Siri co-founder Kittlaus leaves Apple
According to a report from AllThingsD, Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus has left Apple to pursue his own interests. The departure was supposedly amicable and Kittlaus will use his newly-found free time to spend time with his family in Chicago and explore new entrepreneurial ideas. He reportedly left Apple right after the launch of the iPhone 4S and the debut of new and improved Siri speech recognition assistant. His departure won't affect the future development of Siri as other members of the Siri executive team are expected to stay at Apple. Once a stand-alone iOS application, Siri was acquired by Apple in early 2010. The voice assistant is now integrated into the version of iOS 5 that ships on the iPhone 4S. It offers a conversational voice interface that lets you send and receive text messages, search the web, add reminders and appointments, navigate using Apple Maps, get the weather forecast and more.
