Google is reportedly working on a big new feature for Google TV. According to a report and leaked images from Patently Apple, the search giant is looking to command the living room. The software, when released, will allow users to speak queries into a specially designed application that will then relay commands to your TV. As seen in the picture above, you can simply ask when your favorite shows are on and receive a full layout of expected airing times of the questioned programs. 

We have put spotlights on a couple apps that try to replicate the usefulness that iPhone users receive with Siri. None of them have really been able to fully grasp the everyday handiness exactly like Siri, but then again, that’s what makes it Siri. Enter a new player called Utter! The app doesn’t just message people and make calendar events, but can control many aspects of your smartphone that we once thought would be not possible.

What if you could ask your phone how much battery it had left? What if you told your device to reboot into the bootloader or even tell it what to have your processor clocked at? Utter! is in an early beta stage and is not available for download yet, but let’s hope we see it make a great debut sometime soon. Watch the full video and see what all the hype on Utter! is.

Via: Reddit, Android Police

Last night, the latest Siri wannabe was introduced to Android under the name Evi. It’s voice-inspired, can answer almost any question you ask it, and even learns on the go after receiving feedback directly from you. This actually is a decent attempt at being Android’s Siri, except for one problem which you will quickly find in the market:  they have like 1 or 2 servers trying to power the service for thousands of new users and simply cannot keep up with traffic.

At this point, if you jump into the app and search for something, you will see this: “I’m waiting for a network connection before trying this one.” It’s frustrating, especially after using it last night and finding pretty favorable results for the most part. In fact, it’s built-in map feature works well, however, we would have liked to have seen some way to launch navigation out of it. It returns simple, yet detailed results pages, beautifully laid out business or location pages, and even answered many of our off-the-wall questions. Again, this service actually isn’t bad and is probably the best attempt yet. Now, let’s hope we see a legitimate server infrastructure in the next day or so or it may be a short life for ol’ Evi.  

According to our pals over at Android and Me, Google has spent much of the year putting in work on a newly revamped Voice Actions software, which they have codenamed Majel. You could consider this their answer to Apple’s Siri and will go far beyond what the current crop of Android Voice Actions can accomplish. The limits of specific commands (navigate to, listen to, etc.) will soon be gone and the times of speaking in natural language may be upon us.

Confused by the codename? The word Majel comes from the name of the woman who acted as the voice of the Federation Computer on Star Trek for years. And it just so happens that Matias Duarte (the ICS architect) mentioned Star Trek back in October around the time that Android 4.0 was unveiled. He was quoted as saying that their approach to voice actions “is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer.” Fitting.

It’s anyone’s guess as to when we might see this new voice activated software, but there is a chance it could be out within the next couple of months. If Google wants to step into the voice actions game in a real way, it would be in their best interest to not wait around while Apple works to take Siri out of beta.

Is everyone ready to start talking to your phone like it’s your best friend?

Via:  Android and Me

Cluzee is Android’s next attempt at having a personal assistant service like Apple’s Siri, yet as with all other apps in this line, it falls short in some way or another. It can work through most of the recommended or sample task list that is provided upon first starting up the app, but once you start shouting out your own versions of tasks for Cluzee to complete, it struggles. I was able to pull up the weather here in Portland on Friday, find a nearby coffee shop, and even find out how many days until X-mas. It works, at times.

So, props to Cluzee for making a big PR splash this morning. You are now in the spotlight – let’s hope you can improve on what appears to be a pretty solid base, and create an app that people can use as a daily driver. For now though, please stop making comparisons of this app to Siri.

Oh and by the way, this may or may not work on your phone. According to the market comments and our own tests, it’s pretty hit or miss when it comes to compatibility. 

When the iPhone 4S was revealed last month most, if not all consumers felt a little bit let down. It wasn’t the much hyped redesigned iPhone 5, it didn’t even feature 4G connectivity. The one feature that it did include was Apple’s new voice assistant, Siri an addition that many didn’t see as a reason to upgrade. Nonetheless, the Apple fanboys were out in full on release day, making the iPhone 4S the best selling iPhone.

Apple has been hard at work keeping Siri under-wraps and attempting to prevent hackers from enabling the feature on older iPhone devices. However, it seems as if even Apple cannot stop the dev community as Paris-based firm, Applidium has cracked Siri’s code and revealed it to the world. Any developer now has the ability to write an application and integrate Siri’s functionality into it.

Applidium has written a lengthy blog post about the process on their website, if you are a developer or just a little curious then you should definitely check it out. Anyone else interested to see some Siri action on Android, or should i*phone software stay off of our operating system?

Via: Forbes.

Cheers Joe and PeacedOut!

With the announcement of the iPhone 4S and its Siri voice-integration followed by a couple of rumors that Google with introduce a similar service with Ice Cream Sandwich, we got to wondering how many people are actually interested in this type of software. Android has had Voice Actions for over a year now, but there have been other more advanced options on the market for just as long that don’t seem to get all that much love. With the unveiling of Siri, it seems like now this is the new cool thing because, well, Apple announced it. I personally have used Voice Actions or speech-to-text only when reviewing a service that has them and never in a real life situation other than to show it off as a cool feature to friends or family. I sort of get the feeling that I’m the minority.

Do I need to get with the times? Are highly-advanced voice-integrated services and apps the way of the future? Or are they the next gimmick like 3D on smartphones? Do we really have to watch the world walk around our streets talking to their phones as if they were a personal assistant? Maybe.

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When Apple announced that Siri was going to be baked right into their OS, then showed off how it worked and how smart it seemed, I was a bit jelly. We luckily have some great Android apps that act in just the same way for us on our devices. Speaktoit is a free personal assistant which can be found right on the Android Market and the app does basically all the things you might want it to. Update your Facebook status, look up directions and many many other things. You can choose an avatar with whom you speak with. It’s actually quite the neat little app.