Voice Assistant

Five 'Voice Assistant' stories May 2013 - June 2017

Samsung opens registration for early access to Bixby voice assistant for US Galaxy S8 and S8+

Jun 16 2017 - 10:39 am PT

Bixby was one of Samsung’s most noteworthy new services announced alongside the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ earlier this year. It aimed to take on Google Assistant as the company’s new AI system, offering object recognition in the camera and aggregating news and important information into a central hub on the home screen.

The voice command side of Bixby was by far the most ambitious, promising to be able to do anything you could normally do by touching the screen. Sadly (but unsurprisingly), this portion of Bixby wasn’t ready in time for the Galaxy S8 launch, and still hasn’t made its way to the devices months later, frustrating potential would-be users…

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Sony’s Xperia Ear smart earbud can read your notifications aloud, available Dec 13 for $199

Abner Li Nov 18 2016 - 9:09 am PT

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While the Moto Hint aesthetically looked more like the earpiece worn by the protagonist of Her, it lacked any smart capabilities. Shown off at IFA, the Xperia Ear will be available on December 13 for $199 and is a pretty close approximation of that future sci-fi product.

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Microsoft’s Cortana for Android enters public beta, grab it now via Play Store

Tom Maxwell Aug 24 2015 - 9:53 am PT

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Cortana, Microsoft’s cross-platform voice assistant not dissimilar from Google Now, is today becoming available as an official public beta through Google Play.

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Here’s how Hound beta compares to Google Now (Video)

Stephen Hall Jun 5 2015 - 11:16 am PT

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We told you earlier this week about a new voice assistant called Hound, and if you take SoundHound’s internal demo at face value, the app seems like it’s almost too impressive to be true. That video actually went somewhat viral (despite being recorded with a potato), and we wanted to put Hound through the paces to see if it lives up to the hype. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to put Google Now in the mix too and see how SoundHound’s new app compares to Google’s trusty voice assistant…
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What does Samsung’s S-Voice assistant think of Siri?

Jordan Kahn May 8 2013 - 6:28 am PT

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Despite having access to a pretty powerful voice-enabled, predictive search engine with Google Now, Samsung is still pushing ahead with its own ‘S Voice’ app to try and provide a unique Siri-like experience on its devices. We’ve seen many comparisons of how Samsung might have borrowed from Apple for its own voice-controlled assistant, but today a post from AndroidCentral got us curious about how S Voice reacts when asked about Siri.

The screenshot we grabbed above speaks for itself with the Galaxy S4 returning snappy answers when asked about the iPhone and Siri. When asked, “Have you ever used an iPhone?,” S Voice responded, simply, “No, I have standards.” Another question, “Are you Siri?,” returns the answer, “I think that I am, but I’m a little biased.”

Siri-Call-me-an-ambulance Results appear to vary for users, but it’s certainly an easter egg that Samsung has intentionally included in the app at some point. Siri isn’t free of its own clever responses with users finding several easter eggs and controversial remarks since the app first launched on iPhone 4S. Asking Siri about Samsung or its devices, however, usually just provides a vague response or directs users to Apple’s website or the web.

Some answers Siri gives are amusing, such as responding to marriage questions with “My End User License Agreement does not cover marriage”. People are more amused by the silly stuff, like when you say “call me an ambulance” and she responds by acknowledging “From now on, I’ll call you ‘an ambulance’”.