Siri voice assistant alternatives are being marketed to Android devices with alarming regularity. Since the Siri technology was first embedded into iOS 5 on the new iPhone 4S (even though a Siri app had been available for some time), a number of Android developers have brought similar apps to Android. There’s also been a number of voice assistant apps that have been available for quite a while. Google’s Android OS already has built-in voice commands. It may not be as personalized or sophisticated as Siri, or have captured the public’s imagination, but the technology has been around for a while. It can do things like search, call people, send text messages and so on. Still, it is a little devoid of personality and not always 100 percent accurate. So how do some of the new (and old) Siri alternatives for Android shape-up? Just released this week was Cluzee, which received one Read More

The Android Market has lots of Siri-like voice-activated assistant apps (most of them free) that use Google’s excellent voice recognition system. They’re not as slick as Apple’s virtual executive secretary, but some are worth trying. Check out PCWorl'd review of Speaktoit Assistant, Voice Actions, Vlingo, Jeannie, Eva Intern. Read More

Evaluated version: Pros: Cons: Android Voice Actions are nothing new. We’ve been telling our phone to search and change functions since last year, and apps like Vlingo have enhanced those functions even further. However, voice is all the rage now that Apple has introduced Siri, a voice search and command tool that not only provides hands-free navigation, but does it in an interactive way. SpeaktoIt Assistant is a beta Android app that does some of the same ask-and-answer features as Siri. It’s a virtual assistant that listens to commands and takes action. There’s playful banter with your assistant named Sam, who will provide some canned responses if you say something dirty or ask her to marry you. And when you get serious to ask a question like “How many liters are in a gallon,” Sam will actually locate the answer and respond. Better yet, it can even provide an answer when Read More

   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.   (free) |  (free) The next app we wanted to point out is called Voice Actions. One of our readers emailed us the perfect description: It gives the user the ability to do a wide array of commands from setting alarms, creating reminders, checking weather, and just Read More