Siri is arguably the cornerstone of the iPhone 4S, and the voice recognition technology may soon find its way into the iPad and, as has been rumored, into the extremely hyped up Apple HDTV.
But voice recognition isn’t a province governed exclusively by Apple. If anything, Apple, per usual, is coming a bit late to the game, albeit with a more streamlined and elegant user experience.
But with Siri being all the rage – and still the centerpiece of Apple’s iPhone advertising – Google is hardly sitting idly by and watching Apple and Siri run off into the distance.
Alexia Tsotis highlights Google’s answer to Siri, a feature it will likely dub Google Assistant.
According to a source purportedly familiar with Google’s plans, Google is aiming to open up its Assistant feature to third party developers.
Unlike Apple with Siri, Google is planning on extending this service to developers so they can build novel things. Imagine the possibilities for apps, websites, etc interested in hooking into ‘Assistant’?
From what I know, Google has now set its ambitions beyond social and is focused wholeheartedly on building this “Do engine,” or goal oriented search: 2011 was the year of social for Google. 2012 is the year of ‘Assistant.’
According to one source, Google higher-ups plan on unveiling the ‘Assistant’ product by the fourth quarter of 2012, though they themselves are uncertain.
Of course, by the fourth quarter of 2012, the second iteration of Siri (read: non-beta) will presumably already be running on the iPhone 5. And we’ll be the first to admit that Siri, in its current incarnation, is somewhat limited feature wise but it makes more sense to get Siri to do a few thing remarkably well than to have it do everything poorly. That notwithstanding, some future Siri updates might include the ability to take photos, record video, turn wi-fi on and off, and make restaurant reservations.
Related:
Notorious B.I.G and Siri sing “Hypnotize”
via TechCrunch
Thu, Mar 8, 2012
News, Rumors