Posts tagged siri

Echo is a speaker that doesn't just play your music. Photo: Amazon

Echo is a speaker that doesn’t just play your music. Photo: Amazon

Amazon’s built a crazy Bluetooth speaker that wants to be a part of your family. It’s called Echo, and not only will it play your tunes, it has a built-in virtual assistant that will provide all kinds of information when you need it. It’ll even work for you by creating reminders, setting alarms, and more.

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

Apple’s Siri virtual assistant is getting better all the time, but Google Now still takes the biscuit, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Munster ran both virtual assistants through a battery of tests, and shared the results in a new research note, published Tuesday. He concluded that Android’s voice search correctly answers questions asked 84 percent of the time, while Apple’s Siri follows up behind with a still impressive 82 percent correct rate.

Jeff Bezo's Fire Phone may look gimmicky, but it's got some cool tricks the iPhone doesn't

Jeff Bezo’s Fire Phone may look gimmicky, but it’s got some cool tricks the iPhone doesn’t. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Amazon introduced its first smartphone to the world this morning and while the jury is still out on whether its incredible Dynamic Perspective feature is a UI revolution or just another 3-D gimmick, Jeff Bezos and the Amazon team have pumped Fire Phone full of features that could make it more than just the world’s best buying machine.

From Firefly’s compulsive-purchasing features to Mayday’s instant tech-support tether, Fire Phone has a few tricks up its sleeve that we weren’t expecting. But will that be enough to convince consumers to buy one of the AT&T-exclusive phones?

Check out these six things your iPhone and Android can’t do, but Fire Phone can:

Cortana-1200-80

Microsoft’s efforts to make Cortana as pervasive as possible could see the intelligent digital assistant brought to Android and iOS. A member of the software giant’s Windows Phone team has confirmed that Microsoft is “actively talking” about bringing Cortana to rival platforms.

iOS-8

With iOS 8, Apple is bringing a multitude of exciting new features to iPhone and iPad. In some cases, Cupertino is playing catch-up as it tries to match what’s currently available in KitKat; in others, Apple’s next-generation mobile operating system is about to blast past the latest version of Android.

Android and iOS will secure a staggering 95 percent of smartphone market share between them in 2014, according to the latest research from IDC. While it’s strictly a two-horse race, Google’s platform is currently far out in front when it comes to number of users, with Android’s market share expected to reach 80.2 percent by the end of the year.

Google has a new Android update up its sleeve that will be announced this summer, but while Apple posts impressive upgrade percentages, Android fragmentation typically slows deployment of Google’s latest, greatest mobile OS.

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