Dec 20, 2012. In today's top apps list are 8 Best (Siri) Virtual Assistant Android Apps. Many of these apps go beyond just being a Siri clone; just using your voice they can help you send text messages, place calls, open apps, play music, get directions, restaurant & business information, search the Web, and a whole lot.

Are you jealous when you watch the Siri commercials that make the iPhone look like the single greatest mobile functionality ever created? Do you ache and long to have such a feature on your Android phone? You can have that, you know, with Even though Vlingo isn't a sexy name, it does have a pleasant feminine voice that reads back your incoming texts and email, as well the ability to take your spoken input and achieve plenty of results. There are a few tricks to getting it working as expected, so let's get this baby up and running to make your life infinitely easier.

With Vlingo you can: • Send texts and emails • Voice dial • Search the web • Find local restaurants, shops, and other businesses • Get directions • Update your social status on Facebook or Twitter and check in with foursquare • Get answers to just about any question • Buy movie tickets and book hotel rooms • Open other apps • Have incoming email and texts read aloud as they come in Installation Installation is as simple as: • Open up the Android Market • Search for 'vlingo' • Tap Download • Tap Accept & Download. Vlingo can now be found in the App Drawer on your mobile device. When you first run Vlingo, you will be greeted with a quick tutorial on using the application. The tool is pretty straightforward to use. However, there are a couple of 'gotchas' that you don't get from the tutorial (more on that in a bit).

Once you've walked through the tutorial, you'll find yourself on the Vlingo main screen ( Figure A). Here you can access the landing screens for: • Sending texts • Placing phone calls • Finding restaurants • Finding businesses • Searching • Updating social networks • Getting answers • Opening apps Figure A Here you see Vlingo install on a Verizon-branded Droid Bionic.

A perfect match of power and useability. If you simply tap an entry on this screen, you'll see hints about what it can do. If you long press an entry, it will take you directly to that function's landing page ( Figure B). Here's the landing page for the Social Network status update page. From the main screen, you can simply tap the Speak It button and then speak your search string into the mic to get a plethora of results.

Tap the desired result entry, and you can select what you want to do with the results ( Figure C). Figure C Call, get directions, or view on the web at a touch of a button. Text to speech As I mentioned earlier, it's possible to have Vlingo read your incoming texts and emails. There's a caveat to this. Vlingo reads everything, so if an email is long (or a reply in a long thread of conversations), this can get rather tedious and annoying. In order to enable this feature, open the Settings menu from within Vlingo (tap the Menu button on the handset), and then tap SafeReader settings. Knoppix Boot Only Isosceles.

In this new screen ( Figure D), check the box for the app you want Vlingo to read incoming messages from. Figure D You can enable both texts and emails. If you enable email, you also have to make sure you select which account you want Vlingo to read.

Tap the Email accounts button and then select the account you want to enable. You're not done. Although you've enabled the apps, you haven't enabled the SafeReader option. To do this, go back to the main screen and then tap the speaker icon (in the top left) to enable (the 'x' sould go away and Vlingo will speak to you 'Safe reader is on'). Now, whenever a text or email arrives, Vlingo will read it out to you.

Vlingo InCar There's a beta version of an in-car dashboard that makes it even easier to use Vlingo. To get to the InCar dashboard, click the tiny steering wheel icon in the upper-right corner of the main screen. When the new screen opens ( Figure E), you can tap one of the large buttons and then speak. Figure E Scroll the main pane to the left to see the Settings pane where you can enable Wake-up Command.

The Wake-up command is very handy for the Vlingo InCar. Having this on allows you to say 'Hey, Vlingo' and Vlingo will then follow your next command. So, if you wanted to Text a contact, you would say: 'Hey, Vlingo.' Once Vlingo responds with, 'What would you like to do?' Follow the rest of the vocal prompts.

It's really quite simple. Vlingo has a number of other amazing options that go a long way to making your Android mobile experience as safe and easy as possible. From within the app, you can even purchase a premium version for $1.99 (USD) that doesn't include ads. I'm fairly confident that once you start using Vlingo, you won't go back to the old finger-tiring, unsafe-driving method.

5.5 / October 29, 2015 Development status Active, + and Limited functionality in,, (via and the Google app) Available in Website Google Now is an developed. It is available in the Google app for and. Google Now uses a to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of. Along with answering user-initiated queries, Google Now proactively delivers information to users that it predicts (based on their search habits) they may want. Google Now was previously activated by saying 'Okay, Google Now,' from either the Google app, or any screen. Google Now is currently activated by saying 'Okay Google'.

Now 'cards' are also available for in the notification center. Voice search and limited voice-commands are available in the Google app for, and through when using the web-browser.

It was first included in Android, which launched on July 9, 2012, and was first supported on the smartphone. The service became available for iOS on April 29, 2013, without most of its features. In 2014 Google added Now cards to the notification center in Chrome OS and in the Chrome browser, however the notification center was later removed entirely from the Chrome browser.

Named Google Now the 'Innovation of the Year' for 2012. Google Now competes against assistants such as 's and 's. Since 2015, Google has gradually phased out reference to 'Google Now' in the Google app, with remaining use of 'Now' being largely removed in October 2016, including replacing 'Now cards' with 'feed'. At 2016, Google showcased its new intelligent personal assistant, which is in sorts an evolution of Google Now.

Unlike Google Now, however, Assistant can engage in two-way dialogue with the user. Contents • • • • • • • • History [ ] In late 2011, reports surfaced that Google was enhancing its product for the next version of Android.

It was originally codenamed 'Majel' after, the wife of and the voice of computer systems in the franchise; it was also codenamed 'assistant'. On June 27, 2012, Google Now was unveiled as part of the premier demonstration of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012. On October 29, 2012, Google Now received an update through the bringing the addition of Gmail cards. Google Now displays cards with information pulled from the user's Gmail account, such as flight information, package tracking information, hotel reservations and restaurant reservations (as long as the Gmail account is not a account ). Other additions were movie, concert, stock and news cards based on the users location and search history. Also included was the facility to create calendar events using voice input, for instance 'Make a new appointment for dinner with Steve next Thursday at 7pm'. On December 5, 2012, an update to the Google Search application brought several new features to Google Now, including cards for nearby events, searching by camera when at a museum or shop, airplane boarding passes found from e-mail ( in the first instance, more airlines followed). Zelda Ocarina Of Time Rom N64 Espanol.

In addition Google Now would show cards for the weather for upcoming travel destinations, birthday reminders; and monthly summaries of biking and walking activities. New voice action features included with this update include the ability to post to, song recognition capabilities, and the ability to scan bar codes. However, when the Search 2.5 update hit, Google removed the 'Search With Camera' feature. On March 21, 2013, the executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, stated that Google had submitted an version of Google Now to Apple for review and that the app was awaiting approval, but he later said that this was not true after Apple denied this was the case. Despite this, on April 29, 2013, Google Now was made available for iOS in an update to the operating system's Google Search application.

Based on Google Chrome code review on December 2012, Google Now was expected to be integrated into the desktop version of Google Chrome. According to Seth Rosenblatt of, it is rumored that Google Now will also serve as replacement in November 2013. On May 15, 2013, at Google I/O 2013, Google announced the upcoming release of Google Now on desktop platforms; the feature will be accessible only via Google Chrome or Google Chrome OS. On January 16, 2014, an alpha version of the Google Now was made available on desktop through the release although this app lacks some of the cards available on mobile version of Google Now such as public alerts, nearby photos, activity summary and stocks. On March 24, 2014, Google started rolling out Google Now for Google Chrome users who are signed into their Google account on the browser.

Functionality [ ]. This section may be towards certain viewpoints. Please by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the.

(October 2015) Scott Webster of praised Google Now for its ability to remind users of events based on past location histories and check-ins, and further commended it for providing 'information instantly in a clean, intuitive manner' without the user's requesting it. A review by Ryan Paul of claims that like most other voice activated apps, including, voice recognition is a major issue, but notes that the ability to type queries provides users with alternatives. Some commentators noted that Google Now's predictive power reveals 'exactly how much data and information Google actually has about [users'] routines and daily lives.' An October 2014 review on Android Central showed Google Now outperforming its competition, Siri and Cortana. Comparison with Siri [ ] Unlike Apple's assistant app, which sources its information from specific websites, Google Now sources its information from any website deemed relevant. For example, on November 25, 2014, published an article about how, when asked about 'King Of United States,' Google would inform the visitor that was the king of the United States, citing a sardonic conservative website.

This has been mentioned as a weakness by some who prefer the Siri method, referring to the 'King of the United States' example as a search engine error. However, others argue that Google simply does the search differently, not incorrectly.

Some people want Google to filter the results for 'validity', but the competing opinion is that Google is not in the business of deciding whether certain listings deserve to be in the returned group of results. In terms of speech recognition, various studies have indicated one or the other is slightly more accurate, with ratings typically in the mid-80% range. See also [ ]. • ^ Summers, Nick (2014-01-16).. The Next Web. Retrieved 2014-01-16. • Ravenscraft, Eric (2014-03-24)...

Retrieved 2014-04-03. •, Chromium Blog. Retrieved 22 August 2016. Retrieved 2012-12-26.

•, Retrieved 9 October 2016. • Webster, Scott (2011-12-15).. Retrieved 2011-12-28.

Retrieved 15 September 2012. • Ravenscraft, Eric (2012-10-29).. Android Police. Retrieved 2012-10-31. Retrieved 29 May 2015. • D'Orazio, Dante (2012-12-05)..

Retrieved 2012-12-05. • Wolfe, Bryan M. (March 22, 2013).. Retrieved April 26, 2013.

• Rosenblatt, Seth (2013-04-29).... Retrieved 2013-04-29. Chromium Code Review.

December 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2013. • Rosenblatt, Seth (April 22, 2013)... Retrieved April 24, 2013.

• Farber, Dan (May 16, 2013)... Retrieved May 16, 2013. • Welch, Chris (March 24, 2014).... Retrieved May 1, 2014. May 16, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2012. • Google (2013-08-22)..

Retrieved 2013-08-23. • Limer, Eric (May 1, 2014).... Retrieved May 1, 2014.

• Winkler, Rolfe (May 6, 2014).... Retrieved May 9, 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2015. • Webster, Scott (2012-07-02)... Retrieved 2012-12-26. • Paul, Ryan (August 13, 2012)...

Retrieved December 26, 2012. • Osinga, Douwe.. Patent Office. • Wortham, Jenna (June 28, 2012)... Retrieved January 30, 2013. • Simon Sage (October 8, 2014)., •.

• ^ Robert McGarvey (28 October 2014).. Search Engine Land. 25 November 2014. • David Weinberger, Dan Gillmor (March 13, 2015).. Retrieved September 10, 2016. • Robert Zak (September 10, 2015).. Retrieved September 10, 2016.

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