Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Siri Competitor Evi Arrives, But Already Overloaded

Posted by timothy on from the but-how-much-does-evi-resemble-microsoft-bob? dept.

mikejuk writes "Evi, a new rival to Siri, Apple's voice-driven personal assistant, has made its debut on both the iPhone and Android. And people are so keen to that Evi's servers are overloaded — so be prepared for a wait for answers." The app costs 99 cents for iOS users, but it's free on Android.

10 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. SpeakToIt Assistant by sandytaru · · Score: 2, Informative

    Was there first.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
    1. Re:SpeakToIt Assistant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Maybe so but look at the permissions that SpeakToIt Assistant requires. It's a bit scary:

      THIS APPLICATION HAS ACCESS TO THE FOLLOWING:
      SERVICES THAT COST YOU MONEY
      DIRECTLY CALL PHONE NUMBERS
      Allows the application to call phone numbers without your intervention. Malicious applications may cause unexpected calls on your phone bill. Note that this does not allow the application to call emergency numbers.
      SEND SMS MESSAGES
      Allows application to send SMS messages. Malicious applications may cost you money by sending messages without your confirmation.

    2. Re:SpeakToIt Assistant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, scary, but isn't that expected? Isn't one of the features of Siri calling and texting people for you?

    3. Re:SpeakToIt Assistant by ksemlerK · · Score: 3, Informative

      Iris already exists: Iris for Android

      --
      Get your free Dropbox account with 2 GB Free storage!
    4. Re:SpeakToIt Assistant by jamesh · · Score: 5, Informative

      DIRECTLY CALL PHONE NUMBERS

      1. Purchase pay-to-call and pay-to-sms services
      2. Stand on street corner with megaphone yelling out instructions for phones to dial and message my numbers
      3. Profit!

      In fact you could just buy ads during popular TV shows that clearly speak the same instructions...

    5. Re:SpeakToIt Assistant by Zerth · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you give permission to text or call to an app, you don't get to choose to let it do so only when you mean it. Android phones don't come with fMRI or MEG to know your intentions.

      Yet.

  2. Old news by SoonerSkeene · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only has this been out for approaching a week, but it's also far from a competitor. It uses the standard voice services to transcribe what you say, then 'helpfully' google it for you or open a webpage. It most certainly can't do what Siri does, even when it is (rarely) working. You can ask Siri where to get a sandwich. Asking Evi just results in the homepage for UrbanSpoon.com launching. Not even a search for what you want. When's that Majel thing coming?

    1. Re:Old news by narcc · · Score: 5, Informative

      I want to be able to add something to my calendar, or ask where the closet X is.

      What's so strange is that the things people bring up when they talk about Siri are the same things that other apps have been able to do for ages.

      When Siri came out, there was a user here bragging that he could tell Siri that he was "hungry for Mexican food" and it would bring up a list of Mexican restaurants in his area. Well, I press the convenience key on my Blackberry and, surprise surprise, saying "I'm hungry for Mexican food" was all it took for Vlingo to pull up a list of Mexican restaraunts near me (grabbing my current location with the GPS) complete with a button to call them and a button to get directions.

      I'm still not sure what Siri does that's particularly special, though I do hear a lot about the things that Siri won't do that other similar apps can do.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
  3. Observations by vencs · · Score: 3, Informative

    Speech Recognition is good. Many questions bumped back with server busy message - difference being it promises to respond when it is able to.
    - Call X: Server busy - Thought this is something it can fetch from phone more than from its server.
    - Email X: I do not know how to that yet. Ask me for any information.
    - Calendar: Online calendars are Google Calendar, Yahoo! Calendar, O2 Calendar. (Those are hyperlinked words which would take you to another Evi Screen with Visit buttons.)
    - Distance to Moon: May be you want something about the moon? Try this webpage Moon - Wikipedia. (Hyperlinked to Moon wiki page).
    - Stock price of Apple: Try Quote.com for stock
    - Height of Everest: Mount Everest's' elevation is 8850 meters, 29000 feet.

    - The long sorry message read out is not you would want to hear more than a couple of times in the that unattractive robotic tone.
    - It apparently depends on or uses a Text To Service other than the default one. And so the I selected (Pico TTS) is stopping if I am silent for more than 10s with out any audible warning. Which forces me to look whats happening and click on the listen button again.
    - One issue that arises with a non-inbuilt TTS is Evi is not in control of the entire end to end experience and can be messed up pretty easily due to the TTSs' clicks, timeouts, quality, capabilities.

  4. Re:Not a real competitor to Siri by Frangible · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... and by "minor app developer" you mean a Stanford Research Institute spinoff, where it was created from over 10 years of AI research by DARPA on the CALO/PAL projects, which were in fact the largest AI projects in history?

    You might remember DARPA from some of their other projects. Like ARPANET amongst others.

    If you expect to equal 10 years of DARPA AI research and development in a 3-week coding project, well good luck with that.