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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.

6 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. 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
  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:Not a real competitor to Siri by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do you consider that a good thing? Are you a big Internet Explorer fan? I'd much rather have functionality independently selectable so that I can choose which I want, and upgrade it (or not) as I choose.

  4. Just tried it by Gumbercules!! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just grabbed it from Android market. Tried 3 searches:
    1. "Petrol near me" - success - found a petrol station near by, correctly.
    2. "Weather today" - failure - said weather coming soon, in the meantime, try accuWeather.
    3. "Who is the Prime Minister of Australia" - success - Julia Gillard.


    The speech to text was flawless, even on the 3rd one.

    Still a gimmick I can't see any real use for. I can Google Voice search on my phone already and I never use it. Maybe there's something else you can do with these things I haven't thought of but for me it seems like Siri it pointless and Evi more so.

  5. 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...