Siri, as we know it, is pretty awesome. It is smart and understand the natural speech perfectly well. But it has it’s limitations. If you ask it a general knowledge question, it will seek your permission to go look it up on internet. Moreover, the results may be factually correct but Siri may not understand exactly what results you were looking for. How about a voice-app that can understand the kind of results you are looking for, go look it up on internet, cross-match the result and get you the exact answer? Evi, a new app for smartphones does just that!
Evi has been released by True Knowledge and is currently in it’s beta version. It is available both for iPhone and Android. True Knowledge has coupled two very powerful elements into Evi: the voice-recognition technology by Nuance, and power of True Knowledge’s engine. Together, this has produced a product that may even beat Siri in awesomeness!
Let me demonstrate here with an example. You may ask Siri ‘Who was the US President during Vietnam War?’ Siri will ask back that do you want to go to web search for this question. On the other hand, Evi will look up Vietnam War on the web, see the dates of the war, then put out a list of US presidents, cross-match the Vietnam war dates with that of US Presidents and will find you just the answer you are looking for. Really smart? Definitely!
So hows does Evi do this? Evi combines three things: it understand the user’s voice, translates into natural language text and understands both the meaning as well as the intent of the user. So it doesn’t simply display or show results, it attempts to bring out the exact results that the user may be looking for. She combs through the billion of facts that she can access through True Knowledge’s engine and that is how she is able to get the best results for you.
What stands Evi apart form Siri is that Evi is available both for iPhone and Android devices as an app, while Siri is limited only to iPhone 4S for now. So Evi already has a greater scope and with the kind of potential it promises, it may find numerous uses in gaming consoles, search engines, televisions and lot, lot more.
Buy & Download
iTune Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evi/id463296609?mt=8
Android Marketplace: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.trueknowledge.android.evi
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It is only $.99 so I’m giving it a try despite the fact that it is not getting good ratings in the iPhone app store. According to most complaints the server is getting hammered. I’m an iPhone 4 user and would like something like Siri so we shall see.
Evi shows a lot of promise but at the moment it is not performing. For an alternative that works on the same knowledge base as Evi, try out ‘Voice Ask’, which has been available for some time and is constantly being improved. See voiceask.com
See also ‘Voice Ask’, an app that offers a Siri alternative on the same basis as Evi. It also works on any iPhone, iPad, or Android device. See voiceask.com
Evi is following in the footsteps of ‘Voice Ask’, which has been in the store for some time and has outgrown some of the initial issues that are now plaguing Evi. Check out voiceask.com