Monday 12 December 2011

iPhone 4S Siri Voice Assistant

The launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S surprised many, especially those fans who were expecting the release of the iPhone 5. Although this disappointed the masses initially, the iPhone 4S features several new, interesting, and top-end technology that is basically designed to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S 2, which is one of the best Android smartphones ever released.
One such new feature in the Apple iPhone 4S is called the Siri. Siri is the voice assistant introduced in the iPhone 4S which is designed to make the user’s life easier by providing it with natural (spoken) commands to make the phone perform a pacific task. According to Apple, “Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask ‘Will I need an umbrella this weekend?’ it understands you are looking for a weather forecast.”
Talking about Siri’s history, it isn’t new. Siri was started as an experiment funded by DARPA, which is said to be the largest artificial intelligence project till date. If you’ve used the app called Dragon NaturallySpeaking, then you must know that it powered by the same technology used by Siri. On April 2010, Apple bought Siri and decided to introduce the beta version in its iPhone 4S.
Although Apple claims that “Siri understands what you say, and knows what you mean”, there are some requests that Siri will not understand. However, the technology used in Siri is quite impressive, and it would take a while for Siri to learn everything. Maybe in the iPhone 5, Siri would be as perfect as you expected.

iPhone 4S Siri

Several iPhone 4S users find Siri quite useful, at least when it comes performing small tasks. Here are some interesting features of Siri and the tasks that it can perform for you.

Reminders

There are a variety of time-based functions associated with the iPhone 4S Siri version. “Reminders” is one such function that allows you to create complete reminders and also sync across your device with iCloud. Reminders can not only be time-based, but also location-based. Siri makes sure that you don’t forget anything important. For example, we can say something like, “Siri, remind me to call my girlfriend when I leave home after 9:00 AM tomorrow.”
How to Use Create a Location Reminder with Siri
First, hold your Home Button for two seconds. Then, set a reminder. For example, tell Siri to, “Remind me to call Adam when I get to work”. Siri will show you a reminder, and allow you to confirm or cancel. When you arrive at your office or workplace, Siri will remind you to do whatever you asked. It’s that simple!

Send Text Messages Using Siri

Another key ability of Siri is its capability of sending text messages. This comes handy when you’re driving or busy doing something else and you want to send an important or urgent message to your friend or family member.
You can simply tell Siri to send a text message to the person whom you want to send it to. Siri will prompt you to say the message, an automatically reads whatever you speak. Once done, you can ask Siri to read back the message by simply saying “Read it back to me” to check whether Siri has heard you correctly.
It works like this:
You: Send a message to Claire
Siri: Ok I can send a text to Claire for you, what would you like it to say?
You: I’ll be running late
Siri: I updated your message, ready to send it?
You: Read it back to me
Siri: Your message to Claire says “I’ll be running late” would you like to Send, Cancel, Review or Change it?
You can also directly indicate Siri to “Text Claire that I’ll be running late” and Siri will automatically read Claire’s number from your contacts and send the message.
The feature can also be used to send tweets. To do this, you first need to set up Twitter to allow tweeting via SAM, and save the number in your contacts as “Twitter”. Now tell Siri to “Send a text to Twitter” followed by your tweet message. Similarly, you can configure Google+ and Facebook to allow you to post updates using this method.

Making Phone Calls

Making a phone call using the iPhone 4S Siri is yet another effective feature. Similar to sending text messages, this comes handy when you driving or performing some other task. You can easily initiate a call be telling Siri “Call my wife at home” and have the call started with no further commands.
iPhone 4S Siri
The same is used to retrieve contact information. If you’re lost or want to find get the address of your friend, then you can simply ask Siri, “What is Claire’s address?” Siri then searches for the contact Claire and gets the address (if stored) from the Address book and reads it out. You can do the same to know your friend’s birthday or email address.
Siri can initiate a call even if your iPhone 4S is locked with a passcode. This security glitch feature is easy to use. When your phone is locked with a passcode, simply tell Siri to “Call Claire”, and Siri will immediately access the address book and present you with dialing options.
However, if you find this feature evading your security, then you can restrict disallow your phone to access Siri when it is locked. To do so, go to Settings/General/Passcode lock and you’ll find a toggle that says “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode.” Turn this to “off:. This will no longer allows Siri to make phone calls when your phone is locked with a passcode.

Set Alarm

With Siri, you can also set up alarms. You can simply command Siri to “Wake me up in one hour” or “set an alarm for 6″. You can ask it set as many alarms you need.
More Siri Alarm Examples:
> Wake me up tomorrow at 7am
> Set an alarm for 6:30am
> Wake me up in 8 hours
> Change my 6:30 alarm to 6:45
You can also tell Siri to turn off all alarms. Just press down the hold button and tell Siri to “turn off all alarms.” Similarly, to turn it on, you can command “turn on all alarms.”

Scheduling a Task

Siri can be used to schedule a task or meetings and events. “Meeting with Mark today at 6″ gets the appropriate event in my schedule. Just say who, what, and when. Siri puts it all on your calendar and sends an invitation.
You can also view all the scheduled meetings and events by simply asking Siri “What does my schedule look like on Thursday?”
The iPhone 4S Siri feature is a great feature. It lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, or basically do anything that you ask for. Apart from responding and accomplishing your commands, Siri sometimes acts funny. For example, if you ask Siri “Will you marry me?”, then it would respond saying “My end user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies.”

Expected Features in Siri

However, it still feels like a work in progress. It is currently running in its beta version and we can expect an improved version of it in the next release of the iPhone. Here are some features that we hope to see in Siri in the iPhone 5:

The 5 Best Features of the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update

Services, services, and more services! The Xbox 360's evolution from hardcore video game console into arguably America's most popular set-top box continues with today's rollout of the latest Xbox 360 Dashboard update. In fact, calling the new software a simple update is a massive understatement that doesn't quite convey the major changes.
Last year, the Xbox 360 Dashboard saw a considerable update, which let users navigate certain portions of the interface simply by making gestures (or, alternately, voice commands) via Kinect. The new design builds upon that premise by utilizing visual elements found in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7's attractive, panel-driven Metro UI, thereby streamlining the interface and making it even more Kinect-friendly across the board.
The Xbox 360 Dashboard's visual redesign is the most obvious change, but it's far from being the only one. Microsoft has wrangled plenty of new video-content-streaming partnerships, and added new social networking features, unified voice search, and cloud storage. It really fleshes out the Xbox 360's offerings and gives it a unique experience that isn't found on rival consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The update also includes a new "social" section, which essentially replaces the "My Xbox" area.
 
If you're ready to dive into the five best features of the new Xbox 360 Dashboard update, read on...
 

512MB of Cloud Storage
Ever wanted to access your Xbox Live essentials from another console? Now you can do just that with the addition of cloud storage. With it, you can download a My Xbox Live profile, game saves, and achievements to a buddy's Xbox 360 game console. In addition, cloud storage lets you treat your virtual system as a memory card that you can use to save game progress.



 
New Content Partners and Live TV
Microsoft has expanded the Xbox 360's entertainment value by adding a slew of new content partners to its Xbox Live service. U.S.-based entertainment-seekers can tune into EPIX, ESPN, Hulu Plus, Netflix, MSNBC's Today, and other destinations from within their video game consoles—with the promise of even more to come. A MSNBC Today video story about Alec Baldwin's alleged Words With Friends meltdown played back smoothly, but the video quality looked roughly that of standard definition TV. Some of the content partnerships will result in Kinect-optimized apps that may or may not require an Xbox Gold membership ($9.99 per month or $59.99 per year).



 

New Kinect-Enabled Abilities
The Kinect peripheral becomes even more useful with this system update. For example, Bing for Xbox (Microsoft's new voice-based search engine), lets you find content simply by speaking a few words. If you want to watch X-Men, you can simply say, "Xbox Bing X-Men" and Bing for Xbox will pull up all X-Men related games and movies stored in your Xbox 360 game console. You can then say "Xbox Play X-Men" to start playing the movie. You can also type search queries using the Xbox 360 controller. Deeper Kinect integration across the interface as a whole means that you'll use the controller a lot less.



 

New Social Networking
Beacons and Facebook gives Xbox 360 games more ways to socialize than ever before. Before jumping into an episode of The Office, you can create a Beacon to let your friends know that you want to play Halo: Reach. You then relax until the Beacon notifies you that an Xbox Live buddy is playing your title of interest. But that's not the only feature that connects you with other Xbox Live users; Facebook Sharing lets you showcase your achievements and in-game accomplishments.


 


New Windows Phone 7 Xbox Companion App
Microsoft's free Xbox Companion App for Windows Phone 7 handsets works in conjunction with the new Xbox 360 firmware to give users remote control (such as play, pause, forward or rewind the playing video or music) over certain services on the console. In addition, users can search the unified Xbox catalogue for movies, TV shows, music, videogames and apps, and view achievements and friends' activity. The Xbox Companion app can also be used to purchase music and video.
 

Is 'affordable ultrabook' an oxymoron

Every time you see a patient and therapist in the cartoons, the former is lying on the couch while the latter sits in an adjacent chair taking notes on a legal pad. When I see my therapist, I sit upright while he takes notes on a MacBook Air.
Intel, as you probably know, is spending $300 million to convert my therapist to Windows. That's the amount in the Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund, the chipmaker's investment to develop and promote a class of thin-and-light laptops called ultrabooks by Intel and its OEM partners. Detractors, however, might call them "Air-alikes," because of how closely their specs target the 13-inch MacBook Air: 0.8 inches thick at its thickest point, a 13.3-inch screen, no optical drive, at least five hours of battery life, and a solid-state drive instead of a hard disk for near-instant-on operation.
The first handful of ultrabooks are out now, with a lot more – some say 50 or more – expected at January's CES, and a second wave due in the spring of 2012 with Intel's "Ivy Bridge" successor to today's "Sandy Bridge" processors. When Intel announced the ultrabook initiative at last May's Computex Taipei, it predicted the category would claim 40 percent of global notebook sales by the end of next year. IHS forecasts the 43 percent mark won't actually be reached till 2015, but that's still rapid acceleration for a segment that'll account for just under 2 percent of sales in 2011.
Why such a paltry consumer response? Because Black Friday reminded consumers that they can choose from a flock of $299 and $499 laptops, while most ultrabooks cost $999 or more. Our current Editors' Choice, the Asus Zenbook UX31, is $1,099. My current lust, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, is $1,095. Best Buy has an $889 sale on the Acer Aspire S3, but purists sniff that it combines a spinning hard drive with a 20GB flash cache instead of offering a true SSD like its rivals. (To be fair, the Acer's Winchester is a roomier 320GB while its competitors' solid-state drives are 128GB. But the MacBook Air 13-inch also starts at $1,299.)
The under-$1,000 barrier is a tough one to break, according to the Taiwanese trade journal DigiTimes, which reports that the average 13.3-inch, 128GB SSD-equipped ultrabook carries a bill of materials of $690, OEM costs of $100, and marketing and distribution costs of $150, totaling $940.
But there's hope on the horizon, according to Acer president Jim Wong, who told DigiTimes last week that he anticipates Acer ultrabooks selling for $799 to $899 in the second quarter of 2012 and for $499 in 2013.
And while Wong surely knows his business, I can't help pointing out that you don't have to wait until the second quarter of next year to buy an ultrabook for $799.99: You can buy a Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 at Best Buy today. The Z835 is not only a real ultrabook, with a 128GB SSD and everything, but has a lot to recommend it: a backlit keyboard, the most complete selection of I/O ports, the lightest weight in the class (2.5 pounds; the Air and most of the Air-alikes are 2.9), and the longest life in our battery tests (7.5 hours).
What's the catch? Well, the Portege is encased in light magnesium alloy instead of aluminum, and it has a little more flex than its peers. Second, while the Airs have Intel Core i5 processors, the Portege makes do with a slower Core i3.
But I'd contend that's not a deal-breaker. A Core i3 with 4GB of RAM is adequate for the mobile productivity for which ultrabooks are generally used, and even the relatively modest Z835 is light-years away from memories of netbooks with single-core Atom processors (shudder), 1GB of memory (double shudder) and GMA 950 graphics (full-body seizure with whimpering). In fact, depending on how aggressive Intel is with "Ivy Bridge," I have a pet theory that 2012 ultrabooks with "Sandy Bridge" CPUs might be sleeper deals. Joe and Jane Consumer won't care much whether the "Processor" tag says Core i5-2000-something or Core i5-3000-something, and a previous-generation chip might whittle down that $175 to the $200 that DigiTimes attributes to the CPU in its bill of materials.
Meanwhile, the list of vendors aboard Intel's ultrabook bandwagon includes Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, and HP (with the new Folio 13). If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Dell before long. Add Samsung (though there's a quibble about meeting Intel's specs) with the Series 9. LG just announced an ultrabook for the South Korean market. Momentum has been slow so far, but it's building.
What could muddy the waters? Two things, both related to Windows 8: A challenge from the low-priced Windows-on-ARM subnotebooks that I mentioned last month, and confusion between laptops and tablets as users – even at the cost of extra weight, thickness, and, well, cost – demand touch screens to take advantage of Win 8's new interface. Either could splinter the scenario for steadily improving ultrabook sales at steadily declining prices.
I can hear my therapist asking, "How do you feel about that?"

Beetel launches Magiq Glide, an Android 2.2 tablet priced at Rs. 11,999

Beetel Teletech, a Bharti Enterprises group company, has launched a new tablet called “Magiq Glide”. The new Beetel tablet runs on Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and has been given an MRP of Rs. 11,999. Beetel has previously launched Magiq and Magiq II tablets.
The new Magiq Glide tablet comes with SIM calling feature. It also features a 7.0-inch WVGA screen, 2MP front and rear camera and 8GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 16 GB. The device comes with a 2,200 mAh battery and supports Wi-Fi and 3G. The Magiq Glide is powered by a 1GHz processor for faster processing speed. The tablet also features access to the Android Market.



 
While unveiling the product, Mr. Vinod Sawhny–Executive Director & CEO, Beetel Teletech Limited, said , “The Magiq Glide is the latest addition to our successful Magiq range of tablets which has been highly appreciated by the Indian consumers. After an extensive market research and keeping in mind the feedback received from our customers on our previous products we have come up with the Magiq Glide. The new tablet has all the features available in our previous products which our customers liked and additionally we have added a capacitive touch screen to enrich the touch experience.”

Asus To Launch Swivel-Screen Windows 8 Ultrabook

Asutek Computer is prepping up a new notebook, having combined features of both ultrabooks and tablet PCs. The upcoming Asus ultrabook will feature swivel-screen design and come equipped with Windows 8 OS, which Microsoft plans to unveil in September 2012.

The Asus ultrabook is designed to offer users the best of Microsoft Windows 8's new touchscreen tablet experience with an integrated Windows desktop interface.
As part of Intel's ultrabook promotion, the new netbook will combine features of ultrabooks and tablet PCs. The swivel-screen based device will be announced in partnership with Intel at the upcoming 2012 Computex Taipei event, reports Digitimes.

Borrowing design ideas from Intel, one of which suggests a swivel-screen enabled device, the upcoming Asus tablet PC will attract users once Ivy Bridge launches in May 2012. Reportedly, it is also expected that the demand for ultrabooks will gain momentum once the Ivy Bridge launch happens next year.

For those, who are eagerly expecting Android-based Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, here's another device to look forward to in the coming year.