Just the other day, RIM announced an update for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha phone. After the dust settled on the update, it was discovered that RIM had added a voice activated personal assistant similar to Siri. Right now, the personal assistant on the device is far from being a final build. Watching the video below, you can see that the system is still in beta and is not working too well at the moment.
Universal Search on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha phone
If you notice, there is a similarity between the voice on the BB10 personal assistant and Siri. That could indicate that the BlackBerry system is being built by Nuance, the same company behind Apple's voice activated personal assistant. The video also shows universal search functionality for the new BlackBerry 10 OS. As long as it doesn't depend on the '604 so-called Siri patent at the heart of the preliminary injunction on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus (since stayed), this will probably make the final build of BlackBerry 10.
For those wondering if RIM is going to be able to compete with iOS and Android, it sure looks like the Canadian manufacturer is trying everything to at least match the features of its competition. That would be a big step forward for BlackBerry.
22.theBankRobber(Posts: 682; Member since: 22 Sep 2011)
Thats the same thing Apple said about Google and Android. Now look, Apple hates Google for giving a real phone with real things to benifit from so they have to sue OEM's for stupid s**t. Siri patents??? Come on, apps have been out Well before Siri and look how apple screws everything up. But once someone brings up androids notification bar, its a different story for apple sheep. Its okay, once Google is awarded the patent for the notification bar, apple will have its hand full .
everyone copies everyone,nothing today is ever original...just look at how ios and android who are at the top,they have taken ideas from others too.just look at the last 2 major ios updates and see how much is copied from others.
5.pikapowerize(banned)(Posts: 1869; Member since: 03 May 2012)
now i wanna see some BB10 device now!! as in now!!
before, it was said that the mobile OSes strengths are their own ecosystem, now it will be the battle of personal assistant!! with google's android jelly bean assistant NOW (weird name if you ask me) apple's Siri and this assistant by BB, i think WP has an assistant too but that one sucks!!
i hope they could really catch up!
my advice to RIM and Microsoft, never copy... be unique! make unique softwares and hardwares and your features! and exceed expectations!!! that is a true champion! and this is competition!
7.pikapowerize(banned)(Posts: 1869; Member since: 03 May 2012)
i really hope they could make a real competition to siri! google now can be a challenger but we need more! RIM please make something like siri but patent free!
9.protozeloz (Posts: 5396; Member since: 16 Sep 2010)
Google now is not a Challenger, it beat siri on nearly every aspect... and only using half its functionality... this just like S-voice is another bad joke
14.snowgator(Posts: 3604; Member since: 19 Jan 2011)
Had this debate with some fellow WP enthusiasts. Voice commands in the future are not optional. Mobile is about convenience on the go, and voice activated systems are going to be extremely important in the coming years. WP's TellMe was an okay start, but I was arguing WP8 needs a huge step up, especially after Siri has made such an impact (good and bad) and Google has improved so much.
And here in lies the problem with BB10. While their three major competitors are on improved versions, RIM will be just crawling out of the gate. As WP can attest to, being behind at start up is both unavoidable and deadly. Since RIM is it's own company, both software and hardware, a slow start will hit their bottom line so much harder than MS was hit by WP's sluggish sales. But if this is any indication, there will be nothing BB10 can offer the others do not have. If they have to rebuild their customer base, can they survive long enough to do it?
16.protozeloz (Posts: 5396; Member since: 16 Sep 2010)
I think the best work is not what the assistant can do but rather what is can understand, what makes Google search better is the fact that it understands your voice sentence by sentence, so by the time you are done with your query Google has narrowed down the possibilities to only a fiew, also anyone that had use live dictation can tell you Google tries to make sense of a sentence, because talking to your phone and having it understand your message as a random bunch of words is not cool...
also this talk reply system is no good, I makes me feel my phone is a step behind me and any assistance that cant understand my commands, fails to perform the assigned task, ask me too much about my query or is one step behind me SHOULD BE FIRED I don't need an "assistant " that reduces my productivity and companies should understand that.... so far Google seems to be doing close to what I want
29.CRICKETownz(Posts: 980; Member since: 24 Oct 2009)
I think RIM should worry more about offering a 4G device vs. mimicking the latest voice input trends. Word of advice RIM: Figure out how to escape your increasingly growing state of mediocrity.
