Tag Archives: Siri

Use Google Search’s Text-To-Speech Engine To Command Siri With Googiri

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Ever since the release of Google Now for iOS, Siri must be feeling a bit insecure for the first time, as prior to that, even the best third-party personal assistants have struggled to give it any real competition on the platform. Although Google Now is more feature-rich, Apple’s own talking assistant enjoys better integration with the OS, and has the ability to create reminders, launch apps and perform other similar system tasks. On the other hand, Siri’s speech recognition isn't something to write home about. People have often suffered placing awkward calls to their contacts while trying to create a simple reminder. Won’t it be just perfect if you could have Siri's features accessible through the speech recognition prowess of Google Search? Googiri is a new Cydia tweak that makes this dream come true. By saying ‘Siri’ before any request made to Google’s voice search, users can get the results of their queries from Siri. You can even choose to stop using Google’s search altogether, and completely switch to using its text-to-speech engine with Siri. Read More

Quickly Ask Siri Predefined Questions Using Gestures With Ask Assistant

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While the jailbreak store has a lot of tweaks meant specifically to enhance or augment Siri, we doubt if any developer has previously come up with the idea of using everyone’s favorite personal assistant in conjunction with Activator. MyAssistant does have support for gestures to some extent, but the idea behind Ask Assistant is completely different from that. This tweak lets you define five questions, and then you can program Activator to launch Siri with the answers to these questions. For example, to view weather through Siri, just define that question in the tweak’s menu. Now you can invoke Siri simply by performing an Activator gesture of your choice, without even long-pressing the Home button and trying to make Siri understand what you are saying. Read More

Secretary For iPhone Narrates Alerts When Headphones Are Plugged In

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We often hear people say that the iTunes App Store boasts close to 800,000 apps, but the implications of this statement are rarely mentioned. The presence of so many different apps means that we now have apps for all occasions, pretty much every kind of users, and a variety of purposes. As dangerous as it can be, a lot of people just can’t help but whip their phone out every time a new notification shows up while they are driving. Thankfully, there are apps that can help you multitask in a safer manner. DriveSafe.ly reads out updates from various sources, while a similar Cydia tweak exists for adding this functionality to the stock Messages app as well. Secretary is a new Cydia release that takes the features offered by VSNotifications to the next level. With this tweak, you get a spoken summary of any items that need your attention, and also get incoming text messages read out to you. Read More

Enable ‘Do Not Disturb’ On iPhone Using Siri Or A Lock Screen Toggle

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Judging by the popularity of SBSettings, iOS users really like shortcuts for important system toggles. The dropdown window can be configured to show controls for Airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and various other functions. One thing glaring omission from the support list however, is Do Not Disturb. The feature is fairly new to iOS, and maybe that’s why there haven't been a lot of shortcut options available for it until now. Thankfully, the Cydia community has finally started recognizing the true potential of this little gem, and there are now a few decent options to control Do Not Disturb without having to launch the Settings app. Two of the best tweaks for this purpose are Flusterless and Crescent. While Flusterless adds a very neat and unobtrusive toggle to the lock screen, the newly released Crescent hands the control of Do Not Disturb to Siri. Read More

Astrid For iOS Now Lets You Sync Reminders & Add New Ones Using Siri

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There can be no denying the fact that apps like Astrid outshine Apple’s Reminders by a long margin, but many users still prefer the stock app because of its integration with Siri. Astrid does have a dictate mode of its own, but nothing beats Siri when it comes to creating reminders using just your voice. Also, the stock Reminders sync across all your Apple devices over iCloud, which is great if you own multiple iOS or OS X devices and want to access your tasks on all of them. If you have been an Astrid user for a long time but still crave for these feature of the stock Reminders app, Astrid has just taken care of it. With Astrid’s latest update, you can now set reminders for it using Siri, make the app import to-dos straight from the Reminders app, and keep your tasks synced across various devices over the cloud. Read More

AssistantEnhancer Adds Loads Of New Siri Commands To Your iPhone

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In the past, a lot of Cydia tweaks have claimed to take Siri to the next level, but the addition of just one or two features is rarely enough to call it the next level. For AssistantEnhancer, however, the title of a steroid injection for Siri might be justified. The tweak offers more new features for Siri than Apple added to the talking personal assistant in iOS 6. The main focus of AssistantEnhancer is to enrich Siri with music controls for apps like Pandora and Spotify, but the other options it offers are equally important as well. Thanks to this tweak, you can view system information, make Siri bookmark your present location with a single verbal command, and ask it to perform searches within the App Store, or for particular images. There’s a lot more that AssistantEnhancer can do, so keep reading for details. Read More

How To Use Siri To Get Google Maps Directions Without Jailbreak

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After months of rumors and reports, Google finally released Google Maps for iOS yesterday. In many ways, the new version is far superior to the iOS 5 Google Maps app and the stock iOS 6 Apple Maps app, thanks to more accurate and rich map data, transit directions, turn-by-turn navigation and Street View, all wrapped in a user interface that is arguably better than any maps app on any mobile platform today. Now, if you use Siri for navigation and prefer Google Maps over Apple Maps (who doesn’t?), you’ll be interested to know that there’s a simple 'hack' of sorts that you can apply to get this functionality working. Read More

Don’t Have Siri? Quickly Launch Google Voice Search From Anywhere On Your iPhone

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NowNow might not sound like the name of a seriously useful Cydia tweak, but that’s exactly what it is. While the Google Search app's new voice search feature for iOS doesn’t offer nowhere near as much options as Siri does, it has the potential to give Siri’s search capability a run for its money. The Search app’s voice recognition is visibly faster, if not better, than Siri, and its search results support rich information cards for a variety of topics, which are read out loud in their entirety, while Siri remains silent on Wolfram Alpha results. So, if you want to have a powerful voice search option handy all the time, NowNow is the perfect tweak for you. NowNow lets its users choose any Activator gesture to initiate Google voice search from anywhere. It's almost like having Google Now on iOS. Read More

A Detailed Walkthrough Of New Siri Commands & Functions In iOS 6

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What was the biggest marketing (and selling) point for iPhone 4S? Not the new A5 processor, right? Nor was it the 8MP shooter, or the expanded RAM. These things were awesome, but what Apple really touted as the distinguishing feature for its 5th generation iPhone, was Cupertino’s talking virtual assistant, Siri. Be it official advertisements, parodies, memes, rants on blogs or anything else related to iPhone 4S, the one thing that everyone talked about was Siri. While the personal assistant worked pretty well in most cases, it suffered two major caveats: neither did Siri work worldwide (for all queries, that is), and and nor was it supported on any device other than the iPhone 4S. Now that Apple has reaped the benefits of massive 4S sales thanks to this exclusivity, they’ve decided to bring Siri goodness, with iOS 6, to the new iPhone 5, the new iPad 3, and the 5th generation iPod touch. Aside from removing the device discrimination, Siri also now works worldwide, and has underwent some major improvements in terms of features that it can support. Past the jump, we’ll take a look at what areas have received a functional overhaul. Read More

Speaktoit’s Talking Personal Assistant Comes To Windows Phone

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Siri might be responsible for creating all the hype for personal assistants having speech recognition capabilities, but there are services and apps that adopted the concept long before Apple introduced Siri. Speaktoit Assistant is one such service that is among the pioneers of talking personal assistants. Since the Assistant app has had more time to evolve and learn, it is much better than Siri in many regards. The app has been around for iOS and Android for quite a while, and after the two bigger smartphone platforms, Windows Phone has become the third one to receive the app. Assistant for WP7 has got all the features that made it popular on iOS and Android. You can use the app as your day planner, newsreader, music and video player, web browser, or just a buddy you can have a light chat with every once in a while. Read More

SiLight: Toggle On Your iPhone’s LED Flashlight via Siri

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Siri can do a lot of things thanks to the vast array of Cydia tweaks available in the jailbreak store, and even more new features will be added to its repertoire in iOS 6. Most of the tasks Siri is capable of performing are related to the software aspect of your phone, or other apps, and there is not much Apple’s personal assistant can do if you want to control any hardware component of your iOS device. That is exactly why SiLight is a rather unique tweak for Siri-enabled iDevices. Using SiLight, you will be able to toggle on the camera flash on your iPhone with a simple verbal request to Siri. This promises to be the fastest flashlight solution for all iOS devices that have access to the speaking virtual assistant. Read More

HiddenHelper Keeps Siri’s Interface Invisible Unless It Displays Certain Info

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Although Siri is pretty popular among iOS fans, there is still room for improvement. Some really good changes are coming to Siri in iOS 6, but there are Cydia tweaks in the jailbreak store that can make Apple’s personal assistant even cooler. HiddenHelper is a tweak that makes your conversations with Siri more convenient and natural, and thanks to the tweak, you are sure to feel like you are talking to your iPhone rather than an app. HiddenHelper lets you use Siri without launching its interface. You can still ask Siri any questions, but if the answer does not require any text or graphical support, Siri will just speak the answer out loud, and there will be no visible change on your device’s screen. The best thing about HiddenHelper is the fact that it is up to the user to decide what they want to view in Siri’s interface, and what they want to remain hidden in the background. Read More

Ask Siri For Urban Dictionary Definitions Of Terms

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Urban Dictionary is a website that can make you laugh at times and can come up with some really street-smart nuggets every once in a while. If you have a sense of humor, then you are sure to love Urban Dictionary’s quirky definitions of various terms, slangs and phrases. Speaking of sense of humor, if you own an iPhone 4S, you might have thought that Siri can certainly use a healthy dose of wit. Urban Dictionary Assistant for Siri is a tweak that provides that much-needed shot of humor to Apple’s talking personal assistant. Using this Cydia tweak, you can ask Siri to provide you with any term’s Urban Dictionary definition. Not only will Siri read every piece of relevant information associated with the specified keyword, you can also share the definitions over your social network. Read More

PersistentAssistant For iPhone 4S Makes Siri Hands-Free [Cydia]

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Siri is nearing the end of its first year in the market, and by now, the novelty has certainly worn off. If you have a jailbroken iPhone 4S, however, there are still plenty of ways to customize Apple’s talking assistant, or to make it more useful. A considerable number of Cydia tweaks are focused on Siri, and PersistentAssistant is the latest in a long line of these Siri-specific offerings. PersistentAssistant brings a feature to Siri that I have always thought should have been there by default. Using this tweak, you won’t have to hit the Siri icon each time you are done saying something to Siri. Siri will automatically sense when you are done talking, and move on to replying to your query. This way, you can have a conversation with her without needing to touch the device at all, and even when you are driving! Read More

SpotSiri: Use Spotlight Search To Invoke Siri & Ask Anything [Cydia]

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Thanks to the Cydia store, there are many ways of customizing the Spotlight search area of iOS devices. SpotSiri is the latest in a long line of tweaks that are designed to let users do something new and different from the otherwise mostly-redundant Spotlight search. This tweak serves a dual purpose. With SpotSiri, you get an extra and easily accessible Siri launch button on your iDevice, and you will also be able to type your query in the Spotlight search text box to get Siri to answer it without having to speak at all, making it super helpful to use Apple's virtual assistant in quiet environments. Sure you can state your query to Siri and then ask her to search the web, but SpotSiri comes up with a more direct way of doing things. Read More

Use Siri To Search & Download Images From The Web With JpgToSiri [Cydia]

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Not that Siri isn’t already pretty useful, but for those who feel it could have been better in some aspects, there are many Cydia tweaks that enhance the talking assistant's abilities. If you have a jailbroken iPhone 4S, or any other device with access to Siri (through SiriPort, for instance), there are some really cool things you can make Siri do. However, there aren’t many tweaks that combine usefulness and fun in as perfect a proportion as the newly released JpgToSiri does. JpgToSiri, as the name implies, adds the ability to search photos through Siri. You can simply ask Siri to show you a photo of anything, and a random JPEG image will appear right within the conversation. Not just that, users can even save the images to their camera roll, or share them with friends. This means that the tweak converts Siri into a pretty decent image search engine! Read More

Voice Answer Is A Chat Bot & Speech Based Search Engine For iPhone/iPad

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Siri might be good-looking and popular, but as is generally the case, beauty and brains are rarely found in one place. You can ask Siri to set reminders for you, and ask her what dress she is wearing, but when you come to think of it, Siri’s knowledge is quite limited, and more often than not, it ends up pointing you to web search. Now imagine if there were some way of making Siri the most geekiest and knowledgeable bot in existence, won’t it be awesome? There is no such tweak or app app available just yet, but Voice Answer might be the next best option available. This newly released iPhone app will answer every question its users ask, no matter how technical or complicated. The app’s bot, named Eve, will solve mathematical equations for you, let you know all about scientific facts and historical figures, and will prove to be a pleasant companion when you are just bored and not really looking for some useful information. Read More

Best Siri Cydia Tweaks & Add-ons

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Following the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone 4S, an escalating hype began to surround one of its most prominent new features – the system-wide voice assistant that was instantly recognized by many as the game changer in speech recognition applications. Although the excitement died down shortly after, it was rekindled by the release of untethered jailbreak for the device, and the many Siri-exclusive Cydia tweaks and add-ons that began to roll out with it. Seeing as it’s been a while and a lot of tweaks have made there way to the store, we decided to compile a list of the best ones. If you own a jailbroken iPhone 4S, read on past the break for ways to enhance your Siri experience. Read More

SiriSports: Get NBA, NHL & MLB Scores/ Fixtures From Siri [Cydia]

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A few days back, we covered a Cydia tweak named SiriNBA, which endowed Siri with knowledge of the basketball season. If you had that tweak on your iPhone, it became possible to ask Siri to tell you the latest scores and fixtures from NBA. If you are a total sports fan, and are also interested in baseball and hockey in addition to NBA, then SiriNBA just got a whole lot better for you by evolving to SiriSports. The iOS tweak will now do the same things for MLB and NHL which SiriNBA did for the basketball league. SiriSports is pretty intelligent, and even recognizes the nicknames of all teams, and you can make a number of inquiries regarding the 3 supported sports. For instance, you can ask about the latest basketball scores, batting average of any player or team schedules for the coming week. Read More

Make Siri Say Funny Things With iJokes For Chatbot/ Siri [Cydia]

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A few days back, we covered a Cydia tweak for Siri named Awesome Facts for Chatbot/ Siri, which added a considerable number of trivia tidbits to the talking personal assistant from Apple, and made it all the more enjoyable to chat with Siri. iJokes for Chatbot/ Siri is a similar tweak for owners of iPhone 4S, as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices having access to Siri via Spire or other means. There is one big difference among the two tweaks though (as you might already have guessed from their names), iJokes is all about fun and it teaches Siri a lot of jokes. Not that she isn’t witty already, but if you get iJokes, Siri will get a complete humor makeover. Read More