Android developers create Siri clone in just 8 hours

[96whitels]

And they named it "Iris" ... Siri spelled backwards....

http://news.yahoo.com/android-developers-create-siri-clone-just-8-hours-144847131.html

http://www.slashgear.com/iris-voice-control-app-is-devs-8hr-attempt-at-siri-for-android-21189888/


Obviously nothing near as good as Siri... but still... Geez, be original for once Android... sigh.

 

[waloshin]

Thats awesome!

 

[IcyStorm]

And they named it "Iris" ... Siri spelled backwards....

http://news.yahoo.com/android-developers-create-siri-clone-just-8-hours-144847131.html

http://www.slashgear.com/iris-voice-control-app-is-devs-8hr-attempt-at-siri-for-android-21189888/


Obviously nothing near as good as Siri... but still... Geez, be original for once Android... sigh.

Considering that Google didn't have a hand in its development, I wouldn't say Android isn't being original. It's a third-party created app. And if they can create this in 8 hours, imagine what they can do with more time.

 

[AustinIllini]

And even then, it’s still a bit quirky – an, as is expected for an app developed in so little time, doesn’t work nearly as well as Siri, which has draw praise across the board for its surprisingly solid functionality.

So it isn't Siri, essentially.

 

[dmblue]

looks horrible. the voice is quite annoying and also she just seems to blab on and on for somethings.

plus, can you guys see a law-suit coming along for this?

 

[sakau2007]

looks horrible. the voice is quite annoying and also she just seems to blab on and on for somethings.

plus, can you guys see a law-suit coming along for this?

Maybe for naming it Iris. But that'd be the only reason. Believe it or not, Apple doesn't own voice-to-text technology.

----------

So it isn't Siri, essentially.

I'd say that's more impressive in 8 hours (if that's true) than Siri given its development time.

Apple fanboys are acting like Siri is revolutionizing. Folks, the only reason apps like Vlingo weren't doing everything Siri does last year is because Apple won't let them in to the inner workings of the OS.

 

[jca24]

all of android is a copy of someone else's work

android sucks

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

all of android is a copy of someone else's work

android sucks

Right and apple developed pull down notifications, folders, multitasking, ect ect ect. The earth in your eyes, was created by apple.

 

[sakau2007]

Right and apple developed pull down notifications, folders, multitasking, ect ect ect. The earth in your eyes, was created by apple.

+1

Apple did revolutionize (create?) the smart phone market... but it isn't like other companies haven't contributed lots of great things.

The contributions from the public in the App Store has been amazing. People want to act like Siri was created by Apple. Come on... Siri was a product in the app store long before the release of the iPhone 4S.

Hell, even the notification center thing (which was Android copied) was spearheaded by a guy who jailbroke an iPhone and developed it, and was then hired on by Apple!

 

[mkrishnan]

Isn't "we have a half-ass version of that, and it only took us 8 hours to write it" kind of a motto of the Android ecosystem, in general?

 

[jca24]

Right and apple developed pull down notifications, folders, multitasking, ect ect ect. The earth in your eyes, was created by apple.

no, all I meant was android is just a copy cat of other platforms, you know it, a very fragmented os that runs on toy like phones.

 

[Tarzanman]

I think you guys are missing the larger point.

The reason why it was so easy for some yahoo to write a fake-siri is because Android has had voice recognition already for over a year. 8 hours is all it took to write a slightly new interface for it to make it look like the one Apple uses.

Yeah, imagine that.... iOS5 copied notifications AND voice recognition from Android.

What say you now?

 

[Peace]

And this connects to Wolfram Alpha how ?

 

[jvmxtra]

Isn't "we have a half-ass version of that, and it only took us 8 hours to write it" kind of a motto of the Android ecosystem, in general?

THIS. lol

Unfortunately, this is MO of android. "YES, we are gonna try everything.. and everything will be working in progress.. and oh no.. we might not finish because we are already moving onto NBT"

 

[Patriot24]

Isn't "we have a half-ass version of that, and it only took us 8 hours to write it" kind of a motto of the Android ecosystem, in general?

Pretty much. The state of apps for Android is a joke. Since moving to the 4s from my original Moto Droid last week, it is amazing how apps are actually finished and work as intended on iOS.

Even big names like twitter and facebook have crappy apps for Android. It is sad, really.

Andy Rubin had the chance to set forth a new path at the AsiaD conference this week when asked about the state of apps. Instead he basically threw his hands up and acted like everything is all good (he literally said that there's no reason to have different apps for tablets vs. phones. That a phone app runs fine on a tablet.....OK Andy).

 

[ijohnbro]

Pretty much. The state of apps for Android is a joke. Since moving to the 4s from my original Moto Droid last week, it is amazing how apps are actually finished and work as intended on iOS.

Even big names like twitter and facebook have crappy apps for Android. It is sad, really.

Andy Rubin had the chance to set forth a new path at the AsiaD conference this week when asked about the state of apps. Instead he basically threw his hands up and acted like everything is all good (he literally said that there's no reason to have different apps for tablets vs. phones. That a phone app runs fine on a tablet.....OK Andy).

I hate the android apps also the worst are Google Maps Navigation, Swype Keyboard, Adobe Flash, Google Sky Map, Ringdroid, Root Explorer (File Manager) An App that supports rooted phones? That's crazy glad they don't have those in the Apple store. I hate Apps that improve the phone from the core. I like those cute little baby apps ya know the ones people use if they are to dumb to work an Android.

 

[mKTank]

Pretty much. The state of apps for Android is a joke. Since moving to the 4s from my original Moto Droid last week, it is amazing how apps are actually finished and work as intended on iOS.

Even big names like twitter and facebook have crappy apps for Android. It is sad, really.

Andy Rubin had the chance to set forth a new path at the AsiaD conference this week when asked about the state of apps. Instead he basically threw his hands up and acted like everything is all good (he literally said that there's no reason to have different apps for tablets vs. phones. That a phone app runs fine on a tablet.....OK Andy).

That's because you had a damn Motorola Droid. That thing is so old, it's like trying to run Infinity Blade on a 3G. Don't make general assumptions about an entire ecosystem based on a craptastic phone like the Droid. Apps are great on my Nexus S, thank you very much.

 

[dejo]

Android developers create Siri clone in just 8 hours

And by "clone" they mean "mutant".

 

[Applejuiced]

Isn't "we have a half-ass version of that, and it only took us 8 hours to write it" kind of a motto of the Android ecosystem, in general?

Yes, as usual.
And offcourse we have better specs listed so everyone should go with android. And their apps are all free

 

[bjett92]

Just downloaded this to try it. I have yet to play with Siri, but I guarantee that it is better than this.

 

[elistan]

One key point in the article hasn't been mentioned yet:

“Suddenly, I got the urge to do something similar for Android,” writes Dexetra on its blog. “Since we have been working on NLP [natural language processing] and Machine learning for over an year now, [emphasis mine] I had a crazy belief that I could pull this off."

So to re-phrase: It took them eight hours to put a Siri-like wrapper on a year+ long project. I'm not deriding their work on AI, NLP and machine learning - that stuff is devilishly hard - but it's disingenuous to claim they "cloned Siri" in eight hours. In eight hours they did the following:
- Created a pretty interface
- Utilized pre-existing voice-recognition and text-to-speech libraries for their input and output
- Hard-coded a few funny responses to impart some personality
- Linked to their year+ old NLP project

Similarly, here's what Apple did for Siri:
- Created a pretty interface
- Utilized (and likely refined) various voice-recognition and text-to-speech libraries.
- Likely influenced the personality of the product, including its various humorous responses
- Linked to (and likely refined) the NLP capabilities purchased from SRI, the development of which began back in 2005 it seems.

So Dexetra did in eight hours something that Apple probably could have done in eight hours as well after purchasing SIRI, but decided to sit on and work on for a while. The keys are - can they polish it enough to make a usable product, like Apple did? And, is their NLP back-end as good as SRI's?

 

[Krandor]

I think you guys are missing the larger point.

The reason why it was so easy for some yahoo to write a fake-siri is because Android has had voice recognition already for over a year. 8 hours is all it took to write a slightly new interface for it to make it look like the one Apple uses.

Yeah, imagine that.... iOS5 copied notifications AND voice recognition from Android.

What say you now?

Apple already had voice control before iOS5. Siri just brought it to a much different level.

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

no, all I meant was android is just a copy cat of other platforms, you know it, a very fragmented os that runs on toy like phones.

And all I meant was don't act like apple never "borrows" a thing from anyone. Just because your 2yrs behind others with something as simple as folders, doesn't mean that when it finally does come to iOS, from that point forward that is the standard and everyone else just tries to emulate it. Android has folders, so does iOS, they must have copied apple.


Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe, with the comment coming out that Jobs had in regards to
Android, this is just a lame attempt at inciting apple? Especially given the fact it's SIRI spelled backwards.

 

[96whitels]

Well my co worker downloaded it on his DROID.

Terrible app (we didn't expect much though).

After everything you say/ask.. it repeats, then processes.

Poor responses, no personality, very computerized voice which is hard to understand. And some of the responses, (such as asking for the weather) seem to go on for a very long time.

Also, got it to freeze fairly quickly.

 

[Patriot24]

That's because you had a damn Motorola Droid. That thing is so old, it's like trying to run Infinity Blade on a 3G. Don't make general assumptions about an entire ecosystem based on a craptastic phone like the Droid. Apps are great on my Nexus S, thank you very much.

The statement that most apps don't run in a workable state on most hardware is a problem in and of itself ("fragmentation"). I understand that you can't expect apps to work on outdated hardware, but 2 years is hardly an extraneous period of time. Believe it or not, not all people upgrade their phones every 4 days to coincide with Android handset manufacturers' release schedules.

While I agree that you can't judge an entire ecosystem by a single phone, that still doesn't resolve the poor state of apps in the ecosystem as a whole. Even with the latest and greatest hardware, most of the apps are buggy at best.

All of my friends and many people that I have met use various Android phones/tablets. I have spent substantial time testing models of all sorts. Overall, I have probably had my hands on at least 15 different handsets across all carriers and at least 4 tablets. The same issues plague all of them regardless of recency of hardware release.

If you test an app like Facebook on iOS 5 (4s) and ICS (latest Nexus phone), the user experience and level of finish isn't even close.