Siri, a new app for iPhone that is actually incredibly useful for my daily use. The app is aiming to provide a quick location-based search or to assist with everyday planning.
Similar to modern mobile search apps, Siri uses a simple voice recognition for data input and the results are collapsible in text combining with maps, directions and direct phone calling capability….
Pushing a large green button on the bottom of the app pages, you can ask in natural language speaking for restaurants (and what type of cuisine), gas stations, bank, ATM, weather, movie, etc… You can also use Siri for making restaurant reservation directly and subsequently look-up for additional events with context. I particularly love the search for weekend events in the area.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjpVAB06O4[/youtube] Video link
The search is not yet semantic, but the voice recognition is excellent and the results are delivered in timely fashion with accuracy in useful formats. All this combined that make Siri, my best friend (assistant) on my iPhone. A version for Blackberry will be released in near future. (oh, did I mention Siri Assistant is free?)
More background details about Siri from WSJ
