It's almost end of 2016 and the age-old battle for the title of "Best Virtual Assitant On Your Smartphone" is still "ON", earlier it was "Siri" vs "Android Voice Actions", then Siri Vs Google Now Vs Cortana and now once again we have "Siri" Vs the all new Google Assistant AI on Pixel phones. Want to know which AI won the title? Do watch the video shared below to know.

When you have giants like Apple Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana to your competition things can be very hard to get going. SoundHound, a new app for Google Android and Apple iOS is aiming to do exactly that, challenging them at being a better "Speech-to-Meaning" engine with better performance and competence.

Hound takes speed and accuracy to a whole new level by combining Speech Recognition and Natural Language Understanding to become a "Speech-to-Meaning" engine. Hound understands both context and detail, this Speech-to-Meaning capability makes Hound the new way to search and do things faster without typing. Hound gives user the ability to get fast and deep results like looking up the weather, placing a phone call, sending a text message, finding a hotel matching a detailed criteria, navigating to an address, checking the stock market, searching and playing music, and even playing interactive games.

As per the demonstration video posted ahead, the Hound beats the competition hands-down with it's insanely fast results to very very complex queries.

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Microsoft has now officially announced the arrival of Cortana Voice Assistant on rival Google Android and Apple iOS platforms. Labeling Cortana as "the first personal digital-assistant who works across your PC & your phone", the idea here is to enable the power and intelligence of a personal assistant available across device's be it your Desktop or mobile device. The idea also opens up the opportunity to sync, analyze and share the collective wisdom derived from the data across user devices enabling smarter suggestions from the virtual-assistant.

The announcement also detailed a new Windows 10 feature, the ‘Phone Companion App’ on the PC. The Windows 10 application will not only help users install Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto their phones but which will also allow seamless data-sharing and syncing of any Windows phone, Android phone, or iPhone to Windows 10 PC. Do watch the official introduction video to checkout what exactly Microsoft has in store for your computing future.

The voice-activated personal assistant on your phones are getting smarter by the day and the battle for most usable artificial intelligence is being fought between Apple Siri, Google Now and Cortana. Stone Temple, a consulting company decided to put these three against each other to determine the best technology amongst them by evaluating each with no less then 3,000 voice queries.

Want to know who won the fight? Just watch the video below and click the "Read More" link below to get the exact results.

"Now that is a smartphone," admits Siri as the comparison ends in the latest Windows Phone 8.1 commercial promoted by Microsoft. Pitting the Apple’s Siri digital assistant against the newly unveiled Cortana in Windows Phone 8.1, the advertisement shows how an iPhone 5S pitted against a low-end Lumia 635 fairs as Cortana handles location-based reminders, along with traffic alerts which Siri is not able to do. Do enjoy the "Siri vs. Cortana - Happy Anniversary" commercial shared below.

Using simple commands and phrases to perform easy tasks is what we get using Apple Siri and Google Voice in there current form, imagine what would be the reaction when you see someone coding in Python without touching the keyboard at all and that too faster than the using one - Just watch the amazing video demonstration below.

Combine the awesomeness of Apple's Siri voice recognition capability with ability to tap into it using SiriProxy, and our favorite hacker friendly mini Linux computer Raspberry Pi and we have an excellent voice controlled home automation system which runs 24/7 waiting for voice commands to do assigned tasks. To get this super-geeky project working we need to install and configure SiriProxy on our Raspberry Pi setup, follow the instructions shared below to install SiriProxy on the official Raspbian “wheezy” distribution.

Speaktoit, the popular virtual assistant for Android, announced Friday that it has introduced several new features that will expand the app's range of functions and make it easier to use. Users can now ask the app to read emails aloud, and Speaktoit will also allow for easy hands-free navigation while driving. Speaktoit also added a feature that enables premium users to wake the device up with a voice command when the display is off, making it the first virtual assistant capable of doing so. More information is below.

No hands, ma!: Speaktoit Premium now allows users to do something that no other app does: wake their device up without using their hands. A simple command of "Hey Assistant" is all that's needed to bring the sleeping display to life, thanks to integration with new technology by Sensory (see a video demonstration here).

EXCLUSIVE FREE PREMIUM GIVEAWAY FOR OUR READERS, DETAILS AT THE END OF THIS POST.

Speaktoit, a popular virtual assistant app for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, has just announced a new Premium service that users can upgrade to after they’ve downloaded the free app. (Keep reading for a chance to use Premium for free.) The basic version, which has been downloaded over 6 million times since launching in October 2011, will remain free, but Android users (Premium will come to other platforms soon) can pay $2/month or $20/year to use enhanced features.

So what do users get if they upgrade? A few things, but the most noteworthy and unique in the virtual assistant space, in our opinion, is the ability to teach their Assistant to say or do anything the user wants, customized to whatever phrase the user chooses. This eliminates instances when you ask your Assistant to do something and they don’t understand your command. Now, you can quickly program your Assistant to respond to the way you talk. For example, teach your Assistant to open your phone’s camera when you say “Cheese,” or teach it to open Google Maps with a list of nearby gas stations when you say “I need gas,” or teach it to read you the latest news when you say “What’s happening?” It’s essentially one big shortcut that does as much as you want it to.

The Premium version also includes more voice options for your Assistant (different genders and accents), an uncapped number of daily requests of your Assistant, and premium support for troubleshooting any issues that arise.

One of the most popular Siri alternative on Google Android platform - Speaktoit Assistant just got updated with some new features. The virtual assistant mobile app has been one of the most highly competitive spaces in tech for the last year or so. While Siri opened the doors when it launched on the iPhone 4G last year, the Speaktoit Assistant and others started getting traction by Android owners who didn’t want to be left without a virtual assistant of their own. Of course, with Google Now looking to get a slice of the virtual assistant pie, app developers like Speaktoit have to innovate.

Speaktoit appears to be doing just that. The app, which now has over 5 million users worldwide, added some new features this week that users might enjoy. Perhaps most notably, Speaktoit users can also now take advantage of the Daily Briefing feature. This allows users to customize information they want automatically read to them every morning, such as the weather forecast, their agenda, top news stories, etc. Although users could already have gotten this information on previous Speaktoit versions, the Daily Briefing function helps throw compilations of information into one tidy feature.