Voice

Siri Eyes Free coming to Honda’s 2013 Accord and Acura cars

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

Car maker Honda announced Wednesday that some of its 2013 vehicles will feature integration with Apple's Eyes Free, a voice-activated system that lets compatible Siri-enabled iOS devices running iOS 6 to interact with the driver. Honda joins a host of other car makers who announced support for Siri's Eyes Free mode or are already supporting the feature in high-end vehicles.

Apple at WWDC 2012 announced Eyes Free and said a number of car makers will be supporting it, including GM, Audi, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, GM and Chrysler. Eyes Free allows drivers to interact with their iDevices using voice and bypassing touch input, thus increasing safety...

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How Verizon almost made Siri an Android exclusive

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 23, 2013

Apple's digital secretary, Siri, arrived as an iPhone 4S exclusive in October 2011, but the feature almost ended up being exclusive to Android devices on the Verizon network. According to a new report, Verizon in the fall of 2009 managed to sign a deal with the startup to make Siri a default app on all Android phones set to launch in the new year. It's interesting that the agreement was signed several months before Apple approached Siri and that the carrier even created unreleased ads highlighting Siri on Android.

Several months later, Apple came into full view to acquire the startup outright, effectively making the feature exclusive to its devices and narrowly escape seeing Siri falling into hands of the Android camp...

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VSNotifications reads your incoming iOS notifications

Mike Schnier ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

VSNotifications is a jailbreak utility which has been available for a few months. The tweak allows a jailbroken device running iOS 5 or higher to read out incoming notifications through a Siri-like voice synthesizer. With VSNotifications you can receive messages without even having to see the screen.

It's not hard to see how the tweak could be useful. When you're driving, VSNotifications is a great way to stay connected to your messages without breaking laws or endangering others on the road. The tweak could also make a jailbroken iPhone more useful to the visually impaired, or people who just like having their notifications read to them...

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Facebook Messenger gains VoIP calling, but it’s Canada only initially

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 3, 2013

Facebook has just updated its Messenger iOS and Android app with the voice messaging feature. Facebook Messenger version 2.1, a free download over at Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, now lets you record short voice messages for your friends, up to a minute in length. We'll see if this is the voicemail for the 21st century, but anyone who updates to the new version gains this feature automatically and that's a big advantage. But the social networking giant isn't stopping there.

In the new Facebook Messenger, you can now place voice calls to your Facebook contacts free of charge. Of course, these are VoIP calls so a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection is needed. It looks like Facebook, which some folks though would buy WhatsApp, is adamant to turn the Messenger app into a unified messaging solution. The last piece of the puzzle needed: video chat... 

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Showdown: Google Voice Search v. Siri speed test

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

http://vimeo.com/52497584

Google's recently updated Voice Search iOS app is simply amazing as it demonstrates just how speedy Siri should be. Unfortunately, Apple's digital secretary remains reliant on network connectivity for voice recognition. Heck, this time last year some folks were even convinced only the iPhone 4S was fast enough to run Siri. That couldn't be farther from the truth because Google's iOS app comes with real-time voice recognition. So, how speedy is Siri compared to Google's refreshed app? Check out this clip by Gizmodo and meet us down in the comments. It's a couple days old but definitely worth watching...

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Voice navigation was a deal-breaker in the Apple-Google maps talks

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2012

The Verge reported yesterday that Apple could have kept Google Maps until iOS 7 as Google's contract to keep the maps app on the iPhone had more time remaining. A new report sheds more light on the matter, with sources claiming that talks between the two Silicon Valley technology giants crashed over voice-assisted navigation.

Long story short, Google fought hard to bomb the deal as it wouldn't hand over the data needed to bring voice-guided navigation to a competing platform. Instead, the search Goliath continued to offer advanced location and navigation features on Android, widening the gap as it differentiated its platform from Apple...

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AT&T, Verizon and Sprint won’t support the iPhone 5 HD voice at launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 13, 2012

Of all the three major carriers in the United States, none is able to support the iPhone 5 high-definition voice technology at launch. Specifically, carriers AT&T and Verizon don't yet support wideband audio and Sprint's HD Voice technology is only compatible with CDMA x1 technology whereas the iPhone 5 taps WCDMA networks for the feature. There is, of course, hope that major U.S. telcos will catch up and update their backend for the iPhone 5 wideband audio...

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Google accelerating plans to launch Siri competitor code-named Majel

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 19, 2012

We've known for awhile that Google's been working on improving Voice Actions in Android. Needless to say, last October's release of the iPhone 4S and its headline voice assistant feature dubbed Siri sent Google's engineers back to the drawing board in an attempt to re-envision what conversing with an Android device should be like. According to the well-informed Wall Street Journal, the search giant has now "accelerated" plans to bring Siri competitor to the market.

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Siri gets a HAL 9000 theme

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 3, 2012

"Good evening, Dave."

Yes, the inevitable has finally happened, we're just curious why it took so long.

Indeed, Siri has finally been laced with a classic HAL 9000 theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It's all possible thanks to a WinterBoard theme, and a handful of UISounds that replace the stock Siri sounds. Check out our how-to video inside...

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‘SpeakEvents’ makes boring push notifications come alive with voice

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 27, 2012

SpeakEvents is a jailbreak tweak that audibly speaks the contents of new messages, tweets, emails, etc.

I like to look at it as the opposite of Siri; actually it's the perfect complement to Siri, because instead of you talking to the iPhone, it's talking to you.

I know this sounds like a potential recipe for disaster, but SpeakEvents has the ability to go into quiet mode during designated times, and you can make it work on a per-app basis.

Check out further video coverage of SpeakEvents straight ahead...

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DismissSiri: Cancel Siri using a voice command

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated March 2, 2012

Want a quick and easy way to dismiss Siri? Then try the aptly named DismissSiri — a jailbreak tweak that makes Siri scram with a few simple voice commands.

As long as you don't set your expectations to high, and you don't have a tweak like MyAssistant, which makes DismissSiri redundant, then you may enjoy the functionality that this tweak has to offer...

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Picks of the Week: HeyTell, LostWinds, Grid Lens

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Every week we bring you a few App Store apps that we find particularly useful or awesome. The App Store is full of mediocre stuff, but iDB tries to find the gems for your downloading consideration.

This week, we've got a nifty app for sending voice messages between iPhones, a new game, and clever photography app. We hope you enjoy this week's picks!

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