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Having sat through the monotony that was the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S, GoMo News always thought the most significant announcement was the introduction of Siri. Part of iOS 5, Siri is a virtual personal assistant which acts as if it is your butler – like Jeeves. It responds to voice requests and performs all the usual tasks you’d expect to do with a mobile phone. Now Singaporeans have got one up on other countries around the world with a new app called Def!nd. Unlike Siri, Def!nd is able to search for businesses outside of the USA plus it can understand Asian accents. The app is supplied by local mobile operator SingTel, but Novauris has just received permission to say that its own technology powers this app.Novauris tells GoMo News that, “We supply the speech recognition and adapted it to Singapore English, including the special Singapore vocabulary.”
The good news is that you don’t have to be a SingTel subscriber or own an IOS5 compatible device to use Def!nd. It’s on the Apple iTunes app store.
Indeed, this app became the second most popular lifestyle app in the Singaporean Apple App Store within days of its launch.
Better still, this free app is also available for download on the Android Marketplace, too.
Just a reminder. For those with RIM BlackBerries, there’s a free virtual assistant app available via the Thank You Gift section on the BlackBerry App World called Vlingo.
Siri, Vlingo and now Def!nd perform very much the same tasks. See our previous story on Vlingo being free here.
