Valentine speaking app
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Talking treat for older iDevices and Valentines Day — Speaktoit has had 1.4 million Android downloads and a 4.5 out of 5 rating, now the talking interface app is available on iOS.Speaktoit gives iPhone 3GS and 4 users (who can't load or handle Siri) a complete virtual assistant available, and even on the iPhone 4S it offers newer capabilities. Speaktoit can do essentially everything Siri can, and then some (with a sense of humour).
How Speaktoit is different than Siri:
Speaktoit (pic) lets you customise your avatar, so you’re not talking to a faceless circle; can search maps outside the US; update Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare; adds new functionality often (Siri hasn’t been updated since launching); and it speaks what it says (for example, if you search for weather, this is the difference: Speaktoit: “It is 70 degrees in London” vs Siri: “Here is the weather."). So the developers claims it's more conversational; GigaOM has checked it out.
It’s currently available on the Apple App Store (priced at NZ$2.59, but it will be free to the first 100,000 people on Valentine’s Day.
That's today here, but the special is obviously designed for the Northern time frame, as it's not free here in NZ yet – keep checking back.
Speaktoit is also still free on Android.
iPad 3 launch rumour — A new report from the well-sourced AllThingsD suggests Apple will be holding a launch event for the iPad 3 in the first week of March. The report suggests the event will be held in San Francisco at either the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts or else the Moscone Center, and that the device may go on sale quite quickly after the media event, perhaps even within a week or so. People have been working out what the iPad 3 will comprise from component leaks.
Note: this is all conjecture.
Using apps to treat autism — The US-based organisation Autism Speaks estimates there are hundreds of apps built for use on iOS devices, specifically for autism. A search of the Apple iTunes store brought more than 580 autism-related apps, while an Android Market search for autism apps yielded about 250 results.
Instagram much improved — Instagram 2.1, which came out last week, has fixed up the 'frankly horrible' interface of v2.0, and added some significant new features, says Cult of Mac's review.
Crazy iPhone buying experience — And I thought it was bad here.
Tips on cleaning your iDevice — Lint free cloth and no chemicals. But there's a lot more than that ...
