Why the Tech We Take for Granted is Our Future

The so-called “virtual assistant” seems like a natural progression in the evolution of our technology. Just about everyone wishes they could afford to have a personal assistant and, until the modern technological age, only certain people could afford to do so. Sure, parents help their children by getting them up for school in the morning, friends help us to remember or perform everyday tasks, and almost everyone has got someone in their life who can perform some sort of assistance for them. Only within the last few decades, however, have we been able to say our tech can serve the same function as having a personal assistant walking around with us every day would. We refer to the ability of our smartphones and mobile devices in particular to provide these services to us as virtual assistance. The software programs which would qualify as such we call virtual assistants, of course, but the questions are myriad. What exactly are they, what exactly can they do and to what extent, and what will be their function as tech develops and how much will they be able to do in the future? We are all, for the most part, aware of the many things our cell phones can actually do, and so much so most of us take for granted a simple but profound fact: getting the kind of help we can simply reach into our pocket for now used to be impossible. Virtual assistants are nothing more than software, but they accomplish a vast number of things we no longer have to do manually. As is the point of such technology, this saves us more time, money, and effort even those of us who lived before cell phones and mobile tech may often fail to realize. Read more »

Voice control is a growing trend in the smartphone arena.  Both of the two biggest smartphone operating systems—iOS and Android—have voice-activated virtual assistant features built in to their system (Siri and Google Now, respectively).  However, these virtual assistants often don’t work within many specific applications, limiting how many actions they can actually perform.  This is why cool person in technology Stuart Patterson is making virtual assistant style voice control available for individual mobile applications with his company Xtone.  Consumers have responded well to the ease-of-use presented by Siri and Google Now, so Patterson sees an opportunity for app creators to transplant that experience into their own mobile software.  Patterson targets Xtone’s services at small and medium-sized app developers who want to add a Siri-like experience to their product.  Xtone’s own website lists various potential applications of such a feature.  One could use Xtone’s technology for booking hotels and rental cars quickly with a travel app, transferring money or paying bills with a banking app, or even connecting to an online tech support service when you have trouble operating an app.  While virtual assistants like Siri and Google Now can only let you open certain programs or access specific OS commands by voice, Xtone’s technology lets people commit these essential tasks the same way.  Read more »