I blogged a while back about the possibility of Siri coming to the previous iPhone and iPod touch versions. This has not happened. But this does not mean that we should hang our heads in envious despair.
Step up Evi. Evi is a new app available on the App store for £0.69 that is touted as a stand in for Siri on older devices (and for Android ones, too). The real drawback is that Evi does not have the same level of integration with iOS apps such as calendars, contacts and mail, which means it will not become your personal assistant. But who wants a digital P.A anyway? The upside is that Evi is able to teach itself along the way, and improve the responses to questions asked.
For instance, if you ask Siri for a recipe, it will advise you to do a web search. If I wanted to do a web search, I would have done one – right? Evi however is smart enough to at least provide you with a number of recipes and links. Smart…
As TechCrunch points out:
Ask “Who was President when Queen Elizabeth II was born”. Siri is unable to provide an answer and suggests performing a web search. Evi determines who Queen Elizabeth II is, when she was born, the dates when she will have been a teenager and then compares this against which US presidents were in office over that time, delivering the results of both serving US presidents during those years. Not bad huh.”
Another plus is that Evi is capable of retrieving local data in the U.K as well as the U.S, which is something that is currently out of Siri’s scope. So, although Evi is not Siri, it soon may be. And with a whole lot of devices out there that are not iPhone 4S’s, could be fairly lucrative for True Knowledge, the creator of the app.
Get it here