GADGETS

Just simply "talk" to your phone.. .and the conversational interface in your iPhone will perform tasks for you such as find a French restaurant nearby and book a table, look up movie listings, order a taxi, or look up the phone number and address of a local business.

Siri combines an impressive array of technologies and brings them together on the iPhone. Including natural language processing and semantic analysis with the underlying technology developed at SRI with $200 million worth of Darpa grants. It’s last funding round was led by Hong Kong billionaire, Li Ka-shing (a fact never disclosed before), who also is an investor in Facebook.

The app is free, and Siri gets affiliate fees every time you buy something like a concert ticket or make a restaurant reservation through the app. In addition to helping you do things, it also can be used to set reminders. Simply tell it to remind you by email to make a phone call on Thursday morning, and it can figure it out.

Talking Handset

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