Nuance releases free Siri-like ‘Dragon Go’ app for Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Nuance today announced Dragon Go!, a free application for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that gives consumers immediate, direct access to the mobile content they want.

Dragon Go! users will be reminded of Siri. (For more info, please see: The story of Siri from birth to acquisition by Apple – June 14, 2010.) Not only does Dragon Go! hear what people are searching for, but it understands what they want, giving them direct access to relevant results from 180 content providers, including AccuWeather, Bing, ESPN, Facebook, Fandango, iTunes, Last.fm, LiveNation, Milo.com, OpenTable, Pandora internet radio, Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yelp, YouTube, Yahoo! and many others – with the list of content providers growing each day.

With Dragon Go!, people simply speak a query, and the app automatically determines and then delivers the best content destinations via the newly optimized Dragon Carousel. Gone are the days of endless scrolling. Dragon Go! always puts the most relevant pages front and center, and additional content from related providers is easily accessible on the Carousel with just a simple flick of the finger. Dynamic results are provided center and to the right, with additional results from Google, Bing or Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube available to the left.

Dragon Go! combines Nuance’s Dragon voice recognition technology with natural language understanding, unique analytical tools, and elements of artificial intelligence. The result is an app that understands the intent of a query, and what a person wants to do – be it getting restaurant reviews, buying movie tickets, shopping, finding directions, listening to their favorite music, and more. For example:

• Say “The best Mexican food near me,” and instantly be taken to the Yelp tab for local reviews, or flip over to the Phone tab to quickly call to find out about any specials on the menu that evening.

• Say “Reservations for two at Capital Grille in Boston,” to be taken directly to OpenTable to book a table for dinner, or scroll over to the Maps tab to find out how to get there from where you are now.

• Say “Cowboys & Aliens near me” to instantly buy tickets, read fan reviews and see trailers on Fandango, and then scroll over to Twitter to see what other people are saying about the movie.

• Say “Nikon cameras” and you can move to the Milo.com tab to see the best local prices from nearby brick-and-mortar stores, or opt to see the product in action through video demos on YouTube.

• Say “Concert dates for Kings of Leon,” and be taken to the LiveNation tab to lock in tickets, flip to the media tab to listen to Kings of Leon on Pandora Radio or Last.fm, or download the album “Come Around Sundown.”

• Say “Baseball fantasy stats” and instantly see the latest player stats on ESPN.com.

• Say “Weather in Albuquerque, New Mexico” and get up-to-the-minute weather updates from AccuWeather.
Dragon Go! also features deep integration with a number of the applications on the device people use the most. For instance:

• Say “Call Whole Foods Market near me” and instantly see a list of stores near you including phone numbers to tap and call.

• Say “Play Lady Gaga” and automatically hear songs by Lady Gaga on your device, or say “Lady Gaga on Pandora” to instantly access your personalized Lady Gaga station.

• Say “Driving Directions to the Capital Grille” and get turn-by-turn directions to the nearest Capital Grille location from the Maps application.

“Dragon Go! showcases Nuance’s advancements in Natural Language Understanding, taking an open-ended spoken query and not only making the input easier and faster, but also enhancing the way people consume mobile web content and apps,” said Vlad Sejnoha, chief technical officer, Nuance, in the press release. “By understanding the intended actions of the mobile consumer, we can eliminate multiple intervening steps, and take people directly to where they want to end up – be it Pandora, Yelp, Fandango, LiveNation, and many, many other apps and sites.”

Additionally, Dragon Go! lets people quickly and easily share information with their social networks through a pop-up toolbar to share links by email, text message, Facebook or Twitter. And when speaking to Dragon Go! is not an option, people can easily pull up the keypad and type in text as needed.

“Dragon Go! delivers today’s mobile consumers a level of instant gratification that has never been available with legacy search providers,” said Michael Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile, in the press release. “We intelligently transport users directly to their destination – no scrolling, links, or tapping, just direct access to the content providers people love and trust. And this is just the beginning – our range of partners is growing every day, with even more extensive app integration planned over the next year.”

More and download link for Dragon Go! via Apple’s App Store here.

Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.

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