Five Siri alternatives that give your older iPhone a voice

10.10.2011
After last week’s , Siri was one of the most talked-about features. With Siri, the iPhone 4S will be able to answer just about anything you ask it, from the weather report to nearby points of interest. It can also read messages and notifications aloud and even let you dictate messages of your own instead of relying on the phone’s on-screen keyboard.

There’s only one drawback to Siri: Unless you’re planning on upgrading to the iPhone 4S, the feature is out of your reach. And Siri Assistant—the app on which Siri is based (and which )—has already disappeared from the App Store; the app will , so even existing Siri Assistant users face a potentially silent future.

Not to worry, though, iPhone 4 and 3GS owners—you needn’t miss out on the voice-control fun. The App Store continues to offer many apps that provide a lot of the same features iPhone 4S owners will get with Siri—and those third-party apps are available for free in many cases. Here are a few worth checking out.

Nuance’s app underwent an update last month to deliver a much improved voice service to users. The free app works on all iPhones and third- or fourth-generation iPod touches (if you use an external microphone). It’s simple to use—just say what it is you’re looking for, and Dragon Go will search hundreds of content providers to deliver the best answers to match the query. For instance, for those wanting to listen to songs by a certain artist, Dragon Go will find that artist on Pandora, Last.fm and Spotify (for premium users of that music service). It can also help call a taxi, look up good restaurants nearby, and stream movies.