Most of these involve making a phone call, and interacting with a virtual assistant on the other end of the line. For example, until last week, whenever I wanted to add something to my calendar or send myself an email reminder, I would hit the speed dial for Dial2Do. A female voice that sounds something like Siri would answer, and ask: "What would you like to do?" I would say either "calendar" or "reminder," then say the information I wanted to to be acted upon.

I've also been a of services like Bing 411 or the now defunct GOOG-411. With those, you call a virtual assistant, and ask for the names of businesses. The services send you a link to map directions or connect your call.

And finally, I love , and am a heavy user of Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Siri is vastly superior to any and all of the solutions I've been trying to cobble together all these years.

The second reason I'm biased in favor of virtual assistant technology on cell phones is my eyesight. I'm over 40 (OK, WAY over 40), and I need reading glasses while using a computer or reading a book, and especially to see the tiny text on my .