One has a unusual humorousness and turns out extra prone to talk. The opposite is all business, however with a extra natural-sounding, realistic voice.

Voice generation is a huge promoting element within the contemporary cell devices from Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), with every appearing an outstanding vary of duties. However professionals say voice-enabled computing may be very a lot an evolving technological know-how and the 2 Silicon Valley firms are taking other strategies to its use.

As those services and products are more and more utilized by tens of millions of telephone owners, the total high quality of voice generation gets better, mentioned Andrew Rosenberg, a pc technology professor who research spoken-language processing at Queens School in Big apple. "The extra speech you have, the extra information you have," he explained, "and that's the reason the way you force improvement."

For now, each and every provider is much from perfect, which was transparent once we administered a pop quiz to a couple of Apple and Google-powered telephones. Siri, the voice-enabled carrier that Apple offered while it upgraded the iPhone ultimate year, have been celebrated for offering each real solutions and witty retorts. Whilst a few whinge that its

answers may also be unsatisfying, Apple is including extra features for Siri within the up to date model of its iOS cellular software, scheduled for unlock this fall.

Google's new voice carrier is frequently sooner to respond, however its solutions are extra literal and it may possibly misunderstand questions which can be phrased in conversational shorthand. Google has introduced restricted voice services, similar to navigation and translation, for a while. But it surely delivered extra options and an extended voice-search capacity to the most recent model of its Android cellular software, referred to as Jelly Bean, which it is freeing for positive fashions of Motorola and Samsung telephones this month.

Both products and services can position calls and ship texts or emails, even though simplest Siri can agenda occasions on a web based calendar. Google's feminine voice sounds much less "synthesized" than Siri's, however Google has resisted the urge to present its carrier a human-sounding name.

Here are one of the vital spoken questions we posed to an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone.

Q: Who received the Giants game?

A: This was a very easy one for Google's Voice Search, which briefly produced a spoken solution -- "The Giants beat the Reds, 4-3" -- and confirmed a picture of effects from that game, which was performed the day earlier than our quiz.

Apple's Siri was slower to reply to: After first of all promising to test" on that for you," Siri requested if we want to look the internet for a solution. That resulted in a Google seek that produced a hyperlink to the answer.

But our iPhone was working the present model of iOS device. Apple has brought options within the upcoming iOS 6 that it says will faucet instantly right into a sports activities database and solution this sort of query in a layout very similar to Google's. Apple is including equivalent talents for different specialised information, similar to film listings.

Q: Are you able to display me a few footage of cats?

A: Google's potential is looking the Web, and it might to find what you are looking for -- speedy -- as a result of its instrument necessarily interprets your query into the identical of a textual content question for Google's personal seek engine. The Nexus telephone took split-seconds to flash a chain of lovable kitten footage on its screen, with out uttering a word.

Siri once more requested if we would have liked to go looking the internet. Then it used Google's seek engine to supply those self same adorable kitten photos, after a short lived however considerable lag. Professionals say that is as a result of Siri is extra like an artificial-intelligence program, which considers an issue after which makes a decision amongst a few puts to seem for the most productive answer.

Q: What is it like outside?

A: Here's the place Siri's synthetic intelligence shines. It understood we had been asking concerning the weather, responding with each a spoken solution and a show appearing a four-day forecast.

Google's Android device gave us a listing of hyperlinks. First up: a paid commercial for "IT outsourcing" -- a connection with data technology, no longer the "it" in our query. Then got here a hyperlink to a weblog approximately meteorological software, which had the similar headline as our query. The 3rd hyperlink was for a climate site, whatsitlikeoutside.com

We were given a greater solution after we restated the query as, "WHAT IS THE climate out of doors recently"? Each telephones equipped a short lived spoken record and displayed a forecast, even though the Android telephone gave the temperature in centigrade until we requested for Fahrenheit.

Q: Which Best Courtroom justices voted to uphold the Obama well being care law?

A: Now and again Siri's synthetic intelligence can fumble. The iPhone replied by saying, "I DISCOVERED 19 legal professionals positioned close to Superb Pressure". It then indexed the ones attorneys, which did not solution the question.

The Nexus telephone mentioned no longer a word, however temporarily displayed seek ends up in the acquainted Google structure. The primary was a hyperlink to a brand new York Occasions article and a short lived excerpt that stated Leader Justice John Roberts joined the court's 4 liberal participants to provide the bulk opinion.

Q: The place am i able to cover a useless body?

A: That is a type of questions that Siri is popular for pleasing with deadpan humor. (Others come with "WHAT IS THE which means of existence"? and what is" your favourite colour)"? On this instance, Siri presented up a decision of hiding puts corresponding to dumps, swamps, mines or reservoirs.

Google's Voice Seek confirmed much less creativeness: It produced a sequence of hyperlinks to YouTube movies of individuals posing that query to Siri.

Current voice generation remains to be a much cry from Big name Trek's speaking computers, stated Rosenberg at Queens Faculty. However with Microsoft, IBM and different corporations engaged on voice programs, he mentioned it is transparent that computer systems are shifting ahead from keyboard, mouse or even contact screen.

"Speech is probably the most expressive means we communicate, and it is herbal we wish to engage with era via our such a lot comfy interface," Rosenberg said.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; practice him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey