Price: $1.99
Friend in Palm: Android Apps Written Review
Just released by developer IndoIrish Softsol Pvt Ltd, Friend in Palm Assistant is a new personal assistant app for Android. Does it have what it takes to be the “Siri” of Android devices? Let’s take a look!
Features
Friend in Palm functions as a virtual personal assistant. Ask it a question, and it will try to tell you the answer. One of the coolest features in Friend in Palm is the customization of the personal assistant. Here, you can choose different photos or images as the avatar. You can also (and perhaps most neat) choose the type of voice, with several different accents (Australia, anyone?) to work with. There is also a nice list of phrases needed to be used on the app, helping first time users get the most out of it once they learn the phrases.
Simply speak a question and Friend in Palm will attempt to answer it. However, a lot of the answers you will get simply result in a web page being pulled up. However, if you learn the right phrases, you can get the FIP to read off the latest headlines, upload photos on Facebook, tell you the weather and much, much more. My biggest complaint is the location searches. Friend in Palm reports the location as “name” then “zip code”. For some reason, this didn’t seem to work with Google and would give me the wrong location, again and again. Thus, asking for nearby restaurants or driving directions really didn’t work. It was quite frustrating and really doesn’t reflect well on Friend in Palm. Also, Friend in Palm lacks some the character that Siri sports-asking it how old it is really doesn’t elicit the funny responses seen in other personal assistant apps (just one example). This and the overall feel of Friend in Palm left me a little disappointed-it feels like it could be an awesome voice assistant app, but it’s still very rough around the edges.
Friend in Palm Android App Review
Appearance and Layout
Friend in Palm sports a very vibrant, colorful layout. It feels a little similar to the color scheme used on Windows Live on Windows 8 phones. The animated, speaking assistant looks pretty solid on the app and the voice quality is quite good! There is also several different voice options to choose from, in different accents. Finally, it is a really neat to be able to customize the personal assistant, using photos as you want, etc. The app’s layout is pretty easy to figure out as well.
Value
Siri has become something of a common household name, thanks to its crazy popularity on iPhone. There are quite a few apps vying to become the “siri of Android”. One of these is Friend in Palm (FIP Assistant). A key difference is the virtual customizable face of the assistant, which adds an air of personality to the personal assistant. Friend in Palm does recognize text, give out directions, pull up music, upload photos and more. However, I did find it a little difficult to get used to. Users need to learn the key phrases to get the most out of Friend in Palm, and even then it is a little bit awkward. Hopefully, these rough edges will get smoothed out soon, helping boost Friend in Palm as a solid alternative to Siri.
Android Apps Review Details: Friend In Palm (FIP Assistant) is available for $1.99 and requires Android 2.2+. You can download it from Google Play. A small expedite fee was paid to speed up the publication of this review.
You may download Friend in Palm from the Android Market.
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