Samsung Galaxy S3 Owners Will Have Exclusive Access to S-Voice
Samsung is reportedly blocking owners of other smartphones that are not the Galaxy S3 from using the S-Voice feature, according to 9to5 Google.
An APK reportedly made the S-Voice voice assistant available on Android smartphones other than the Samsung Galaxy S3, however, Samsung has quickly moved to block other devices from accessing the system, the site explained.
Vlingo is the company behind Samsung's new Siri-like voice recognition technology known as S-voice, and it has been initiating this block, according to the XDA Developer community.
The company was acquired by Nuance in Dec. 2011 who powers speech for Apple's Siri on the iPhone 4S.
Vlingo also aligned itself with Samsung for the Voice commander on the Galaxy S2.
"We expect Nuance has been improving Vlingo since its purchase, and Apple's relationship with Nuane isn't yet stopping Samsung from using the Vlingo technology," said 9to5 Google.
Vlingo technology was originally used for Siri when it was first developed, according to the apps developer Norman Winarsky.
But since then Siri has had the ability to adopt new types of technology.
The Galaxy S3 was unveiled at Samsung's "Mobile Unpacked" event last month in London, England. The smartphone recently appeared on Amazon for pre-order and is priced at $799 for the unlocked version.
The U.S. model for Verizon and AT&T is set to feature a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor instead of the quad-core Exynos chip that comes stock with the device.
This will be done in order to accommodate LTE technology.
The new phone is expected to ship on June 1 in the U.S. and during the last week of Nov. in other parts of the world including the U.K. where it was unveiled.