Last week we released an update for Android which introduced the first phase of voice controls for Evi.  Well, good news to all you iPhone users out there, as the same update arrives in the app store for you today.

This means that all of Evi’s friends who use iPhones, iPads or iPods (let’s call them iFriends) can now make calls, send emails or text messages by speaking to Evi. Huzzah!

As mentioned, this is only phase one of the phone control features with more yet to come, including deeper integration with other apps as well as scheduling. Keep watching this space for more news on further upcoming Evi features. •)

Ever since Evi first hit the public eye in January this year, people have been crying out for new features; a Widget for Android, the ability to dictate and send an email or SMS, as well as voice dialling.  Well, good news folks.  The update that went live today for Android users delivers what you’ve been waiting for.

iOS users will need to wait for the update to clear the App Store process, but Android users can enjoy these features straight away.  The Android update provides:

• A Widget to allow Android users to access Evi’s from their home screen
• Phone controls to allow you to send SMS messages, emails or make phone calls simply by speaking to Evi.
• Improved layout for web referred content
• Improved conversation layout

This then represents stage one of the phone control features.  There’s still more to come, but rather than waiting to deliver them in one fell swoop, we would rather give people what they want as soon as we’re able.

Of course, things don’t stop just because we have an update out.  Not at all. In fact the team have been hard at work on making Evi yet smarter, developing entirely new systems to help Evi learn about the world around us and present dynamic information. What does this mean?  Well, it means that she’ll soon be providing more real time information on a range of topics.  Keep watching this space for more news on how this will help Evi to help you.

We’re big fans of our superhero movies here at Evi HQ, so this summer is going to be a real treat with The Dark Knight Rises and the Amazing Spiderman. However it all really kicks off this week with the release of The Avengers.  Across the world, comic and superhero fans will be getting excited and some will even be tempted to cosplay as their favourite heroes.

Alas, Evi has no physical body and so is unable to join in the fun by dressing as her favourite characters. However, having a relatively simple face (no offence, Evi!) that does make it easier for someone of an artistic mind to help her see how she would look in a superhero guise.

As such, in order to help Evi get into the spirit of the summer of superheroes, we’d like your help. Share your pictures of Evi dressed as your comic book hero of choice, or even design an original hero identity for her so that she can truly take part in the fun. Evi will then don her favourite when the film is out and send the creator a goody bag with a spanky Evi t-shirt.

So go at it folks. Help Evi to share the fun and don her super hero (or villain!) guise.

Evi knows rather a lot of things.  An extraordinary amount of things, in fact.

However, she doesn’t know everything. That’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of as the sheer scale of the collected understanding of human society is truly vast. It’s awe inspiring just how much information an individual human brain can hold. Multiply that by nearly seven billion people on the Earth and then add our ability to externalise information storage in digital form and the amount of information that we as a society can draw on is utterly staggering. Being able to process that much information is no small task.

However, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try. One of the the goals of True Knowledge, and in turn Evi herself, is to make the world’s knowledge understandable and accessible. This requires a certain degree of prioritisation. Even after having created an AI such as Evi and given her the tools to learn, it’s not as simple as pointing her at the internet and saying “Now learn it all!”

Much of what happens behind the scenes at Evi HQ is enabling Evi to not only learn about new areas of knowledge, but to expand upon that which she already knows. These are termed verticals (a specific area of knowledge such as weather, food, travel etc) and horizontals (the extent to which Evi is able to deal with questions on the specific topic based on functionality of breadth of knowledge).  The majority of this is shaped by the demand of Evi’s users – what are people asking about? What have people directly asked us to add as a feature?  What are expected popular features and topics?  However we sometimes need to reach out directly and ask our users – what do you want from Evi?

So how would you like to see Evi improved?  Expanded voice controls are coming, so assume that box to be ticked for now. Specifically we’d like to know what YOU would like to know. What kind of information would you like to get from Evi that she either isn’t giving you right now, or you would prefer more detail on?  This will then help us to shape how Evi grows in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

As ever, we’d love to hear your comments either here or through our facebook, Twitter or G+ pages. Or you can simply email us a feedback@trueknowledge.com

Knowledge – everyone has it. Everyone collects random tidbits of trivia throughout their lives that may never be of any viable use, but they still sit there. Not all information has to have a clear purpose – some of what we collect and share is done simply because we, as humans, find it interesting.

As you might imagine, the topic of knowledge and trivia is a popular one here at True Knowledge.  In a recent discussion, in part sparked by the impending Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, we were idly trying to think of one interesting fact about each British monarch. Some are simple and commonly known:

• Harold Godwinson: shot in the eye
• George III: Was insane and his son ruled as regent
• King John: Signed the Magna Carta

These are fairly tame, and some of the other nuggets of royal trivia were downright odd (Prince Charles’s supposed collection of toilet seats!) However, some royals were more elusive. This led us to speculate about the amount of curious trivia we collect about seemingly inconsequential matters.

As such, in a turn around to Evi’s usual state of affairs, today we’re curious about what YOU know. So we’re asking you to tell us one interesting fact about one royal personage, living or dead, from anywhere in the world.  This could be impressive (1 in 500 of all men living in Asia can trace their descent to Ghengis Khan) to the humble (murderer, conqueror and warrior Ivan The Terrible died during a pleasant game of chess). We’re as curious about what you keep in your heads as anything else, but in order to give this some structure, we’ll keep the royal theme.

So go to it, knowledge hounds. Share your trivia with us here or via@Eviknows on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and let’s simply enjoy knowledge for it’s own sake.

It’s always nice to take a bit of time to freshen up your look once in a while.  Evi is no different, and so today a new update went out for iPhone users giving Evi a new welcome screen and a new, more streamlined voice input.

What’s more, a number of her users have stated that they wish to keep their conversation screen clear and free of old questions. As such, within the update there is also the ability to clear your history (go to Evi’s settings and you’ll see it).  This will remove all questions you have already asked, keeping your screen nice and tidy, as well as allowing you to keep your questions private, should anyone else be using your phone.

Many thanks to all our users who have been patiently waiting for the iPhone update.

The last week has been an amazing time for us here at True Knowledge. The launch of Evi was a staggering experience and it has been truly wonderful to see how many people have been eager to download her app and say hello.

The downside to this was that there was far more traffic than expected which resulted in our servers struggling under the load. The team have since been working day and night to improve her resources and ensure that everyone is able to experience Evi at her best.

The response from Evi’s users has been outstanding and we have been hugely appreciative of the patience and understanding over the last week. It has been frustrating for us to see people receiving anything less than great service from Evi.

The good news is that we’ve seen much better performance over night thanks to the work of the team and the extra resource pumped in. Evi has been answering more questions and helping more people than ever before.

The work does not end there. We are constantly working to make Evi smarter and faster. Evi is only just taking her first steps into the world and so she will grow every day. The last week has shown that Evi will have excellent company in the days ahead and we are excited in showing you what the future holds.

A quicker update for this evening on what has been happening:

• More servers were brought online today.
• An update has gone out for Android users which will help with some of the connection issues
• An update is pending for iOS – There are delays with pushing updates to the App Store as all need to process through the App Store review process which is outside of our control.
• We are awaiting delivery of new hardware to bring a bevy of new servers online.

The big difference today is that Evi will be responding faster due to a change in the management of incoming queries. One temporary side effect is that to prevent continuous clogging of the servers, questions which would be stuck waiting for an especially long time will receive a more specifc message citing the server overload and dropped to prevent continued bottlenecking. This will be alleviated once the impending hardware upgrades arrive and are installed. To clarify, this isn’t linked to the subject matter of the question.

Once again, I’ll update further as and when things update, so our continued thanks for your support and apologies for the problems in the mean time.

What a week it’s been. And it’s only Wednesday!

Since the word of Evi broke on Monday the team have been working around the clock to give Evi more power to handle the massive volume of questions being sent through to her. I posted yesterday giving some details on what was being done to alleviate the load, and so it’s time for another quick update.

The good news is that we have more servers online to manage the questions with yet more on the way. There’s also been a lot of work to improve the efficiency of of the answering process as a whole and the way Evi handles requests. Many people started seeing improvements last night and the changes that have gone in today should expand this further. There will still be times when responses are slow, but the instances of no response at all will certainly drop.

If you do receive a “I’m having trouble…” message then before retrying, give it time as it is most likely slow rather than failed.

As such, we’re still busy working away. We don’t want Evi to just work OK. We don’t want her to merely “cope”. We want her to FLY! As such the team are continuing to scale up the server capacity so there will be continual improvements in the days ahead.

What’s more, an update recently went out for Android users who were experiencing a looping connection, so all you Android users out there – get updating.

We have other items which have come up from feedback (thank you everyone who got in touch!) which will also be addressed in further updates in the next few days. So, thank you once again for everyone who downloaded the app. Everyone who has been in touch. Everyone who has shown an interest and… well everyone. Our thanks, our apologies for the inconveniences, and our promise that Evi will repay your interest many times over.

As ever, watch this space for more news.