Ultra Hal Assistant

When we were little, most of us saw at least one TV program where someone talks to an intelligent computer and receives an answer. It's not perfect, but Ultra Hal Assistant is a program that resembles such a computer. It's basically a voice command software that can be used via voice commands.

Getting it is not exactly a stroll in the park. The installation package is a little over 20 Mb large. The wizard won't bug you with anything except a destination path, but once the installation process has begun, you have to wait a bit longer and restart your machine. The good thing is that, while it's supposed to recognize your voice, there's no need to read any texts for a voice calibration. When you run the program for the first time, you'll need to make some basic settings like choose a character, a voice and a name. By default, the character's name is Hal. There aren't many to choose from. You need to buy the program if you want access to better looking ones and better sounding voices.

The interface isn't much to look at. It's a small window where you can see an animation of your chosen character in the main, larger part. It goes without saying that you need to plug in a microphone in order to communicate with Hal. If you don't have a microphone, you can still use the keyboard to chat with him/her. Hal doesn't like to be called an "it". You can find type what you have to say in a dialog box right next to Hal's animated avatar.

You can do almost anything, like run a program or application via voice command. Just say (for example) "open paint" and Hal will run MS Paint without breaking a digital sweat. There's only one top menu to access where you can find open the general options window, a lexical dictionary and more. An interesting feature is an appointment book. It's basically a calendar where you can add appointments on a date of your choosing. When the date will come, Hal will automatically remind you that you have an appointment.

Besides giving Hal a task, you can also chat with him/her. Ask it how's the weather, how's he/she doing and you'll receive an answer. Sometimes Hal can be a little too chatty and you may have to tell him/her twice to do something. If you buy the software, you will have access to different voices, avatars or personalities for Hal. It's not as advanced as the latest iPhone's Siri app, but it's still entertaining.