Speaktoit, the popular virtual assistant for Android, announced Friday that it has introduced several new features that will expand the app's range of functions and make it easier to use. Users can now ask the app to read emails aloud, and Speaktoit will also allow for easy hands-free navigation while driving. Speaktoit also added a feature that enables premium users to wake the device up with a voice command when the display is off, making it the first virtual assistant capable of doing so. More information is below.

No hands, ma!: Speaktoit Premium now allows users to do something that no other app does: wake their device up without using their hands. A simple command of "Hey Assistant" is all that's needed to bring the sleeping display to life, thanks to integration with new technology by Sensory (see a video demonstration here).

One of the most popular Siri alternative on Google Android platform - Speaktoit Assistant just got updated with some new features. The virtual assistant mobile app has been one of the most highly competitive spaces in tech for the last year or so. While Siri opened the doors when it launched on the iPhone 4G last year, the Speaktoit Assistant and others started getting traction by Android owners who didn’t want to be left without a virtual assistant of their own. Of course, with Google Now looking to get a slice of the virtual assistant pie, app developers like Speaktoit have to innovate.

Speaktoit appears to be doing just that. The app, which now has over 5 million users worldwide, added some new features this week that users might enjoy. Perhaps most notably, Speaktoit users can also now take advantage of the Daily Briefing feature. This allows users to customize information they want automatically read to them every morning, such as the weather forecast, their agenda, top news stories, etc. Although users could already have gotten this information on previous Speaktoit versions, the Daily Briefing function helps throw compilations of information into one tidy feature.

Spire the Siri port for non-iPhone4S Apple devices is sadly no longer developed and would even refuse to install on Apple iOS 5.1 . While trying to install via Cydia you will receive the following error. However, there is an alternative way to get this on iOS 5.1 as shown ahead.

Speaktoit, the top-rated virtual assistant app on Android since launching in October 2011, has come to Apple’s iOS platform. Whereas Siri, Apple’s homegrown virtual assistant, only works on the iPhone 4S, Speaktoit will give older iPhone their very own assistant that performs most of the same tasks as Siri (and even some that Siri cannot do, such as updating a user’s Facebook page). Speaktoit is now available for $1.99 on the App Store. However, on Valentine’s Day (February 14th), Speaktoit will be free to the first 100,000 people.

It was just a matter of time after Apple made the decrypted ramdisks available with newer build of iOS 5.01 for legal Siri ports to appear, and that time has now come with popular iPhone dev @chpwn releasing the first legal port for "Siri" via Cydia. Dubbed "Spire" the legal port allows hackers to get required Siri files legally (gets downloaded from Apple servers) on older devices like iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G etc.

Hackers are trying hard to make sure Siri gets ported to older Apple devices, interestingly helping making things easier for modding community Apple released a new build of iOS 5.01 for iPhone 4S with decrypted ramdisks leaving the underlying filesystem wide-open to be copied and researched upon. Notable iPhone hacker (from iPhone Dev Team) musclenerd tweeted this news with links to grab the new release.