Speech-Enabled App Turns Social Updates and Web News into Audiovisual Newscasts

It’s called Winston, and it has already been acclaimed as the most distinguished relative of Siri (Apple’s celebrated personal assistant and knowledge navigator). The new app is designed to “show” the news, as they are most relevant to you.

Winston is your personal news anchor.

The first-of-its-kind speech-enabled mobile app assistant takes your social feeds (from Twitter, Facebook, etc) and the main headlines from your favorite news sites, and converts them into a cinematic news presentation to listen to or watch on your iPhone and Apple TV. Instead of reading out loud lengthy content, Winston uses deep semantic analysis to intelligently summarize web information, and serves it tailored to your needs. Rather than simply reading Facebook posts and Tweets out loud, Winston identifies the most relevant topics, ideas, people and sentiments.

You can use Winston on the go – while driving, walking, doing house chores, or even when you get ready to go out. The app was designed by Reactor Labs, a Boulder-based startup, focused on innovation that betters the way consumers relate with their personal web.

“With Winston, we wanted to create a new way for people to interact with their personal web,” said Aaron Ting, CEO and co-founder of Reactor Labs. “So much of our day is spent leaning forward to read a tiny screen. We wanted people to lean back and listen. We wanted to start a new conversation between people and technology, one that empowers and inspires them to stay informed about the world around them.”

The video below gives good overview of what this app can do.

Winston is available for free in the Apple App Store in the U.S. and a number of other English-speaking countries. It will be released in additional countries — as well as on Android — in the near future.

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