Voice-actived personal assistant apps come native on most smart phones, or they can be downloaded from the app store. They promise great interactive help for important (and not so important) tasks, questions, and requests.
But they all can't be the best — so which one should you be using? I checked them out so you wouldn't have to.
I put services up against each other: Apple's Siri, the Google App, Microsoft's Cortana, and Samsung's S Voice. I matched them against the closest thing CNBC has to a personal assistant: intern Shane D'Agostino.
I asked all kinds of silly and important questions. What's the weather tomorrow? When is the next episode of "The Bachelorette"? How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Who sang "Brick House"? What are the directions to the New York Stock Exchange? What's Comcast's stock price? When's the next NBA finals game?
I asked the devices to spell words — like onomatopoeia. I asked to set reminders to call people. And then to actually call those people. I asked them to order me a pizza. I asked all kinds of questions, some that I cared about, and others that my producer, Betsy, really wanted to know.