Invoke A WolframAlpha Search From Anywhere With 'Wolfram Quick Search'

[Anthony Bouchard]

WolframAlpha is a very useful site where you can ask questions of all kinds and get intelligent, automatic answers. You can also almost anything – defining words, requesting to know how tall basketball players are, or even solving complex math problems. The site can be used from the Safari Web browser, through their App Store application ($1.99), or even through Siri if you have a Siri-enabled iOS device.

All of these solutions have a problem: Using the application requires you to find it on your home screen, wait for it to load, and then query your question. Opening the Mobile Safari Web browser requires you to find the browser on your home screen, get to the Web site, wait for it to load, and then query your question. The problem with Siri is that not all devices have it. Whether your device just isn’t capable or you hate all the waiting to use WolframAlpha, a new jailbreak tweak will make using it a lot faster and more efficient.

Dubbed Wolfram Quick Search by iOS developer flux, the free jailbreak tweak allows the user to invoke an Activator action from anywhere – whether you're in an application, on the home screen, or even on the lock screen – to launch a dialog box with a text field where you can send your query directly to WolframAlpha. The query will launch the Safari Web browser with your query all loaded up for you so you can view your results from WolframAlpha. If you have the application installed on your iOS device, the tweak will still launch Mobile Safari instead of the app, which we did find a little odd.

Wolfram Quick Search doesn’t have any options to configure apart from selecting the Activator action that you would like to use to toggle the text field dialog box. It does make it easier to perform a WolframAlpha query since it requires fewer steps from the user. It also integrates nicely into iOS. Those that use Siri will probably be better off sticking with Siri rather than using this tweak since Siri is even easier to use than having to manually type out a query using this tweak.

Being that the tweak is free and helps users reduce amount of steps and time necessary to perform a useful action, we can certainly recommend the tweak. It’s always useful to have access to WolframAlpha.

Name: Wolfram Quick Search
Price: FREE
Version: 1.0-1
Requirements: Activator
Repo: BigBoss
Developer: flux
Editor's Rating:  4/5

Sources: flux

[Mrteacup]

i love how many people hate on siri and its features yet it has all of this. i mean they probably love tweaks like this etc. but they hate siri even though siri implements this.

anyway nice tweak!

[edwilk55]

Please explain to me why this doesn't launch the app when it's installed. That's just re-donkqulous.

[caughtinflux]

Please explain to me why this doesn't launch the app when it's installed. That's just re-donkqulous.

Hi,
iOS uses something called URL Schemes to open apps, with specific functions. As far as I know, the Wolfram Alpha app does not have a URL scheme. So to open a query in it would require some amount of reverse engineering, which isn't feasible, really. Even then, I am looking into this, and I'll see what I can do.
-flux

[confucious]

First time I used it it took me to the web site and told me they have an iPad app (which I have installed!)
I'd prefer it to use the app because of the extended keyboard but for quick look-ups this is a great tweak - and the price is right!

Thanks

[thevmax]

i love how many people hate on siri and its features yet it has all of this. i mean they probably love tweaks like this etc. but they hate siri even though siri implements this.

anyway nice tweak!

That doesn't make SIRI any better or smarter.
SIRI is still like an 8 year old child....