Developed in conjunction with Nuance and based on that company’s Dragon voice recognition engine, the Dragon Assistant app lets users search the internet, play music (including specific artists and albums as well as playlists and genres), update their social network status and check and reply to email.

Demonstrating a beta of Dragon Assistant overnight at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel executive vice president Dadi Perlmutter said the app was part of Intel’s work in “redefining the computing experience”.

The app won’t be available to the general public, however – the only way to get it will be to buy a new ultrabook built on the 4th-generation Core platform.

“Dragon Assistant will be sold by Intel to (ultrabook manufacturers), it won’t be sold to the public,” Kirk Skaugen, Intel’s general manager for PC Clients, told TechLife.

It’s also unlikely to debut on lower-priced ultrabooks. “Our premium ultrabook reference design will include Dragon Assistant,” Skaugen said.

“Doing high-quality voice is a very complicated design issue, it’s almost an art,” explains Karen Regis, Intel’s Director of Consumer Client Marketing. “For example, you have to make sure the microphones are placed in certain locations away from components that may generate noise.”

Regis told TechLife that Dragon Assist would ship with support for “nine different languages and we’re looking to add at least two more next year”, although it wasn’t known if the uniquely Australian version of English would make the first cut.

David Flynn is attending the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco as a guest of Intel.