SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Siri may be feeling a little job insecurity. The sometimes-droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple’s iPhone and iPad is facing competition from an up-and-coming rival made by Google. The duel began Monday April 30 with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri. It’s the first time that Google Now has been available on smartphones and tablet computers that aren’t running on the latest version of Google’s Android software. The technology, which debuted nine months ago, is being included in an upgrade to Google’s search application for iOS, the Apple Inc. software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It’s up to a user to decide to activate Google Now within the redesigned Google Search app, which is available through Apple’s app store.