Siri by the numbers: interesting stats about Apple’s assistant

by Cody on May 24, 2012

Ever since Apple unveiled Siri at its iPhone 4S media event last fall, the digital assistant has remained in the spotlight. Whether it’s celebrity-laden TV spots or class-action lawsuits, it seems like it’s always making headlines.

But some would argue that Siri is more of a black eye for Apple than an accomplishment. It’s spent the last 9 months in beta, its location services still aren’t available abroad, and its functionality in general is still super limited.

In fact, is anyone even using the feature anymore? Infographic time! Read More

 

Apple airs two new iPhone 4S ads starring John Malkovich

by Cody on May 23, 2012

As noted by a number of other tech sites tonight, Apple has started airing two new iPhone 4S commercials featuring actor John Malkovich. You might recognize Malkovich from such films as Con Air, and Burn After Reading.

The two spots, both of which star the actor, are titled “Joke” and “Life” respectively. And like nearly all of Apple’s iPhone 4S commercials before them, the new ads are all about Siri… Read More

 

IBM bans the use of Siri on its network over data privacy fears

by Cody on May 23, 2012

Have you ever wondered what happens to your conversations with Siri? Obviously your queries are sent over the internet to Apple’s servers for processing, but what then? Does Apple store these conversations? Does anyone have access to them?

These questions seem to be heavy on the mind of IBM’s Jeanette Horan, as the CIO recently told MIT’s Technology Review that her company has banned Siri from their network over fears that the assistant could be logging sensitive information… Read More

 

Nuance launches ‘Siri for cars’

by Christian Zibreg on May 22, 2012

Nuance, which provides world-class voice recognition technology behind Apple’s Siri personal assistant, today announced its entrance into the fast-growing connected cars market.

Their new automotive platform combines Nuance’s Dragon software and natural language understanding technologies to allow drivers to dictate messages, search for content, control music playback, navigation and more.

Was this an iCar solution Steve Jobs was dreaming about in his final days? Read More

 

Discover places abroad with International Locations for Siri

by Cody on May 16, 2012

While iPhone 4S owners in the U.S. enjoy a host of location-based Siri functions, folks outside the country are out of luck. Try going to the UK and asking Siri where the nearest McDonalds is, and you’re sure to get shot down.

But as usual, the jailbreak community has figured out a way to make up for Apple’s shortcomings. A new AssistantExtensions plugin, International Locations for Siri, allows you to perform location-based searches abroad… Read More

 

Nuance exec: Siri set “a new bar”, could get “more personalized”

by Christian Zibreg on May 16, 2012

Digital secretary Siri was, and still is, the headline feature of the iPhone 4S. It owes some of its allure to the vast processing power of Apple’s servers that run a remarkably sophisticated voice recognition software licensed from Nuance, a Burlington, Massachusetts-based provider of arguably the best voice technology money can buy.

According to Nuance’s marketing honcho, you can bet on Siri to improve over time. Upcoming developments in personal assistants will enable new stuff, such as more accurate voice recognition and personalization. So yeah, eventually you’ll be able to ask Siri “Is my favourite movie on tonight?” Read More

 

Apple files motion to dismiss Siri-related lawsuit

by Cody on May 16, 2012

A few months ago, a New York man by the name of Frank M. Fazio filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple over its voice assistant, claiming that the company’s Siri TV ads were misleading of its capabilities. A similar suit popped up a few weeks later.

Apple, obviously, doesn’t agree. And it feels that if a customer isn’t happy with Siri — which is still labeled as Beta, mind you — or the iPhone 4S itself, then he or she is more than welcome to return the handset within 30 days for a refund… Read More

 

Nokia accuses Apple of recalibrating Siri to name iPhone the best phone

by Christian Zibreg on May 15, 2012

You’ve probably seen reports on how Siri was telling the world that Nokia’s Lumia 900 was the best smartphone ever.

She was simply relaying a response provided by the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine which averaged customer reviews across the web.

But Apple has taught Siri better so she now replies with “You’re kidding, right?” or “The one you’re holding in your hand” or somesuch response.

Needles to say, Nokia wasn’t too happy and was quick to accuse Apple of recalibrating Siri, tarnishing her credibility in the process. As if Nokia didn’t have other worries on its mind, mind you… Read More

 

Nokia Lumia 900 no longer the “best smartphone ever”

by Jeff Benjamin on May 14, 2012

It was a silly story to begin with, but it appears that Apple has changed the answer that Siri responds with when you inquire about the “best smartphone ever”.

Previously, Siri referred you to a Wolfram Alpha result where none other than the Nokia Lumia 900 — a direct iPhone 4S competitor — claimed the top spot.

Needless to say, Apple has now put an end to those shenanigans… Read More

 

GhostSiri: a new concept tweak that allows you to use Siri without its interface

by Jeff Benjamin on May 7, 2012

Now here’s something a little different: GhostSiri — a tweak that will allow you to invoke Siri without being subjected to the Siri UI.

It’s currently a concept tweak in the very early stages of development, but I see the potential for something good here.

Take a look at our video walkthrough inside… Read More

 
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