It should be common news by now that Apple has taken the decision to have an executive shake-up in Cupertino, with a number of notable faces set to leave the company in 2013. One of the most well-known casualties of the internal restructure is Scott Forstall who has held the role of Senior Vice President of iOS over the last few years. Forstall has been in charge of developing and handling the direction of iOS and has reportedly been shown the door due to his inability to play nice with other executives, as well as the publicly perceived shortcomings in the new Apple mapping system and the Siri digital assistant.
Apple's Siri may never shrug off that 'beta' moniker, but what it does mean is that the company can continue to add features to the voice-powered digital assistant, seemingly on the fly.
Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS is clearly struggling to maintain relevance in the current consumer market, but with all three of the major mobile operating systems having taken steps to implement some description of voice-recognition functionality, it appears BlackBerry will also be joining the party, too.
As well as acquainting herself with many an iPhone 4S user over the past nine months, Siri has yielded much additional airtime as the stare of many a parody video. Whether it's been in solving a domestic argument or testing the sensibilities of a rather irate Scotsman, Siri has starred in all manner of viral clips.
The evidence that Siri was overhyped considerably in order to persuade consumers to purchase a largely unchanged device continues to...
It has taken a day or two, but now videos are beginning to crop up comparing Apple's Siri on the iPhone 4S to Google's new voice options in the just announced Android 4.1, Jelly Bean.
When Siri was launched back in October along with iOS 5, many iDevice users - myself included - were a tad bemused that Apple had decided to make its exciting new voice assistant a feature exclusive to the then brand-new iPhone 4S. The Cupertino claims of older devices being unable to facilitate the eloquent (albeit often mishearing) voice-activated sidekick were questioned by many, but with the iPhone 4S frenzy having died down, we all expected March to bring a new iPad inclusive of Siri.
Taking a seat at the All Things Digital conference, Tim Cook touched on a number of topics without revealing anything too delicious - including questions about an Apple TV, his role at the company now during the post-Jobs era, and Facebook, among some other things - but he also revealed a little tidbit about the beloved iPhone 4S. It's true; as some may have guessed, the 'S' in 4S definitely stands for Siri. On top of confirming this, he also did take the time to acknowledge that, in its current state at least, Siri does still have its bugs. When it works, it's an excellent product, but it often doesn't.
The build-up to WWDC always sees a plethora of rumors and conjecture, and the 2012 event is no different. As it is often the case, a new version of iOS is very much the hotly anticipated product this year, what may or may not find its way into the first beta being disputed across the internet.
In what can only be described as a highly comical turn of events, Apple's much lauded Siri has offered Nokia something of a shot in the arm by decreeing its latest Windows Phone 7 smartphone to be the best available.
