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.
Samsung's announcement of the Galaxy S III today has come after weeks, nay, months of speculation about what the hardware will look like from top to bottom. What size screen will it use, how big will the body be, and what cameras will it pack? Now all those questions have been answered, we are left with something possibly even more interesting than all of that - the software.
One of the great things about the Apple's iOS mobile operating system is the native ability to be able to set certain restrictions on the device that prevent users from performing certain tasks. The restrictions options, which are accessible through the General menu of the Settings app on the device, are similar to parental controls that allows the owner of the device to restrict certain actions from being performed on the device, such as launching the App Store, Camera or Safari.
All those iPhone 4S and Siri fans who can't put the intelligent assistant down due to their love of her dulcet tones will be more than happy to find out that you can give your Mac Siri’s voice, yes, make your Mac sound just like Siri! When Apple launched OS X Lion; they introduced a large array of new features, with one of the main ones being the inclusion of Nuance powered speech technology.
While question marks still remain regarding Siri's ability to properly recognize spoken word, judging by the amount of parody videos going viral, Apple's voice assistant software certainly has a pretty enviable career to fall back on in the entertainment industry.
When Siri was added to the iPhone 4S late last year, some would argue that the face of interactive computing technology was changed forever. Some would argue that Apple unleashed a gimmick that nobody in their right minds would use past the initial week of the novelty factor.
Sometimes we need to take a little step back from reality, take a look at the world through the eyes of a child and apply a little humor to our lives. It seems like a very rare occurrence that people actually stop and take the time to have a little fun these days, which is why the guys over at Scoopertino have taken the time to produce some light hearted entertainment for us by turning Apple's Siri assistant into a musical genius, belting out some all time classics.
