When Apple launched the iPhone 4S in October of 2011, one of the most talked about and probably its headline feature was the inclusion of the Siri intelligent assistant software which attempted to make life easier by being able to accomplish tasks given to it through a simple voice command. When invoked by the user, Siri is ready and able to take spoken orders which can range from setting meetings up in the calendar, checking the location of friends and family or even pulling up a weather forecast for most locations in the world.
During the course of the last year, there has been much speculation circulating Apple's future plans to delve into the fiercely competitive connected TV market, implementing features of its current products to create a purportedly new experience, unofficially dubbed "iTV".
Siri was introduced as one of iPhone 4S’ three major features late last year. As many of you will already know, it is a personal assistant living inside your iPhone that lets you do things like sending texts/emails, setting up reminders/appointments, starting timers, getting directions to local restaurants, shopping malls etc. etc. using the power of your voice. Now, while Microsoft is satisfied with its “TellMe” system on Windows Phone 7, Google is reportedly looking into a personal assistant for Android 5.0 Jelly Bean.
I imagined that when Apple first started developing the Siri software to be distributed with the iPhone 4S handset, they would have hoped that the intelligent voice assistant would be taken to the hearts of users and quickly become an integral part of their mobile lives. After all, this isn't just some bonus feature or application which offers a small amount of entertainment before being discarded in the never-to-be-used-again pile. Siri is deeply integrated into the operating system, meaning that going forward; we are likely to see enhanced abilities as well as inclusion on all new devices brining Siri to a much wider audience.
Over the last few years, jailbreak users have become accustomed to developers coming up with new and interesting tweak ideas, and releasing modifications through Cydia which are extremely complex and often contain a large settings bundle with a number of configurable options. In some instances, this is required and can more often than not, provide users with a lot of options, and important they give the illusion of value for money. But sometimes producing something extremely simple can be of equal benefit to users.
The Siri software is undoubtedly one of the main driving forces behind the huge global success of the iPhone 4S and plays a big role in convincing people to swap towards Apple when they are about to choose a new smartphone. Plenty of other voice recognition and assistant type applications exist, but nothing offers the same deep rooted functionality that Siri can provide, coupled together with the fact that the service is offered in a native setting and seamlessly works within iOS.
For anyone who regularly opens up Cydia and refreshes the repositories to see the most recent additions and available updates, it won’t come as a surprise that each day seems to bring a new Siri-based tweak or enhancement. When the iPhone 4S was launched, Siri was one of the driving forces behind said device, making it such a consumer success and helped Apple to announce record first day sales, as well as posting record breaking financials for the final quarter of 2011.
Since being released in a blaze of glory along with iOS 5 back in October of last year, Siri has been a mainstay in the tech headlines. Unfortunately for the majority, Apple’s system-wide voice recognition software was only officially supported on the brand-new iPhone 4S – leaving some iPad, iPod touch and owners of older iPhones feeling a little underhanded.
Jailbreaking is something of a cat and mouse battle between those seeking the exploits to create the utilities, and the creator of the devices - Apple.
The world is going Siri crazy. Well, maybe not the whole world, but it seems that Apple's personal assistant software has caused a storm with the iPhone 4S flying off shelves, television commercials popping up all over the place, the Cydia store being infiltrated by Siri based enhancements and even developers pushing out Siri clones onto other mobile operating systems. In the last few weeks alone we have seen the introduction of the 'Evi' iPhone application, as well as 'Sara' making her way onto the Cydia store.
