siri

Apple's Siri curses out 12-year-old

These have been trying times for Siri.

Not only has she been having to work overtime answering mundane questions posed by those with nothing better to think or do, she's even been helping Santa get off his large, lazy bottom and do his job.

It is, perhaps, unsurprising that she seems to have finally lost her temper. For, as 12-year-old Charlie Le Quesne picked up a demonstration iPhone 4S in a branch of Tesco in the UK, Siri finally let her frustrations out. (Yes, I know she puts on a man's voice in the U.K., but that'… Read more

Hacker 'chpwn' develops Siri workaround for jailbroken iPhones

Well-known iPhone hacker "chpwn" has developed a new way for users to run Siri on their Apple handsets.

Dubbed Spire, the solution is a simple download to a jailbroken iPhone. Once it boots up, the software downloads Siri from Apple's own servers. After that's done, you're not quite ready to start talking to Apple's virtual personal assistant. According to "chpwn," users must access an iPhone 4S' data and proxy to make Siri think it's running on an iPhone 4S.

Just how will you gain access to that information? "Chpwn" … Read more

Dear NTSB, please don't sterilize Siri and her friends

It's true: I could kill myself using Siri.

I have a car with a built-in hands-free system that I pair with my iPhone 4S while I drive. When I can, I use Siri over the Bluetooth audio speakers. Half the time, "she" doesn't understand me, or she tells me I have to unlock my phone before she'll help me. When Siri works as she should, as a wholly voice-controlled digital assistant that can send and respond to texts, call up maps, and take dictation, she's great. But I admit: interacting with Siri--even over my … Read more

How to use Siri to type on your Mac

Siri is starting to see a lot of different, yet very creative implementations. The latest is an iOS app from Avatron aptly titled Air Dictate.

Air Dictate allows iPhone 4S to use Siri dictation to type for them on their Mac; it's an intriguing use of Siri.

To begin, you will need to buy Air Dictate from the App Store (99 cents). Keep in mind this app requires you to be using an iPhone 4S, the only device currently in the Apple lineup with Siri integration.

After you have installed Air Dictate on your iPhone 4S, head on over … Read more

New app makes Siri dictate for Mac

Typing with your hands is so retro.

Own an iPhone 4S and Mac computer? Check out a new hands-free typing app called Air Dictate.

There are no public APIs for using the Siri voice-activated assistant for dictation, so developer Avatron found a way to control Siri and convert speech into text. The text then transfers to the corresponding Mac (with OS X 10.6.8 or higher) running the Air Dictate Receiver app.… Read more

Rotary phone dials up iPhone's Siri

Remember the days of Betamax, turntables, and Zenith TVs with rabbit ears and big honking dials?

Siri has just taken a little trip back to those simpler times of yore with a quaint little hack that turns the voice assistant into an operator reachable via rotary phone (cue the Jim Croce, those of you who remember hearing a voice say "operator" on the other end of the line).

Computer programmer Davis Remmel ripped apart a $2 Bluetooth headset purchased on eBay, fitting its earpiece into the earpiece section of the old phone and the microphone into the mouthpiece. The headset is enabled by dialing "1" on the rotary encoder.

In the video below, Remmel picks up the 20th century handset, dials "1," and delivers the command "Call John Doe." Siri then says, "Calling John Doe's mobile," and proceeds to call the number on Remmel's iPhone 4S, which is connected to the rotary phone. (For more on Remmel's rewiring job, see this detailed account on his blog.) … Read more

New Apple ad says Siri-reliant Santa is a slob

Has Santa fired the elves?

Were they too short, too ridiculously dressed, too squeaky-voiced?

Whatever the reason, a new Apple ad suggests that the great white-bearded hope has decided to rely on Siri for all of his most pressing needs this Christmas.

In truth, Santa seems to have become a lazy, sluggish capitalist like so many who become serfs to technology. He's always on his iPhone 4S and asking her some of the most basic questions imaginable.

Will it be cold in Cleveland tonight, he wonders. It's always cold in Cleveland. Cleveland exists in order to ensure that … Read more

Siri gains access to entire Best Buy catalog

Because of Apple's partnership with search comparison engine Wolfram Alpha, Siri now has the ability to search the entire Best Buy catalog, a feature added to Wolfram Alpha today.

Best Buy has public APIs that have allowed Wolfram Alpha to leverage the data from more than 35,000 products that Best Buy sells. Because Wolfram Alpha was built on a natural-language interface, as Siri is, the ability to get accurate and informative results using voice recognition is that much more impressive.

Siri, using Wolfram Alpha's access to Best Buy's APIs, has access to pricing information, tech specs, … Read more

iPhone 4 owners can legally get Siri, know-how required

If you own an iPhone 4 and really want Siri on it, a new update has paved the way for you to get your wish.

Apple yesterday launched a new version of its iOS 5.0.1 update that, according to well-known iPhone hacker MuscleNerd, leaves the platform's RAM disks unencrypted. Because of that, those with a little technical know-how can write a script to extract from the software update all the files needed to bring the virtual personal assistant to the iPhone 4.

Apple's update can be automatically downloaded to devices that currently aren't running iOS … Read more