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Siri

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Acheyer (talk | contribs) at 14:16, 10 September 2013 (Added reference to excellent article on Siri's history from Huffington Post; indicated co-founders of original startup.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Siri
Original author(s)SRI International
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Initial releaseOctober 4, 2011; 12 years ago (2011-10-04)
Stable release
17.5.1[1][2] (21F90)[3] (May 20, 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-20)) [±]
Preview release
18.0 beta 4[4] (July 23, 2024; 2 days ago (2024-07-23)) [±]

, 17.6 RC[5] (21G79)[6] (July 23, 2024; 2 days ago (2024-07-23)) [±]

Operating systemiOS 5 and later
PlatformiPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd generation), iPad (4th generation), iPad Mini, iPod Touch (5th generation)
Available inEnglish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Spanish[7]
TypeIntelligent software assistant
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.apple.com/ios/siri/

Siri /ˈsɪri/ is an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator which works as an application for Apple Inc.'s iOS. The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. Apple claims that the software adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results.[8] The name Siri is Norwegian, meaning "beautiful woman who leads you to victory", and comes from the intended name for the original developer's first child.[9]

Siri was originally introduced as an iOS application available in the App Store by Siri, Inc., which was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010.[10] Siri, Inc. had announced that their software would be available for BlackBerry and for phones running Android, but all development efforts for non-Apple platforms were cancelled after the acquisition by Apple.[11]

Siri has been an integral part of iOS since iOS 5[12] and was first supported on the iPhone 4S.[13] Siri was added to the iPad (3rd generation) with the release of iOS 6, and is included on the iPhone 5, iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad (4th generation), and the iPad Mini.[14]

iPhone application

Siri was launched first as an application available on Apple's App Store in the United States. It integrated with services such as OpenTable,[15] Google Maps,[16] MovieTickets and TaxiMagic.[17] Using voice recognition technology from Nuance and their service partners, users could make reservations at specific restaurants, buy movie tickets or get a cab by dictating instructions in natural language to Siri.[18] Siri was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010, and the original application ceased to function on October 15, 2011.[10][19]

iOS integration

File:Iphone 4S showing Siri.jpg
The Siri feature shown on a white iPhone 4S.

On October 4, 2011 (Siri's birthday),[20] Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with their implementation of Siri.[21] The new version of Siri is integrated into iOS, and offers conversational interaction with many applications, including reminders, weather, stocks, messaging, email, calendar, contacts, notes, music, clocks, web browser, Wolfram Alpha, and maps.[8] Currently, Siri supports English (American, Canadian, Australian, British), French, German, Japanese, Italian (Italy, Switzerland), Spanish (Mexico, Spain), Mandarin (China, Taiwan), Korean, and Cantonese. On launch, Siri had limited functionality outside the United States and Canada. However, Apple, with the release of iOS 6, added the missing functionality to other countries.[22][23]

After announcing that Siri is included with the iPhone 4S, Apple removed the existing Siri app (which ran on all iPhone models) from the App Store.[24]

Independent developers claim that they have ported Siri into the other iOS devices.[25][26] However, some news sites suggest that the videos posted by the developers as "proof" only show the user interface of the Siri software, and not the voice commands, implying that developers have not been able to port the application with full functionality.[27] However, new reports from January 2012 suggest that independent developers have succeeded in porting Siri to earlier iPhone models, the iPod Touch, and iPad. i4Siri.com, a United States based team, have demonstrated Siri working as intended on the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad, communicating without the Apple servers.[28]

In later January 2012, independent developers successfully created and distributed a legal port of Siri to older devices via Cydia.[29] The port, however, requires authorization keys from another iPhone 4S, which can be exploited in the form of a proxy server, or by transferring the Siri authorization file from an iPhone 4S.[30] Due to this requirement, developers have bypassed Apple's Siri server completely by creating their own backend using APIs from services such as Google and Wolfram Alpha.[31]

In June 2012, at Apple's WWDC conference, Apple announced that Siri will be available on the iPad (3rd generation) beginning in late 2012 with the release of iOS 6. Also in June 2012, at Apple's WWDC conference, Apple announced updates for Siri coming in iOS 6 (which launched in fall 2012.) These new features include: opening apps, telling sports scores and other sports related information, checking movie times, finding restaurants and also ordering reservations. Siri can also tell the height of sports players in iOS 6. It also brought some previously US only features, such as Google Maps and Yelp integration, international.

On September 12, Apple announced that Siri will also be on the iPhone 5,[32] and the iPod Touch (5th generation).[33]

Siri is also included on the iPad (4th generation)[34] and iPad Mini.[35]

Research and development

Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the DARPA-funded CALO project.[36][37] Siri was co-founded by SRI's Dag Kittlaus (CEO) and Adam Cheyer(VP Engineering) and by Tom Gruber (CTO).[38]

Siri's primary technical areas focus on a Conversational Interface, Personal Context Awareness, and Service Delegation.[39]

Siri's speech recognition engine is provided by Nuance Communications, a speech technology company, although this was not officially acknowledged by either Apple or Nuance until AllThingsD Conference (2013).[40]

The United Kingdom male voice is called "Daniel" and is voiced by Jon Briggs, a former technology journalist. The voice was recorded for Scansoft, which had merged with Nuance Communications in October 2005, although Apple has never confirmed any involvement of Nuance with Siri.[41]

The Australian female voice is called "Karen" and is voiced by Karen Jacobsen, an Australian-born and New York-based entertainer, singer, voiceover artist and songwriter.[42] Jacobsen is also the Australian voice in GPS navigation devices for Garmin, Navman, TomTom and Mio worldwide.[43]

The original Siri application relied upon a number of partners, including:

The sources in Apple's implementation of Siri differ from the original iPhone application. It integrates with default iOS functionality, such as contacts, calendars and text messages. It also supports search from Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia.[7] Siri additionally works with Google Maps and Yelp! search in the United States only.[7]

Siri on older generation devices

Many people have been trying to 'port' Siri onto older generation Apple devices so users of iPads, iPods and older iPhones can install Siri. Most Siri ports were illegal due to copying Siri data, some legal Siri ports such as Spire were available on Cydia which was only available on jailbroken devices.

Siri ports such as Spire would not work without a Siri proxy such as the TTLP Siri Proxy. TTLP required so called 'Siri keys' for it to work. TTLP Siri Proxy was created by Jimmy Kane and Wouter De Schuyter. The project is available open source on their Github.

Wouter De Schuyter had set up a website (paradox-productions.net) that was a demo of the project and a major (free) Siri proxy service. The traffic to the site was reaching hundred of thousands of hits, then traffic to the site dropped "like a stone" when Apple lawyers contacted his hosting provider (Virpus.com) and requested them to shut it down. Wouter complied with this to keep his Virtual Dedicated Server online. After a few months he then decided to sell the domain. Muktadir Miah (IC0NIC) decided to buy the site at a private price. Muktadir then hosted the new Siri proxy in the Netherlands to keep away from Apple's lawyers. Muktadir also decided to have a paid service where there were more Siri keys and better uptime to his premium service.

Muktadir then got an email from his free Siri proxy server that there was an intrusion. He shut it down and never came back online. He still owns the domain but it is parked.

Vehicle integration

In June 2012, former Apple SVP Scott Forstall announced that Apple had been in discussions with automobile manufacturers and companies to get Siri integration as part of a scheme called "Siri Eyes Free" mode to provided eyes and hands-free operation, stating that Siri could be in vehicles in as soon as 11 months.

The day following the announcement of this unprecedented collaboration between Apple and automobile manufacturers, Harman International Industries's stock immediately fell by 15%, given Harman's substantial revenue sources from providing GPS, Navigation, and Telematics systems for vehicles, many in particular manufactured by companies partnering with Apple.

At WWDC 2013, Apple's Eddy Cue announced a new system called "iOS in the Car" aimed at integrating Siri and other iOS functions more fully into native in-car systems, like satellite navigation (Satnav) and music playback.

Reception

Siri was met with a mixed-to-positive reception for its ease of use and practicality, as well as its apparent "personality". However, issues did arise when Siri was used by consumers from areas with distinct accents. Google's executive chairman and former chief, Eric Schmidt, has conceded that Siri could pose a "competitive threat" to the company's core search business.[45]

Writing in The Guardian, journalist Charlie Brooker considered Siri's personality to be unpleasantly servile, but found that the software worked "annoyingly well".[46] Siri was criticized by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and NARAL Pro-Choice America after users found that it would not provide information about the location of birth control or abortion providers, sometimes directing users to pro-life crisis pregnancy centers instead. Apple responded that this was a glitch which would be fixed in the final version.[47] It was suggested[by whom?] that abortion providers could not be found in a Siri search because they did not use "abortion" in their descriptions. Apple responded that this behavior is not intentional and that it would improve as the product moved from beta to final product.[47]

Siri has not been well received by some English speakers with distinctive accents, including Scottish[48] and Americans from Boston or the South.[49][50] Apple's Siri FAQ states that, "as more people use Siri and it's exposed to more variations of a language, its overall recognition of dialects and accents will continue to improve, and Siri will work even better."[7]

Despite many functions still requiring the use of the touchscreen, the National Federation of the Blind describes the iPhone as "the only fully accessible handset that a blind person can buy".[51]

In March 2012, Frank M. Fazio filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of the people who felt misled about the capabilities of Siri and failing to function as depicted in Apple's Siri commercials. Fazio filed the lawsuit in California and claimed that the iPhone 4S is merely a "more expensive iPhone" if Siri fails to function as advertised.[52][53]

In March 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern that Siri was sending a large amount of personal voice and user information to Apple, including the first name and nickname of the phone owner and his or her contacts, the owner's relationship with those contacts, personal labels assigned to email accounts, and the names of songs and playlists stored on the phone.[54]

On October 30, 2012, Google released a new Google Search app for iOS, which featured an enhanced Google Voice Search function and aimed to compete with Siri.[55] Google's Voice Search was compared favorably to Siri, with some reviewers preferring it.[56] The Unofficial Apple Weblog's side-by-side comparison said that Google's Voice Search on iOS is "amazingly quick and relevant, and has more depth [than Siri]".[57]

Supported languages

Language Region iOS version[58]
English United States United States 5.0 onwards
United Kingdom United Kingdom 5.0 onwards
Australia Australia 5.0 onwards
Canada Canada 6.0 onwards
French France France 5.0 onwards
Canada Canada 6.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
German Germany Germany 5.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
Japanese Japan Japan 5.1 onwards
Spanish Spain Spain 6.0 onwards
Mexico Mexico 6.0 onwards
United States United States 6.0 onwards
Italian Italy Italy 6.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
Korean South Korea South Korea 6.0 onwards
Mandarin China China 6.0 onwards
Taiwan Taiwan 6.0 onwards
Cantonese Hong Kong Hong Kong 6.0 onwards

International versions

According to sources from Brazilian site Techguru, Nuance Communications has delivered the final version in Portuguese to Apple. It also announced that the company would be making a deal with the bank Bradesco to provide an application similar to Siri for voice support.[59]

Geographic limitations

In Siri's original release its functionality was limited in most countries, with maps and local search with help only being available within the United States. For example, asking Siri in the United Kingdom to list local businesses, to navigate somewhere, or to give traffic information, elicits the reply "I can only look for businesses, maps and traffic in the United States, and when you're using U.S. English. Sorry about that." Using Siri within the United States with the English voice (Daniel) elicits a similar response — despite the user's geographic location.[60] However as of iOS 6 Siri now has functionality to find local businesses and other location services outside of the United States.

See also

References

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  2. ^ Clover, Juli (May 20, 2024). "Apple Releases iOS 17.5.1 With Fix for Reappearing Photos Bug". MacRumors. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  3. ^ "iOS 17.5.1 (21F90) - Releases - Apple Developer". Apple Developer. Apple Inc. May 20, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
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  6. ^ "iOS & iPadOS 17.6 RC Release Notes". Apple Developer. July 23, 2024. Retrieved July 23, 2024. {{cite web}}: Text "Apple Developer Documentation" ignored (help)
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  8. ^ a b "iPhone 4S — Ask Siri to help you get things done". Apple. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
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  20. ^ Ask Siri "What day is October 4" and she responds with the day in the current year and appends "(Siri's birthday)"
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  60. ^ "iOS 6 - What's New". Apple. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  • Siri – official site

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