Erm..
If you bothered to read RTFA a not just the video you'd see you can't actually run it because
1) someone needs to distribute Apple proprietary (and certainly copyrighted) files
2) You need a validation key from a live 4S
Apple withheld Siri from iPhone 4 as a straightforward ploy to get people to fork out another £499 for its new iPhone. But there's no reason Siri can't run on the 4 – and you can get it on there by jail-breaking your phone. Siri ran perfectly well as an app on 3GS too before Apple yanked it from the iTunes store when it bought …
Well, I've bothered to RTFA
1) you can obtain that from a jailbroken 4S
2) you can obtain that from a jailbroken 4S
Right now the guy who figured it out isn't going to distribute the files, but I suspect has detailed the process for others to try. Either "borrowing" a 4S, or waiting for someone to inevitably distribute the files doesn't seem too hard.
Siri is unfortunately rubbish. It can't understand most of the time, is impossible to cancel once it's decided you said something you didn't say and is about to text random jibberish to your mother, and often just sits there sulking after it misunderstood you. Requiring you to press buttons, that you were supposed to be avoiding by using Siri.
Maybe it's just the way I talk but I haven't even been able to get anywhere near what Tim Cook demoed at the release.
My Nexus One (with built in voice recognition as input) occasionally makes just one mistake, but often makes far more when I try to dictate a text message. I find voice recognition surprisingly crap at the moment. I'd love to see it working, I really would, but honestly I think we need some sort of breakthrough tech as currently, it really doesn't cut the mustard, and slapping an apple logo onto that doesn't seem to distort reality enough to make it work either.
They bring out a 'must have' update that is hyped up so much that when you finally get it, it leaves you disappointed. All phone manufacturers are guilty of it. They stick tech into a phone which has no practical use, takes up memory and slows the thing down just so they can say 'ooooooh look what we've got!'
Remember how easy it was to make a phone call, now instead someone will send a text, taking twice as long to send as it would be to call, and its spelt so badly you have to phone back to ask what its all about.
Let's get back to phones that can actually make a call. Sod the tech.
and what about finding your phone? In the old days (bless them) your phone was handily attached to the wall in the hallway so you always know where it was.
I'm touting a product to apple at the moment, the ITether(tm). It attaches to the wall at the bottom of the stairs and the other end permanently attaches to the bottom of your IPhone, allowing you to combine the surety of the past with the poor reception of the future.
I'd like to see apple take to the cleaners for their dodgy actions regarding Siri. As the article says, it wad available from the app store for iPhone 4 and 3gs and got pulled to force an upgrade to iPhone 4s for access to that feature. Apple have somehow avoided all legal issues that other companies must go through...if Microsoft tried to pull some stunt like that, the EU would take them to court and review.
if you really want Siri functionality on your 3Gs or iPhone 4 then download Vlingo for free:
Looking for Siri-like functionality on your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4? Look no further. Vlingo even goes beyond the new Siri Assistant by integrating with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Plus all functionality, including sms and email, is now completely free.
It's even available on OVI Store (remember that) and the android market place, Blackberry support as well!
No, I don't work for Vlingo, I don't use Vlingo but to have people moaning that they can't have Siri (functionality) on their phone without upgrading to the new iPhone 4s really does my head in!
(just pondering)
It could have come from either fanbois.
1) iFan - how can you even dare to claim that something is siri-like!! It's either siri or bust. You should go buy a real iphone 4S for the real Siri experience, el cheapo!!! And "Vilingo" ?? It already sounds shitty to me as it's not spelt s-i-r-i !!!!
2) fandroid - how can you presume that something as frivolous and as useless as siri, is something that would interest me or anyone else (since it, as you must've noticed, doesn't interest me) ???? (Er.. wait... you didn't say it was available in the android marketplace.).
Earlier I used to try and understand why I got downvoted but after fanboi wars broke out, it doesn't make any sense anymore. As someone else noted that maybe el reg has attracted some /. rejects who think they are fixing "karma".
Apple paid some money to acquire the rights to a product. As part of that the previous owners agreed to surrender their right to sell it. Apple then decided to charge the consumer for the product.
Google have pretty much killed any realistic prospect for competition law challenges to Apple, just as Microsoft did in the PC realm — the actionable offence is abuse of a monopoly position, i.e. taking advantage of your standing so as to manipulate the market. It's a protection for consumers, not for other companies. Because Google have a much larger share of the relevant market (I think it was 50% versus 21% worldwide during September), Apple's actions aren't sufficiently damaging for the market as a whole.
Personally I find it really difficult to be upset either way given that the product is rubbish. I think of it like one of those Ask Jeeves-style question-based search engines. In the 80s the idea may have sounded really attractive but the simple fact is that we're more efficient at just using a keyboard and typing our search terms in a Google-friendly way than at formulating a proper question, especially when keeping the sentence structure suitably simple and trying to focus on annunciation.
OK I am being a pedant here but "Apple withheld Siri from iPhone 4" should read "Apple withheld Siri from the iPhone 4". A phone is a discrete item, not a continuous one. In the same way that "a sheet a paper", is different to "paper". I love Apple, but it really gets on my wick how they are trying to change the basics of English to suit them and it seems to be working.
SIRIously... speak like a machine, or speak in Siri's intonation. Does that work? I've spoken to computer banks and whatnots on the other ends of landlines ages ago, and began to have fun speaking like a MACHINE *to* a machine. It seemed to understand better, made fewer mistakes, and resulted in a smoother process.
Of course, it'll be funny to see a busload of people looking serious but speaking SIRIous... They might as well stand back-to-back in threes like a 1980s triumverate of V's, hhehehehe
Yep, speaking like that dolphin Darwin in SeaQuest... If enough people do it, though, there'll probably be mass INquest around the globe.. Just chortle out "DHAARRHWIN HHHORNY" and see whether or not Siri produces 25 massage parlors, categorized by Operating, raided, unknown, re-spawned, legit, infiltrated by undercovers, etc...
This would take some seriously sirious bridge-to-bridge communications.
Siri..umm, seriously, it'll be interesting to see these things spawn into translators with voices. But, not as dodgey as babelfish and google. Those are funny as hell to, for instance, convert Korean to Chinese, then that Chinese to Japanese, and that Japanese result to English. Talk about getting things lost in translation.
"Speak like SIRI? #
SIRIously... speak like a machine, or speak in Siri's intonation. Does that work? I've spoken to computer banks and whatnots on the other ends of landlines ages ago, and began to have fun speaking like a MACHINE *to* a machine. It seemed to understand better, made fewer mistakes, and resulted in a smoother process.
Of course, it'll be funny to see a busload of people looking serious but speaking SIRIous... They might as well stand back-to-back in threes like a 1980s triumverate of V's, hhehehehe"
Whupps... I meant 1980's triumverate of War of the World aliens..., not V...
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_%28TV_series%29
(Now, as long as the "passengers" are not really from Mor-Tax, and in the process of hijacking hosts on the bus...)