Now your iPhone talks back and humors you

“Alex Johnson, a freelance video producer in Indianapolis, has a self-esteem problem. Well, not really, but his new iPhone thinks he does,” Austin Considine reports for The New York Times. “‘Why do I cry so much?’ he asked it recently in jest. ‘I don’t know,’ it responded. ‘Frankly, I’ve wondered that myself.'”

“The funny (if slightly unsettling) reply was courtesy of Siri, the new virtual personal-assistant application for the recently released Apple iPhone 4S,” Considine reports. “Siri recognizes conversational speech and responds, helping with everything from scheduling a meeting to finding a therapist.”

Considine reports, “In a New York Times Op-Ed article in September, Martin Lindstrom, a consumer advocate and branding consultant, described experiments he conducted in which magnetic resonance imaging found a flurry of brain activity, ‘which is associated with feelings of love and compassion,’ when subjects heard their iPhones ring. Siri is likely to deepen that bond, Mr. Lindstrom said in an interview. Experiments show that each sensory experience added to any interaction deepens the potential for emotional bonding. ‘We as human beings are incredibly good at trying to find human dimensions in anything in order to create a bond with it,’ he said. People, he said, ‘try to find human relationships in every pattern that we see.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Siri gets smarter with each passing day. We warn you: Once you get Siri, you can’t live with out her and every other so-called “smartphone” just seems stupid.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

28 Comments

    1. You realise that every question you ask is being recorded on some data farm owned by an evil corporation, and that a dossier of who and what you are like is being built up. One day it will come back and bite you.

  1. A friend recently bought an Android phone, but after seeing Siri in action he can’t get an iPhone 4S fast enough. That sold it for him. He never liked the Droid anyway so it wasn’t a hard decision, but he loves the attitude Siri gives.

  2. Endearing behavior and growing affection for Siri will soon slay the Google Beast. Siri will become a portable pal for a lot of people as she gets smarter, sort of like a “pal in your pocket.”

  3. Stop calling Android stupid. Android had Siri features for talking to your phone a whole year before Apple did.

    Sheesh!

    Everyone knows Apple just ripped all the best Android ideas off including verbal commands.

    Android has what every one wants including bigger screens and vivd OLED displays instead of that dinky dull LCD crap.

    1. You think Google’s Voice will have the same features as Siri? Ask Andy Rubin why he bitched on Siri and you will understand why Google is quaking in its boots hoping that its one-trick pony ads business will be safe for long. Google needs you to click on ads but Siri (and Google’s whatsoever if it decides to plagarize Siri) doesn’t. Further Siri is creating an emotional bond with users while Google’s Voice is mechanically robotic and terribly cold in attitude.

      1. This is what I’m wondering. To what extent are Google or others capable of such plagiary? How unique is the Siri technology? How secure is Apple’s advantage this time?

    2. Actually, no.

      iOS had Voice Control with the release of iOS version 3 on the iPhone 3GS in June 2009. It wasn’t until the release of Android ver. 2.2 (Froyo) almost a year LATER that Android provided its Voice Actions feature.

  4. My son asked Siri “How long until Thanksgiving?” Siri gave him the date and then said “I hope I get the day off”. She can have it off, but I hope she doesn’t ask for a holiday bonus.

  5. Please MDN, Siri is male in the UK(don’t know why…anybody?).
    Today, Siri really, and I mean …really, cracked me up when I swore at a message invitation. I said ‘fsck him’. Siri responded “is that no?”
    :#)

      1. I’ll be stunned if that isn’t coming, when Siri emerges from beta. Who knows, we might get more than two choices. Mac OS has long come with a choice of voices for speech feedback.

        ——RM

  6. So when will Apple offer various personalities, voices to choose from? A German general, a sultry mistress, a comedian… a shoddy teenager…. The possibilities…

    Common Apple, when?

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