“Apple users are all familiar with Siri, the company’s voice-activated personal assistant that helps out with everything from speed dialling, scheduling meetings and searching for directions,” Hannah Jane Parkinson reports for The Guardian. “Users of iOS have had the privilege of Siri’s help since its introduction as part of iOS 5 for the iPhone 4S in 2011, and the function was also added to the third-generation iPads a year later.”
“There are both male and female variations of Siri, and different versions the world over – but who are the real people behind the voices?” Parkinson reports. “We tracked three Siris down. Jon Briggs, who is also the voice of The Weakest Link, was the first British male voice for Siri. Susan Bennett is familiar as the American female Siri – as well as the the voice of Delta Airlines. And Karen Jacobsen is famous in Australia as the ‘GPS girl’ – but her son still finds it strange to talk to a version of her that is trapped in a phone.”
Parkinson reports, “We find out what it’s like to be in the pockets of millions – and what it’s like to answer the world’s questions.”
Parkinson: Has there been any contact with Apple?
Karen: In my best Siri voice: “I’m sorry, I am not authorised to answer that question.”
The most fun part is seeing my son ask Siri questions, especially when it is my voice answering. When he was younger he seemed frustrated that “mommy in the phone” would not answer him as if she knew him. — Karen Jacobsen, Australian female voice of Apple’s Siri
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
It’s time to cut to the chase. We demand a Mr T Siri:
“Siri, can you tell me what time my flight is due in?”
“I don’t like planes sucker! Ask me another question fool!”
I want an angry German or Korean accented Siri, especially for GPS navigation.
It would be nice to have custom navigation announcements.
Don’t think I could do the German or Korean because it would scare the hell out of me like it does in real life. But if we’re talking about a pissed off Irishman!? That’s completely different because I would be laughing my ass off trying to figure out what they hell they were saying and not feel threatened.
I think Angry (insert language) would be lma worthy. But recently we saw an Ed Helms film with an Angry Korean nave system. Wife and I were splitting our sides.
“but her son still finds it strange to talk to a version of her that is trapped in a phone”
Michael – Siri, can I . . .
Siri – Michael, it think it’s time to turn off Minecraft and clean your room!
I, for one, want a version of Siri in a gangsta rap voice. I deeply miss the passing of my favorite website, gizoogle.com, something that inspired my serious demented idea.
If you’re not familiar with gizoogle.com, some sick genius in the Silicon Valley used the Google translation API to create a lexicon of gangsta rap phrases inspired by Snoop Dog. All you had to do was to enter a URL into gizoogle.com, and it would translate say, a nice corporate bio of Steve Ballmer from American MBA corporate-speak into a reckless, NSFW translated text all in misogynistcally profane gangsta rap.
Totally epic. And sickly hilarious.
OK, this totally shattered my erotic geek fantasy.