RUMOR: APPLE TESTING WEARABLE iPOD WITH SIRI INTEGRATION

Apple may be secretly developing wearable iPods that offer full support for voice commands using the company’s Siri software. Details surrounding the supposed project were revealed by The New York Times on Monday. Apple is reportedly working on a “curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist,” which sounds similar to a watch-like device that could replace the iPod nano and shuffle in gyms around the world. Presuming Siri support would be the same as it is on the iPhone 4S, users could command the device to play a specific song, check the weather or more. We’re even imagining deeper Siri integration where a user might be able to ask their iPod how far they have run or what their current heart rate is.

SIRI PORTING TO iPHONE 4 NOW LEGAL WITH iOS 5.0.1 UPDATE

IPhone 4 owners looking to take advantage of Apple’s Siri software from the iPhone 4S now have one less barrier standing in their way. Sure, plenty of tricks have been available in the past that allow users to hack Siri onto an iPhone 4, but until now they were illegal. Apple’s recent iOS 5.0.1 update, however, has a decrypted ramdisk, which means users can legally port files to the iPhone 4 that were previously encrypted and protected by Apple’s public distribution policies. Apple may re-encrypt the files in iOS 5.1, which is expected to launch in the near future, so move quick if you want to take advantage of this loophole.

HACKERS GET SIRI WORKING ON ANY DEVICE

A group of developers from Applidium posted a story recently that explains how the group was able to crack Siri so that they could run the virtual assistant on any device. Basically, the group was able to get Siri to analyze voice inputs that were never spoken through an iPhone. It turns out Siri uses TCP to speak to a server at 17.174.4.4 using port 443. Applidium then logged on to a desktop computer, entered in that IP address, and realized that Apple was returning a server named “guzzoni.apple.com” and that Siri was using HTTPS as its protocol. Putting it simply, the group then created a fake guzzoni.apple.com address and tricked Siri into sending commands there instead of to Apple’s own server. Applidium discovered that Siri sends Apple a time stamp for each word spoken, as well as a reply confidence score, and described the software as “very, very chatty.” It is possible to get the software working on an Android device, or any similar gadget, but you’ll need at least one iPhone 4S identifier and some coding know-how. The hackers published a set of tools that it says can be used by anyone to create Siri-enabled applications and is encouraging fellow hackers to try the tools out and see what they can develop. “And let’s see how long it’ll take Apple to change their security scheme,” the group jested.

APPLE'S SIRI SUFFERS OUTAGE

Yesterday, Apple’s new virtual personal assistant Siri is currently suffering from a major outage, the first extended outage since the service launched on October 14th. Requests made to Siri were met with a period of silence followed by ominous responses such as “Sorry, I am having trouble connecting to the network,” or “Uh oh, something’s wrong. Can you try again?” Reports of the outage began hitting the Web early Thursday afternoon and as of 6:30 p.m. EDT, Siri had not yet recovered, although it appears the problem had been fixed by Friday morning. Some claim that a reboot resolves the issue but most still appear to be unable to use the service.

Unique to Apple’s iPhone 4S, Siri is an intelligent digital assistant that answers questions and performs tasks at the user’s request. Believed by some to be a driving force behind the success of the iPhone 4S, Siri allows users to speak conversationally and it performs functions not currently supported by voice control features on competing platforms.

iPHONE 4S SHIPS WITH SIRI RELATED SECURITY THREAT

The popular virtual assistant feature on the iPhone 4S that allows users to schedule appointments, search the web, check the weather and more, may be a security threat to users who want to keep private information away from prying eyes — and ears. CNET discovered that Siri’s default security setting allows users to access the iPhone 4S feature even when the phone is locked. That means if you leave your iPhone in a cab, for example, a thief could easily access your address book, appointments and other personal information. Thankfully, there is an easy way to turn the setting off. Simply visit Settings and click General, then click Passcode Lock and toggle the option for “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” to Off. The iPhone 4S will now require the the phone to be unlocked before it allows access to Siri.

iPHONE 4S SIRI HAS PLENTY TO SAY

With the launch of the iPhone 4S and its personal assistant Siri people have been asking a lot of weird things of her. ThisIsMyNext has compiled a list of questions and answers from Siri. From "Open the pod bay doors", to whic Siri responds "I'm sorry Joshua, I'm afraid I can't do that" to a user asking "What is the meaning of life", Siri answers "42" of course. Hit the link above or here to see the rest.

APPLE iOS EVENT ROUNDUP

Apple held a hotly anticipated event today for their new version of iOS and device lineup. Unfortunately, the highly expected and rumored iPhone 5 was not announced.

To start our roundup of the event off we have iOS itself. Apple’s iOS 5 will be released on October 12th for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2 and the last two iPod touch generations. We’re expecting the Gold Master to be released for developers later today. Apple’s free iOS 5 software update brings over 200 new features to the platform including some big ones like redone notifications, iMessage, built-in Twitter integration, Newsstand and more.

Tim Cook then announced the "new" iPhone would be the 4S. This was expected to be the lower end iPhone with the iPhone 5 being the high end model. It turns out the iPhone 4S will be the only new model. The 4S has the same look as the existing model, however the internals have been vastly improved. To start with the chip has been upgraded to the A5, which is the same as the current iPad. Apple has also redesigned the antenna system which will "“intelligently switch between two antennas” giving users better call quality. A new 8 megapixel camera and the ability to shoot 1080p HD video are also new. Apple has including the ability to use AirPlay Mirroring right on the iPhone 4S in addition to the iPad 2, which already supports this feature.

The iPhone 4S will have a new voice feature named "Siri". The feature enables you to interact with your device much as you would with a human assistant; you can speak to your phone naturally and it will perform as a personal assistant. Apple demonstrated different voice tasks during its press conference on Tuesday, such as asking what the weather is like today, or do I need a raincoat today? More voice tasks? Wake me up at 6AM tomorrow and Siri will set your phone alarm. What’s the time in Paris? How’s the stock market doing today? Find me an italian restaurant in New York? Give me directions to a location? Siri will even read your text and email messages to you.

Additional announcements included the iPod Touch will now be available in white and the iPod nano gets a new multi-touch screen, with pricing at $129 for the nano.

iOS 5 TO GET IMPROVED VOICE COMMANDS

Citing a source claimed to be reliable, tech blogger Robert Scoble says enhanced voice commands will be included in iOS 5 when it launches this fall. Apple acquired Siri last year, presumably with the intention of enhancing the lackluster voice command support found in iOS. It has been rumored for quite some time that Apple would be making enhanced voice commands a major part of iOS 5, but Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote came and went with no mention of voice commands.

Scoble claims that his source — one who spoke accurately of the deep Twitter integration Apple showed off on Monday weeks ahead of WWDC — said Apple’s voice command integration wasn’t ready to show off at the show. The feature will be a part of iOS 5, however, and will perhaps be unveiled this fall when Apple is expected to announce its next-generation iPhone.