Android’s Andy Rubin slaps down Siri

20.10.2011, 10:09

Andy Rubin, the head of Android at Google, has taken a swipe at the Siri personal assistant feature on the new Apple iPhone 4S.

Following the launch of Android 4.0 in Hong Kong, Rubin today said that your smartphone shouldn’t be for talking into, but for communicating with people.

“I don’t believe that your phone should be an assistant,” said Rubin during an interview.

“Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.”

Projecting the future

Rubin did applaud Apple’s foresight in bringing the tech to the market at the right time, but was keen to point out that Siri isn’t a new idea.

“To some degree it is natural for you to talk to your phone. We’ll see how pervasive it gets,” he added.

“This isn’t a new notion. In projecting the future, I think Apple did a good job of figuring out when the technology was ready to be consumer-grade.”

Android Ice Cream Sandwich, like previous versions of the OS, does have excellent voice-to-text functionality and the Google Translate app, which now can be used in 14 languages, is also a godsend for many.

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Siri security flaw uncovered

20.10.2011, 8:23

The default setting for Apple’s new Siri personal assistant app for iPhone 4S allows much of the handset’s functionality to be used even when the phone is locked.

The security worry means that anyone can pick up your iPhone and dictate texts, emails, make calls and have Siri list calendar appointments, while the 4S is passcode locked.

Siri – the little harlot – will also tell anyone details and addresses from your contacts book, but it can’t open apps without unlocking the phone.

Dirty default

It’s easy enough to atone for Siri’s promiscuous behavior though, as you can turn her off in the Passcode Lock settings menu, but many users may not even realise that this is an issue.

Voice Control on previous iPhone models also allowed limited actions with the device in lock mode, but the sheer range of functionality on offer here is quite worrying.

Although it’s easy to switch Siri off with the phone locked, it’s somewhat surprising that Apple chose this as the default mode.

Graham Cluley of security giant Sophos blogged: “What’s disappointing to me though is that Apple had a clear choice here.

“They could have chosen to implement Siri securely, but instead they decided to default to a mode which is more about impressing your buddies than securing your calendar and email system.”

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Apple makes $6.2b profit but disappoints analysts

19.10.2011, 11:53

Apple has announced its financial results for Q3 2011, revealing that it made $6.62 billion of profit in the last quarter, which, despite being up over $2 billion compared to the same period in 2010, didn’t please analysts whose predictions had been higher.

The company’s revenue for the quarter was $28.3 billion, which came as a surprise to those analysts who had predicted $29.6 billion. It marks the first time in over four years that Apple’s results have dipped below analysts’ predictions, a fact which caused the company’s stocks to fall in some regions.

iDog and bone

iPhone sales came in at 17.07 million for the quarter, which sounds pretty good to us, but disappointed analysts who had predicted 20 million sales.

The period ended on 24 September, so the 4 million iPhone 4S sales made last weekend aren’t included but would have tipped the company comfortably into the 20 million plus zone.

The company acknowledged that iPhone sales were down (the drop in demand over the course of the quarter was “substantial”, Apple CEO Tim Cook said), but predicts Q4 to be its “best yet” with Christmas shoppers fuelling the iPhone 4S rush.

“In our wildest dreams, we couldn’t have gotten off to as great a start as we did with the iPhone 4S,” Cooke added.

He also opened the results call by acknowledging the elephant in the room and paying tribute to Steve Jobs: “His spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple, and we are dedicated to continuing the amazing work that he loved so much.”

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iPhone 5 release date set for summer 2012?

18.10.2011, 14:35

The iPhone 4S wasn’t quite what we were expecting from Apple’s autumnal launch event, but word on the information superhighway is that it wasn’t quite what Apple had intended to launch either.

Apparently, the company has a major upgrade in the works – a re-designed handset that fits with the cavalcade of leaks that came out in the weeks before the iPhone 4S launch that didn’t relate the to Siri-toting handset: the fabled iPhone 5.

Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, has claimed that the mysteriously absent iPhone 5 was meant to be the big headliner at the iPhone event, and cites it as, “the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design.”

Cult classic

An anonymous source went on to explain to CNET, “This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited.”

The real iPhone 5 hit delays back in February, if these tipsters are to be believed, and later production delays meant that Apple would have completely missed the Christmas shopping spend-fest if it had held on until the upgraded handset was ready.

So Apple wheeled out the iPhone 4S instead, and will hold the iPhone 5 back until summer 2012.

That, according to these people in the know, is when we’ll see Steve Jobs’ last iPhone, complete with a slimmer, tear-drop designed form factor, with 4G connectivity and a bigger screen.

So will the iPhone 5 launch in summer 2012? We’re not entirely convinced, but we can see it happening.

rumourometer

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Samsung now chasing Japan and Oz iPhone 4S ban

17.10.2011, 11:22

Samsung’s attempts to get the Apple iPhone 4S banned are continuing apace, with the ongoing trademark/patent spat now seeing the Korean giant attempt to get the latest handset off the shelves in Australia and Japan.

Samsung has already attempted to get the iPhone 4S banned in France and Italy and is now looking further afield as Apple continues to pursue its rival in its own lawsuits.

Apple has already succeeded in getting injunctions on sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe and Australia, and the unsightly spat shows no sign of dwindling away.

Wrangling

Samsung and Apple are by no means the only tech giants imbued in legal wrangling, with the majority of the major players defending and/or pursuing actions.

For technophiles the arguments are likely to bring no tangible benefits, but the key players are keen to protect their intellectual property as they look to extend sales.

The real winners, of course, are the lawyers – who will no doubt be able to afford any tablet or phone they choose with the massive fees being earned.

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Siri ported onto iPhone 4

17.10.2011, 7:59

The Siri personal assistant application for the iPhone 4S has been ported onto the iPhone 4, supposedly proving that the older hardware is capable of running the app.

Developer Steven Troughton-Smith installed the Siri and Springboard files from the 4S onto an iPhone 4 and was able to get it working on the previous generation device.

9to5 Mac, which is working with the developer, reports that the app can recognise your spoken commands and speak back to the user. It also works in both standard view and on the keyboard dictation view.

Naturally, Apple is not authenticating commands to its servers when using the iPhone 4, but that’s the only thing preventing the Siri being fully functional on the device.

A4 processor does the trick after all?

Apple has said that Siri is only for the new iPhone 4S with the inference being that the A5 processor is required to handle the app.

The port, which is still being perfected, proved that Siri can run on the iPhone 4 if Apple ever decides to open it up to the older device.

Check out Siri in action on the iPhone 4 in the video below.

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In pictures: Apple iPhone 4S launch

14.10.2011, 11:47

The iPhone 4S went on sale at 8am today, and Apple’s flagship store at Covent Garden in London and its Regent Street branch were the scene of the usual phone-inspired frenzy.

Queuing and Apple launches go hand in hand, but this time we have some stats to add to what otherwise would be a rather thin report, filled with pictures of people waiting patiently in line and, well, not much else.

This year, according to some stats from Protectyourbubble.com, a whopping 778 people queued for an iPhone 4S in Regent Street – and we clocked in around a 1,000 at the Covent Garden store.

iPhone 4s

53 per cent of those queuing for the iPhone 4S in Regent Street were doing so because they forgot to pre-order, while 11 per cent claimed they were die-hard fans.

Interestingly 56 per cent have considered switching to Android but the most popular phone in the queue, other than an Apple one, was a BlackBerry.

iPhone 4s

Out of those lining up, 57 per cent were disappointed that they weren’t going to get their hands on an iPhone 5.

The number crunching also extended to beards and women – with 11 per cent of those in the crowd female and 33 per cent had beards. Er, that’s 33 per cent of those in the crowd, not 33 per cent of the 11 per cent of woman who were in the queue. Obviously.

iPhone 4s

Finally, the most popular model that was up for grabs was the 16GB version of the iPhone 4S.

This is a stat that’s echoed by O2, which told TechRadar that it was also finding that white was outselling black.

O2 also noted that it had sold more iPhone 4S units in the first hour of launch today than it sold iPhone 4 devices in the same period last year.

iPhone 4s

There we go – another year, another queue. And what have we learned from the people in line this time around?

Some of them have beards, they are a forgetful bunch that don’t pre-order, hardly any of them are ladies and quite a few were trading in a BlackBerry for a shiny new iPhone 4S.

If you are still undecided about buying a new iPhone 4, then check out out our Hands on: iPhone 4S review.

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iOS 5 download woes – web traffic reveals reasons

14.10.2011, 8:03

As many an Apple user will know, iOS 5 was released this week and its presence caused such a web surge that many customers were getting failed ‘error 3200′ messages due to the company’s servers being overwhelmed and their own connections being overburdened.

According to PlusNet, the web traffic generated from those downloading iOS 5 was phenomenal – pushing its network to its limits.

On it community blog, the web service said: “At Plusnet we keep an eye on upcoming sport, TV shows and other events which may have an effect on our network.

“Last year Apple released iOS 4 and this had a small effect on our traffic over a few days.

“To help cope with increased demand across our network we added over 2Gbps to our network this week, but this year’s iOS update had a much larger effect than last year’s in just one evening.”

PlusNet puts the iOS5 update on the same pedestal as a big football match and did note that latency was experienced because of the surge, even though PlusNet had labelled downloading iOS 5 as Gold (top priority).

Internet traffic spike

For Apple users, iOS 5 is a massive update to their devices, adding some 200 new features. The software is compatible with the iPhone 4 and 3GS, the iPad, iPad 2 and the iPod touch.

In all, the internet spike was said to last for around four hours and – according to the AAISP – pushed UK web traffic up by a fifth.

With great power, comes great responsibility – so we are betting that internet providers the world over will hope to have a little help from Apple next time its big update lands.

Lucky our reviewer had no problem downloading iOS 5 – as you can see from our Hands on: iOS 5 review.

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iCloud.com goes live ahead of iOS 5 launch

12.10.2011, 13:23

Apple has finally opened up its iCloud.com website ahead of the imminent iOS 5 launch for a variety of Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods.

The new site simply features the option to login with your Apple ID and password, with the message ‘To set up iCloud, go to iOS 5 Settings or OS X Lion System Preferences” meaning those without access to the iOS 5 system won’t be able to do much as yet (so feel free to wave your fist at those lucky Germans).

The new service will allow you to save your videos, photos and calendars in the cloud (well, a massive server farm Apple built in the US) and access them on another device, and will be a big feature of iOS 5.

We’re still eagerly awaiting the launch of the new iOS 5 download from Apple for the iPhone 4 and 3GS, the third and fourth gen iPod touch and both iterations of the iPad, with late evening in the UK the likely time when Apple will press the button to make the update live.

Still need wires

You’ll still need to connect your device to a PC or Mac and fire up iTunes to get the updated software, but once iOS 5 is on your device you’ll be able to get the new updates over the air, in a much more streamlined process.

Apple has already unveiled iTunes 10.5, which brings access to iTunes in the Cloud, which stores all of the music, TV shows and apps you’ve purchased and makes them available to re-download on other Apple devices at no extra cost.

Stay tuned for our imminent iPhone 4S review too if you want to find out the full extent of Apple’s new iOS 5, as that will be the only place to check out the new Siri voice recognition software.

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Some iPhone 4S handsets delivered early

12.10.2011, 11:47

It’s not like the wait for the iPhone 4S since it was announced has been all that long, but we still envy the at least three fortuitous German phone fans whose pre-ordered iPhone 4S handsets were delivered last night.

The proof?

The host of photos that the buyers have posted online, of the handset lounging in its box, screengrabs of voice-controlled assistant app Siri and more.

The iPhone 4S goes on general release on Friday 14 October, but pre-orders have broken records, taking in over 1 million orders in the first 24 hours.

Lucky escape

Lucky for Apple, only a handful of the much-anticipated handset have snuck out early; imagine the mess we’d be left with if a million Apple fans had spontaneously combusted with sheer joy at the early delivery of their new favourite gadget.

These people are all very brave to drop such hefty bundles of cash before TechRadar’s official, in-depth iPhone 4S review goes up but then again, it is an Apple product.

We’ll be bringing your our comprehensive review in just a matter of days.

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