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Original Siri service is dead, long live Apple Siri

by Mike Schramm Oct 4th 2011 at 4:00PM

If you scoffed at the news that Apple's Siri would only be available on the iPhone 4S, thinking that you could just use the standard Siri app that was still available on the App Store, then scoff no more. The freely available Siri app has been removed from the App Store completely, and as TechCrunch reports, the whole service is being taken down in advance of the official debut of the app as part of iOS 5. TUAW reader Luc reports that the current app now gives a note as it starts up that the app will be "leaving for home" on October 15th, so you have until then to enjoy the app as is if you happen to still have it installed. Presumably at that point, the old service will end, and you'll have to buy an iPhone 4S if you want access to the new service.

This basically makes sense: Apple's trying to sell devices, and it wouldn't really work to have a version of the service out there running around for free, even if that service isn't as integrated. Apple's done the same thing with other companies they've picked up and made official, including CoverFlow back in the day.

Unfortunately, if you're currently a big Siri user, then you'll have to upgrade your handset to keep using the service as is -- there is no built-in plan to let you keep using the current app.



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If you scoffed at the news that Apple's Siri would only be available on the iPhone 4S, thinking that you could just use the standard...
 

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puffdc

Dragon GO is a good alternative.

October 05 2011 at 12:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
O4U2BME

You should just use Dragon Go! by Nuance... BTW, Nuance powers Siri and is way better than the old Siri app.

October 05 2011 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephan+

I can't wait for them to bring this to Mac OS

October 05 2011 at 8:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
littlejanem

So, would Apple let other companies do this with their app?

October 05 2011 at 8:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Markus

As I understood it, the main difference between the (now removed) Siri app and the Siri feature of the iPhone 4S is that while the former did all the speech recognition and AI on some server, the iPhone 4S now does all this processing itself. If true, this could mean that there's an actual requirement for the A5 chip to get an acceptable response time. It also means that speech recognition could be better and faster in the iPhone 4 since it would have direct access to the relevant contexts, such as your address book and your music collection, without having to upload at least meta information about it. (Then again, it may already have been backed up on iCloud.)

October 05 2011 at 7:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LauraM

I've tried Vlingo, but it's not as good as Siri. Seems like this is a bad thing for a lot of iPhone users but a good opportunity for app developers.

October 04 2011 at 6:07 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
thefreehuey

Hackers, Jailbreakers, coders, get to work. I want this on my iphone 4!

October 04 2011 at 5:55 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
James O'Hagan

Wow Apple. Way to screw over those with assistive technology needs who have been trained to use this app. Change is hard for some. Even harder for those with processing issues already.

October 04 2011 at 5:29 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
L. Brent Huston

Say it with me: Vlingo. Now free in the app store. Grab it and go.

October 04 2011 at 5:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to L. Brent Huston's comment
O4U2BME

You should just use Dragon Go! by Nuance... BTW, Nuance powers Siri and is way better than the old Siri app. And it's FREE!!

October 05 2011 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
cbrg148

So if it's a part of iOS 5, then we just have to upgrade to get that functionality. Since iOS 5 will work on an iPhone 4, then I have lost no functionality. I'll upgrade to iOS 5 and have the new and improved Siri back. Yaaay!

October 04 2011 at 5:01 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to cbrg148's comment
Brandon Rotkel

"Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S and requires Internet access."

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html

October 04 2011 at 5:22 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
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