Siri co-founder Kittlaus leaves Apple

According to a report from AllThingsD, Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus has left Apple to pursue his own interests. The departure was supposedly amicable and Kittlaus will use his newly-found free time to spend time with his family in Chicago and explore new entrepreneurial ideas. He reportedly left Apple right after the launch of the iPhone 4S and the debut of new and improved Siri speech recognition assistant.

His departure won't affect the future development of Siri as other members of the Siri executive team are expected to stay at Apple. Once a stand-alone iOS application, Siri was acquired by Apple in early 2010. The voice assistant is now integrated into the version of iOS 5 that ships on the iPhone 4S. It offers a conversational voice interface that lets you send and receive text messages, search the web, add reminders and appointments, navigate using Apple Maps, get the weather forecast and more.