Featured

Siri

Siri Puts the “Ass” Back into Personal Assistant with Her Japanese Record Debut

Siri Puts the “Ass” Back into Personal Assistant with Her Japanese Record Debut

Japanese independent musicians IOSYS (ee-oh-she-su) have a treat in store for us this Christmas.  They created a concept album titled Teach me Shiri Sensei! starring everyone’s favorite virtual assistant who only knows what you’re saying half of the time, Siri.

You might be wondering from the image above why anthropomorphic moé Siri (yes, that’s her) has a severe case of plumber’s crack. It’s not just pervy for the sake of being pervy. In Japanese, there isn’t really a “see/si” sound. Instead, it’s a “she” sound.

First, this can make it very funny when a Japanese person asks “May I take a seat?” Second, this changes the pronunciation of Siri to “Shiri”, which is the Japanese word for “buttocks.”  This word play is a major theme in the album.

Read More

A Year After Launch, iPhone’s Siri Still Packs a Few Surprises, But Remains a Slave to Her Bosses

A Year After Launch, iPhone’s Siri Still Packs a Few Surprises, But Remains a Slave to Her Bosses

While there are still a few kinks to be straightened out, and it’s not quite the life-changing service that Apple have been claiming it to be, the iPhone’s PA program Siri is still capable of making a few users chuckle.

Perhaps just seeing what their new iPhone’s electronic assistant could do can do, or perhaps just immensely bored one day, a Japanese iPhone user told Siri something about herself–

“Tomorrow’s my birthday…”

Read More

Siri Reluctantly Tells Us a Story, We Can’t Tell if She’s Cynical of Full of Herself

Siri Reluctantly Tells Us a Story, We Can’t Tell if She’s Cynical of Full of Herself

The iPhone4S continues to see strong sales since its October launch, and we imagine that means many of you native English speakers are enjoying the company of Apple’s voice-controlled assistant app Siri, likely with better luck than we had.

While the main purpose of Siri is to save time and help organize, she was also programmed to respond to a variety of unique questions with a variety of unique answers.

For example, we recently found that Siri has a few things to say when you present her with the request, “Tell me a story.”

When we first made the request, Siri reservedly insisted that she can’t tell stories, that she’s “not a storyteller.” However, after repeating the request several times she finally caved in and began to recount to us her own, glorified personal history. Read More

Siri Does Not Recognize English, Leads To Loss Of Self-Confidence

Siri Does Not Recognize English, Leads To Loss Of Self-Confidence

The iPhone4S finally arrived in Japan today, and thousands of people lined up outside their local Softbank or AU store, eager to get their hands on the phone when it hit the shelves at 8 am.

The most appealing new function of the iPhone4S for many people is the integrated voice interface, Siri. Apple claims that Siri enables you to easily send messages, check the weather, schedule meetings, and take care of a number of other traditionally text-based tasks just by using your voice.

Though it is currently not compatible with Japanese, the program is still available for use on Japanese iPhones. I made my way to an Apple Store to see if Siri would respond to my heavily-accented English but I had no luck. In fact, my broken attempts to inquire about the weather in English were interpreted so far off that I couldn’t help laughing.

Take a look at my techno-lingual struggle below. Read More