iOs & iOs Apps (inc iPhone, iPad, iPod, iBrick)

Yes, I'm sure by the time iOS 6 comes out they will have completely mastered artificial intelligence. No sweat.

I'm not asking it to answer the most profound and deepest philosophical questions, or to write my dissertation for me, or to tell me what that weird lump on my testicle is (although there's undoubtedly an app for that)

However, it doesn't require Asimov levels of AI to recognise a voice request, then combine GPS information with a yell search of local businesses to find a local bank or petrol station. It can manage it in the US apparently, so why not here?

However, it doesn't require Asimov levels of AI to recognise a voice request, then combine GPS information with a yell search of local businesses to find a local bank or petrol station.

how do you know? If it was that easy, why are they first to make such a fuss about it?

It can manage it in the US apparently, so why not here?

probably lack of local data

I'm not asking it to answer the most profound and deepest philosophical questions, or to write my dissertation for me, or to tell me what that weird lump on my testicle is (although there's undoubtedly an app for that)

However, it doesn't require Asimov levels of AI to recognise a voice request, then combine GPS information with a yell search of local businesses to find a local bank or petrol station. It can manage it in the US apparently, so why not here?

Actually, expert systems for medical diagnosis are one of the great success stories of AI research and have been in real-world use for years now.

Not sure what you mean by "Asimov" levels of AI, but recognising human speech is very difficult. Firstly, recognising individual words is a challenge, then piecing them together and extracting contextual sense is even trickier.

The fact that Siri works best with US accents is hardly surprising given that it was largely coded by US developers. It does improve with use, so give it time.

Incidentally, it took many years of research by a DARPA-led team of coders from 25 universities to get it off the ground then years more in commercial development to polish it.

It's impressive, but it is still 2011 - what do you want, Star Trek?

hover cars

That I know nothing about. But it can't be that hard, surely? They have hoverboats...

and hover hands...

Exactly. That should scale up nicely.

I'm not asking it to answer the most profound and deepest philosophical questions, or to write my dissertation for me, or to tell me what that weird lump on my testicle is (although there's undoubtedly an app for that)

However, it doesn't require Asimov levels of AI to recognise a voice request, then combine GPS information with a yell search of local businesses to find a local bank or petrol station. It can manage it in the US apparently, so why not here?

Because they couldnt find a willing business database partner in the UK. Not really Apple's fault. I'm sure they're working on bringing it to the UK as soon as they possibly can. I think they dropped the ball a little bit on not letting ANYONE know that it wasnt shipping with this feature to the UK though. I find siri a little bit hit and miss, but it has definitely improved even since i got it. You know you can correct what it thinks you said by tapping on its messges?

All my numbers documents are stuck in the cloud. Can't access them from anywhere. looks like others are having the same... hope this gets fixed soon

am currently on 02, but out of contract

what is the best value monthly contract package for the iphone 4s - i probably need a around 200-300 minutes a month

stay out of contract and buy it outright. I did the maths and it'll save you a fair bit

^ that. or tesco? but I don't know how easy it is to get the phones through them.

(basing that on iphone 4 facts mind... no idea if that is the case with the s)

Buy it outright sim-free from Apple, get a free sim from GiffGaff. 300 mins, unlimited text and Internet.

£10 a month.

No contract.......service provided by O2. That's what I'm doing.

O2, 12month contract with 600, 5000 text mins and 32gb version works about £750 for the year which is reasonable.

Visual voicemail, UK call centers.

Buy it outright sim-free from Apple, get a free sim from GiffGaff. 300 mins, unlimited text and Internet.

£10 a month.

No contract.......service provided by O2. That's what I'm doing.

I think it's 250 mins, but a good deal anyway.

NHS discounts worth checking if you work for them and don't mind a 24month contract:

450 Mins, Unlimited UK Landline or Orange to Orange calls, 750MB Data, 250 Texts, VoiceMail, Warranty Cover = £30/month (plus £60 for iPhone 4S 16GB, or £140 for £140 for 32GB 4S ).

Interesting. What would you have to do to find out more about the NHS discount? My missus works for them and is after an iphone :)

Tesco deal is the best one at the moment. 12 month contract too.

can someone ask siri,
how to translate english to mandarin chinese
i haz a PQP bid deadline at 5pm

Google Voice?
Google Translate?

am currently on 02, but out of contract

what is the best value monthly contract package for the iphone 4s - i probably need a around 200-300 minutes a month

http://www.quidco.com/

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Buy it outright sim-free from Apple, get a free sim from GiffGaff. 300 mins, unlimited text and Internet.

£10 a month.

No contract.......service provided by O2. That's what I'm doing.

that include vat? month my month contract you can stop at anytime?
I'm on theo2 simplicity thing at the mo, but giffgaff looks a better deal

http://giffgaff.com/index/offer

Is it rolling or do you have to log in and top up every month?

At the moment you need to log in and add a 'goody bag' to your sim, you can only have one queued up at at the moment but I think they are working on a more automated system.

Free Giffgaff to Giffgaff calls too. Getting my girlfriend on that sim deal as soon as her contract finishes

That £10 deal is a really good price. Once my HTC desire I'll go for that, the Mrs. is after an iPhone so I might get her that deal as well.

I'm probably miles behind with this but I just downloaded the free Flexplayer app. You can add videos directly to the app in iTunes and watch them on your iPhone/iPod/iPad with no file conversion, whole series of sopranos in .avi loaded on to my iPad 2 in about 2 minutes. Brilliant!