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Siri is in a sorry state in the US: iPhone 4S owners attempting to chat with the voice-controlled personal assistant are finding it’s not in a talkative mood.
Siri is the voice-activated assistant in the iPhone 4S, which usually greets questions and commands with a helpful web search, a cheery action or a pithy remark. But US users have found Siri unable to connect to the network over the last day or so.
When our colonial cousins drop a word in Siri’s shell-like, the service replies with “Sorry, I am having trouble connecting to the network” or “Uh oh, something’s wrong. Can you try again?” In order to respond to questions, Siri needs to communicate with Apple’s servers.
We tried asking Siri some questions and it seemed to be working fine here in the UK. At least, half-working; Siri can’t look up local information in Britain or indeed anywhere outside the US, which is a pretty major gap in the service.
The iPhone 4S went on sale last month, with Siri the headline new feature. The phone looks identical to its predecessor the iPhone 4, so Siri is practically the only outward sign that you’ve forked out for the new model. If Siri isn’t working, you might wonder why you bothered — especially when there’s a way to get Siri-like voice control for free on older models.
We pitted Siri against its Android equivalent — Vlingo on the Samsung Galaxy S2 — in an Apprentice-style boardroom battle. Check out the video to see whether Siri was hired — or fired.
Have you had any problems with Siri? Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook page.
