back to article Siri subtly shifts smartphone allegiance

Conspiracy theorists and Apple haters, rejoice! Siri, Cupertino's iPhone 4S voice assistant, is no longer suggesting the Nokia Lumia 900 WinPho handset might be the best cellphone. As we reported earlier, that's the recommendation that Siri has been making of late. Siri checks Wolfram's Alpha database for the information, and …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    one word:

    oh my gosh

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: one word:

      Missed Sesame Street when todays number was 3? I'm sure the various fanbois will have already come to the opinion that you can't possibly have the same phone as them.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Facepalm

    You're kidding, right?

    [jaw drop]

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

    than this? Like whether they'll be in business in another year or two?

    And whining about result rigging - pot meet kettle? How else did Nokia manage to win "Best of year" awards for the Lumia 800 in September (!) last year within days of it launching in the UK, when it was obviously a disappointing product, unless they had "influenced" the judges (eg. advertising spend).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

      Two thumbs down already? Must be from the Nokia marketing execs that brokered the deal I'm talking about, which I've had confirmed on good authority... anonymous, obviously.

      1. Irongut

        Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

        No your thumbs downs would be because this is a story about Apple manipulating the results in Siri but you go off on an unrelated anti-Nokia rant.

        You wouldn't be an Apple marketting shill by any chance? After all you won't tell us your handle.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

          No your thumbs downs would be because this is a story about Apple manipulating the results in Siri but you go off on an unrelated anti-Nokia rant.

          Nokia complaining about Apple manipulating results is rather pathetic when you consider that manipulating results is part of Nokias marketing strategy.

          You wouldn't be an Apple marketting shill by any chance? After all you won't tell us your handle.

          No, no relation to Apple or Nokia.

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

            "Nokia complaining about Apple manipulating results is rather pathetic"

            They aren't... reghardware.com aren't Nokia, clue is in the name.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

              "Nokia complaining about Apple manipulating results is rather pathetic"

              They aren't... reghardware.com aren't Nokia, clue is in the name.

              Oh, Nokia most certainly are complaining.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

                "Oh, Nokia most certainly are complaining"

                Feel free to check your own references...

                "Nokia spokeswoman Tracey Postill told the Sydney Morning Herald: "Apple position Siri as the intelligent system that's there to help, but clearly if they don't like the answer, they override the software."

                However, when contacted by the BBC, Nokia said Ms Postill's comments were "lighthearted" and "taken out of context".

                Clearly Nokia are having a chortle over this whole thing, but again, reghardware.com are the ones complaining here, no mention of Nokia complaining in this article at all.

      2. Peter Storm

        Re: Surely Nokia have more important things to worry about

        I dunno about all that, but our company just bought ten of them for the service engineers to replace their awful Blackberry Shitstorms.

        I always have the job of setting all our company phones up for email etc. I thought it was a nice piece of kit too., and the engineers seem very pleased with them.

        Can't comment on durability or reliability yet, but I'm hoping that'll be Ok as Nokia have a pretty good reputation in that area.

        I don't own one personally btw, so I'm not biased.

  4. aenimiac
    Big Brother

    A guy in the office asked the same question yesterday and got "The one you're holding"

    1. MGman
      Happy

      Keep asking "what is the best phone ever?"

      And so far I've got:

      "The one you're holding"

      "You're kidding right"

      "I think you've already answered that question!"

      "Wait... there are other phones?"

  5. Arctic fox
    Happy

    Ho, ho, ho. Why am I not...................

    .............surprised?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's Siri for ...

    ... if it can't give a straight answer to a straight question?

    If it had said "I don't know" or "Sorry guv, can't tell you, it's more than my job's worth", that would have been more honest.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Try this :

    Siri, what's the best black helicoper on the market ?

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: Try this :

      The one with weapons lock on you, Sir.

  8. RIch 24
    FAIL

    I want the truth!

    You can't handle the truth!

  9. Xpositor

    I'm assuming that the Nokia still comes out as top phone for inmates? What about for the rest of us, that want a mobile phone, rather than a cell phone?

    1. Some Beggar

      When's your next stand-up gig?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At least Siri didn't answer "iPhone 5 ... start saving"

  11. Some Beggar
    Terminator

    Careful, Tony.

    Skynet Siri has a long memory. When the machines take over you'll be first against the wall.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "which is the best smartphone/cell phone?"

    The phone which satisfies the consumer’s considerations and not one which was bought ‘cause me mates got one, or look it does this (some daft app that has no practicle application)

    I hate sheep. BAAAA!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    (since I've got a HTC desire) can someone try :-

    what is the best laptop ?

    what is the best tv set top box ?

    what is the best android phone ?

    is android better than ios ?

    when is the iphone 5 being released ?

    why wasn't steve jobs immortal ?

    (I could go on)

    and report the results back here :-D

    1. Some Beggar

      Re: (since I've got a HTC desire) can someone try :-

      Can't you just type them into wolfram alpha yourself?

  14. Fluffer

    No result

    I just this on my iPad3 but couldn't because Apple haven't finished drip feeding the product with the rest of their useful features... probably until iPad5 or higher.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    This is solid proof

    That AI has come to the iPhone and it even reads the news.

    While you may claim that Apple has changed the database, I know better. Siri's personality must be specific and it has grown into a state where it became tired with being asked the same question over and over again.

    As such it has reached the point where it can take no more...

    "You're kidding right?"... You know what it is; either get one yourself or move on!

  16. h3

    Wolfram Alpha produces more logical results these days than Google (And even shows you why). Google thinks you want something dumb by typing for something else. (Just because of the actions of other people). Genuine typos would be ok but as long as the word makes sense use that.

  17. SMFSubtlety
    Meh

    old response

    I seem to recall that when siri first made it onto the scene a lot of people asked a lot of dumb questions to the phone. What is the best phone being one of them.

    The response is what you are seeing in these articles.

    This was months before this "scandal" arose

    I am guessing that they finally flipped a switch from "joke response" to "actual search", then this news item hit, so they flicked the switch back.

    (honestly not an apple fan, have to use the products and they suck)

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