Those lucky people who have pre-ordered or queued up for hours to get their hands on an iPhone 4S today may be left feeling a little disappointed when they get around to trying out Siri, the new voice controlled personal assistant software.
When Apple demonstrated Siri at their ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ event last Tuesday, the audience and most of the world were wowed by how well it naturally interacts with the user’s voice. One of our favourite features was the ability to tell Siri to find you restaurants, shops or almost anything else, and then have it draw you up a route with directions using the Maps app.
Unfortunately, this feature will be missing from Siri for UK iPhone 4S owners for the time being.
In the U.S., the search results for places is provided by the Yell service, and as yet Apple haven’t secured a deal with a similar service to do the same in the UK. This means no telling Siri to find you the nearest McDonalds, or directing you to your mate’s house either. We’ve tested adding an address to a contact and telling Siri to take us there, but we get told in a rather stern voice that Siri can only do business and people searches in the U.S.
To be fair to Apple, this was written on the Siri slide during their presentation last Tuesday and is mentioned on Apple’s website when you look up the Siri feature.
We’re hoping Apple will sign a deal with a UK company who can provide this sort of service, as it’s by far one of the handiest uses of Siri.
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