by Nestor E. Arellano
Access to the voice command and response app Siri is one of the few things that differentiate Apple’s iPhone 4S from its older sibling the iPhone 4.
Hacker Steve Troughton-Smith, credited a couple of years ago for uncovering iPhone’s Web tethering capabilities, claims to have found a way to port a basic versions of Siri to his iPhone 4.
Apple purchased mobile assistant app maker Siri in 2010 and recently made Siri integration an exclusive feature of the iPhone 4S.
A video posted by Troughton-Smith on YouTube appears to a jailbroken iPhone 4 running the Siri interface.
The video looks promising but it does raise some questions.
While the video clearly shows Siri being activated on the iPhone 4, there is no indication from the clip whether or not the app’s voice commands are functioning.
In the video, when the Siri microphone button was tapped, the phone responded with a double beep as it does on the iPhone 4S. However, no voice commands were given to the app to illustrate that it was working properly on the iPhone 4.
Voice processing on Siri occurs on Apple’s servers. Has Troughton-Smith found a way to fool Apple into recognizing his iPhone 4 as an iPhone 4S?
Lastly, if Troughton-Smith did find a way to port Siri on the iPhone 4, how will Apple’s react?
Nestor Arellano is a Senior Writer at ITBusiness.ca. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, read his blogs on ITBusiness.ca Blogs, email nestor at narellano@itworldcanada.com and join the ITBusiness.ca Facebook Page.