Siri is the iPhone 4S?s most-desired feature, and many non-4S users have been clamoring for hackers to make the voice assistant available on older iOS devices. While Siri ports have been demoed to the public before, it?s been made clear that public distribution is not possible at this time due to legal issues.
Apple has made a Siri port legally possible with today's iOS 5.0.1 revision by offering wide-open access to system files that were previously encrypted.
MuscleNerd, a prominent figure in the jailbreaking and hacking community, recently tweeted that the iOS 5.0.1 update from today features decrypted ramdisks, making it possible to extract the necessary files for a Siri port without infringing on Apple?s copyright. MuscleNerd said, ?it?s the first public 4S ipsw where the main filesystem keys are obtainable (due to non-encrypted ramdisks).?
There have been multiple methods proposed for running Siri on non-4S hardware in recent weeks, but all of them are either illegal or impractical. To run Siri properly, one would need access to an iPhone 4S unique identifier and that key would need to be switched out every 24 hours to avoid detection. If thousands of devices start calling on Siri from one 4S identifier, Apple will be able to easily spot the activity and kill the port.
It has been rumored that Android is making a Siri competitor. According Android and Me, Google has spent much of the year putting in work on a newly revamped Voice Actions software, which they have codenamed Majel. You could consider this their answer to Apple?s Siri and will go far beyond what the current crop of Android Voice Actions can accomplish. The limits of specific commands (navigate to, listen to, etc.) will soon be gone and the times of speaking in natural language may be upon us.
Want to know about the codename? The word Majel comes from the name of the woman who acted as the voice of the Federation Computer on Star Trek for years. And it just so happens that Matias Duarte (the ICS architect) mentioned Star Trek back in October around the time that Android 4.0 was unveiled. He was quoted as saying that their approach to voice actions ?is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It?s not that there?s a personality, it doesn?t have a name, it?s just Computer.? Fitting.
It looks like a good amount of the Microsoft Windows Phone devices suffer from a denial of service attack which allows an attacker to disable the messaging functionality on the device. The flaw is exploited very simply, all it takes is one SMS to a Windows Phone user. It is reported that Windows Phone 7.5 devices will actually reboot and the messaging hub will not open. The attack does not seem device specific and could be an issue with the way the Windows Phone Messaging hub actually handles messages. This bug can also happen if a user sends a Facebook chat message or even a Windows Live message. There are even reports it affects more than just messaging. If a user has pinned a friend as a live tile on their device and the friend posts a particular message on Facebook then the live tile will update and causes the device to lock up. Thankfully there?s a workaround for the live tile issue, at initial boot up you have a small amount of time to get past the lock screen and into the home screen to remove the pinned live tile before it flips over and locks the device. So anyone with a Windows Phone be careful.
Well an App anyways. Yesterday Xbox Live released an official Xbox LIVE app for the iOS owners. This app actually lets you stay connected to the Xbox LIVE community while you are away from the console. Some of the great features you will be able to use are:
Read and Send messages to friends.
Manage your friends list, invite new friends.
Read and Edit your full Xbox LIVE profile.
Change your avatar.
View and compare your achievements with friends.
This should be a lot of fun for iOS owners who have an Xbox, now where is my Android app?
It has been reported for the holidays Verizon is releasing 2 4G Droid tablets! The wireless carrier plans to sell the Motorola Mobility Droid Xyboard in two sizes: a larger 10-inch design and a smaller 8-inch brother. Verizon didn’t provide details on the specifications, pricing, or launch date, although it will come out this month.
Motorola declined to provide details as well.
“As we’ve previously mentioned, we’re planning to bring several new LTE devices to market including two tablets,” the company said in a statement. “We haven’t made any official announcements in the U.S. but we look forward to sharing more details soon.”
For Verizon, the Xyboard tablets represent two high-profile additions to its growing portfolio of 4G LTE devices. That the carrier has opted to add the Droid name signals that both products are part of its premium lineup. Motorola, meanwhile, gets another crack at the tablet market with the successors to the Xoom. (They are sold overseas as Xoom 2).
Both tablets have a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core processor and 1 gigabyte of RAM. They each have a 5-megapixel camera in the back and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The devices are both thinner than a AAA battery and lighter than a paperback book. They also feature Corning’s tough Gorilla Glass.
The 10-inch Xyboard is intended for use by business customers, and includes a stylus. The smaller Xyboard, meanwhile, is intended to be a more media-centric device and comes with a 2.1 virtual surround sound system that includes a subwoofer.
Apple?s iOS 5.0.1 update that was released today isn?t offering promised fixes of battery life (seen in the release notes) to everyone. Many users are still complaining, seeing battery life on their 4S?s dropping just as quickly as before. Here are some complaints I have read:
New update is no help at all. I opened Safari and lost 2 % just by opening it.
Upgraded to 5.0.1 this morning. Still draining at the exact same rate. Unplugged with a full charge 2 1/2 hours ago, and already down to 80% with light usage. Just lost 2% during a 15 minute shower. I see no difference at all.
Same here. Updated about 1.5 hours ago, battery has drained 20% since then with no usage! This is awful!
Apple did get something right however. Overall, majority of users are saying that the over the air update to get iOS 5.0.1 worked fantastic. So Apple needs to get on their horse and fix these underlying battery issues or else who knows what will happen.
