iPhone News Updated

What is voice control on the iPhone?

We look at just what the new feature in Apple’s smartphone does

When Apple introduced the latest iteration of its smartphone, the iPhone 4S, in October, one of its new features was voice control through “intelligent assistant” Siri.

Although voice control isn’t the exactly new to Apple’s iPhone, as it was first introduced on the 3GS in 2009, we look at just what voice control is, how Siri differs from previous offerings and whether all iPhone users can get their hands on it.

What is an “intelligent assistant”?

Voice control is exactly how it sounds, you can make the phone do something by making an audible command. According to Apple, unlike traditional voice control which relies on the user speaking a specific command such as ‘call mum’ to dial a contact, Siri understands context and allows you to speak naturally when asking questions. For example if you say ‘will I need an umbrella this weekend?’ Siri will provide you with a relevant answer, in this case, the weather report. Furthermore, it’s integrated into a number of different apps on the iPhone. The voice-control function that was available on previous versions of the smartphone only allowed voice dialling and control of music playback in the iPod feature.

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Flipboard’s service collapses on iPhone app launch

Rush for popular make-your-own-magazine app overwhelms servers

Flipboard shipped its first iPhone app earlier today, but within hours the company acknowledged that its service was down, overwhelmed by demand.

The Flipboard app, available on the iOS App Store since early Wednesday, can be downloaded and installed, but for the moment it won’t connect to the Palo Alto, Calif. company’s servers.

Instead, the message, “Couldn’t build your Flipboard. Please check your Internet connection and try again” appears on the iPhone screen.

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