Apple's tongue-tied Siri faces 'Singlish' rival

Also can, a? Good lah!

More proof that Apple is now outdated and outclassed by Android!

No proof at all, actually. All Singtel did was create a niche app that recognizes Singlish (as the article says). Apple's 4s has gotten rave reviews in pretty much every tech article written about it.

I suppose Apple should or has done already ask the speaker to repeat a particular sentence pattern which would include all the sounds of the speakers English including the accent into the iphone first to start up the voice recognition. There are of course a lot of illogical questions the Siri cannot answer. Example, "Where is the station"? Siri, "I don't know where you are". So logical information needs to be input to get a logical answer.

that's easy to solve, just add " la " to end of every sentence uttered.

Yes oberst la

And a finger pointing at your nose if you are trying it in Japanizu

I got an idea. how about Singaporean learn how to actually speak English. I don't like Apple that much, but seriously, they haven't developed an app "which the voice recognition engine within an international device like Apple doesn’t quite have.” I would say Singaporean's haven't quite mastered the English language as of yet. Trust me, I have worked with them. They seem to get everything wrong all the time, and there are only two reason for it, 1.) they simply don't understand English which is why they make so many mistakes, or 2.) they are just dumb. I would guess number 1.

American companies such as Apple struggle to connect with local markets such as Singapore and Japan because their products do not address the needs of local consumers. For example, Siri sounds a lot like the Japanese word for "backend" and it cannot understand a Japanese acccent. These companies may make "cool" products, but if they ignore the local population they cannot sell them.

I'm sure Siri will be updated soon to work for more languages in the near future. Voice control is the wave of the future. Isn't there a voice controlled air conditioner out now? The world of Gene Roddenberry has come even closer to reality. Hurry up with the transporters.

Universal Translator is coming closer and closer to reality...accommodating all variations of English.

Um... not to burst anyone's bubble, but my friend who's from Malaysia but can speak both fluent English and Singlish spoke some Singlish to Siri and it understood him just fine. Maybe it wouldn't work as well with more complicated requests. I don't know. But it seemed to not do that bad of a job, probably because a lot of key words stand out that it can pick up on.

Singaporean English is pretty fluent except for a slight accent but that's the case for Australia, the Irish, English and Americans.

Perhaps Siri will put an end to Japanesu Engrish.

And in news just in... Siri also stumbles on Pigeon, Elvish, Klingon and possibly parts of 1984 Newspeak. Seriously.. No news story here than a bunch of people who thought they were using something akin to English are facing a moment of clarity.. That just maybe, they aren't as down with it as they thought. There's nothing wrong with that (I am still studying my Joyo, and picking up a newspaper reminds me how far I have to go) but blaming Siri sort of misses the point.

@Ted Barrera,

Exactly what article were you reading? The application was designed by SingTel, and will be available on both the Apple and Android platforms. I'm no Apple "fanboy", but for the past few weeks, the Apple haters have been out in full force, foaming at the mouth, taking each and every opportunity to get a dig in at Apple and Steve Jobs, and anyone that's ever purchased one of their products. It's boring, and ironically, much more annoying then the "fanboys" and "sheep" that they're always railing against. PLEASE give it a rest.

@oberst OCT.29, 2011 - 04:18PM JST

that's easy to solve, just add " la " to end of every sentence uttered.

Hahaha...... this reminds me of a colleague I once had. He was from UK. We were both working for the same company in Singapore. He was so cute. He would consciously make it a point to emphasize the "lah" whenever he spoke, sometimes he would even drag on the "lah" making it sound so loud and funny that whoever heard him speak would laugh including our superior.

He did all this not to insult, but to make us all laugh..... It was fun having worked with him.

Ah...Singlish...natsukashi...Reminds me of the years when my parents lived there & I had to spend my Summer holidays...speaking Singlish & eating curry...:)

Crap

There is a Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese version of Siri coming out soon.

I'm from Singapore and we can speak English that Americans, Europeans, Aussies & Japanese can understand. If Siri cannot make out what is said due to our accent, then it has to be improved. The reason for Singtel to have a 'localised Siri' is for it to understand local terms like names of food & places and also expressions unique to Singapore. For example if I want to find nearby places selling 'char kway teow' ( a local fried noodle dish), the Singtel version will be able to present the Google map with locations nearby. Or if a motorist wants to be aware of approaching ERP gantry posts (for traffic road toll), it will also be able to answer back correctly. So a localized version is all that it is. If Softbank or KDDI wants to localized Siri, I'm sure it will be done very quickly.

Making the voice recordings for SIRI etc..are a real pain in the ass! As in any language, you have to speak clearly, slowly etc..just to get the system to understand your commands, but my guess voice recognition technology is still very far behind, no matter if it is over in Singapore or out in Los Angeles. But if this is a problem, well I am sure there must be millions of engineers from all around the world ready to improve this technology as they have done so down in Singapore right??

@japan9019Oct. 29, 2011 - 05:10PM JST You sounds like a Singaporean hater & because of one bad experience, decide to tar all of us with the same brush. This thread is about the Singtel app created to handle the problem of Siri when used in the Singapore context. Grow up and be mature and think before you bash a whole country blindly.

Apple is so dead. Android is the future.