Apple begins testing new Siri voices in latest iOS 7.1 beta
Apple on Tuesday released a new beta of the upcoming iOS 7.1 update for developers, bringing new voices for the company's Siri personal digital assistant alongside bug fixes and a new Safari property for web developers.
New "natural-sounding" voices for Australian English, U.K. English, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese have been added in the latest beta, people familiar with the content of the update told AppleInsider. Siri-enabled devices are said to ship with a "compact" voice, with the new voices downloaded after the device connects to Wi-Fi.
In addition, the new beta brings a minimal-ui property for Safari. The property allows the top and bottom Safari bars to be minimized while loading content on an iPhone; tapping the top the top bar brings them back, while tapping the content area will hide them again.
The update also fixes several bugs, but some known issues remain.
Bluetooth remains an issue for 32-bit apps running on 64-bit devices like the company's flagship iPhone 5s and iPad Air. In addition, the "Connect to iTunes over USB to re-enable Wi-Fi Sync" prompt is not shown after an update in some situations.
Apple advises developers to connect their devices to their development machines to re-enable wireless sync, even in the prompt's absence.
Registered developers can download iOS 7.1 beta 5 from Apple's developer portal. It is also available as an over-the-air update for development devices running earlier iOS 7.1 betas.
New "natural-sounding" voices for Australian English, U.K. English, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese have been added in the latest beta, people familiar with the content of the update told AppleInsider. Siri-enabled devices are said to ship with a "compact" voice, with the new voices downloaded after the device connects to Wi-Fi.
In addition, the new beta brings a minimal-ui property for Safari. The property allows the top and bottom Safari bars to be minimized while loading content on an iPhone; tapping the top the top bar brings them back, while tapping the content area will hide them again.
The update also fixes several bugs, but some known issues remain.
Bluetooth remains an issue for 32-bit apps running on 64-bit devices like the company's flagship iPhone 5s and iPad Air. In addition, the "Connect to iTunes over USB to re-enable Wi-Fi Sync" prompt is not shown after an update in some situations.
Apple advises developers to connect their devices to their development machines to re-enable wireless sync, even in the prompt's absence.
Registered developers can download iOS 7.1 beta 5 from Apple's developer portal. It is also available as an over-the-air update for development devices running earlier iOS 7.1 betas.
Comments
“Oi’m sowwy, Ollie; Oi can’ foind 'Call Mom’. Wou’d yu loike ta sarch de Innanet?”
EDIT: AHHHHHHHHHH! THAT IMAGE WASN’T THERE BEFORE!
LOL, and I'll await GTR in great, what's the word, tummy holding anticipation.
Buzzspeak much ...?
Why would they do that? After all, when it comes to women, beauty is more important than substance¡
They fixed the keyboard CAPS UI disaster they added in beta 3. The speed in which contextual long press link dialogs pop up now has been greatly improved. I see them renaging on all the "smooth" animations of iOS 7.0 slowly but surely. And thank God for that because boy were they all too slow. But it still takes 3 swipes to paginate home screens after sliding to unlock, unlike the first time success-rate of pagination as you unlocked on iOS 6. WE DON'T WANT TO WAIT!!! Steve wouldn't put up with this. It's doing my head in. It's a small detail, but it wastes my times on about 50 accessions every-single-day! Get on it Ive FFS! The slide to unlock looks tweaked again (still has some ugly blur; dump it), the Notes app note date-to-beginning-of-note-gap bug is still present. That bug was introduced in beta 2.
I don't get the references to this minimal Safari UI I keep seeing on these posts.
EDIT: AHHHHHHHHHH! THAT IMAGE WASN’T THERE BEFORE!
True, that.
Just because we know the identity of the woman behind Siri's voice doesn't mean that she has to be shown.
Please, AI, keep Siri as anonymous as possible. Drop this woman's image.
'Enhanced Dictation' in OS X offers hope for improved speed while Apple's acquition of Cue (formerly Greplin) offers hope for improved intelligence especially considering Apple's acquisition of Topsy.
I am excited by Apple's acquisition of four mapping companies as well.
In my opinion, we have some interesting developments to look forward to in iOS 8.
I know the people dealing with Siri's voices aren't the same working on the Siri servers of AI code but I'm going to be that guy anyway: I would rather see Apple improve Siri's speed and intelligence.
While not a huge priority I suppose, how about some local off network(ie no Siri server required) basic local operations. Play music, launch maps etc
A - change Siri's/maps voice to another language without affecting the phone local settings. I'm stuck with a robot voice but could deal with English as alternative, which I can't right now.
B - (somewhat related) disable voice dictation button on the keypad, without the need of turning off siri. Since I am required to switch languages, my space bar is smaller because of the switch-language icon, but with siri dictation the space bar becomes super tiny :-))
You know what?
Functionality aside -
I'm a woman & the women's voices on Siri sound submissive & spineless.
So I tried the men's voices - same thing.
Give me Russell Crow's voice - commanding & saucy!!
Dude, don't be sexist.
Bitches hate that.
Seconded.
I also do not wish to see this woman in any Siri-related topics.
Siriously.
This would be technically unfeasible:
"Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. You who will have your vengeance, in this life or the next.
What will the weather be like today?"
I was hoping they would use the voices from Uli's Moose.
I'm sorry, but only one thing is going to blow me away:
Vader.
Darth Vader.
Waited sense first Siri came..