• Why we're obsessed with Siri

    By Rosa Golijan

    Siri, the iPhone's voice-activated personal assistant, often feels like a real person. She says silly things, causes controversies and can embarrass her users. Despite being little more than the result of some clever programming and some intense processing, Siri has become a celebrity — and we're obsessed.

    On Friday, TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie took some time to chat with Siri, as you can see in the video above.

    Siri knows a lot. Ask a question and she'll answer, whether you're looking for the nearest coffee shop or wondering about Al Roker's middle name. The personal assistant can show her funny side by giving cheeky replies when silly questions — such as the classic "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" — are posed.

    Siri has an attitude as well. Asking Siri if she loves you results in a coy "oh, stop!" And don't bother proposing marriage to Siri (unless you want a laugh): She'll break your heart faster than you can break an iPhone screen.

    Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com

    Siri may be Apple's darling, but she has humble beginnings. She started as an app, developed by a company which spun off from SRI International. She was acquired by Apple and given a makeover before being shown off to the world during the iPhone 4S launch. It's the phone's powerful hardware that makes Siri shine, which is why so many owners of the earlier iPhone 4 are left without her companionship.

    Since then, Siri's been winning hearts around the world, but she only speaks English, French and German at this point. Here's a fun fact: The U.K. version of Siri is actually male.

    Oh! As you'll see in the video, Guthrie discovered that Siri was clever enough figure out which morning show is No. 1. That's gotta win the gal some points, right?

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  • This chunk of plastic makes iPhones louder

    By Rosa Golijan

    Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com

    When the K-array Ecodock first arrived at my door, I thought it was an innocent chunk of plastic — heck, I barely knew what it was supposed to do. But now I know better. Now I know that it is an evil device which will amplify the sounds my iPhone makes until my ears twitch in pain.

    You see, the Ecodock is a strange loudspeaker for iPhones — or more specifically, for the iPhone and iPhone 4S. It doesn't require wires, batteries, or any sort of power source. Instead it "uses the natural laws of physics" to amplify whatever comes out of your device's speakers.

    The way the whole thing works is that the Ecodock — which consists of several pieces of Plexiglas and four screws — distributes "acoustic energy" over a wide air surface. In essence, it functions like a horn.

    If K-array's claims are to be trusted, the Ecodock can boost sound by up to 10 decibels.

    Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com

    But how well do these claims stand up in the real world? Uh ... a little too well, perhaps.

    After using the Ecodock with my iPhone 4S for about half an hour, I was left with the nagging sensation that a headache is developing. The device amplifies sounds quite well — with it, my iPhone drowned out my MacBook Air and its quiet speakers — but it boosts everything a bit too much, including those twangy higher notes.

    Of course, this annoyance is most obvious when the iPhone's volume is set to the maximum. Any lower and the Ecodock's effect is quite pleasant and even appears to provide clearer sound than a bare iPhone speaker.

    So would I recommend that you dash off and buy an Ecodock? Probably not, because I prefer the sound quality from normal speaker docks. But I'd say that it might be wise to keep an eye out for similar devices. After all, someone's bound to improve on the Ecodock concept.

    You can order your very own Ecodock through the K-array website. It will set you back $20.

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  • This app will help you keep your plants alive

    By Rosa Golijan

    Koubachi

    Confession Time: I've never met a plant that I haven't managed to kill — or at least torture — by not watering it enough, watering it too much, or looking at it the wrong way. Thankfully, there's now an app which can help me pretend that I'm capable of nurturing plants at least a bit better.

    The app's called Koubachi and it can be downloaded through the Apple App Store for free. (Sorry, Android users. You'll just have to grow genuine green thumbs instead of faking gardening skills like I do.)

    Koubachi

    Once you download Koubachi, you can enter details about all your plants — this may be time-consuming as you have to identify them by type — describe the place in which you reside, and calibrate how quickly the soil dries up in the region. (Don't worry if any of those things sound complicated, the app will walk you through them.)

    After all those things are done, you'll start receiving push notifications to remind you when it's time to water, mist or fertilize your plants — along with precise instructions as to how you should do those things.

    That's it. It's not much, but it should be just enough to help out those of us who struggle to keep our gardens blooming.

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  • What if Siri went evil?

    By Rosa Golijan

    Rooster Teeth

    Whenever my iPhone acts up, I throw my hands in the air and announce that my gadget must be "spiteful" or "out to get me" somehow. But what if that wasn't just an irrational way of explaining technical hiccups? What if  Siri — the virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S — really went evil?

    The folks in comedy team Rooster Teeth must've been wondering the same thing when they made this video:

    Yes, all the typical clichés are there. Yes, it's just as cheesy as any real horror movie. And yes, I am looking at my iPhone 4S suspiciously right now.

    If I disappear under mysterious circumstances, tell someone to interrogate nearby Apple gadgets.

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  • Kindle iPad app now offers magazines, textbooks

    By Rosa Golijan

    Amazon

    The Kindle iOS app — which can be used on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch devices — has received a nice little update on Wednesday. One of the most noteworthy changes? On the iPad version, users are now granted access magazines, newspapers, and textbooks — just like Kindle Fire users.

    According to Amazon, all iOS users — iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad — can now sync compatible documents to read on the app, either via iTunes or by emailing files to their Send-to-Kindle addresses. A built-in PDF reader means that you don't have to use a separate app for non-book reading.

    The updated (and free) app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store right now. 

    But on the iPad, the app has even more. It allows users to access over 400 magazines and newspapers — the same ones that are available to Kindle Fire users — including Martha Stewart Living, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Popular Science, and more. It'll be possible to buy single issues or subscriptions thanks to the Kindle Newsstand feature (not to be confused with the iOS Newsstand, of course).

    Electronic textbooks that preserve the layout and graphics of the original printed versions will also be available for purchase or rental.

    And frankly, the magazine service surprises us a bit. Not that Amazon would bring it to the iPad, but that Apple would allow it in an app. Amazon is blatantly trying to get into magazine subscriptions on the iPad, and Apple has made it clear that it wants to dominate this business — especially on its own turf.

    We've reached out to Apple to see why it let things go, at least for now. I will update if there is any comment.

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  • Finally! An app to help the truly fashion-challenged

    By Rosa Golijan

    Cloth

    The irony of writing a post about a fashion app while dressed in gray kitty-cat pajamas, an oversized shirt of questionable origin, and fuzzy red socks is not lost on me. Fortunately Cloth — the app I'm intending to introduce to you — can help those who seriously struggle when it comes to selecting outfits.

    Cloth costs two bucks and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store. (The app is currently on sale for just a buck as part of a limited time promotional offer.) It is the brainchild of Maxim senior editor Seth Porges and fashion designer Wray Serna — and it will help you dress better.

    You see, Cloth is designed to track outfits. Which means that anytime you put together a snazzy ensemble — whether thanks to pure skill or sheer dumb luck — you'll be able to enter it into Cloth for future reference.

    Cloth

    All you have to do is snap a photo of the outfit, add some notes or tags, and you're done. (If you want, you can also push the photo out via your preferred social networks or even submit it to the Cloth website.)

    When it's time to get dressed again, you can look up the fantastic outfits of fashionable days past by scrolling through the Feed tab or by selecting a category in the Wardrobe section.

    Here's how that looks in action:

    Now before you start yelling at me, please understand that I'm aware that an app like Cloth won't exactly instantly turn walking fashion disasters into great dressers. (Believe me, I'm all too aware of that fact!) But the reality is that keeping track of what you do — or in this case, wear — and studying what works and what doesn't will gradually help you improve.

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  • IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app

    IceBreak

    By Rosa Golijan

    Communicating with your significant other can be tough. You have to do things like inquire about his or her thoughts, listen, pay attention — and even remember the important stuff. And if you fail at those tasks? You'll wind up being being miserable, lonely, in a therapist's office, or all three.

    Don't panic just yet though, because there is one more option: You could find yourself using an app to salvage or maintain your relationship.

    The app's called IceBreak For Couples and you can download it for free through the Apple App Store.

    IceBreak

    IceBreak is supposed to make couples —  whether they're married, engaged, or dating —  happy. It tries to do this by providing icebreaker questions which are supposed to encourage conversations and aid you in discovering more about your beloved. 

    The questions feel like something straight out of a "99 Things You Didn't Know About Me And My Love" chain-email and include inquiries such as "Which part of your partner's body could you not do without?" and "What is something your partner's really good at?"

    But silly or not, the questions could certainly turn into conversation starters if both partners are willing to answer them.

    And in order to encourage the use of these icebreakers — and the app's other features such as the "relationship wall" or "relationship health" sections — IceBreak offers incentives. Every time you complete an activity or task using the app, you'll earn "Date Night Coins" which will eventually be redeemable for real-world rewards such as movie tickets or gifts.

    There's no guarantee that all these incentives and icebreakers will make your relationship better, of course — but an app's cheaper than couples therapy, no?

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  • Apple explains why iPhone won't find abortion centers

    Apple

    By Rosa Golijan

    If you asked Apple's Siri to help you find an abortion center or related information recently, you'd know that the virtual assistant feature built into the iPhone 4S isn't very helpful in that regard. But why? Is it promoting a pro-life agenda? Or is there a far more innocent explanation?

    According to what an Apple spokesperson told the New York Times, Siri's inability to track down information related to abortion centers — even if there are several in your area — is not part of some sort of conspiracy, it's just a glitch:

    Apple

    Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want.

    These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.

    Yes, Siri — as Apple has mentioned in the past — is considered to be in "beta." This means that it is still in the development phase, not a "final" product. (It also means that every single iPhone 4S owner is technically testing software for Apple.)

    Unfortunately this designation additionally means that we're bound to encounter strange quirks and behavior when it comes to the virtual assistant.

    As Raw Story's Megan Carpentier — one of the first bloggers to notice the abortion center search issue — points out, Siri is capable of helping users find escort services, strip clubs, places to hide a dead body, the meaning of life, and a variety of other niche information despite the incomplete results it spits out in response to questions about reproductive health services.

    While Apple's statement to the New York Times suggests that it intends on correcting this particular discrepancy — as well as other undiscovered glitches, perhaps — soon, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has begun a petition to urge the company to make a change right away.

    We're not certain that the petition can affect the timing of the fix though, as it is uncertain whether Apple needs to release an update to iOS — its mobile operating system — in order to make changes to Siri or whether tweaks can be made directly on Apple's servers (which Siri contacts whenever you use it). We've asked Apple for clarification on this process and will update this story once we receive an explanation. 

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  • Colbert: Apple's Siri 'is clearly an arch conservative woman'

    Comedy Central

    By Rosa Golijan

    Apple's Siri — the virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S — refuses to help its users find abortion clinics and tends to ignore folks with foreign accents. Sure, there could be an innocent explanation for those things — such as a series of glitches — but Stephen Colbert has an alternate theory.

    According to Colbert, Siri is obviously an arch conservative woman, "like Laura Ingraham — but less robotic."

    You can check out that theory — and its context — in the clip below. Don't forget that it's from a recent episode of "The Colbert Report" and all in good humor — so don't let it ruffle too many feathers.

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  • iPhone self-combusts on plane

    Regional Express

    By Rosa Golijan

    Updated at 12:31 p.m. ET

    There are plenty of "no smoking" signs plastered throughout airplane cabins, but that didn't stop one iPhone from self-combusting on a flight heading from Lismore to Sydney recently. No one was hurt, but quite a few folks are likely to be glancing at their mobile devices with some fear now.

    According to Regional Express, one of Australia's largest independent regional airlines, the incident occurred on Nov. 25. Regional Express flight ZL319 was en route to Sydney when a passenger's iPhone "started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow."

    A flight attendant reportedly followed "standard safety procedures" right away and the red glow was extinguished. The incident was reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the device was handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for analysis.

    There is no further information available at this time, but we have reached out to both Apple and Regional Express to see if they have any statements to add. We will update this story if (or when) we hear back.

    In the meantime, we are left wondering what could've caused an iPhone 4 — a GSM-version of the device, based on the image provided by Regional Express — to take up smoking.

    Peer pressure could certainly be the culprit as there have been reports of iPod devices — the iPhone's not-so-distant relatives — combusting in the past. (It is also worth noting that Apple recently issued a recall of the first generation iPod Nano because its battery "may overheat and pose a safety risk" in rare instances.)

    Until there's further information or a detailed analysis of the flight ZL319 incident though, we're not going to worry about the whole thing too much though — after all, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) certainly wouldn't let us carry iPhones onto flights if they posed a bigger risk than nail-clippers, right?

    Update: Natalie Harrison, director of global iPhone and iPad public relations at Apple, gave us a call to say that the company looks forward "to working with the officials investigating to this incident."

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  • Samsung mocks iPhone fanboys in hilarious new ad

    YouTube

    By Rosa Golijan

    As an iPhone user — and fangirl — I generally frown whenever I have to listen to yet another joke about the cult-like behavior of Apple product lovers. But even I can't deny that Samsung's new Galaxy S II commercial is absolutely hilarious in all its iPhone-mocking glory.

    The commercial — which you can watch below — takes jabs at the iPhone fanboy culture by presenting us with a line of people who appear to be waiting for a new Apple product to be released. They discuss it, complain about its specs, obsessively check blogs for rumors, and wait for days without complaint.

    But then they see people with Samsung Galaxy S II devices and the reality distortion field begins to crumble just a bit:

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  • iPhone-using rabbi blames Apple for ungrateful iSociety

    By Rosa Golijan

    An iPhone-using religious leader is blaming Apple gadgets for shaping a society in which we focus on material possessions and ego instead of true happiness. That's certainly a bit ironic, but his overall message hits quite close to home for some of us — especially as we prepare to celebrate a holiday that focuses on giving thanks for the important things in our lives.

    The Telegraph reports that Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, addressed the values of a "consumer society" during an interfaith reception recently. He explained that he feels most people are finally "looking for values other than the values of a consumer society," which is fortunate because those values "really aren’t ones you can live by for terribly long."

    He clarified further:

    The consumer society was laid down by the late Steve Jobs coming down the mountain with two tablets, iPad one and iPad two, and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i, i, i.

    When you’re an individualist, egocentric culture and you only care about 'i’, you don’t do terribly well.

    The reason we don't do well in such a culture, according to Lord Sacks, has to do with our tendency to become hyper-aware of the things we don't have — such as certain shiny new gadgets — instead of simply sitting down and being thankful for what we do have.

    One of the examples Lord Sacks provided when it came to such behavior is the strange attitude some of us — yours truly included — have in relation to the iPhone. It somehow doesn't feel good enough to have an iPhone — we instead feel that we must have the latest and greatest model. But that new little gadget won't genuinely make us happy, now will it?

    There's something to chew over while preparing your Thanksgiving feast.

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