Posts Tagged ‘iphone 4’

Dag Kittlaus, co-founder of the company that created the highly acclaimed Siri voice recognition ?assistant? that?s built into the iPhone 4S has allegedly left Apple, reports Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. His departure is said to have been planned, and friendly.

The co-founder and former chief executive of Siri, which was purchased by Apple in 2010, Kittlaus is said to have left to be closer to his family, who live in Chicago; to have some much-needed time off; and to embark on further entrepreneurial endeavors, say sources close to the matter.

According to Darrell Etherington at GigaOm, Kittlaus? resignation from Apple was long in the making, and ?amicable.? Siri?s other two co-founders, Adam Cheyer and Tom Gruber, apparently still remain at Apple, according to their profiles on LinkedIn.

Siri stands as one of the most-compelling selling points for the newly released iPhone 4S. Lacking any external design changes from last year?s iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S includes a faster dual-core A5 processor, a faster GPU, and a high-quality, 8-megapixel camera. Many of the other updates included in the iPhone 4S come in the form of iOS 5, Apple?s new mobile operating system, which can also be used on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch devices, and the iPad and iPad 2. Siri is only available on the iPhone 4S.

Apple boasted last week that it had sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S units in the first three days after the device went on sale in seven markets worldwide. On Friday, pre-order sales of Apple?s new handset became available to customers in 22 additional countries, which include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The device will officially launch in those countries on October 28.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111024/tc_digitaltrends/siricofounderdagkittlausquitsappledepartureamicablereport

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The new Siri virtual assistant is without a doubt the highlight of Apple’s new iPhone 4S, so we knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw some TV spots showcasing its chatty ways. And just like clockwork, the company is now rolling out its first ad that lets everyone know what the familiar-looking smartphone is now capable of.

The brief 30-second ad shows new iPhone 4S owners of all ages putting Siri to good use ? asking for everything from directions and weather reports to tips on formal wear. It’s a great way to show the scope of information that Siri can provide, and will undoubtedly lead to some interested prospective owners. Not to mention make everyone with a iPhone 4 pine for an upgrade.

Curiously, the ad only shows Siri responding to one of the inquiries, possibly because the virtual assistant’s rather robotic tone might turn off otherwise excited consumers. Check out the full ad above and let us know what you think in the comments!

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111021/tc_yblog_technews/watch-apples-new-iphone-4s-siri-ad

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Sen. Al Franken isn?t happy about the prospect of mobile operating system developers like Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Research In Motion (RIMM) gathering users? location data and sharing it without their permission.

The Minnesota democrat introduced the bill along with Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday, which would require mobile companies like Google and Apple and app developers to ask users for their explicit permission before sharing location data gathered by mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, with any third parties.

GigaOM has the story. Here?s a quote explaining the bill in more detail:

?The Location Privacy Protection Act, as proposed by Franken and Blumenthal, would close a loophole that allows ?smartphone companies, app companies and even phone companies offering wireless Internet service to freely share their customers? location information with third parties without first obtaining customers? consent.? Cable and phone companies are already barred from doing so, and Franken and Blumenthal think that restriction should apply to mobile users as well.?

The bill is a direct result of information being released by researchers a month or so ago that showed that Apple?s iPhone 4 was saving all the location data tracked by its GPS in an unencrypted folder that was easily accessible inside the phone. Apple chalked the tracking up to a bug that it corrected with an iOS update, but it came to light that the information has been used by law enforcement officials in their investigations, without the need to obtain a warrant.

Franken and other senators called Google and Apple to a hearing before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and Law, where the lawmakers called for stricter rules on how companies can use customers? location data. The bill goes a step further, obviously, by forcing the companies to loop in their users on what is done with their data.

Both Google and Apple, along with other mobile platform makers, routinely track user location data for a number of reasons ? several app do, as well, although many (Google and Apple included) ask permission before tracking the data or sending it onward. The data is used to hone cellular reception, improve service, track how users make use of mobile data connections and a host of other reasonable pursuits. But the security breach exposed on the iPhone 4 suggested that the data was a lot easier to come by if the person looking for it was knowledgeable, and until now, while Google and Apple have said they?re not doing anything untoward with location data, there was no legal framework preventing them from selling it to advertisers, for example. And a recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that about half of the top 101 apps for both platforms were sharing location data with third parties without users? permission or knowledge.

While the bill might sound like a good idea on its face, there are a lot of factor to consider. Biggest among the concerns is probably just the prevalence of apps making use of location data ? from social networks to shopping apps to a number of games, location data is yanked down for almost any reason by too many apps to count. Requiring those apps and Apple to ask the user for permission of iOS users could potentially be a hard thing to implement, although Google seems to do okay by asking users to sign off on the various phone functions an app wants to access when it is downloaded to its Android platform. Adding an extra step to the download process that delineates where data will be sent and under what circumstances probably wouldn?t be a back-breaking enterprise, and it?ll give users information they deserve to have about what is being done with their information.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles8411_senate_bill_would_add_protections_for_mobile_users_location_data/41887013/SIG=13gos1npp/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/8411-senate-bill-would-add-protections-for-mobile-users-location-data

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