Siri Problem

Apple's Siri service hit with another outage


Apple's Siri service, the voice assistant feature that's an exclusive to the recently launched iPhone 4S, is experiencing downtime once again, according to numerous users.

At approximately 11 a.m. PT, users began posting to Twitter that they were experiencing problems getting Siri to respond to voice commands. Affected users reported that the feature activated correctly, but was not connecting to process voice commands. Tests on several iPhone 4S devices owned by CNET staffers confirmed the issue.

Siri uses the iPhone 4S' built-in microphone, taking user commands and turning them into actions on the phone. That includes things that make use of a network connection, like searching the Web, setting reminders, and checking stock prices. Those queries are then piped through Apple's servers, where they're processed and sent back to the user's handset.

This appears to be the second widespread outage of Siri since it launched alongside the iPhone 4S last month. The first took place immediately following the launch of the device in the U.S. and other countries on October 14. Today's outage was first reported by blog iSmashPhone.

An Apple representative did not respond to a request for comment about the issue. We'll update this post if that changes.

Worth noting is that Siri is in "beta" according to Apple. The company says it plans to add support for additional languages, as well as bringing over some U.S. only features like maps and local search sometime next year.


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