Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Apple : Do Siri job postings point to expansion of the personal assistant?

Apple : Do Siri job postings point to expansion of the personal assistant?

Do Siri job postings point to expansion of the personal assistant?

Posted:

Do Siri job postings point to expansion of the personal assistant?

It looks as if Apple is preparing to expand its virtual personal assistant Siri, as the iPhone maker posted a dozen Siri-related job ads over the weekend.

Apple began advertising on its jobs portal over the weekend for new positions related to Siri that range from "Siri Software Engineers" to a "Siri Interaction Designer" and a "Siri Monitoring Architect."

Apple hasn't announced anything regarding Siri, but given the talent that the company is looking to bring on board, it seems the old girl is about to get better.

The listings themselves also provide a glimpse, if an uncertain one, at Siri's possible future.

Sounds like a Siri-ous overhaul

Siri had a lot of promise when she hit the iPhone scene, but her crow's feet and split ends quickly began to show through her shiny, commercial facade.

Apple began posting job listings in January that pointed to some improvements for her virtual personality. The latest job listings hint at even further improvements and expansions.

One asks for Hadoop engineers "to implement, support, and maintain large-scale infrastructures" for Siri.

A Siri speech operations engineer would "take part in building and managing some of the world's largest server deployments" that "will have the potential of directly and immediately benefiting millions of Apple customers."

Siri software engineers will "contribute to the next big revolution in human-computer interaction" by, among other things, "[improving] Siri's accuracy."

Meanwhile, Siri interaction designers "will contribute to extending Siri's capabilities, knowledge, and intelligence, helping invent new techniques for conversational interaction."

And so on.

What's really in Siri's future?

Based on the job listings it seems Apple will soon begin working to improve Siri's accuracy (a much-needed effort) and add new functionality, though we can't currently guess what that might include.

Previous rumors have claimed that Siri could wind up expanding beyond the mobile realm to Mac OS X, but nothing in these Siri job ads seems to hint directly at that direction.

One thing is for sure, though: Siri is here to stay.

Tim Cook apologizes to China over Apple's warranty practices

Posted:

Tim Cook apologizes to China over Apple's warranty practices

After catching some flack from the Chinese media about its warranty practices, Apple's CEO Tim Cook has issued an apology with a plan of action to rectify the situation.

A China Central Television Station report claimed Apple was providing better warranty service in other countries, while Chinese customers were only given repairs on broken parts, which led Cook to write this letter.

The lengthy note on Apple's Chinese website indicated the company would look into its "Three Guarantees," in which Cook was also remorseful about the company's lack of communication with Chinese consumers.

As a result, Cook stated Apple would institute for new policy adjustments designed to make the process of repair, replacement, or other warranty-related issues much more consumer friendly.

Communication breakdown

Part of Apple's new plans include better and clarified iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S repair policies, including extended warranties for devices repaired within the last year.

The model 4 phones can now be replaced or have parts replaced and repaired under warranty within one year of purchase.

Apple will add "concise and clear" warranty explanations on the official website, with an eye towards answering many questions that were left unclear previously.

The company will also offer better training and will better police the proper enforcement of warranties at Apple Authorized Service Providers, and has already provided new training materials for such staff.

Finally, Apple has opened up its site to allow feedback directly from the consumers if they have any doubts or concerns about their service provider, including items that may fall outside the jurisdiction of the other addressed changes.

This is clearly an issue Apple hoped to rectify swiftly, and should go a long way in keeping Chinese customers happy with the Cupertino company's products.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)