Monday, May 14, 2012, 11:14 am

Siri updated to give witty responses to 'best smartphone ever' query

By AppleInsider Staff

When asked for the "best smartphone ever," Siri will now provide a range of witty responses to users rather than giving details on the Nokia Lumia 900.

Last week it was noted that asking Siri "What is the best smartphone ever?" would return results from WolframAlpha on Nokia's Windows Phone handset. The result was returned based on a total of just four user reviews, with an average score of 5 out of 5.

The key word in the query was "ever," because asking Siri for just the "best smartphone" would generate responses such as, "The one you're holding." But asking Siri for the "best smartphone ever" returned details on the Nokia Lumia 900.

As of Monday, asking Siri for the "best smartphone ever" now returns the same humorous results, including, "You're kidding, right?"

Siri remains a "beta" service, and it is advertised as such on Apple's official website. The voice-driven personal assistant software is currently only available on the iPhone 4S.


The unique personality of Siri is one of its defining features, an intentional design that Apple believes will help it create an emotional tie with customers. The development team behind Siri focused on keeping the software "friendly and humble — but also with an edge," a profile in The Wall Street Journal revealed last October.

Siri offers a number of humorous responses to users, such as providing a list of mines and swamps when asked where to "hide a body." And quoting the Stanley Kubrick movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the line "Open the pod bay doors" will generate the dialogue from the computer HAL 9000 in the movie: "I'm afraid I can't do that."