Uh-oh! There’s another product leak out of Apple headquarters, only this time it may be hard to discipline the party who spilled the beans. If you don’t believe us, pull out your iPhone 4S and ask Siri what languages she speaks -- then try to figure out which one doesn’t exist yet.
AppleInsider is reporting that Siri herself has confirmed an upcoming feature of the virtual assistant. On Tuesday, a number of iPhone 4S users noticed that asking Siri what languages she speaks came back with an interesting answer: “I speak English, French, German and Japanese… so far.” (As seen in the image above -- others have seen some variation of this as well.)
Thing is, Siri doesn’t speak Japanese -- at least not yet. Going to the Siri settings today as the virtual assistant suggests simply offers the usual three flavors of English plus French and German, same as it ever was. So what gives?
Apparently, Siri herself is responsible for leaking one of her own upcoming features. There have been rumors in recent weeks that the Siri service would expand to include Japanese, Mandarin and even Russian, presumably with the forthcoming iOS 5.1 update that is expected in March alongside the next iPad.
The find isn’t a complete surprise -- Apple has already promised that Siri will gain the powers of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Spanish this year, particularly important considering how quickly the iPhone 4S has rolled out internationally since launching last October.
The real question is, how will Apple discipline their virtual assistant for the slip? Next thing you know, she’ll be leaving iPhones at a local bar… oh, never mind, that’s strictly for the humans to do...
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