Steve Jobs didn’t like the name “Siri”….

Siri founder Dag Kittlaus chats about how Steve Jobs was dazzled by Siri, but how he didn’t like the name “Siri” much — the way he apparently didn’t like the name “Mac”.   

Kittlaus recounted that Jobs wasn’t sold on the Siri name. Kittlaus, therefore, kept lobbying Steve Jobs to keep the Siri name, telling him quite consistently that “it’s a great name.”

Still, Jobs wanted to use something else, but failing to find anything better, decided to stick with “Siri”. What’s particularly interesting about this is that there are similar stories regarding the naming process behind the iMac and the iPod – two products with names Jobs reportedly didn’t care for either but ultimately acquiesced to after not being able to find better alternatives.

Read more at: Steve Jobs wasn’t a fan of the Siri name.

On the Comically Absurd Lawsuit Against Apple….

Great piece by Joe Wilcox on the senseless lawsuit against Apple for “deceptive advertising”.  Just like Mr. Wilcox, when I learned about the lawsuit, I was confused.  As Wilcox put it:

Why didn’t Fazio return the phone? The lawsuit reads: “Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, Plaintiff realized that Siri was not performing as advertised?” Eh, what does, Bud? Stores have return policies for a reason. Did he not keep the receipt? He hasn’t heard of eBay? Where iPhone 4S commanded top dollar last November. If Fazio knew “promptly”, why didn’t he get a refund promptly?

Yes indeedy!  The only way I can explain the motivation behind the filing is to suggest that Mr. Fazio had a genius  idea on how to self-promote.  And it is indeed genius: his name is going to be famous.  Let’s see if the judge receiving this will throw the case away or whether he will be tempted to jump on the quest for his or her 15-minute-of-fame bandwagon.

Siri Timeline: The Story So Far

March 2012

• Mar. 7: No Siri on iPad 3
• Mar. 3: Rumors that Google will call its voice assistant “Assistant” and that the product will be released in Q4, 2012
• Mar. 2: Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) UK ruling in favor of Apple

February 2012

• Feb. 29: Controversy over Siri not working in UK as advertised (business search)
• Feb. 28: Apple clarifies publicly that Voice Assistants are fair game and that they will work with Evi team
• Feb. 27: Rumors that Apple is removing Evi from App Store
• Feb. 24: Mercedes Benz announces integration with Siri
• Feb. 20: ABC News Foxconn Report about Apple Factories
• Feb. 21. MyAssistant Siri jailbreak
• Feb. 18: Utter on Android
• Feb. 17: No Siri on Mountain Lion OS
• Feb. 11: Apple files for preliminary injunction against Google Galaxy Nexus
• Feb. 8: 25% of Wolfram traffic comes via Siri

January 2012

• Jan. 24: Evi arrives in Apple Appstore and Gogle Markerplace
• Jan. 20: Steve Wozniak “prefers” Androids
• Jan. 4: Siri mentioned in TV Show Big Bang Theory
• Jan. 2: AskZiggy comes out on MSFT Store

December 2011

• Dec. 20: Best Buy catalogue accessible via Wolfram on Siri
• Dec. 20: Nuance buys vLingo
• Dec. 18: Santa video hits the air
• Dec. 14: Google buys Clever Sense — developer of Alfred Assistant App
• Dec. 13: Rumors of Google Majel start circulating
• Dec. 7: Apple hiring aggressively to fix Siri issues
• Dec. 2: Thousands petition Apple on Abortion issue

November 2011

• Nov. 30: Abortion controversy
• Nov. 24: Siri Proxy to start a car
• Nov. 23: Microsoft claims they had Siri like technology a year ago
• Nov. 21: Siri Proxy control of thermostat
• Nov. 17: Robin Williams Siri video
• Nov. 16: Husband and wife Siri video
• Nov. 15: Siri Protocol hacked by Applidium
• Nov. 10: Man behing Siri UK voice revealed
• Nov. 9: Reports that Amazon bought Yap
• Nov. 8. Video of Siri ported to iPhone 3GS
• Nov. 6: Google Eric Schmidt admits that Siri is a threat to Google model
• Nov. 6: Rumors that Apple will release Siri on iPhone 4
• Nov. 4: First major Siri Outage

October 2011

• Oct. 14: iPhone 4S hits US market.
• Oct. 5: Steve Jobs passes away
• Oct. 4: Arrival of iPhone 4S and Siri Announced

April 2010

• Apple acquires Siri, Inc. from SRI

February 2010

• Siri, Inc. launches its Virtual personal Assistant app for the iPhone 3GS

November 2009

• Siri, Inc. raises a $15.5 million Series B financing round from the same investors as in their previous round plus Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing

October 2008

• Siri, Inc. announces it has raised an $8.5 million Series A financing round, led by Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures

December 2007

• SRI spins off Siri, Inc. to bring the technology to consumers

July 2003

• DARPA Selects SRI to lead the Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) Program. SRI and a team of 20 leading research organizations are awarded $22M over five years to develop software, dubbed CALO to revolutionize how computers support military and other decision-makers. It is considered to be the largest artificial intelligence project in history

Ranking of iPhone 4S Features: Siri wins!