The iPhone 4S offloads much of the workload for Siri, its voice recognition app, to Apple's servers. While it means that the feature can do far more than an app limited to the processing power and "knowledge base" that can be stored on a mobile device it also means that if the servers go down, or if Internet connectivity goes down, Siri goes down as well.

As of 2:40 p.m. PDT, Siri was still down.

It's precisely because of a need to connect back to Apple's servers that porting Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPad has proven so difficult. It is necessary to authenticate with Apple's servers, and that was a hurdle that had to be leapt over.

Apple confirmed on Nov. 2 that iOS 5, the latest version of the iPhone/iPad/iPhone Touch operating system, was causing problems for users. Battery life has been draining beyond all expectations on the new iPhone 4S.

Though the company insisted that only "a small number of costumers" were having issues, Apple admitted that "a few bugs" had been found that were causing the product's battery drain. "We will release a software update to address those [bugs] in a few weeks," Apple's statement read, implying that users would have to rely on the DYI battery saves sweeping the Internet or at stay close to electrical outlets and their MacBook chargers.
Apple has already confirmed that new product iPhone 4S has major battery life problems, but now the tech giant will have to answer for another episode of user frustration: Siri, the new voice assistant feature on the iPhone, is reportedly not working, with massive outages reported across America on Nov. 3.

It is also the reason, we have been told, that Apple prevented the use of Siri on the iPhone 4. It wasn't because the hardware of that device was unable to support Siri; instead it was (apparently not unfounded) fears that Apple's infrastructure could not support both the iPhone 4S and millions upon millions of iPhone 4 users.

We expect it to come back soon; the question is when.


source:  examiner