Apple Purchases iPhone 'Personal Assistant' Company Siri [Updated x2]
Robert Scoble
reports that Apple has purchased
Siri, a company that has developed a free
personal assistant application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Selected as the
Most Innovative Web Technology in a contest at this year's SXSW festival, Siri offers automated personal assistant services by integrating a rapidly growing number of third-party services such as OpenTable, FlightStats, and Google Maps with voice-recognition technology from
Nuance Communications.
Scoble discovered evidence (PDF) of the deal through a notification given by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announcing an early termination of the standard waiting period for corporate mergers to allow the transaction to proceed. Mashable and ReadWriteWeb are also confirming that they have heard about the acquisition from their sources.
Update: Silicon Alley Insider reports that a Siri representative has confirmed Apple's acquisition of the company.
Update 2: The Wall Street Journal quotes a Siri board member and investor as calling Apple's offer a "no-brainer".
"The offer from Apple was of a scope and tenor that it was a no-brainer to accept it," said Shawn Carolan, a managing director at Menlo Ventures and a board member at Sirti [sic] since it raised a Series A round of venture capital in 2008.
Popular Stories
After announcing new Mac and HomePod models last week, Apple adjusted its trade-in values for select devices in the United States.
iPhone trade-in values decreased by up to $80, and most Android smartphones also went down. Mac trade-in values remained unchanged or increased by up to $40 depending on the model, while some Apple Watch models increased in value and others decreased. Trade-in...
Multiple rumors have suggested that the next-generation iPhone 15 models will adopt the Wi-Fi 6E standard that Apple has already introduced in the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, and now a leaked document appears to confirm Apple's plans.
Sourced from researcher and Apple leaker Unknownz21 (@URedditor), the document features diagrams of the iPhone 15's antenna architecture. D8x refers to the...
The iPhone 15 will support Wi-Fi 6E, according to a research note shared this week by Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley. The analysts did not specify whether the feature will be available on all models or limited to the Pro models.
Apple has added Wi-Fi 6E support to a handful of devices so far, including the latest 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook...
New 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the latest M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are available in Apple retail stores and are already in the hands of customers, and we picked up one of the new M2 Max machines to answer all of the questions MacRumors readers considering a purchase might have.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Yesterday, we asked MacRumors fans on...
The new Mac Pro coming later this year is expected to feature the same spacious modular design as the 2019 model, but with fresh concerns over its lack of upgradeability surfacing, some users are beginning to wonder what the transition away from Intel architecture actually means for Apple's most powerful Mac.
The current Intel Mac Pro that Apple sells is popular with creative professionals...
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 16.3 will be released to the public next week. The software update will be available for the iPhone 8 and newer and includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes.
Below, we've recapped bigger features in iOS 16.3, including support for physical security keys as a two-factor authentication option for Apple ID accounts, worldwide ...
Apple's next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are expected to be announced in September as usual. Already, rumors suggest the devices will have at least eight exclusive features not available on the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
An overview of the eight features rumored to be exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro models:A17 chip: iPhone 15 Pro models will be equipped with an A17...
