Last October 4, 2011, Apple launched its new handset the iPhone 4S. For months and months of rumors regarding its features and specs, all the questions of the iPhone fans have been answered. Together with the introduction of the new handset, Apple has also introduced Siri, a virtual assistant application that does actions on your phone in your behalf. 

Siri was named after Siri Inc, a company that has been acquired by Apple last April of 2010. Siri Inc. Was formed by SRI international to conduct researches on artificial intelligence and voice recognition systems. Siri is derived from sounds of the initials of SRI International.

Something unique about Siri is that you can talk to it just like you’re talking to another person and it can already understand you. No need for special command lines or voice, it will understand your questions just like an ordinary human being would.

You can ask Siri to remind you about an activity or event. Just by simply saying “remind me to call Mary tomorrow when I’m in the office”, the following day, when you arrive in your office, Siri will tell you that you have to call Mary.
Siri may read and send a text message for you. It will alert you that there’s a new notification in the messages and you can ask it to read the message for you.

If you are busy, you can also ask in to send a reply. It can set your appointments, timer and even send an email. Siri can also browse the web. You can ask it look up some details like conversion of units, stock exchange rate, weather update and directions.

Just simple statements like “where can I find the nearest Japanese restaurant” automatically it will show you directions on where you can find what you are looking for. If she needs time in retrieving the data that you are asking for it will say “let me think” and once the data is available it will tell you “Okay, here you go”.

Though Android phones have almost similar features, still Siri is distinguished by its ability to respond and act almost the same as a human assistant. Siri may be liken to Jarvis, Tony Stark’s virtual assistant in the movie Iron Man. Though it could not perform complex functions as Jarvis but the idea of its usefulness is almost the same. It uses most of the built-in applications on iPhone 4S even third-party applications so you can also update your status or send a tweet in your social networking sites.