Apple’s Siri voice assistant hacked to run on iPhone 4

Apple has always been a company with an iron fist when it comes to software. But after Jobs’ demise, it seems that fist is losing its hold fast. Apple has been even called tyrannical with software updates, so, this time is no different.

Apple introduced an iOS 5 update for many devices including the iPad and iPhone 4, but in a cunning move, some features such as the Siri Voice assistant would work only on the new iPhone 4S, prompting a user to shell out $199 (Rs 10,000, along with a career plan) for not much hardware changes but more of a software upgrade.

But, like they say, nothing is foolproof. It stands true for Apple. Apple’s Siri voice assistant has been pawned by hackers going by the names of @stroughtonsmith and @chpwn. They have overcome Apple’s authentication security to get Siri working on previous generation devices.

It seems after all, Siri might not require an A5 processor to work on. While the hackers are yet to provide us with a hacked version due to legal issues, one thing is made clear – Apple can make features like Siri available on older devices, it just doesn’t want to. It might be one of the top smartphone companies of the world, but it certainly isn’t best behaved.

In our view, buying an Apple device and not getting desire software update makes consumers feel they are constantly under Apple’s thumb. While this strategy has worked till now, we aren’t sure with the emergence of operating systems like the Windows OS and devices such as the Galaxy Nexus, Apple would be able to continue with it.

We hope Apple opens up to the consumers needs soon and loosens its watertight hold on software upgrades.