The Apple iPhone 4S smartphone has many state-of-the art features to it but arguably one of the most useful and innovative is the Siri intelligent assistant. This is the feature that enables you to speak to your iPhone 4S and get a response back. It not only understands natural speech, it asks further questions if it needs more information.

What is also really helpful for less tech-savvy folk is that the feature works without any pre-set up needed, straight out of the box. One of Apple’s greatest strengths has always been its ability to really think like a user, rather than as a super-tech developer or engineer. For this reason there is plenty of help available within the phone’s user interface itself via the ‘i’ (for Information) button at the top right hand of the screen.

For Siri it brings up examples of what Siri can do and how to phrase requests to make it easier for new users to quickly get the most out of the technology. Siri’s knowledge of the user grows with time as it organically builds up a picture of key contacts and relationships. For example, the first time it is asked to ‘send a message to my brother’ it will respond with ‘Who is your brother?’ and store your response. From then on, it will know how to act on your requests regarding any activity to do with your brother, as long as the information is present in your contacts list. Over time, Siri will know you very well, which enables it to ‘know’ things like ’sister’s birthday’, ‘wedding anniversary’, ‘send report to boss’ and so on, making it very easy to set up reminders and alarms, send messages and call. All this and it is still just one of the myriad of features on the Apple iPhone 4S which you can get from http://www.phones4u.co.uk

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