Siri confirmed on iPhone 4

[jmnikricket]

Apple will most certainly stop this from happening. Possibly by requiring all 4S phones to be updated in order for Siri to work, and them locking out non 4S phones from accessing the service.

Honestly, this project is nothing to get your hopes up with.

I was initially very excited, but after doing the slightest bit of reading into it, I have to agree. From the FAQ:

...we have to intercept the data that is being exchanged between devices to initially “trick” Apple’s servers into thinking that the device is authorized...

The way I read this, they are essentially creating a program to hack Apple's servers. This being the same Apple that has teams of IT, server, and security experts along with the lawyers to back them up!

 

[labman]

sounds to me like there doing something similar to Notcom TSS server for Tinyumbrella time will tell. Since I still like my I4 and I'm not sold on the 4S. Since Siri is the most interesting thing to me on he 4S it's worth seeing what happens.

 

[maturola]

However, my questions is a bit derivative. Do you think that the Siri port will be released in conjunction with a stable/untethered iPhone 4/4s iOS5 jailbreak, since it's very much required? iH8sn0w is working on this with them and his name has been in strong association w/ jailbreaks in the past, unless I'm mistaken.

Cheers,
Brian

Two groups working on two difference things, I believe it those will be released when they are ready independently from each other, the JB is there, so the port will be useful, the fact that is tethered is just a minor inconvenient.

 

[this is funah]

i do not understand a simple hole in the story of the Siri port:

How could one possibly port ANYTHING from the iPhone 4S without a jailbreak?

 

[Steagles]

i do not understand a simple hole in the story of the Siri port:

How could one possibly port ANYTHING from the iPhone 4S without a jailbreak?

Possibly he has a dev liscence to write/look through apps? Other than that, I'm not buying this.

 

[Arisian]

i do not understand a simple hole in the story of the Siri port:

How could one possibly port ANYTHING from the iPhone 4S without a jailbreak?

Yeah - I think that's actually an important question to ask...

 

[maturola]

Yeah - I think that's actually an important question to ask...

He is porting software not hardware, you can easily find iOS for the 4s and read/strip and modify the code. no need for a jailbreak for that.

 

[Arisian]

He is porting software not hardware, you can easily find iOS for the 4s and read/strip and modify the code. no need for a jailbreak for that.

my point being that if he doesn't cross his i's and dot his T's when it comes to avoiding the copyright/piracy issues (ie, rewriting/reworking the code to avoid these issues) then all is for not - it can't be easy and Apple is going to throw a fit if there is proprietary code in the mix - again, it's a big undertaking and I wish him the best (for all our sakes), but I'd be surprised and truly impressed if he get's it completely ported w/ out stepping on the obvious landmines.

It's posible to do, but how 'clean', legally speaking, will the release be is in fact a decent question to ask

 

[maturola]

my point being that if he doesn't cross his i's and dot his T's when it comes to avoiding the copyright/piracy issues (ie, rewriting/reworking the code to avoid these issues) then all is for not - it can't be easy and Apple is going to throw a fit if there is proprietary code in the mix - again, it's a big undertaking and I wish him the best (for all our sakes), but I'd be surprised and truly impressed if he get's it completely ported w/ out stepping on the obvious landmines.

It's posible to do, but how 'clean', legally speaking, will the release be is in fact a decent question to ask

I think you may had a misunderstanding on what exactly is what he is rewriting, he is not rewriting SIRI itself, he is rewriting the communication protocol that SIRI uses, SIRI is an Application like many other on iOS, that is embedded on the default OS configuration (think like Spotlight on OSX or Explorer on Windows), all he is doing the rewriting a server deamon that will intercept the communication and route them to a different location.

Anyone can do that without stealing or copying someone else code, it just required time and access to the original protocol in order to understand exactly what calls and APIs is using.

There are also a few routines and calls that need to ne address (or ported) since the 4s is running and call institutions from a A5 instead of a A4, and those can also be "ported" without copying any Apple code...

Of course,,, doing that using existing code would take maybe just a few days, doing it without it will take a lot more time, testing and development.

 

[OutSpoken]

Wow, I have to say I'm impressed with the advancement these guys have made... I hope to god we see a fully functional port, but if we don't...well done for trying guys!

 

[Arisian]

he is not rewriting SIRI itself, he is rewriting the communication protocol that SIRI uses, SIRI is an Application like many other on iOS, that is embedded on the default OS configuration

I'm sure I misunderstand a lot of things, but he did mention specifically that one of the things he's rewriting are sections of SIRI itself, not just it's protocols.

I think it's clear in what he's posted online that he is rewriting both:

8. What’s the current status of the port?
Due to the legal nature of this port as well has for performance purposes, we’re are starting from the ground up. Re-writing code and that sort of thing to avoid copyright infringement. At this current stage, performance of Siri is just as good as on the iPhone 4S.

​

Furthermore, if he had any intentions of maybe selling it - which he says is undecided - he'd have to be rewriting the whole thing from the ground up... including the application it'self and then the protocols/daemons. You really can't release a program potentially for sale and use anything that is proprietary to Apple - graphics, audio, code, icons, etc - though I'm not sure how far it goes (ie, legal landmines that I'd be surprised if he navigated correctly). The worrying thing is that this even goes as far as distribution.

6. Will it be free or paid?
This is still undecided. This particular component is highly reliant on how we distribute this piece of software. Again, as the above, we’re thinking through it thoroughly to ensure the best for all. The reason why it may be required to pay (if not donate) is because there are hosting related costs that will need to be taken care of to make sure Siri works for non-iPhone 4S users.

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I can see Apple trying to put a stop to this since SIRI is the main thing attracting people to the 4S. Apple would certainly lose money and find a way to sue if they really needed/wanted to.

I like everyone else and super excited to try it! Here's hoping he does navigate the legal landscape ahead!

 

[Dhelsdon]

It will be very interesting to see how this progresses, I believe it can be done it's just the whole legality of the situation with spoofing Apple servers and that type of thing. That in my opinion is where he's going to run into some sirious problems..

 

[Arisian]

It will be very interesting to see how this progresses, I believe it can be done it's just the whole legality of the situation with spoofing Apple servers and that type of thing. That in my opinion is where he's going to run into some sirious problems..

nice pun

I think they mentioned putting it on their own dedicated servers - Like @maturola mentioned, they are rewriting the protocol for it, so I don't see a major legal issue there since they would be re-writing all that code and then hosting it on a private server. That's why he/they considered charging for it because those hosting fees will be insane if even a fraction of the JB community comes on board. Think about it, even 25,000 people with 25 queries a day means the server is getting touched uniquely over 600,000 times - and thats probably a conservative estimate. Nonetheless, they'd need to offset that presumably...



Rewriting the app and then distributing - in whatever capacity that are doing it- it scares me.

 

[Rideherhard]

Ohh Apple why didn't you just make Siri part of iOS5 for iPhone4, 4S would still sell as strong as it is sales don't seem to be a problem for iPhones.

 

[Arisian]

Ohh Apple why didn't you just make Siri part of iOS5 for iPhone4, 4S would still sell as strong as it is sales don't seem to be a problem for iPhones.

Not sure that's entirely true - SIRI was listed as the 'most desirable feature' for people deciding to purchase the iPhone 4s - though I truly wish they'd have just given to us all... so I agree w/ you on that point.

 

[smotheredhope]

Apple will most certainly stop this from happening. Possibly by requiring all 4S phones to be updated in order for Siri to work, and them locking out non 4S phones from accessing the service.

Honestly, this project is nothing to get your hopes up with.

the problem with your argument is that it is the same argument that has been used for jailbreaking as a whole and in every manner since jailbreaking started.. Apple will MOST CERTAINLY stop this from happening.

It holds no water.

 

[johndallas999]

It holds no water.

That part made me lol! People love to throw out idioms for no reason at all.

 

[dgstan]

the problem with your argument is that it is the same argument that has been used for jailbreaking as a whole and in every manner since jailbreaking started.. Apple will MOST CERTAINLY stop this from happening.

It holds no water.

Totally agree. First of all, what percentage of current iPhone 4 users would bother to activate Siri if they could? And what percentage of those folks would even use Siri after a week of playing with her? Seriously, what percentage of iPhone 4s users see Siri as anything more than a fancy toy that has limited real-world use.

I don't see these servers Siri uses being overloaded. Apple might welcome the extra traffic so the servers don't go into sleep mode. After the initial excitement, I'm sure Siri will be regarded more as a marketing ploy than anything else.

 

[this is funah]

the main problem with this port is the communication to apple's servers... even if the hacker is successful, it will create a cat-and-mouse game within the cat-and-mouse game of jailbraking...

insert "yo dawg..." here.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Question: if you rewrote Siri from the ground up, and had it properly spoof the requisite data, could you legally utilize Apple's servers for the speech processing? Is there anything anywhere that says only Apple can use Apple's server farm?

I guess if you consider spoofing the outgoing signal to indicate it was coming from an A5 device, that could be viewed as faking authentication/credentials? Which I guess is inherently illegal? Even if you don't do anything malicious, breaking and entering is still illegal...

For those comparing this to jailbreaking...this is fundamentally different. Jailbreaking is client side. The client side work of a Siri port has been worked out, the problem is now server side. Completely different situation.

 

[maturola]

Well..They got it working without the need of a 3er party proxy server, which is good. IT seen to work real well. However it required a token from a 4S which is going to be a bitch to distributed.

Interesting to see what's to come.

Demo right next to the 4S (pretty cool to see the speed diference very small)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHQyV9JQzSw