The iPhone 4S is on sale today, but with one Siri-ous drawback -- UK folk trying out voice-controlled service Siri can't look up local stuff.
Siri is a voice-control feature that lets you ask the 4S questions, such as, "Do I need an umbrella today?" Siri is designed to be a bit cleverer than most voice control -- which handles voice commands such as "Call Billy Bob" -- and can look up shops, places and other stuff that are near you.
At least it can in the US. Here in the UK, Siri's local maps and look-ups don't work yet. That's because Apple doesn't have a deal with a UK-focused provider of local information.
In the US, the service is powered by Yell. Come on Yell, Yelp, Qype and Wupe (we made that last one up) pull your finger out and do a deal with Apple so we can start barking orders at Siri.
Until Siri gets some UK love, you can still look up local services using good old-fashioned Google Maps.
Did you head out early to get your 4S? Have you given Siri a try? Share your first impressions in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Our full review of the 4S will be live later today, so keep it CNET UK for all the details. In the meantime, take a look inside the iPhone 4S, check out our up-to-the-minute iPhone 4S price comparison, and try out our super-handy iOS 5 and iCloud how-to guide.
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Comments 25
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anonymous 14 October, 2011 10:55
Anyone including SIRI can get the Free Qype API for 12 million places / 5 million items of customer UGC in Europe here:
http://www.qype.co.uk/developers/api
Non-compete companies can apply for the unlimited PRO Key
anonymous 14 October, 2011 11:15
It's ok, Siri is just as useless in Australia, when I spoke to Apple they said perhaps in a future update.......mine actually says I can only look up businesses in the USA, and when your using U.S, English, Sorry about that...........but, on the brighter side, it produces a button that says seach the web for my voice query.........That still sounds like false advertising.
charlesharley 14 October, 2011 11:16
Very happy that the new iPhone looks the same. A few upgrades inside, but no new-smartphone envy here.
Jimboo 14 October, 2011 11:31
Mine's arriving today, and I won't even be able to use Siri properly!?
charlesharley 14 October, 2011 11:55
ok little bit of envy...
charlesharley 14 October, 2011 11:55
just a touch
anonymous 14 October, 2011 12:44
no dount there will be an update for the UK
Simon Fong 14 October, 2011 12:44
LOL!
"The most amazing iphone phone yet" - REALLY?!?
So what you do is take away Siri from iphone 4 users (yes, you could download it as an app, but they've taken that away from you so you have to buy an iphone 4S) and yet no deal has even been done in UK (that's going to take some time!)
False advertising much?
And yet no doubt the sheep will be queuing for it...
BLEAT BLEAT!
Jimboo 14 October, 2011 12:44
Well I have mine right in front of me now, but I haven't opened it yet. Haven't touched the packaging. I want to know more about what us in the UK aren't going to get first, Siri was the USP.
anonymous 14 October, 2011 12:59
It's been confirmed that Siri doesn't recognise regional English accents and, like the Australian poster earlier, is not fully functional in the UK.
It only has 512MB of RAM, the same as the iPhone 3 & 4, on a dual core phone. This is only half of it's main rival, the Samsung Galaxt SII.
The 1GHz processor has been set to underclock to only 800 MHz. This is only two thirds of the Galaxy SII
Still no Flash Player in the web browser. So you cannot see the web as you would on other smartphones.
Still no Bluetooth file transfer. So, no sharing stuff like audio or photo's with the majority of the worlds other phones.
The only amazing thing is the hype generated by it thanks to Apple's publicity machine.
Oh, and last but not least, it looks identical to the iPhone 3 & 4. So no-one is going to know you have the 4S... unless you keep telling them!
anonymous 14 October, 2011 20:30
just face it... the iphone/ipad is never gonna get flash player. the minute they do, websites like miniclip and megavideo will allow people to play games and watch movies and tv shows meaning less people downloading apps and stuff off itunes. its just business...
Michal MIchal 15 October, 2011 16:02
loooool android 4ever :DDD
anonymous 15 October, 2011 22:14
galaxy S2 sucks, keeps crashing, restarted and its laggy as hell once you fill it with apps. Iphone must more user friendly, better IOS, and I wouldnt use the siri locations as
anonymous 16 October, 2011 09:44
Haha Mr "I love the GSII" put your phone next to a 4s and see how much quicker the 4s is on browsing. I sell all phones, and quite simply, the 4s is the most advanced smartphone on the market.
anonymous 17 October, 2011 10:19
I Just bought the Iphone 4s . It have a nice camera and does pritty good pictures and videos. But Siri is not perfect. It still make some mistakes. And he cant do to many things. Like delete mail and read mail. Delete notes or mesages. And I cant use siri properly because I live in UK. That makes me crazy. If ur asking to find something , he tells me that hes not able to look for places in uk. So I hope theyr be added soon,because without that the phone is a bit uselles.
anonymous 20 October, 2011 04:38
Siri is not fully functional in the US either. If you have a British accent it disables most features.
anonymous 23 October, 2011 17:53
Got My Iphone 4s,, amazed with performance but not happy with Battery life.. called Customer support. They asked me to turn of location based services, Wife, and network data exchange if not in use. They clearly meant by this that the Battery cant handle the performance Load. This was kind of unexpected as I heard something different In their Iphone 4s product launch conference video.
anonymous 24 October, 2011 09:29
I have a I phone 4s and I think its awesome, give Apple a break, they just released Siri so you going to have to wait for it to get better, but is pretty cool what it does, like you can ask how many calories,Protein or carbs in a certain type of food and it will let you know, it also can calculate equations for you as you speak to it, you can use the voice activating system for texts, facebook updates etc which is great if you drive!!!
Great games which amazing graphics, real racing 2 has almost Xbox or ps3 graphics and you can also play online, how cool is that?
Camera is a 8 mpixels amazing quality and video is also 1080p, yeah the phone still looks the same as the 4 in looks, but to me it looks better and smarter than any android phone, but the interior is a complete different monster much faster oh and the I cloud is great as well because you can delete your music thought your phone and re-download and purcharged stuff you have in the past.
anonymous 26 October, 2011 10:58
I also have the iPhone 4s and why give us Siri if it doesnt work as this phone is Nationwide is it not. Nationwide means you can use the phone ANYWHERE surely including the functions I am not happy at all. Sort it out Apple.
anonymous 29 October, 2011 00:36
I was confused and still am to buy an apple i phone 4s or samsung sII.IF siri does not work in uk then this publicity is hpeless.so wa do you suggest? which one
anonymous 31 October, 2011 12:39
Siri is waste of time....!
anonymous 24 November, 2011 00:57
For those who complain that there is no Flash on iPhones think again: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/09/adobe-flash-mobile-dead Bye bye flash, hello HTML5.
Even Adobe say is crap! OED
anonymous 3 December, 2011 16:24
flash is dead... why would anyone want to access flash via a mobile device? It's called HTML5 and mobile optimised sites that renders the need for multiple apps across multiple devices null void. Any fully functional website still using flash need to scrap it anyway, so why would you want your device opening up flash across old, 3G networks??? As for Galaxy, seriously? As for android, seriously? Both are such terribly cheap, built devices, I've just upgraded to 4S from my 3GS, the 3GS after two years of usage still looks brilliant. That's testament to the quality of build. Android apps? None fully approved, 90% laden and crippled by bugs? Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and accept the iPhone is serious kit which is why it's so ubiquitous. It's like the Ford focus, it's annoyingly reliable and everywhere, because of how good it is for the job in hand. Same applies to apple.
anonymous 21 January, 2012 18:12
It does understand what you say to it most of the time however, it takes a lot of tie to respond back. The french Siri has a better and more entertaining personality than the English version. I am disappointed I spend £500 on an iphone that isn't even able to look up for a restaurant in the UK!
The first day I got my iphone, I went on siri and it crashed as soon as I said hello!
Apple could have done a better job, You can only get a response from siri if you ask it to set a reminder, send a text or call someone and if you ask to call a person but you have three person with the same name on your phone, it will keep asking you who do you want to call no matter how many times you say that person's name.
Beside Siri, the iphone itself is pretty fast, feel a little bit heavier than the previous iphones, which I find good. Appearance does cost alot because personally I don't think it is worth the price they are selling it for. Human just follow each other, that's our instinct and media and business know that! We are just dumb fools to send our hard earn money (only to some of us because most people in the UK are either on benefit or they are simply stinking rich) to look glamorous.
anonymous 29 January, 2012 14:08
to me, the 4s seems like a pointless upgrade unless your running an older device like a 3 or 3gs.
siri will be great at some point but i think they are way off at the moment (jailbreak community will be a big part of this, some great tweaks coming out for it). and as for keeping siri just on 4s, well if apple sticks to this plan i think that would just kill siri, to make it useful it needs the iphone community as whole to start using it ( all iphones that can run it 3, 3gs, 4, 4s) to make it part of the iphone culture and experience otherwise it's just another gimmick that will eventually fade out.
anyone who wants to run flash on a mobile device (ios, android, windows 8), please behave thats like using a stone age tool compared to html5. HTML5 for the win boys and girls.