Siri

Your iPhone has been brainwashed, reprogrammed even. Apple is putting words in Siri's mouth. That seems to be what a Nokia spokeswoman has said about Siri's response on which smartphone is tops. Apple offers Siri up as an intelligent assistant, "but clearly if they don't like the answer, they override the software," said Nokia spokeswoman Tracy Postill, according to the Sydney Morning Herald . Last week, a video and post made the rounds showing how Siri pointed to Nokia's Lumia 900 when asked about the top phone.

The ride-sharing service Lyft launched in 24 more cities Thursday, growing its total presence to 60 cities across the U.S. The company also cut the price of fares by 10% in all markets as it seeks to continue increasing ridership. Thursday's announcement is easily the company's most aggressive expansion so far, and for the next two weeks, users in the new cities will be able to take rides with Lyft for free. The bulk of the new areas added Thursday were mid-size cities around the country.

Siri has had her visitor badge revoked at IBM. Apparently she can't keep quiet about what she hears. Although IBM has allowed the iPhone 4S and other employee-owned consumer smartphones and tablets, like so many other companies barraged by their smartphone-toting workers,  company Chief Information Officer Jeanette Horan has said it's been more of a migraine than a cost-saving solution. "We found a tremendous lack of awareness as to what constitutes a risk," Horan recently told MIT's Technology Review .  Now they're trying to educate their employees.

New code found within Apple's software seems to indicate the tech giant will be bringing its Siri voice assistant to the next version of the Apple TV, a report Wednesday said. That may mean that Apple will compete against the new $99 Amazon Fire TV for customers on the high-end of the video-streaming market. The Amazon Fire TV was announced and released earlier this month. It can stream audio and video from services such as Netflix and Pandora the same way other gadgets in this market do. But unlike many of its rivals, the Fire TV also comes with voice search and the ability to play video games.

A new pair of ads for iPhone 4S may have personal assistants around town a little concerned. Siri has gone Hollywood, helping celebrities figure out things like rain and where to find organic mushrooms. In a departure from Apple's earlier ads that used celebrities only for warm and authoritative voice-overs, a couple of new TV ads feature actor Samuel L. Jackson and "New Girl" actress Zooey Deschanel engaging with Siri. Fans note that Sam Jackson doesn't curse and Zooey Deschanel doesn't sing in these ads. You'll have to wait for the parodies that will certainly come.

Samsung's S Voice, a Siri-like feature that was supposed to be one of the main attractions of its upcoming Galaxy S III, has leaked. The company announced its upcoming phone and the feature earlier this month, and the device is scheduled to begin selling in Europe next week. "The Galaxy S is more like a good friend that listens to you and responds quickly," Samsung vice president Jean Daniel said regarding the S Voice feature at the Galaxy S III announcement, according to ABC News . But the S Voice feature has reportedly been leaked and can run on any device operating on Android's latest OS version, called Ice Cream Sandwich.  The feature can be downloaded and installed on devices such as the Galaxy Nexus and work the way it's supposed to, according to website Redmond Pie . With the launch of the device so near, the news cannot be good for Samsung.

Siri isn't just a pretty voice with the answers. It's also been recording and keeping all the questions users ask. Exactly what the voice assistant does with the data isn't clear, but Apple confirmed that it keeps users' questions for up to two years. Siri, which needs to be connected to the Internet to function, sends all of its users' queries to Apple. Apple revealed the information after Wired posted an article this week raising the question and highlighting the fact that the privacy statement for Siri wasn't very clear about how long that information is kept or what would be done with it. Technically Apple keeps Siri user data for six months, associating that data with the user.

In a new ad, the voice of iPhone 4S meets the embodiment of all things eerie and slightly off-kilter - John Malkovich. Really and truly, the ad made me nervous for Siri. Typically scenes that start with the "Un bel dì vedremo" aria from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" echoing through the room (think "Fatal Attraction"), Malkovich sipping coffee and asking one-word questions while exhaling audibly usually don't end well for the others in them. I know most of us who have seen "Being John Malkovich" hope Siri answers his single-word queries with "Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.

Siri may be talking to more devices in the near future, according to a patent Apple filed. The patent application suggests that Apple may be looking at connecting and controlling devices via Siri on the iPhone. In the filing, Apple wrote:"Portable electronic devices, such as digital media players, personal digital assistants, mobile phones, and so on, typically rely on small buttons and screens for user input. Such controls may be built into the device or part of a touch-screen interface, but are typically very small and can be cumbersome to manipulate....

For two years, she was the voice of Apple, giving directions to iPhone users and sometimes responding with quirky comments. At times Siri became butt of jokes on late-night TV, and all along, iPhone users wondered who was behind the voice. Ponder no more. Thanks to CNN , Apple fans finally know who voiced the feature. Her name is Susan Bennett, and she is a voice-over actress who lives in Atlanta. Bennett told CNN she has done countless voice gigs since the '70s, many of which have been used for commercial jingles, GPS systems and even as the voice customers hear at Delta Air Lines terminals.

Look out, Siri. Watch your back, Google Now. Here comes Cortana. At its annual Build 2014 conference on Wednesday, Microsoft took the wraps off Windows Phone 8.1. The new features include a personal digital assistant called Cortana.  Cortana is Microsoft's challenge to voice-activated services such as Google Now and Apple's Siri. The new Cortana will be powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine. Users will be able to use a feature called a "Notebook" which will let them decide exactly which things Cortana should keep track of. They can also select quiet hours during which Cortana won't bug them.

Some Apple users in England are bloody upset after the company changed the voice of their version of Siri. When the Cupertino tech giant released the iOS 7.1 update for iPhones and iPads earlier this week, it introduced a new female voice option for British users. However, the male voice was changed, to the displeasure of numerous users. VIDEO: Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 a powerful tablet but isn't a laptop substitute Users who want to hear the difference between old British Siri, new male British Siri and female British Siri, can check out them out in this YouTube video . The change to male British Siri led one user to post a eulogy titled " In Loving Memory of British Siri " for the old version on the Apple sub-reddit.

Hands-free is so last year. For 2013, Apple's Eyes Free voice commands have started to trickle into new cars. On Tuesday, Honda announced it would be the latest automaker to bring Siri into your daily commute. The 2013 and 2014 Honda Accord and the 2013 Acura ILX and RDX will all be available with this voice-activated system as a dealer-installed accessory, Honda said. "With technology becoming further integrated into people's lives, we are happy to provide next-generation connectivity and meet our customer's ever-changing needs,” Art St. Cyr, vice president of Honda's product planning and logistics, said in a statement.

Deep in post-production on his weird but wonderful sci-fi romance "Her" this past March, Spike Jonze made the difficult decision to - as the old editing edict goes - kill one of his darlings. The nuanced vocal performance turned in by British actress Samantha Morton, who was portraying a Siri-esque computer operating system who finds herself in a state of deep romantic longing with Joaquin Phoenix's lovelorn, all-too-human divorced character, in the end "wasn't right" for the film.

Susan Bennett, a 64-year-old Zumba-loving Atlanta suburbanite, shocked tech geeks, over-connected teens and men attracted to the sound of her digital voice when she revealed this month that she is the original voice of Siri, the iPhone persona who helped Zooey Deschanel identify the sound of rain and Samuel L. Jackson find organic mushrooms for his risotto. She has a storyline on "The Big Bang Theory" and makes the seemingly far-fetched premise of Spike Jonze's upcoming film "Her," about a man who falls in love with the voice of his phone's operating system, not so unbelievable.

She's helped Zooey Deschanel identify the sound of rain . She's helped Samuel L. Jackson find organic mushrooms for his risotto. Now Susan Bennett, the woman coming forth as the voice of Apple's steadfast assistant Siri, is going to answer our questions (and yours ) today in a live chat. But it looks like Bennett took driving directions from Siri because she's going to be a bit late. The chat will now start at 3:00 p.m. Pacific. Apple recently updated its mobile operating software, iOS 7, replacing the original Siri voice in the U.S. with a male and new female voice.

Could Apple's mobile assistant, Siri, be making the jump to the company's line of Mac computers? It could happen, reports suggested. Nine to 5 Mac reported signs indicating that while Siri might not join Apple's Macs soon its related feature, Dictation, might. Dictation, which debuted with this year's line of iPads, appears in apps that use a keyboard and enables users to speak rather than type to create text. Programming code inside the latest version of Safari on Apple's upcoming operating system, Mountain Lion, show evidence that Dictation could be added to Mac computers, 9 to 5 Mac reported.

If you think your smartphone's fancy voice recognition software lets you text safely while you are driving, think again. A new study by Texas A&M University's Transportation Research Institute suggests that far from making drivers safer, the practice takes longer than manually texting and does nothing to reduce distracted driving. The study was reported in PC magazine: “Texting,” concluded the study's author, Christina Yager, “is not an activity that should be coupled with driving.” Yet who among us - meaning, me - has not texted while behind the wheel, all the while promising to stop ... right after I send just one more text?

Joining the ranks of famous disembodied voices of the world, such as Mr. Moviefone and Don LaFontaine,  Atlanta voice actress Susan Bennett has stepped forward as the voice of Siri. Yes, that's the often-mocked, sometimes helpful voice assistant on Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Finally satisfying the curiosity of tech geeks, Apple obsessives and pop-culture bloggers, Bennett told CNN that she provided the original talents for the feature that first appeared on the iPhone 4S in 2011.  Bennett's intonations have also been heard in commercials, on phone systems and in airport terminals.  PHOTOS: Biggest tech flops of 2013 - so far The Siri voice has been the subject of wide parody.