Ask Siri where she was born and she’ll say that she was “designed by Apple in California,” but that’s only the half truth. She almost belonged on Android phones.

The brains behind this voice-activated personal assistant had signed a deal with Verizon in the fall of 2009, according to a lengthy Huffington Post feature.

The objective was to make Siri a default application for all of the carrier’s Android smartphones, which are of course powered by Apple’s chief rival, Google.

Apple, seeing the potential in Siri, didn’t just make a counteroffer, it bought Siri, Inc. This ensured exclusivity and killed any hope of Siri for Android phones in the future.

The most interesting part is just how far Verizon’s deal for Siri is said to have gone.

“Somewhere in the vaults of the wireless giant, there are unreleased commercials touting Siri as an Android add-on,” reported Huffington Post.

Before Siri for Android, iOS phones

Truthfully, Siri should credit the United States Department of Defense and its $150 million budget for its origin.

Apple’s artificial friend was spun out of a five-year, 500-person project by the Pentagon and Menlo Park, California’s non-profit research institute, SRI International, according to the expose.

The undertaking was “by any measure, the largest AI program in history,” said lead researcher David Israel.

As a start-up, Siri, Inc., initially launched its application as an independently developed iOS application before it was pulled from the App Store.

Apple then bought the 24-person company for a reported $150 to $250 million.


Siri updates in the future

Siri was updated with the launch of iPad 4 and rollout of of iOS 6 last year, adding new languages and the ability to open third-party apps, look up personalized sports stats, and send tweets.

In addition to expanding the way this personal assistant app is a “do engine,” Apple is looking to tweak the responses that Siri gives to commands.

The company is searching for a new writer to invoke a little more personality into its voice-activated application.

One thing that Siri will never properly respond to are questions about her almost-in-the-bag deal with Verizon that would have brought her to Android handsets.

She’ll just play coy and direct users to the nearest Verizon stores in the area. Sly.

Via Huffington Post

DIY: depending on your point of view, it's either the most pleasurable way to spend a weekend, or a necessary evil designed to keep you from indulging in more fun activities, such as having a root canal.

Whichever camp you fall into, there are ways to make DIY more enjoyable, such as having the right tools for the job, or knowing how to undertake whichever mind-numbing/exciting task you're about to embark upon.

While this once involved rummaging around in your toolbox or scanning your bookshelves for that Readers Digest DIY manual you got free in 1997, here in 2012 it means looking no further than your iPhone or iPad (unless the tool required is a hammer).

There are dozens of apps on the App Store that can either act as a surrogate measuring tool (think spirit level), provide a means of keeping track of large projects, allow you to work out how much paint or wallpaper you need, or instruct you in the dark arts of tiling a bathroom or wallpapering a, er, wall.There are even apps that allow you to design a completely new home, furnish it, and then walk through it in 3D.

How do you know which of these apps are worth the ticket price? We're glad you asked. It just so happens that we've had a root around the App Store, downloaded a bunch of them, discarded those that aren't up to scratch and found some essential iPhone and iPad apps for DIY.

Whether you're an enthusiast or the most reluctant of screwdriver-wielders, there's something for you here that will make the next wet Bank Holiday weekend a little easier to bear.

1. Handy Man DIY

Manage any DIY project from your iPhone

Price: £1.49 / $1.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Handy Man DIY aims to be a complete project manager for any project, be it building an extension or re-decorating a bedroom. It's organised so that you're led into creating individual tasks as soon as you create the project, getting you working as quickly as possible.

You assign materials to these tasks from the app's huge built-in library of options, and then you assign a cost to those materials in turn. Separately, you specify the dimensions of the room, plus openings such as doors and windows. The app can then automatically calculate the total area of the walls and floor, making it easy to see what you'll require. In this way, it's easy to see how much paint you'll need, for example.

There are also written tutorials and links to YouTube videos to help you complete trickier jobs without putting your hammer through anything too important.

It's not perfect, though. There's no way to easily display the area of individual walls, so while you can see the total amount of paint you'll need, you can't quickly tell how much you'll need just for that all-important feature wall. And though you can edit the individual unit prices for the materials stored in the app's database, you can't change the currency displayed from US dollars to anything else. Nor can you add new items to the database, although existing materials' names can be edited.

2. Home DIY with Craig Phillips 

Tips from the Big Brother winner - but don't let that put you off

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Whatever you think of the way that Craig Phillips first came to public attention (by winning the first series of Big Brother, outing Nasty Nick in the process), he's an engaging and knowledgeable DIY presenter. Home DIY with Craig Phillips contains a collection of videos from the cheeky Scouser himself, covering topics such as papering a wall, tiling and laying laminate flooring.

That's not all there is to this app, however. There's a Projects section that allows you to add images, create to-do and shopping lists, and has a Calculations section for working out how much paint, wallpaper, or how many tiles you'll need. There's a spirit level, too. Calculations can also be accessed with specific projects, to allow you to quickly work out how many, say, tins of magnolia you need to buy.

But it's for the videos that most will come to this app and - though we hesitate to make such a complaint about a free app - we'd love it if there were more of them. The five that are included are slickly presented and delivered with Phillips' typical charm and enthusiasm. Even if more videos were added as In-App Purchase packages, it would be a worthwhile addition.

Photo Measures
Never find yourself in the shop without those all-important room measurements again

Price: £2.99 / $4.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

It's a familiar tale. You're in the paint aisle of the DIY store, trying to figure out how many tins of Hawaii Sand you need to cover the living room walls and you've forgotten your notes. Well, no more!

Photo Measures allows you to take a picture of anything - a room (or at least part of it); the boat you've just sanded down; or that fence that needs weatherproofing - and annotate it with measurements. You can zoom in and out to make adding the required numbers easier, add notes, and create categories for photos. Once you're done, save the annotated photo to your Photo Library, or send it by email.

Then when you get to the shop and realise you can't remember the size of that window in the living room, just open the photo and there it is. It would be great if the app were able to calculate measurements from photos automatically, but given the hardware limitations, that's unrealistic. And you could just write the measurements in the Notes app, but to us, a visual reference is always preferable.

 Plumbing
Take the fear out fixing that leaky pipe with these helpful video guides

Price: 69p / 99¢
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Plumbing. Just the thought of it strikes fear into even the more intrepid DIY enthusiast. It conjures up images of rubber-gloved hands reaching into a pipe blocked up with who-even-knows-what, in order to stop the toilet spilling water over the bathroom floor.

Happily, that's where Plumbing, the app, comes in. It has video tutorials that show you how to fix common plumbing problems, from a toilet that won't flush properly to fixing a burst pipe. There are also videos for tasks like installing a water heater or waste disposal unit.

In addition, there's a glossary, and a written guide to common techniques, only with US phraseology. All the videos in Plumbing are taken from YouTube, and so accessible for free.

So, why pay for the app? Simple, because for 69p you can access videos that have been pre-selected and organised, thus saving you trawling through YouTube trying to find them. To us, that's 69p well spent.

Screwfix Toolbox 
A useful app that combines online shopping with tools and tips

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Screwfix isn't the only purveyor of DIY supplies to have its own app, but its effort stands head and shoulders above the others. It combines genuinely useful tools with online shopping and tutorials. The tools include a project cost calculator: enter the dimensions of the room you're painting, the patio your laying, or the fence you're erecting, and it will tell you how much of your chosen material you need and how much it will cost.

Another calculator works out the BTU/hour of any given room to allow you to decide how many radiators you'll need. There's also a spirit level and QR code scanner. That scanner can be used to scan adverts or in-store posters, in order to find out more about a product or to learn how to use it.

And Screwfix TV takes you to a library of 4,000 tutorial videos that will take you through how to do just about any DIY task you can dream up. A built-in catalogue would have been good, though.
DIY Cement

This app will have you mixing and laying in no time

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Thankfully, there's ready-mix concrete for those of us who don't spend our days on building sites, but you still need to know what to buy and how to use it properly. DIY Cement, from Lafarge Cement, has tutorials on everything from laying a patio to building a barbecue and fixing fence posts.

It'll tell you how to mix cement, how to build brickwork, and how to lay foundations. The tutorial videos are clear and easy to follow and will help anyone nervous about using cement for the first time. There's a cost calculator that will tell you which product you need how much of it you should order. And, of course, there's a store locator to help you find your nearest outlet.

There's a product catalogue and downloadable datasheets, but there's no way to order materials from the company within the app. That's unfortunate, because, otherwise this is an invaluable tool for work with cement.

Decor Advisor 
Find the perfect brush or roller for your painting job
Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Buying a paintbrush, sounds easy - just nip to the local DIY store and choose one that's the right size for the job. That is, until see the dozens of shelves stacked with brushes. Which to choose?

That's where Decor Advisor from brush and roller manufacturer Harris comes in. It will help you not only choose the right brush or roller for the job - a Harris model, of course - but tell you where your nearest Harris stockest is. In addition there are text-based tutorials (pictures would be helpful here) for tasks such as preparing walls, tiling and hanging wallpaper. Plus, there's a catalogue of Harris products.

It would have been useful to have prices, but since Harris is the manufacturer and not a retailer, any price stated would only have been a guide anyway. No decorating app would be complete without a cost calculator, naturally, and there's one on hand here.

Home 3D for iPad
Plan and visualise that new extension in three dimensions on your iPad

Price: £5.99 / $8.99
Works with: iPad

Home 3D's aim is nothing less than allowing you to build a 3D model of the room you want to refurbish, or the extension you plan to build, and then fill it with furniture. You can add wall and floor coverings, and view the results as either a two-dimensional plan or 3D model.

Home 3D comes with a library of fixtures, fittings and furniture that can be altered in size. You can use the floor or wall coverings supplied, or use any image in your Photo Library. Plans can be shared by Dropbox or email, and a walkthrough feature allows you to get a sense of your creation.

It's remarkably easy to use, too. Irregular rooms can be made by combining rectangles and removing walls. And if you get stuck there's no need to panic; there are video tutorials. Perhaps best of all is that all the content is included in the price. A remarkable app that's easier to use than many of its desktop counterparts.

iHandy Carpenter
Five very useful and beautifully rendered tools in one very useful app

Price: £1.49 / $1.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

iHandy Carpenter includes a spirit level; a surface level, for measuring how flat that patio you've just laid really is; a protractor to ensure that you come at everything from the correct angle; a plumb line to make sure that wallpaper hangs straight, and a ruler, for, er, measuring stuff. The tools are all easy to use and work brilliantly, thanks largely to the iPhone's own built-in sensors.

It's also beautifully rendered; for example, the spirit level works in landscape and portrait mode, as you would expect, but tilt the iPhone backwards beyond 45 degrees and the bubble changes form, as if you were looking down from directly above it.

Limitations are those inherent in the iPhone itself. It's not big enough to make a decent ruler, for example. And there are times when only a twofoot long spirit level will do. But other than that, it's terrific value and a lovely app.

Well, Facebook didn't reveal a new phone or operating system today - instead the social network announced a new Graph Search. This new feature offers a multitude of new ways to use Facebook's search function to help you find the right people, photos and more.

What is Graph Search?

You can still search in the usual way, but you can also ask Graph Search to find exactly what you're looking for. Launching now is the beta (or early) version of Graph Search, and it focuses on four areas: people, photos, places and interests. It's only available in U.S. English for now.

What is Graph Search?

Graph Search is a new way for you to find people, photos, places and interests that are most relevant to you on Facebook.
You'll be able to find others even though you may not know their name, as well as learn more about them and make connections. What's more, you can explore photos, quickly find places like local attractions and restaurants, and learn about friends' common interests such as music, movies and books.
Graph Search appears as a bigger search bar at the top of each page. As you start to type, suggestions appear in a drop down. You can refine your search using the tools on the right-hand side of the page.
"When you search for something, that search not only determines the set of results you get, but also serves as a title for the page," says Facebook director of engineering Lars Rasmussen. "You can edit the title – and in doing so create your own custom view of the content you and your friends have shared on Facebook."

What can you ask Graph Search?

Your Graph Search query can be very specific. One example given at Facebook's launch event was "people named Chris who are friends of Lars and went to Stanford" – so you really can find someone you met once and remember by mere association.
You can also use a search example like "my friends who like Lady Gaga" or "photos of Sue taken in Bristol in 2005."

Why has Facebook launched Graph Search?

Facebook says there are more than a billion people on the social network who have posted 240 billion photos and have more than a trillion connections. The company believes it needs to provide "the tools to map out their relationships with the people and things they care about." Facebook refers to this map as "the graph."
"When Facebook first launched, the main way most people used the site was to browse around, learn about people and make new connections," says Rasmussen. "Graph Search takes us back to our roots and allows people to use the graph to make new connections."
 

Is Graph Search taking on Google?

Graph Search and web search are very different, explains Rasmussen. "Web search is designed to take a set of keywords (for example: 'hip hop') and provide the best possible results that match those keywords.
"With Graph Search you combine phrases (for example: "my friends in New York who like Jay-Z") to get that set of people, places, photos or other content that's been shared on Facebook. We believe they have very different uses."

What about Graph Search privacy?

Facebook says that Graph Search has been built with privacy in mind, primarily because often it's searching content that's very appropriate to you, but its completely different from something that somebody else would see if they did the same search.
According to Facebook, the Graph Search "respects the privacy and audience of each piece of content on Facebook," meaning you'll only see results you could already see elsewhere on Facebook.

What's next for Graph Search?

The social network says they're "very early" in the development of Graph Search. It's only available in the U.S. today, and you can search for only a subset of content on Facebook – people, photos, places and interests only at the moment. Posts and some auto-generated content – such as song plays from Spotify – can't yet be searched.

What are some example Graph Searches?

People: "friends who live in my city"; "people from my hometown who like hiking"; "friends of friends who have been to Yosemite National Park"; "software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing"; "people who like things I like"; "people who like tennis and live nearby"

Photos: "photos I like"; "photos of my family"; "photos of my friends before 1999"; "photos of my friends taken in New York"; "photos of the Eiffel Tower"

Places: "restaurants in San Francisco"; "cities visited by my family"; "Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India"; "tourist attractions in Italy visited by my friends"; "restaurants in New York liked by chefs"; "countries my friends have visited"

Interests: "music my friends like"; "movies liked by people who like movies I like"; "languages my friends speak"; "strategy games played by friends of my friends"; "movies liked by people who are film directors"; "books read by CEOs"

Facebook’s long-rumored phone ishere, though probably not in the way most had imagined. In fact, it looks exactly like the phone you already have.

Using software, rather than hardware, the latest update of Facebook’s Messenger app now lets U.S. users place voice calls over WiFi. The rollout follows reports of Facebook testing voice call features in Canada earlier this month.

To use the feature, Facebook users must hit the “i” info icon in the corner or a conversation or contact information page. That panel has a “Free Call” button that you can use if your friend has the latest version of the iPhone app.

The company slowly has been building out the features available in chat — most notably with the 2011 Skype partnership that put video calling on the Web version of its site. When it released Facebook Messenger last fall, it became even clearer that messaging and mobile applications were priorities for the company.

Rumors of a Facebook phone have been circulating for year, despite statements from Facebook, its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and analysts saying that making a physical phone isn’t a good idea for the network.

It does make sense for Facebook to make it easy for users to contact their online networks. But the smartphone industry is not an easy one to crack. Apart from the fact that Facebook hasn’t made hardware in the past, the telecommunications world has lots of complicated barriers to entry such as dealing with carriers and the challenge of taking on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems. Facebook also could go the partnership route, but it’s already done that with the not-so-successful HTC Status.

Consumers are increasingly looking for companies and devices that give them a rich, complete experience rather than those that do a single thing. Take, for instance, the iPod, which has had to become a still and video camera in addition to playing music to hang on in a post-iPhone era.

By going the software route, Facebook can step neatly around those issues. And it’s not alone, as was clear from the growing software and content focus at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show. Much of the tech industry is using this same approach — software, not hardware — to test the appeal of features without getting entrenched in building, marketing and drawing users to their gadgets..!

The tech press started buzzing earlier this month with reports that Facebook planned to add VoIP (voice over IP) calling to its Messenger app for the iPhone. The new feature officially arrived Tuesday, when Facebook released an update for its app.

 Facebook's app transmits calls using your phone's broadband connection, whatever it is -- 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. Instead of sucking up your monthly allotted voice minutes from your cellular carrier, it sucks up megabytes from your data plan. That's a boon for heavy talkers with unlimited data plans.

This is nothing new or technologically groundbreaking: Skype was doing it long before Facebook. Facebook has many more active users than Skype, though, and the allure of having to use one less network or app will appeal to some (perhaps many).

But it's not all roses just yet. For now, this is a pretty limited offering.

Your phone won't alert you the way it does when you have a normal call: Facebook calls just show up as a push notification. And right now, you can only connect with a conversation partner who also has Messenger installed on their iPhone.

There's no way to ring up a Facebook friend who is logged in through the website, and there isn't any way to place a call to a ten-digit phone number. Calling is still absent from the Android and BlackBerry versions of the Messenger app.

There's a good reason for those omissions. The VoIP features in the Web version of Facebook were built using Skype's technologies, while the calling technology in Messenger is all Facebook. The ability to place and receive calls using traditional phone numbers requires telecommunications resources Facebook doesn't have (at the moment, at least).

For the time being, services such as Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) Voice and Skype have a leg up, given their larger feature sets. But Facebook generally doesn't let anything remain in stasis for long. As we've seen in the past -- and caught a glimpse of yesterday with the Graph Search reveal -- Facebook likes to start small, and steadily flesh out its products. Expect the same with voice calling.

And unlike Google Voice and Skype (which is owned by Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)), Facebook is 100% platform neutral. Facebook (FB) doesn't care if you use its app on an iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry or something crazy like Ubuntu.

In a time when every company is saving the best features of its products for its own mobile ecosystem, Facebook has the opportunity to both usurp its direct competition and build out a telecom-slaying voice service.