14 DAY TRIAL // Developers @euwars and @rud0lf77 are spreading the word via Twitter an YouTube that they’ve managed to put Siri, the iOS 5 personal assistant app, on non-supported hardware, including a fourth-generation iPod touch.
Siri has already been ported to old-gen devices with more or less positive results, but everyone attempting to put the personal assistant on the A4 processor seems eager to prove that Apple’s only reason to limit Siri to iPhone 4S was to get people to upgrade.
This theory seems to hold water also because of Apple's decision not to include Siri with the iPad 2 version of iOS 5. After all, the tablet does boast the A5 chip found inside the iPhone 4S.
In fact, if iPhone 4S teardown analysts are to be believed, the iPad 2’s A5 is even higher clocked than the version inside the smartphone, so there shouldn’t be any technical reasons blocking Siri from getting inside the iPad 2.
Unless, that is, if Apple made improvements to the microphone on the iPhone 4S. Perhaps the assistant requires a best-of-breed mic to understand all those accents and silly talk.
And, as some defenders have opined, perhaps the iPhone 4S boasts additional hardware needed to run Siri at high quality levels.
All that is known for now is that Siri can be ported pretty much onto any iDevice but that it won’t be fully functional because it can’t talk to Apple’s servers. Only one developer claims to have done it, but we’re still expecting proof of that.
In the meanwhile, we’re left with enticing video demonstrations such as the one below the fold.
For those who don’t know Siri all that well, I suggest you head over to Apple’s site and watch the demo video. It knocks the socks off any description I’d come up with on the spot.
