Voice Control

The list of devices Siri can voice control is getting longer thanks to the efforts of developers who are thinking outside of the iPhone 4S box. It all started when Applidium reverse engineered the Siri protocol and posted the files for anyone to use.

A developer named plamoni took the process a step further by creating an extensible Siri proxy server, which allows Siri to interact with other devices on a network without jailbreaking the iPhone. He successfully used his iPhone 4S to control a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat using the software.

The fact that Siri is limited to the iPhone 4S is a huge limitation for some users who would like to use the technology for other applications. Desktop computer software designed for voice dictation of text with similar accuracy to Siri can be expensive. Luckily, there's a method to use all of the power of Siri on your iPhone 4S to dictate words to any text field on your Mac, Windows or Linux computer.

This can come in incredibly handy for writing reports or composing outgoing emails in a hurry. No jailbreaking or other tricks are required, the process is made possible by a $1.99 iPhone app known as Mobile Mouse. Even the lite version available for free works if you don't mind a few advertisements.

Basic commands to Siri are useful, but how can you take your personal assistant to the next level on the iPhone 4S? There are a variety of tips and tricks that will help Siri become more powerful and better at doing its job. Not only will these pointers speed up simple tasks, but they open up a whole new level of functionality with Siri.

Of course, you'll need a data connection for Siri to work properly. We've noticed that Siri drops in accuracy dramatically when background noise is present, so plan accordingly. If you're still using an older iOS device you may not have Siri, but you can try one of several Siri alternatives for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Here's a list of 10 tips to get more out of Siri:

For those iPhone owners who haven't made the jump to the iPhone 4S, you may be wondering how you can get access to the most hyped iOS 5 feature around: the Siri personal assistant. Siri may bring voice commands and interaction with your smartphone to a whole new level, but Apple has limited the feature to its latest hardware. Even though developers have ported Siri to run on the iPhone 4, the software will not communicate with Apple's servers unless it's on the iPhone 4S.

The original Siri app, formerly available on the App Store to both iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users is now defunct. Not only has it been pulled from the store, but if you have it installed on your iPhone the software no longer works. So what is an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS user to do? Here are some alternatives to Siri that will get you talking to your older iPhone in no time.

Apple is set to release iOS 5 this fall and with it a long list of new features. Some of these have been announced by Apple while others have been discovered by developers. One major change on the horizon falls into the latter category: deep voice recognition integration with the entire iPhone iOS system.

New screenshots have been revealed by 9to5mac showing how speech-to-text functionality is built into iOS 5. Although speech transcription has been rumored for some time, it's possible these screenshots show parts of iOS 5 that will not be released by Apple in the final version.