Could theoretically put Siri on many devices

Developers at Applidium say they have cracked the security scheme behind Apple's Siri voice command system. Siri use is normally restricted to the iPhone 4S, although limited success has been had in bringing it to earlier iOS devices. Applidium, however, says it has managed to crack Siri in a way that could allow it to be inserted into apps on many different platforms, even Android.

A set of access tools has been released to developers. One catch however is even in cracked form Siri requires the UDID of a 4S, which tells Apple that a device is authorized. A UDID is relatively easy to obtain using Applidium's tools, but Apple could conceivably decide to block an identity if it decides activity is suspicious, creating havoc on multiple devices at once.

In investigating Siri, Applidium says it has learned several other details about how the technology works. Words spoken on the user's end are compressed using the VoIP-oriented Speex codec. The Siri protocol is also described as "very, very chatty," sending many pieces of information back and forth; when a person is using text-to-speech, for instance, Apple servers reportedly send back confidence scores, and timestamps for each word.

by MacNN Staff