Apple's tongue-tied Siri faces 'Singlish' rival

SINGAPORE'S SingTel has developed an application to rival the voice-activated Siri on the iPhone 4S that is sure to go down well in the island state - because it can understand "Singlish".

When Apple unveiled its latest handset earlier this month most of the talk was about Siri, which can give directions or even advice to users simply by asking a question into the speaker.

However, since the new phone went on sale there have been numerous reports of Siri either responding with a completely irrelevant answer or simply saying it does not understand.

YouTube videos of Siri misinterpreting the heavily accented words of iPhone 4S users in Japan - the first Asian country to get the device on October 14 - have been widely circulated on the Internet.

But Singapore Telecom (SingTel) says its new app, DeF!ND, will help Singaporeans who use "Singlish" - a localised form of English with words borrowed from Asian languages - avoid such problems.

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source: Tech Central

Female S'pore biker killed enroute to Phuket

A Singaporean motorcyclist was killed, and her friend badly injured, when they were hit by a car in Thailand on Thursday.

Charlene Jade Tay, in her early 30s, was riding with a group of five friends on their motorbikes toward Phuket at about 3pm when she was killed on impact, reported The New Paper.

Her friend, Anthony Chaw, broke both his hands and his right leg, and has been warded at Phuket International Hospital, where doctors there said they had performed emergency operations on him.

In the meantime, it is not yet known what injuries Tay had sustained, although arrangements are being made for her body to be returned to Singapore.

Tay, who was a creative director at advertising agency McCann Worldgroup, and her friends had left Singapore on Wednesday morning and had been due to return on Sunday.

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iPhone 4s invades Singapore

Higher launch prices notwithstanding, hundreds of iPhone fans queued up late Thursday night to be among the first people in Singapore to own Apple’s latest gizmo – the iPhone 4S.

Although the launch time stated by all telcos was Friday 12 midnight, some began queuing as early as 8.30am on Thursday to ensure that they get a place in the queue.

Full Article: http://bit.ly/sgYANe