Siri

I haven't got an iPhone 4S, and probably won't have one anything soon. Hilary's contract is up sooner, she might get one to replace her aging 3GS. I am, however, very intrigued by the neat addition: Siri, the voice-recognizing, speech synthesizing personal assistant. Ask her a question in natural english, get an answer. It's not a new idea (a mainstay of sci-fi for the last 75 years, I'd say). It's not new to personal electronics (Android has had something similar for a few years now). It isn't even new to Apple (my powermac G3 in college, sporting OS 9, had a short list of speakable commands). But this appears to be the most sophistocated and natural implementation to date. David Pogue has a good writeup here.

But, of course, it wouldn't be new whiz-bang technology without being (mis)used for lowbrow fun and entertainment. I present you with this compilation of odd conversations Joshua Topolsky has had with his iPhone recently. Example below from his blog: