When Apple first demonstrated Siri on stage, it was pretty impressive, although those first impressions quickly dissipated once the phone and the function was put to the test in real life situations.
Over the years Apple has been making various improvements to Siri, to make it better at understanding its users and to be more responsive, and a recent acquisition by Apple is proof that the Cupertino company is actively doing something to improve it.
According to a recent report from TechCrunch, it seems that back in 2013, Apple bought a company called Novauris Technologies, a company comprised of former Dragon Systems R&D members and also a company which is known for automatic speech recognition. The acquisition apparently took place in September last year and the members of the company are now reportedly working on Siri.
Apple has since semi-confirmed the acquisition through a statement which reads, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” The company’s CEO, Yoon Kim’s LinkedIn profile, seems to corroborate it. It is true though that Apple is pretty quiet about its acquisitions and tends not to make too big a fuss about them.
We’re not sure if Novauris’ work can already be felt in Siri at the moment or if the team is still working on pushing out a big update and major changes, but either way for iOS users, you can rest assured knowing that Apple is working towards making Siri better than ever, and in the face of Microsoft’s recently announced Cortana, the competition is getting heated up.
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