The iPhone is a pretty big deal, and what’s an even bigger deal is the iPhone 4s that was just released this year in October 2011. What’s a good product without a little controversy behind it? So apparently the iPhone 4s has this thing called Siri. Siri is a female personal assistant that can find almost anything that you are looking for. Well almost anything. Apparently the female personal assistant has some personal opinions too. An article popped up on Yahoo! News the other day about the Siri not being able to direct someone to an abortion clinic. The American Civil Liberties Union asked for people to send emails to Apple saying that if Siri can help someone locate Viagra then she should be able to help locate contraceptives and an abortion clinic. They are not trying to imply that Apple is intentionally biased against abortion clinics but they find it rather disturbing that Siri is easily able to locate an “escort” but not the “pill”. This article was kind of funny to me.
Americans are so sensitive and touchy when it comes to topics such as gay rights and abortion and so on. It makes sense to be sensitive but at the same time Americans should not be so gung ho to assume people are doing things to intentionally harm another or disrespect another. I think that this whole thing was not done on purpose and probably just was not considered by the maker of Siri. I do not use Siri but I use things similar to it such as Google, White Pages and so on, that are supposed to help you locate certain things. When I use these apps I am not always guaranteed to get the results I want. It may be disappointing, especially to someone who is in desperate need of something. I am guessing if someone is trying to locate an abortion clinic then they were probably in pretty desperate need. I mean, you only have a certain window of opportunity to get an abortion anyways, but seriously. How many people do you think are going around getting angry at Google for not locating a place that sells a certain type of shampoo or something? I guess that if Apple is going to use something like Siri, than they should make sure it is able to perform in every way. Who’s to say that Apple intended for this to happen? If Apple were to include abortion clinics in Siri’s search I can almost guarantee that there would be an article criticizing Apple for it. Apple is a very strong company with a lot going for it. One function on the iPhone 4s will not be the end to a company such as this one. When people are out shopping for their Christmas presents and making their Christmas presents and adding the iPhone 4s to it, I am pretty positive they will not be erasing it from their lists because Siri won’t be able to locate them an abortion clinic. Nice try though.
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