A prankster tampered with a demo model of an iPhone in a Coventry supermarket so that anyone trying out the Siri voice technlogy could expect an earful of abuse in return.
The Sun reports that a 12-year-old boy was subjected to an ‘obscene tirade’ by the demo iPhone 4S smartphone when he tried to test out its voice technology in a Tesco store in Coventry.
The lad certainly wasn’t expecting the answer he got when he asked the iPhone “How many people are there in the world?”, with the phone telling him to: “Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***.”
Looking suitably po-faced, his mother Kim, 39, posed for a photo for The Sun and commented:
“The phone was a demo version and was low enough on the shelf for Charlie to have a go with it. He asked it a simple question and we couldn’t believe the filth it came out with.
“I thought I must be hearing things. So we asked again and the same four-letter stuff blared out.
“I asked for the manager and after staff heard it they agreed to unplug it.”
Apologetic Tesco staff explained that Apple’s Siri system addresses the phone’s user by whatever name the owner has entered into its contact system – and clearly someone had tampered with their demo model.
Tesco say that they have launched an investigation, adding, ” The handset will be going back to Apple for diagnostic tests.”
