Singapore’s SingTel has developed an application to rival the voice-activated Siri on

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.

iPhone 4S Siri does not understand the Japanese English and reacts in a very funny manner when a users tries to use it. LOL!

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.

SingTel said DeF!ND is a localised Siri-like application that is able to decipher uniquely Singaporean accents, names and locations.

It made its public debut at the stroke of midnight Thursday, when SingTel Singapore chief executive Allen Lew gave it an instruction in a decidedly local accent as he launched the iPhone 4S in the city-state.

DeF!ND will be available for free on the Android platform and Apple’s iTunes “soon,” a Singtel spokesman said.

How dare it not interpret Asian accents properly! Everyone sure makes fun of them enough!

Source AFP