Yesterday after the iPhone 4S announcement, Apple’s websites went live with descriptions of new features. Absent on Apple.ca was any mention of Siri–even in the accompanying promotional video. This omission resulted in people asking whether Siri would be available in Canada or not.
Canadian Jim Dalrymple from The Loop confirmed Siri would be available in Canada, as per what Apple employees told him at the Let’s Talk iPhone event. Still, people were hesitant to believe the inclusion of Siri in Canada because Apple PR told sites such as Macgasm ‘there is not a Canadian version of Siri’.
What does this mean exactly? Gillian Shaw from the Vancouver Sun reaffirms and clarifies Siri will be available in Canada, based on the similar email she received from Apple PR rep Tara Hedela:
“Siri will support English (US, UK and Australia), French and German. There is not a Canadian version of Siri.”
If you still don’t believe Siri is coming to Canada, the following explanation by Gillian should clarify it:
Siri will be on the iPhone 4S sold in Canada and as with the phones sold in other countries on Oct. 14, it will come with versions for English for the US, the United Kingdom and Australia as well as French and German. So when you turn on a new iPhone 4S here, Siri will be there and you can choose from one of those languages. If you choose American English, presumably Siri will understand most of what you say — just don’t use ‘eh a lot. If you choose French, it is the French of France, not Quebec.
Hence, Apple is not including Siri on its Canadian web site because, strictly speaking, there is no Canadian version of Siri. Apparently that is still to come. The fact that Apple released Siri as a beta version gives some indication the iPhone 4S release date came ahead of Siri’s readiness to make her debut.
In other words, the use of Canadian terms such as ‘igloo’, ‘poutine’, ‘maple syrup’, ‘hockey’, ‘eh’, ‘back bacon’, ‘John Candy’, ‘Celine Dion’, and others (what else am I forgetting??) might not register in Siri because there is no “Canadianized” version either in English or French, just as The Loop originally mentioned.
So there you have, Siri is coming to the iPhone 4S in Canada. Case, closed.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
That’s CRAP!!!
why can’t they put this on iPhone 4 with iOS 5???????
because it not have the new A5 chipset.
Nope, jail breakers are working on siri for iPhone 4 and other iOS devices 🙂
I bet someone will crack it and put it on cydia for the other iPhone. Why not? I don’t see how a Voice recognition software would need such a high CPU .. It’ll work on the other phones itll just take a bit longer to compute what u say
Wait–the PR rep said “English (US, UK and Australia)”. So why do we have to use “US English” specifically? Couldn’t we use UK English?
seriously, it won’t understand you if you use UK English. besides you would have to pronounce everything wrong lol the best bet is US, as its the same pronunciation you are use to with television, you know the thing that basically makes us all sound the same anyway.
eff that, I’m gopnna learn to speak british! I can’t be the only one that sets their GPS on foreign accents, am I?
Depends if they mean the speech-to-text (British spelling) or voice recognition. If the latter, Canadian pronunciation is far closer to American than British or Australian, even with the all the regional dialects.
Wow, that’s annoying. I don’t want my phone correcting ‘favourite’ to ‘favorite’ in my text messages and stuff. Are there separate settings for voice recognition and text?
Gary you crack me up. No inclusion of maple syrup or hockey ahaha
🙂
Siri will be fine.
It’s pronunciation that will likely be the problem.
Example:
American – ” We need a new ‘ruff’ ”
Canadian – ” We need a new “roof’ ”
American’s say “ruff” as roof and “roof” as what a dog says/barks.
There are also other words like “Orange” that the pronunciation is different, but hey, no big deal. I’m sure it won’t be such a problem.
JUST ENJOY THE FEATURE! We are lucky to have it!
Not all Americans use those different pronunciations. There are all kinds of variations that intertwine with the way we speak up here.
Exactly, but pronunciation is key.
All I am saying is that we technically have to use US ENGLISH as said, but I still think Canadian English will work…
It has to have French Canadian to. That is the problem.
Lmao… For what market!?! I don’t think apple will be making it a priority to get French Canadian or plain Canadian for that matter to work with Siri… Geez there are probably more iPhone users in the state of California than in all of Canada…
Ass
That explains it, thanks for the update. Also, expect local features to be subpar in Canada. I think that’s going to be a bigger issue than the minor differences between US and Canadian English.
As for French, it’s been reported that the French and German versions of Siri aren’t as good as the English ones to begin with. It won’t work as well even if you speak French of France.
Looks like I’m upgrading!
Didn’t they used to have Siri on iPhone 4? Or is it gonna have to be another jailbreak thing to get it on the 4 now?
jail breakers are working on it 🙂
I use “Australian” with the Dragon app on my iPad and, fair dinkum, it works just bonzza! Think I’ll set Siri on the iPhone to “Aussie” also mate.
A dingo ate my baby!
Siri also won’t support loonie and toonie, homo milk,
hoser, pop, tim bit, and the French Canadian English word for about – aboot.
Oh snap!… this really sucks! LOL
Ignore the critics (who based their expectations on unqualified bloggers), the iPhone 4s will be a huge success just like every model before. There are a remarkable number of improvements (in the same form factor and for the same price as the 4). What’s all the whinning about? It wasn’t called an iPhone 5 and it did not have a bigger screen? Really? Big deal!
Called apple myself this morning and they said ” no Siri in Canada … No Siri loaded on Canadian 4s”
Just call yourself !!
Am hoping to upgrade from my old 3G. My contract is expired with Rogers but I am concerned as my account says my 6GB for $30 is a limited time offer so we will see. I will be peeved if they won’t allow me to carry that over, my voice plan isn’t great but I want the price on the data.
I just got off the phone with rogers… and they said that not only could we keep the 6 gig data plan, we could renew ONLY the voice plan… so in the circumstances you don’t finish your contract, you will only be dinged for the remaining voice months, without having to pay a data penalty
Hey I just heard Steve Jobs died!
Was announced on CBC. WTF?
Steve Jobs has died. According to associated press.
R.I.P. Steve Jobs you enriched the lives of millions.
STEVE JOBBS IS DEAD 🙁
*Jobs.
R.I.P Steve
Eh?
Yeah Jobs is dead. This should be the first post on this blog. Not wether or not Siri will be available in Canada. He is the one visionary who brought us the iPod and the iPhone and the iPad. He brought apple back from the brink and into the most successful company to date. None of us would be here talking about any of this if it was not for him. I’m sorry to see him go even though I was never a Steve Jobs follower.
I just hope that while I’m sitting on my chesterfield, wearing my bunny hug, drinking my vi-co, and eating a jambuster, wanting to go see a movie that I don’t have to say movie “theater” like a tool.
No Celine Dion No iPhone 4S for me!
Exactly. Add Alanis and Nickelback too, right!!
Now every time I want to ask about hockey I have to pronounce it “hackey”
No doubt aboot that.
Siri is working for me, just can’t look up restaurants and stuff.
localization services coming in a future update
How did you get it? I just got the Iphone 4s and I can’t find Siri on my phone anywhere, and it does not look like it is in the app store either. Am I missing something?
Go in settings!
I just picked up my iPhone 4S and i can confirm that it does in fact have Siri however it will not give you directions or look up places in Canada. All the other stuff seems to work aside from that. Here’s hoping for a quick update from Apple to include those of us who were frozen out (pun intended)
When I attempt to use Siri on Rogers to search for something in Canada, It says “Siri is not available in Canada” It still allows use for iphone features, however cant search for anything………
Yes SIRI is on my phone. But no, I get a lot of replies, “Sorry, I can’t look for places in Canada.” Apple, you dropped the ball for us in Canada. We actually are a civilized country in case you forgot.
Hahhaha this article totally made me lol!! But in reply to you…..shhhhhhhhh dont tell the Americans were civilized. We wouldn’t want to insult their great intelligence. Lol. That’s aside I believe siri will support other countries with 5.1 update. It’s what I’ve heard anyways
Hockey, a Canadian term? Oh like they don’t play hockey in the US or any other art of the world?!!!
Has anyone heard when or if Siri will support Canadian locations / maps? Not sure why this is so complicated. The border is not that thick on the maps!!
When I ask Siri where I can go for anything, she responds ” I can not search for places in Canada”. So although you can talk to Siri here on Canada, she is useless.
I dont care if it can’t pick out eh and igloo and all that other crap. I just want directions in Canada! Totally disappointed that I spent 600 bucks for basically an iPhone 4..
If you spent $600 for Siri… You have issues… I bought the 4s cause of the better processor and more memory not for a stupid integrated app called “Siri”…
Again I reply to Texastoast25… Ass
Everytime I ask Siri to find something like a restaurant, Siri says ” I’m sorry I cannot look anything up in Canada .” it’s a bit frustrating to know that just because I live in Canada I can’t really use the full potential of my iPhone 4s features , Don’t get me wrong I’m not outraged or anything just really looking forward to Siri being able to do more , I think Siri is great.
Just search it in maps…
I for forgot to mention that I am using the 5.1 firmware , guess that’s twice Apple dropped the ball lol
R.I.P. Steve Jobs 🙁
How can I get Siri in ca
Hold down the home button on your iPhone 4S or iPhone 5