Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz is the second reporter ever to get an inside look at Foxconn, the manufacturing plant where Apple’s products are made. Today, Schmitz posted a video showing our first-ever look at the assembly process of an iPad as it goes down the assembly line at the Foxconn plant in Shanghai, China. It is interesting to look at how machines streamline some of the process. Schmitz also noted a few other interesting points, such as workers switching positions every few days while making $14 a day when first starting.
We showed you some Siri clones available in the Android Market last week that use official Apple icons, and they are even promoted as “Real Siri for Android” and “Siri for Android.” Now, the first round of Windows Phone Siri alternatives seem to be popping up in the WP Marketplace.
If you are craving Siri like functionality for Windows Phone and more, look no further. Ask Ziggy is your Personal Assistant that goes beyond Siri functionality.
The first app is called “Ask Ziggy” from developer Shai Leib and it is not exactly a rip-off like the Android Siri alternatives. As you can see in the video above from WP Central, the app takes inspiration from the Siri UI and seems to work rather smoothly in comparison to Windows Phone’s built-in TellMe voice control features. It does not borrow Apple’s icons, but has an overall similar feel to Siri. The app apparently utilizes Nuance voice-recognition (same as Siri), but the developers handled everything else themselves. It is available for free now, and the updated version seen in the video should be landing soon.
Another Siri alternative for Windows Phone currently available in the Marketplace isn’t really a functioning voice control app, but it is marketed as “Siri for Windows Phone”. The name “iSiri Faker” also seems to be associated with the app. This app will allow you to “fake Siri conversations on your Windows Phone.” We are not sure exactly what that means, but according to the app’s description you can “program custom responses” using speech recognition, text to speech, data compression, and voice effects. The app is available for $0.99 in the Marketplace. Screenshots are available after the break. Expand Expanding Close
A jailbroken app called ‘iUsers’enables the iPad to behave a little more like your Mac by supporting multiple user profiles.
The tweak puts a user profile button on the iPad’s homepage, where users can be switched fairly simply. For now only apps, music, and other content are shared between users, but the data inside the apps (game hi-scores, etc.) are user specific. iUsers’ developer is currently working on implementing more granular user data. The tweak is making its way to the Cydia marketplace, but if you’re eager you can find the instructions to installing iUsers over atBlogdoiPhone.
Hopefully we’ll see this natively in the iPad soon, and maybe Apple will decide to Sherlock it at some point in the future.
