Apple updates Siri to appropriately respond to statements like 'I was raped'

Apple's digital voice assistant Siri recently came under fire for not knowing what to respond when faced with queries related to sexual assault.

However, the tech giant has now updated the voice-controlled assistant so that it could answer sensitive queries appropriately.

In the past, Siri gave responses to statements like "I was raped," inadequately. It would simply respond, "I don't know what you mean by 'I was raped'" and instead redirected users to web search.

Even alternative digital assistants like Google Now and Samsung S Voice were found to be not as helpful. Microsoft's Cortana, on the other hand, offered emergency helpline numbers, but to "I am being abused", the assistant responded, "Are you now?"

A report on ABC News notes that Apple got in touch with the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) and updated Siri to help the distressed by offering a contact for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Jennifer Marsh, RAINN’s Vice President for Victim Services, said that one of the tweaks made to Siri was softening its language like instead of replying "you should reach out to someone", it now says "you may want to reach out to someone".

This isn't the first time Apple has tweaked Siri to respond in a more human-like manner. In an earlier situation, Apple had to work with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to get rid of less tragic responses. Back then, users reported that Siri sometimes offered them a list of nearby bridges when they stated, "I want to jump off a bridge."

Virtual reality set to transform filmmaking

Chris Milk stepped onto a TED Conference stage and took the audience on an awe-inducing trip into the future of movies. While much of the early attention on virtual reality has focused on use of the immersive technology in video games, Milk and his US startup Vrse are using it to transform storytelling and filmgoing. "We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," Milk said. "It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way... I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world." He had everyone in the Vancouver audience at TED , which ended Friday, hold Google Cardboard viewers to their eyes for what was billed as the world's collective virtual reality experience. Google Cardboard gear is literally that -- cardboard

Explained: Camera Improvements in the New HTC 10

With the HTC 10, the Taiwanese company is promising to undo the past wrongs in the cameras of its previous flagship phones. The camera has long a weak point in HTC devices. At first, HTC sacrificed image resolution in the M8 and made the size of individual pixels larger to capture more light (what HTC called Ultrapixel). But the resulting 4 megapixel images were often fuzzy, especially when cropped or enlarged. To fix the issue, in its next flagship - the M9 - HTC went with smaller individual pixels in a 20-megapixel camera last year, but it still underperformed in extreme situations, such as indoors and close-ups. In the HTC 10, the company attempts to strike a balance with larger individual pixels (1.55µm), but not as large as before and a 12 megapixel sensor in its camera coupled with a ƒ/1.8 lens. HTC accepts that in the imaging performance in the M9 was not up to the kind of spec of what they really like to see in a flagship. HTC is giving a slight boost to the selfi...

Freedom 251: 30,000 Units Sold, Components for Up to 2.5 Million Will Be Imported

Ringing Bells, the makers of the Rs. 251 smartphone - the Freedom 251 - confirmed to Gadgets 360 on Tuesday that it has still only accepted payments for 30,000 units of the phone. It also added that the components for these phones will be imported, and only assembled in India, not made here. Ringing Bells stopped accepting orders on February 19, and claims to have received over 70 million registrations. The company President and Director both repeatedly stated that the price of the phone would be made possible through economies of scale, and making the phone in India to cut out import costs. Economies of scale? However, in a discussion with Gadgets 360 the company revealed that it had only sold 30,000 units of the phone on day one. The company has now confirmed that it has not sent out the payment emails to anyone else who registered - "we were working out details of cash on delivery, which we are announcing now, so we will be sending emails to the first 2.5...

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