In other Apple acquisition news, it looks like the company has picked up a mobile “assistant� app maker named Siri. According to
Business Insider, the deal “puts Apple in even closer competition
with Google, as we believe that mobile assistant apps are one of the many ways that search will look on mobile platforms … So, in a sense, Apple just got into the search
business.� According to Siri itself: “You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, tell you what’s playing at a local jazz club or get
tickets to a movie for Saturday night.� Siri’s founders include veterans of the telecom, mobile, artificial intelligence, and semantic technologies. Meanwhile,
its VP of Product, Gummi Hafsteinsson, used to work at Google. Siri’s investors include Menlo Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, The Li Ka Shing Foundation, and SRI International.