What happens in Siri doesn't stay in Siri (or, The Problem with Anthropomorphizing Software in Blog Post Titles) Back in the early 1990s Apple introduced a voice recognition technology called 'PlainTalk' in the Centris 660AV and Quadra 840AV PowerPC Macintoshes. Like the iPhone 4s, at launch those were the only computers that could handle PlainTalk because of the computing power required. One of the cool bits about PlainTalk is that it was always listening, but would only take action when you addressed it. By default, you would address it by saying 'Computer', but this was a preference that could be changed to whatever you like. Eighteen years later, Siri has a name and won't let you change it, but she's happy to call you whatever you like. She's a great assistant, but how discreet is she? It turns out that when you ask Siri to call you a pet name, it gets added to your contact card, and that pet name nickname will be attached to your contact card when you pass it along to anyone else. Here's a text dump of a vCard I sent via email: She's a great assistant, but how discreet is she? It turns out that when you ask Siri to call you a pet name, it gets added to your contact card, and thatnickname will be attached to your contact card when you pass it along to anyone else. Here's a text dump of a vCard I sent via email: At least I didn't ask her to call me 'Asshole'. If you like it, please share it. Tweet

aboutme Hi, I'm Kevin Fox.

I've been blogging at Fury.com since 1998.

I can be reached at kevin at fury dot com . I also have a resume. electricimp I'm co-founder in

a fantastic startup fulfilling the promise of the Internet of Things. The Imp is a computer and wi-fi connection smaller and cheaper than a memory card. Find out more. We're also hiring. followme I post most frequently on Twitter as @kfury and on Google Plus. pastwork I've led design at Mozilla Labs, designed Gmail 1.0, Google Reader 2.0, FriendFeed, and a few special projects at Facebook. ©2012 Kevin Fox