Apple's Siri Being Changed Because Of Barbra Streisand

[HardOCP News]

Of all the injustices in this world, Siri pronouncing a celebrity name wrong is one of the most shocking and appalling. Thankfully this situation is being personally remedied by Apple's CEO in the next iOS update. Let's just hope this never, ever happens again.

STREISAND: (Laughter) She pronounces my name wrong.

SIMON: Yeah, I noticed that.

STREISAND: Streisand with a soft S, like sand on the beach. I've been saying this for my whole career. And so what did I do? I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name, finally, with the next update on September 30th.

 

[TwiceOver]

Transcript of an audio problem. I don't know how Siri could pronounce Streisand wrong. "zand"?

 

[somecallmeTim]

Ego Much?
Like us regular people could just call Apple's CEO and inform them of something that needs corrected in SIRI.

<sigh>

 

[OutOfPhase]

Luckily, Tim changed the pronunciation to "Pretentious Douche".

 

[adrift02]

Good old Steve would have just told her she's been pronouncing it wrong.

 

[Tak Ne]

Streisand Effect Again??? Does she never learn... millions of internet will now start pronouncing it wrongly.

 

[cyclone3d]

Oh yay, now it will say Streisand correctly, but everything else will still be slurred and mispronounced like a drunken person.

My wife has been trying to use Siri to look stuff up, and even when she is very specific, Siri has not been able to find a single thing for the past few days.

 

[fairlane]

You also spelled her first name wrong.. It's Barbra, not Barbara. LMAO!!

 

[ir0nw0lf]

Heard this on the Bob & Tom show this morning. They already skewered it with their own little bit 'o humor.

As for her name:

Name
Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it."[105] Streisand further explained, "Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. (My middle name is Joan.) And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique."[106] A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an "a" from the first instead."[107]

 

[collegeboy69us]

Tip for Streisand: nobody cares, you are 1000 years old and not attractive at all.

 

[AceGoober]

Would it have been funny if Steve Jobs told her to pound Strei-sand

 

[ruffbytes]

Siri also pronounces my last name wrong.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Tip for Streisand: nobody cares, you are 1000 years old and not attractive at all.

I agree with the nobody cares bit, but it has absolutely nothing to do with her age or attractiveness.

I wouldn't have cared if she were 21 years old and smoking hot.

Stop playing into the SJW's agenda about gamers and techies by stooping down to the "women's only value are their looks" stereotype.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Transcript of an audio problem. I don't know how Siri could pronounce Streisand wrong. "zand"?

yeah, I'm at work can't watch a video to find out how Siri pronounces her name, and I really don't care, but I'm having a difficult time picturing how Siri might be pronouncing it.

 

[ml_paladin888]

meh, if its anything like any enterprise level TTS server (like those used for IVRs), this is literally a 1 line configuration change in a custom dictionary

 

[Spidey329]

Ego Much?
Like us regular people could just call Apple's CEO and inform them of something that needs corrected in SIRI.

<sigh>

The women is a real c .. from what I've heard. When I worked at SAP Center (it was HP Pavilion at the time) I heard stories of how she would make them remodel the dressing room (completely) or she wouldn't play there. Her ego is massive.

 

[collegeboy69us]

I agree with the nobody cares bit, but it has absolutely nothing to do with her age or attractiveness.

I wouldn't have cared if she were 21 years old and smoking hot.

Stop playing into the SJW's agenda about gamers and techies by stooping down to the "women's only value are their looks" stereotype.

When an individual (man or woman) has spent 50+ years in the public eye on purpose it's quite reasonable to judge them based on their age and or attractiveness. That's a huge huge part of their JOB. We all know those stars that got old/ugly/crazy wonder what usually happens to them.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

When an individual (man or woman) has spent 50+ years in the public eye on purpose it's quite reasonable to judge them based on their age and or attractiveness. That's a huge huge part of their JOB. We all know those stars that got old/ugly/crazy wonder what usually happens to them.

No. Her job is singing, which I think she is not very good at, so I'll judge her on that.

 

[spugm1r3]

Erik Johnson: Hey Tim, my iPhone burst into flames in my pocket. People said they could smell my flesh burning as I ripped my pants off in public. Can you fix that?

Tim: Who are you?

EJ: Erik Johnson, I bought an iPhone.

--click--

 

[amddragonpc]

Is it September 30th yet? I want to hear the new pronunciation. Barbra StreiSSSSAND (with a loud effen SSSS). Meanwhile, Tim Cook is thinking, "I got your soft 'S' right here!" <grabs crotch>

 

[Prisoner849]

Next is Ralph Fiennes complaining that Siri says his name like people who aren't pompous Hollywood divas.

 

[Dullard]

Didn't she also raise a stink because Google Earth showed her house in Malibu?

 

[nilepez]

Well they should change it (not just because of her), but I wish they (along with google) would finally get the names of streets right. In Google's case, it actually pronounces a street right and then a minute later it mispronounces it.

I imagine at some point, there will be a way to fix pronunciations without calling apples.
Maybe you'd say it, maybe you'd type Streisand = Stry + sand and it'd just map put it in some exception table.

 

[M76]

When an individual (man or woman) has spent 50+ years in the public eye on purpose it's quite reasonable to judge them based on their age and or attractiveness. That's a huge huge part of their JOB. We all know those stars that got old/ugly/crazy wonder what usually happens to them.

So if a person is a public figure they should be judged by their age? Instead of their achievements? What I can't even...

 

[nilepez]

When an individual (man or woman) has spent 50+ years in the public eye on purpose it's quite reasonable to judge them based on their age and or attractiveness. That's a huge huge part of their JOB. We all know those stars that got old/ugly/crazy wonder what usually happens to them.

Streisand was never judged on her looks. If it was about looks, she would have gotten a nose job 50+ years ago. Her fame is mostly due to her voice (though she's had some notable acting roles too), which is remarkably good fifty some odd years later.

Besides, nobody ever said Meatloaf wasn't attractive enough to sing and surely Streisand is better looking that that guy (who also had a pretty good voice).

 

[mope54]

Well they should change it (not just because of her), but I wish they (along with google) would finally get the names of streets right. In Google's case, it actually pronounces a street right and then a minute later it mispronounces it.

I imagine at some point, there will be a way to fix pronunciations without calling apples.
Maybe you'd say it, maybe you'd type Streisand = Stry + sand and it'd just map put it in some exception table.

You can teach Siri how to correctly pronounce something.

 

[nilepez]

You can teach Siri how to correctly pronounce something.

In that case, I don't know why they need to program it. It's not like there are tons of people saying Siri, call Streisand.

 

[mope54]

In that case, I don't know why they need to program it. It's not like there are tons of people saying Siri, call Streisand.

Well, when you change it it's only a local change (I can teach Siri how to correctly pronounce my name and my wife's name, for example) and it wouldn't be a good idea for me to be able to teach is mope54 for anyone who happened to use in the world.

But for a public figure, it would make sense that every time someone asks about a movie she is in or some other kind of information it could be a problem that Siri isn't pronouncing it clearly to the people asking the questions.

 

[nilepez]

Well, when you change it it's only a local change (I can teach Siri how to correctly pronounce my name and my wife's name, for example) and it wouldn't be a good idea for me to be able to teach is mope54 for anyone who happened to use in the world.

But for a public figure, it would make sense that every time someone asks about a movie she is in or some other kind of information it could be a problem that Siri isn't pronouncing it clearly to the people asking the questions.

Ah...that's true. Good call.

 

[NickJames]

Next is Ralph Fiennes complaining that Siri says his name like people who aren't pompous Hollywood divas.

 

[Dullard]

Didn't she also raise a stink because Google Earth showed her house in Malibu?

Ah, even has a name! Streisand Effect. Where bringing attention to a little known problem actually gives the problem much greater exposure than before. Se also: Douche.

Streisand effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia