Barbra Streisand has contributed to the artistic world through her work, and to the world of tech through a recent interview where she spilled the beans about iOS 10.
Streisand will make the world a better place, as the singer wants to help Apple deliver a better Siri experience. Well, a tiny fraction of Siri, to be precise, but she did disclose when the update is scheduled: Sept. 30.
The reason behind her implication in Siri's development is simple: the voice assistant pronounces her name wrong, with Apple's assistant saying "STRY-zand" instead of "STRY-sand." To amuse yourself, ask Siri "Who starred in The Way We Were?"
Keep in mind that each user can correct Siri and teach it to properly pronounce names from the contact list. However, Streisand took the matter in her own hands. It seems that the fact that the virtual assistant uses Z instead of S as the second S in her surname made Streisand very unhappy, and just the thought that millions of people hear her name maimed called for action.
The artist did not waste any time and went straight to the head of Apple, Tim Cook. In a direct phone call with Apple's CEO, Streisand addressed the issue that has been causing her grief for years.
Cook obliged and promised Streisand that a fix will be embedded into the mobile OS of Apple soon enough.
Streisand talked about the experience in an interview, where she offered some details about her tour in North America to promote her new album of duets called Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Among the guest stars on the albums are names such as Antonio Banderas, Anne Hathaway, Chris Pine, Daisy Ridley, Jamie Foxx, Alec Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy.
During the interview, Scott Simon of NPR found out that Apple is apparently preparing to release an update at the end of September.
The last day of September? That is very uncommon for Apple, because the company usually releases its new iOS version at the beginning of the month, right before presenting its latest iPhone. There is a good reason to the sequence of events, as the new iPhone comes with the latest iOS out of the box.
The latest iOS 10 beta already hit developers' phones in an attempt to have the most polished version until September comes.
We will go on a limb here and speculate that Apple told Streisand that the update should be live before September ends. Another possibility is that the Siri fix for Streisand's name actually goes into effect via an iOS 10.0.1 update, which will roll out at that month's end.
Looking back at Streisand's artistic contribution, we have some great rom-coms such as The Prince of Tides and The Way We Were. She also signed 50 studio albums and created the term "Streisand effect," although the latter was mostly unintentional. Over the years, Streisand was the subject of both news stories and comedy acts banking on her reputation of fighting to have things her way.
If Siri mispronounces your name as well, the solution is simple: become famous so you can directly call Apple's leaders.
