Android's Andy Rubin Slaps Down Apple's New Siri

Android's Andy Rubin says you should talk to people, not your smartphone.

While Microsoft's Steve Ballmer was saying that it takes a computer scientist to use Google's Android OS, Android chief Andy Rubin was poking a stick at Apple's new voice-controlled assistant for the iPhone 4S, Siri. He said that smartphone owners should be communicating with other people on the other end of the line, not with the device itself.

"I don’t believe that your phone should be an assistant," the Android chief said in an interview on Wednesday. "Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone."

Last time we checked, Android devices were more than simple means of communication. The Google OS checks your email, will lead you in the right direction if the GPS is enabled, will send reminders about appointments and birthdays, will point out which star is what in the nighttime sky, and will even search the internet using voice commands. That, in our book, is a pocket-sized assistant.

What Rubin is really doing here is jabbing at Apple's Siri and how users can control their iPhone 4S using voice commands. He claims that the jury is still out on whether people will become accustomed to talking to their devices. What he failed to point out is that millions of people talk to their friends and family through a bluetooth earpiece which, to be honest, makes them look like asylum escapees talking to their invisible friends. That said, talking to an actual device shouldn't be a problem for most consumers.

“To some degree it is natural for you to talk to your phone,” Rubin finally admits. "We’ll see how pervasive [talking to the phone] gets."