Wednesday Apple Rumors: Siri Almost Went to Android

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daily apple rumors AAPLHere are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:

A Different Voice: Just months before Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) purchased the company behind Siri, the voice assistant, Verizon (NYSE:VZ) was negotiating a deal to bring the service to smartphones running Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system on its network, the Huffington Post notes. Under a deal signed with Verizon in the fall of 2009, Siri would have become an exclusive feature pre-installed on Android phones sold by Verizon Wireless. Verizon even produced commericals touting the service, though they were never released. After Apple purchased the company, it killed the deal with Verizon in order to preserve Siri for the iPhone. Siri launched with the iPhone 4S in late 2011.

Banned: Two photography apps were yanked from Apple’s App Store because they allowed users to locate images of naked people too easily, NBCNews notes. Both apps were produced by 500px, which said it was resubmitting the apps after addressing Apple’s concerns.  Apple claims that it received reports from users that the apps retrieved pornographic images as well as what might have been child pornography. One of the apps, which had been downloaded at least one million times, permitted online photo sharing. 500px said it did not allow users to search for or share pornographic apps. Apple’s move was criticized as hypocritical since users of its Safari browser can use that to locate pornographic images and videos.

Pixel Rivalry:  Samsung may be about to surpass the high-resolution screens found on Apple’s recent iPhones, TechCrunch notes. The South Korean electronics giant is rumored to be readying a 4.99-inch, 440ppi Super AMOLED screen for its next generationa Galaxy S IV smartphone. That would be substantially higher than the 326ppi LCD screens that Apple introduced with the iPhone 4. Similar 440ppi displays have been announced for Sony’s (NYSE:SNE) upcoming Xperia Z and HTC’s Droid DNA.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.


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