Apple iPhone 4S 'swears' at 10-year-old boy

[dutchman]

A 10-year-old boy has reportedly been abused by the voice control system in an iPhone 4S, after it was altered by pranksters.



Charlie Le Quesne was shopping at Tesco in Arena Park, Coventry before Christmas when a display model of Apple's latest smartphone said: "Shut the f**k up, you ugly tw*t."

The Coventry Telegraph reports that store managers believe pranksters were able to get the phone's Siri voice-activated personal assistant to say the message after Charlie asked: "How many people are there in the world?"

His mother, Kim Le Quesne, 39, told the paper: "It's verbal abuse. Charlie was with his dad looking at the phones. We can't believe the filth it came out with.

"He showed my husband what the phone had said to him and my husband found the store manager and said, 'It shouldn't be saying that'."

Siri was a key selling point of the iPhone 4S when it launched in October, enabling users to set reminders, gain information, and perform other tasks with their voice.

It is thought that someone had entered the rude phrase as the name of the phone's owner, meaning it was repeated whenever anyone asked a question.

Charlie returned with his grandma to Tesco the next day, and found that the iPhone model was still on display, and still saying the rude message.

"Charlie went back in to show her what phone they were going to get dad for Christmas and it was still swearing at him," said his mother.

"This time I went in and got the store manager again. I'm fuming because they left it there 24 hours later."

She added: "I'm not a killjoy. I do have a sense of humour. But when there's children around including a 6-year-old girl and it's saying that to them. It's not good."

Tesco said that it had launched an investigation into how the iPhone 4S could have repeated the rude message.

The firm said in a statement: "We have arranged for the handset in question to be sent for diagnostic testing and we will investigate this issue as a matter of priority with Apple."