& Continuous Learning

Siri, which debuted last week, is surely the first iPhone app that's the commercialized result of a multimillion-dollar Defense Department research project. It's a "virtual personal assistant" that uses voice recognition, your GPS location, and links to local information and services to respond to requests you speak into an iPhone 3GS.

You can ask Siri to call you a taxi, or to reserve a table at the best nearby sushi joint, or to tell you who's playing at a local concert venue. The voice-recognition part works just about perfectly. And it all feels like a sneak preview of how we'll get and use information in the future, even though I'm occasionally disappointed by the results (Siri occasionally recommends local businesses based on skimpy data.)