Comparable to HAL 9000, from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, ThinkGeek has already brought to the table a companion to accompany the virtual assistant recently added to the iPhone 4S; the Iris 9000 will work side by side with Siri to provide to you, the owner, the most optimum service.
Apple’s newest addition to the iPhone in this year’s iteration of the device, introduced Siri, a virtual assistant to accomplish various tasks when orally inputted by the owner. The only disadvantage, other than, of course, Siri’s sometimes disappointing responses, is the fact that you can’t use Siri’s unique features without having your iPhone with you. Thankfully, the smarty-pant guys over at onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.thinkgeek.com');" target="_blank" href="http://www.thinkgeek.com">ThinkGeek thought up of something to make Siri even more useful. Coming early next year, 2012, is Iris 9000 (Iris = Siri backwards!), which lets you use Siri when you’re sitting elsewhere from your iPhone.
Of course you can depend on ThinkGeek to impersonate a character from another movie as you might have seen when browsing their large, geeky inventory. If you ever watched the film, which indeed I have, the Iris 9000 attempts to clone HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The device itself features the same rectangular shape, blood-shot red eyes as well as a similar name. Additionally, ThinkGeek have thrown in something reflective of their own personality: as Siri speaks back to you, the red eye will flicker accordingly.
To successfully use the device, TG will include a small, pocket size remote control, which can be carried around at all times.href="http://www.iphonealley.com/news/thinkgeeks-iris-9000-companion-to-siri-slated-for-2012-release/attachment/iris2" rel="attachment wp-att-22735">src="http://www.iphonealley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/iris2.jpg" alt="" title="iris2" width="300" height="300" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22735" /> Whenever you’re too [lazy] absorbed in something else, say on the completely other side of the room as your iPhone, you can whip out the remote, hold down the button, wait for the two bleeps from your phone and at this point speak because Iris has activated Siri – pretty neat, huh?
The only gripes that I think I would have with a device like such would be that I’d still have to carry Iris’ remote control around with me and would also have to leave my iPhone near Iris intentionally every time I went somewhere else.
I never really thought anything from that movie would ever materialize, and personally wasn’t too thrilled when I watched it either (but don’t get me stated on that), but it seems that HAL has rubbed off on the modern society and a kin has turned into reality. If you’re at all peaked by the idea, which I’m sure many are, as am I, then the Iris 9000 is slated for release sometime next Spring for $59.99. Hopefully it’ll conveniently line up with the official release of Siri (as Siri is currently in beta), but who knows. We’ll definitely keep you posted when more news arrives from our friends over at TG. You can keep track of the product onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/eb7d/');" target="_blank" href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/eb7d/">here as well as preorder it once it comes back into stock.
Check it out in action:/> width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0Q0kd5LlANk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
