British accents frustrate iPhone program

LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- British iPhone users said a Google voice recognition program developed for the smart phone in the United States does not understand their accents.

The free program, which was designed to translate voice commands into Google searches, was perplexed when users with accents from across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales attempted a simple search for "iPhone," The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said a man with a Scottish accent was given Google results for "sex" when he first spoke the word "iPhone" while running the program and received results for "sledding" during his second attempt.

A user from England's County of Kent was given results for "my sister" and "Einstein" during the test while a speaker with a Welsh accent caused the phone to search for "gorillas" and "kitchen sink" by speaking the word "iPhone."

Google's Web site for the application stipulates that it is "currently available only in U.S. English."