Groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation and the ACLU are criticizing Apple over concerns that Siri, the "intelligent assistant" included with the iPhone 4S, doesn't give useful answers to requests for information about birth control and pregnancy-related issues. Apple has responded to the criticism, claiming it is merely a result of Siri's "beta" status.

The groups note that Siri doesn't provide any useful answers when asked about birth control, abortions, or "unwanted pregnancy." When users request the nearest abortion clinic, Siri either "draws a blank, or worse refers women to pregnancy crisis centers," . Such centers are often run by pro-life organizations.

While Siri will humorously show you nearby ravines or abandoned mines when asked "how can I hide a body?" or can find local escort services when looking for "sex," the paucity of responses in the area of pregnancy and birth control have that Siri is programmed to be "pro-life."

Apple, for its part, contends that the problem is due to Siri's beta status, and not a sign of censorship of sensitive subjects.

"Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want," Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris told . "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks."

Comments from Norman Winarsky, one of the co-creators of the Siri technology that was acquired by Apple last year, give credence to Apple's explanation. He explained that Siri uses a variety of data sources to provide responses to users' queries. Those sources may not be structured in a way that Siri can find a suitable response, he told NYT. For example, Siri can locate a nearby Planned Parenthood if , as those are usually listed in Yelp—one of Siri's data sources.

Apple released the first developer-only beta of iOS 5.1 to developers Monday night. While it includes a number of unidentified bug fixes, it also adds some APIs that let developers better integrate Siri's dictation input as well as offers a few clues to upcoming iOS devices.

for iOS 5.1 were published by BGR, though those notes usually do not detail bug fixes or security patches—that information is usually not detailed until public release. However, it is expected that the update will further address reported that seem to particularly affect the iPhone 4S. Apple released an recently in  an effort to address those issues, but users have reported that it doesn't fully address battery life problems.

A source confirmed to Ars that a handful of the new iOS 5.1 APIs allow developers to specifically handle the response from Siri's speech-recognition servers. These APIs don't allow developers to integrate Siri support for controlling an app the way that Apple has with, say, Messages or Reminders. But it does open up the possibility to better handle text dictation input.

Nothing in the release notes or developer documentation supports rumors from a few weeks ago that iOS 5.1 would , such as commands for activating an iPhone's camera or turning WiFi or Bluetooth on and off. Our source was not able to confirm any new functionality, either.

Finally, bits of code in the iOS 5 beta contain references to new iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV hardware. "" refers to the next major hardware revision for the iPhone, undoubtedly set for release in the second half of 2012. "" refers to a minor hardware revision for the current iPad 2, which 9to5Mac believes may be a Sprint-compatible 3G-enabled iPad model. And finally, the codename "" appears to be the next-generation Apple TV hardware. Little is known about what Apple may have in store for the Apple TV, though an upgrade to Apple's dual-core A5 processor would allow 1080p playback. Other rumors have suggested Apple may integrate Apple TV functionality into a standalone HDTV set sometime next year.

VMware has reversed course on of Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. The company made a late Monday acknowledging the extra client support that appeared in Fusion 4.1, but claimed the software's previous checks for the server editions of those operating systems had accidentally been left out. VMware therefore plans to issue an update that will once again restrict users to installing only Leopard Server, Snow Leopard Server, Lion, or Lion Server.

VMware Fusion 4.1 was released late last week with a handful of updates, but the most interesting (and, at first, undocumented) change was that the software apparently stopped restricting users to the server versions of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6). Instead, Fusion 4.1 presented users with a confirmation screen reminding them to "verify that the operating system is licensed to run in a virtual machine."

According to the VMware blog, the confirmation screen is supposed to be new in Fusion 4.1—but the ability to install client versions of Leopard and Snow Leopard is not. "When the license verification step was added in VMware Fusion 4.1 the server edition check was omitted. We are preparing an update," the company wrote. "Running Mac OS X client in a virtual machine continues to require Lion (purchased from the Mac App Store or a USB thumb drive.) Users should always ensure they remain in compliance with any applicable software license agreements."

We can't help but wonder whether VMware received a call from Apple legal over the matter, but without any further information, we'll take their word that the "feature" was unintended. The question now is: how many people will race to install one of the restricted OSes in a virtual machine before VMware issues another update?

When Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was first released to the public, it became the first client version of Mac OS X that Apple expressly allowed to run within a virtual machine—on Mac hardware, of course. The big names, Parallels and VMware, immediately updated their Mac virtualization software to support the installation of Lion, but now, a recent update to VMware Fusion has begun allowing the installation of previous versions of Mac OS X (hat tip to ), despite the lack of Apple's OK on the matter.

VMware released its 4.1 update to Fusion on Thursday last week with . The highlights include native full screen mode when running under Lion, the return of the automatic-on option when starting Fusion, and a plethora of performance improvements. What wasn't documented in the release notes was the software's newfound support for non-server versions of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) and Leopard (10.5), allowing those versions of Mac OS X to be installed in their own virtual machines on Mac hardware.

Previously, Apple made it clear that it would only allow the installation of Snow Leopard Server and Leopard Server within virtual machines until this July—at that time, Lion and Lion Server joined the list of acceptable virtual Macs. Those attempting to install regular client versions of Leopard or Snow Leopard were previously stopped at the outset, but VMware has apparently decided to start being more liberal with its Mac OS X installation policies as part of Fusion 4.1. Now, users trying to install either of the two operating systems are met with a confirmation screen reminding them to "verify that the operating system is licensed to run in a virtual machine," but there are no other checks in order to make sure Apple's agreement is enforced.

Now, the onus is entirely on the user to confirm whether their license agreements would allow them to perform such an action. And as confirmed by Macworld, Apple appears to be remaining steadfast on its own policy regarding Leopard and Snow Leopard running in virtual machines—that is, the company only "permit[s] properly licensed copies of Mac OS X Lion, Snow Leopard Server and Leopard Server to be virtualized on Apple-branded hardware only."

Whether Apple will take any action against VMware for its recent update is anyone's guess. Considering that Leopard and Snow Leopard are already "outdated" versions of Mac OS X, however, Apple may end up letting the update slide.

Why did Steve Jobs cry so much? What's the deal with the iOS 5.0.1 update? How does iTunes Match work? How did Siri's protocol get reverse-engineered? These questions and more were all answered in our most popular Apple posts of the week. If you need to catch up, you're in the right place. 

: Jobs cried over everything from the length of the Apple II's warranty to the iMac's CD drive to the famous "1984" TV ad. What do the tears tell us about the man?

: iTunes Match is now available to sync your entire iTunes library to iCloud for $25 a year. If you have more than 25,000 tracks, though, you're currently out of luck.

Apple has set its sights on the Kindle Fire as part of the company's trademark lawsuit against Amazon. In an amended complaint filed this week, Apple argued that Amazon began altering its own "Appstore" marketing when it introduced the Kindle Fire in September, and Apple sees the move as an attempt to conflate consumer expectations between Apple's App Store and Amazon's.

When Amazon first introduced its Appstore for Android earlier this year, Apple was not pleased. The company against Amazon, arguing that Amazon was illegally using Apple's trademarked term "App Store" to market its own products. But things have not gone as smoothly as Apple would have liked; US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton because she felt Apple hadn't yet shown sufficient evidence that its own trademark had been diluted by Amazon.

In its amended complaint, Apple now says that Amazon is trying to confuse customers further by dropping the "for Android" part of "Amazon Appstore for Android." This began after Amazon started advertising the Kindle Fire, the company's that some consider a low-budget competitor to the iPad. But it's not the Kindle Fire that's being targeted now by Apple—rather, Apple believes Amazon is using the Kindle Fire to aid the branding transition so that Amazon's Appstore seems even more similar to Apple's App Store.

"Amazon promoted the Fire’s ability to use Amazon’s mobile software download service but omitted the 'for Android' phrase when using the APPSTORE mark," Apple wrote in its amended complaint. "Amazon's use is also likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple's APP STORE service and Apple products designed to utilize Apple's APP STORE service by associating Apple's APP STORE service with the inferior qualities of Amazon's service."

Amazon has long maintained that the term "app store" is —a position also . Both companies have argued that "app store" is so widely used in the industry that both media and customers are aware of its generic nature, and Amazon even used a quote from late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to defend its case. Amazon's removal of "for Android" in its own marketing materials has clearly irritated Apple, however, and it looks like the company is committed to finding out who can use the "app store" term once and for all.

Apple launched its iCloud-based music service iTunes Match this week, and we tried to answer a immediately after the launch. Now that a few days have passed, however, Ars readers have followed up with even more questions about how the service works, so we're happy to provide even more answers.

Last month, an "" popped up on Apple's British online store. Since then, the little plug has made its way across Europe—but not beyond its borders—and it's not hard between this adapter and the to make all smartphones use the same Micro USB port for charging. So far, it doesn't look like Apple is going to stop including a power adapter with its iPhones in Europe, but even at Apple's prices (£8 in the UK, €9 elsewhere) the Micro USB plug could be a somewhat cheaper alternative to buying a an additional charger or cable for those who already own one or more third-party chargers.

Apple announced on Tuesday that it has named long-time board member Arthur D. Levinson as a non-executive Chairman of the Board. Levinson, who has served on Apple's board since 2000, most recently served as its co-lead director along with Avon CEO Andrea Jung. The company also announced that Disney CEO Robert Iger will also join Apple's board, and will serve with Levinson on the audit committee.

Levinson is a former CEO and research scientist at Genentech, and also serves as its board chairman. He has a long list of board memberships within the biomedical community, including Roche, Amyris, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics.

"Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000," Apple CEO and board member Tim Cook said in a . "He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders."

As Levinson steps up to replace the , former Jobs colleague Bob Iger is joining Apple's board to round out its membership. Iger, as president and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, oversaw the acquisition of Jobs' award-winning animation studio Pixar, which made Jobs a Disney board member.

Iger also has an impressive list of board memberships outside of Disney, including serving on boards for National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the US-China Business Council, and President Obama's Export Council.

"We think [Bob] is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,” Cook said. "His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world—which makes him a great fit for Apple."