( CNN ) -- Apple 's voice assistant took an extended coffee break on Thursday . Asked by the blog VentureBeat what she 'd been doing during an apparent service outage , Siri , the voice-controlled `` assistant '' that 's the standout feature of the new iPhone 4S , replied in a way that would raise any employer 's eyebrows : . She just listed the names of a bunch of day spas . `` Siri where have you been all day ? '' the blogger asked . Her response : `` I found 12 places matching 'All Day ' ... 11 of them are not far from you . '' Well , at least she responded . For much of Thursday -- five hours , according to CNN 's partner site Fortune -- Apple 's voice-controlled assistant was n't functioning at all for some people , apparently because of a server outage . Siri needs to communicate with computers that are in the cloud to understand and process voice commands , leading observers to believe something went wrong with that system . Apple has n't commented on the outage and did not immediately respond to CNN 's request for information . Many iPhone 4S users , when they asked Siri questions Thursday , reported being greeted with this : `` Sorry , I 'm having trouble connecting to the network . '' That message came even when phones were connected to Wi-Fi or 3G networks , according to the reports , which surfaced on tech blogs and Twitter . Some Siri users felt kind of lost without their personal assistant . That 's pretty amazing when you consider that Siri is definitely a new hire . The iPhone 4S went on sale October 14 . But some people already have come to depend on her in those three weeks . `` ( I ) t was awful . I had to use the annoying google app to find a jamba juice ! ! '' the Twitter user @ The_Beer_Baron_ wrote in response to a question from CNN about the outage . `` She 's usually pretty reliable although sassy , '' that user said . Tech writers debated which management style might be best for this errant helper . Sarah Perez at TechCrunch thought it might be best to cut her some slack . Or maybe not . `` Granted , Siri is still a beta product -- and this is what happens to beta products -- but when Apple promotes Siri as one of the best and OMG- got ta -have-it new features of its latest device through its cloying new TV ads , it 's worth noticing when the service does n't quite deliver as promised , '' she wrote . Others see her responsibilities -- namely answering her owner 's questions , finding directions , calling people and looking up songs to play -- as unrealistic given Siri 's job qualifications . Maybe it 's too much to think the servers that run Siri -- a complicated and fairly new technology that 's been tried and failed before -- would always be up and running . `` Not only is AI still in its infancy -- a condition it 's been in for more than half a century -- but it relies in its current incarnation on networks and servers whose unreliability you can bank on , '' Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote on Fortune 's Apple 2.0 blog . `` Good thing the iPhone still has a touchscreen . '' Things may turn out OK though . So far , no one seems to want to fire Siri just yet . Well , except maybe this Furby .
Siri , Apple 's voice assistant , experienced an outage on Thursday . The company said it was working to resolve the issue and that users should be able to use their devices again by Friday morning. Siri is a feature of the new iPhone 4S that answers questions . Some iPhone owners have come to depend on her since phone 's release three weeks ago .