By Sarah Dean She gives directions to over 100 million people in GPS devices around the world and has become the Australian voice of Apple's knowledge navigator Siri. But singer Karen Jacobsen, from Queensland, had no idea that her voice was going to be used for the high-profile role - and that she would become known as 'Australian Karen' - when she recorded 50 hours worth of directions in a studio in America, in 2002. It wasn't until a surprising phone call in 2004, from a friend who was using GPS to drive back to New York from Maine at Christmas, that she found out just how well known her own voice had become.
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Karen Jacobsen, originally from Queensland, recorded 50 hours of lines for a 'text-speech' system in 2002, in America
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In 2004 she found out her voice was being used for popular GPS navigation systems from a friend who was using GPS in their car
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She is now famous as 'Australian Karen', the Australian voice of Apple's Siri and Tom Tom, Navman, Garmin and Mio navigation
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Karen moved to New York in 2000 to pursue lifelong dream of being a singer after growing up in Mackay, Queensland
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Says she was 'the last person to own an iPhone' despite tech associations
Big @placeholder: Karen left her hometown of Mackay (left) behind and boarded a plane to New York(right) with just one suitcase and 'big dreams' in 2000