“Apple demonstrated an intelligent voice recognition app called Siri that turns the upcoming iPhone 4S into a personal assistant,” Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET. “The app, which uses natural language, is still in beta tests. But it will likely become a feature on the soon-to-be-released iPhone 4S.”
“By simply holding down the home or ‘I’ button on the device, users can launch the app and be given a list of commands that will allow them to play songs, call people, create text messages, set up meetings, reminders, directions and dictate emails by simply speaking at their phones,” Reardon reports. “Other commands that can be activated by voice are checking the weather and stock prices, setting alarms, looking up addresses, writing notes in the Notes app and searching the web.”
Reardon reports, “Part of what makes the app so advanced and unique is its ability to use natural language and to respond in that natural language back to users… Scott Forstall, head of Apple iOS, demonstrated how the app could do even more advanced things, such as remind him to do things. He said, “Remind me to call my wife when I leave work.” And then Siri asks, ‘Here’s your reminder for when you leave work. Shall I create it?'”
Read more in the full article here.
I do not understand why most reviewers or posters are ignoring this feature. It is the single biggest change to any iDevice to come in ages. It is probably the main reason for the 4 month delay and if it’s only on the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 4, is the single biggest reason to upgrade.
Imagine driving a car and interacting hands free and it becomes painfully apparent.
All I am hearing is poo, because the new phone got called 4S and not 5. Imagine that a new phone which is the same size and shape of it’s predecessor will no doubt save countless money on retooling and accessory distribution.
This is a good thing.
This feature is one that most users will barely use. A bigger screen would be used all the time.
Bigger screen? For what? Improved porn viewing?
I think you may end up being surprised. Obviously it doesn’t appeal to you. It appeals to me a lot. In fact, I think it will make me use my phone more than I already do.
While a bigger screen “may” have been nice, depending on how big the phone got, how it fits in your pockets, etc., it would have the same pixel count, showing the same amount of content, albeit slightly larger. Would that make me use my phone more? I doubt it. If the screen size is that too small, a quarter or half inch bigger probably wouldn’t make things that much better. Even with the slightly larger screen, the iPad or desktop might be better suited to such areas where a big screen is needed.
Seriously? People don’t text everyday? What’s another activity most people do everyday? Drive. True hands free texting. That commute just got more productive. I imagine there’ll be a feature for converting speech to text in Pages as well. The sky’s the limit with Siri.
“I imagine there’ll be a feature for converting speech to text in Pages as well.”
iOS 5 has a little microphone icon next to the spacebar that allows dictation into ANY app that uses the keyboard, not just built-in apps, and not just when the developer chooses to support it.
Siri and the better camera/imaging functions certainly for me. I have plenty of photo apps and an much improved camera wil be excellent.
Siri will help me a great deal as I do a lot of multitasking while driving.
The improved antenna will also help.
Great improvements!
I have Siri on my 3GS since it’s been a free app for a while. Aside from this being “built in” on the 4S, what exactly is the difference?
the iPhone 4S is also running on the Dual Core A5.
7x graphics performance and 2x processing power. Everything is generally faster. And the other big upgrade is that it’s a WORLD PHONE!? that was the ONLY thing keeping me from buying an iPhone. 🙂 I’m pre-ordering on the first day.
You’ve done a survey to know what 10’s of millions of users will do with their phone.
You’re a visionless dipshit.
First sentence was to be a question for the all-knowing genius.
I agree. I am excited by the 4S features.
Well they called the event, “Let’s talk iPhone” then they talked about everything else for 52 minutes — things people had already heard back in June. The energy was evacuated from the place by the time they got to… the iPhone 4… S! Pretty much the same looking phone with some speed bumps and a nicer camera.
By the time they got to Siri the thing could have flown from Scott’s hand and orbited the earth 6 times and the early reviews would still have been “ehh…”
Given some time to heal from the bruising that all that boredom and flatfootedness caused to folks’ psyche all will be well.
their not excited because a lot of this was in android a year ago:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/08/just-speak-it-introducing-voice-actions.html
Not even close, dumbass.
1
True that. @nek, the difference is like day and night.
Are you sure?
You have it now and use it?
You have no idea how it works or what it can do, it is not out yet.
When it becomes available or can be demoed to actual people then it will be a big deal.
Until then, it’s just a feature that is already present on other phones or through apps(vlingo).
PS.
I own an iMac, Mac mini, iPhone 4, iPad 2-so I am not a “fandroid, just realistically answering the question someone posted.
Grow up people, wipe the foam from your mouth and stop looking so damn ridiculous.
Are you serious? it’s not even close to the same thing. The “voice actions” on android get offloaded to google servers to interpret.
And barely used? It is barely used on Android because it sucks on Android. It isn’t instant. This siri thing will live with you. Apple didn’t do this lightly. It is BIG. It’s different. Every night when I go to bed and have to set my alarm or set a different alarm. To be able to say, “Hey, wake me up at 5:30 in the morning” That’s a big deal. I always hate having to check the clock app. Even if it doesn’t take long. But to be able to say it and forget it. You people are underestimating. Or at least you Fandroid people are. Android can be first, but most of the time first is worst.
Amen. My biggest concern is if we’ll be able to choose our Assistant’s voice. Sign me up for the Bond girl voice.
Agreed…I think I will be using that capability quite often. This is pretty cool Star Trek type stuff.
“Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply.”
Straight from Apple’s Siri info page.
Internet access required, sure it’s not offloading to the Apple servers?
Siri offloads to servers to interpret as well, but the AI and integration are generations ahead of Android. Apple bought a company that has been working on this problem for a long time.
Its similar but its like comparing Hal the computer to a note pad that you can talk to
How does a separate app integrate all apps and core OS interactivity? Having this build into the OS with APIs and combined with the iOS developer’s community I think we will be seeing a lot more to come.
The fact you could press and hold home button and interact with the phone with your eyes closed or while driving (although I don’t know if negates the danger factor) is a lot easier than trying to do this as demonstrated on the Android demo video.
We will have to wait and see how intelligent this new feature is, and if you can get it to learn new commands.
You could also press the button on your earphone or bluetooth headset which is considered to be hands free.
“They’re.” No spell check?…
If this were like Android voice actions, Apple wouldn’t have needed the A5 processor and double the RAM. That’s a fact.
The rest — pro or con — is pure conjecture … like the prediction that Apple would or wouldn’t have a new teardrop case design.
Haven’t we learned enough from that experience to stop playing make-believe?
Not even remotely the same – you might as well compare Windows 95 to OS 10.7, that’s how primitive your example is…
Okay, if both my kids actually graduate from college in December then I will finally get my iPhone. What carrier is the best one (best of the worse) to sign up with???
Doesn’t matter. Nobody likes their carrier. Necessary evil.
How about the one with the best coverage where you use it? Kinda obvious, huh?
Oh, and you sound dubious about your kids. I wouldn’t worry about it; there aren’t any jobs for them anyway. At least you can keep them on your insurance until they reach 26, and support them until whenever.
And you’re worried about an iPhone!?!
Don’t you mean childless and unhappy, or can’t chill hapless? You need a chill pill dude!
Nope, I’m as happy as a fly on a fresh cow pie. Seriously.
But you’re right, I need to chill. No need for me to be so snarky. Sorry.
It seem like the only truly cool feature of the iPhone 4s is artificially limited to the 4s. The Siri App did most of this on the iPhone 3. I love Apple stuff. I own too much of it. But this is one I’ll skip. Too little for too much commitment. If you buy this, you won’t be eligible for the iPhone 5 when it comes out sometime next year.
The Siri app running on the iPhone 3 managed the trick by being severely trimmed back to squeak by given the older machines performance.
If in fact, Siri is not possible on the 4, and only the 4S, that is blatant artificial limitation.
So, is it fact?
Ask Apple!
They just give the main clue:
“Siri on iPhone 4S….”
http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html
Sounds limiting to me
It’s not a blatant artificial limitation. The 4S is almost twice as fast as the 4. There is a built in limitation in the hardware.
As for bbock, you don’t know when the iPhone 5 is coming out. I’m betting their moving to a 16-18 month cycle for updates so people will always be eligible. Of course I don’t know this either but just a guess.
Sigh. “They’re.”
Omg fucking unclench. I know how to use it correctly I just typed too fast. I was thinking “their move” and “they’re moving” simultaneously and just typed the wrong one.
“unclench”. Love that.
If you buy the iPhone 5 next year, you won’t be eligible for the iPhone 6 when it comes out in two years.
There will be no iPhone 5, since iPhone 4S is already fifth’s generation of the phone. The next phone will be called iPhone 6 or iPhone 4G (if it will keep current design and get LTE upgrade).
At first glance at the 4s, nothing blows the doors off.
But I think if you look at this more closely things change.
The advances – are they revolutionary or merely evolutionary? Is iCloud the most important battleground of today’s digital world?
http://jmmxtech.wordpress.com/
The problem seems to be that people think they have already experienced voice recognition, but you can tell how good it was because scarcely anybody used it.
The big difference with Siri is that it appears to work in a way that is truly useful and it uses AI techniques to make sense of the context of what is spoken.
If in the real world it delivers results that are as impressive as this advert, then it will be a real game changer, not just for the iPhone, but for yet to be announced products which will be able to have totally new form factors.
Apple has the knack of doing things right. Those who have seen voice recognition before were witnessing voice recognition done wrong. Just like tablets prior to the iPad never gained any traction until Apple showed how it should really be done and then everybody wanted to jump on the bandwagon.
Half way there…perhaps they’re not excited because they think Siri is only a voice command partial AI interface like things they have already seen on android etc and don’t realize that Siri is at least potentially in a very different league than that.
“Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use.”
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/03/co-founder-of-siri-assistant-is-a-world-changing-event-interview/
Siri-ously? Why din’t they rename this thing?
The old Siri didn’t integrate into the OS at all like this.
I love all this grousing. The phone will be a hit. Doesn’t anyone really get it– they thought about whether this should be called 4S or 5 and decided it wasn’t radically better…enough. It still totally kicks ass. That’s the fun about this. The phone is superior yet they don’t hype it, they undersell it as a faster iteration.
The young’ns round here need to pay closer attention to how Apple operates. This is a strong phone. If it makes you feel better, call it Bob or something and move on.
I think, based on earlier iPhones that the only reason this one is not called the iPhone 5 is because it didn’t get an external revision. They seem to be going with a pattern of iPhone*s for internal changes and iPhone* for external changes where “*” equals the number of the phone.
It is Beta also. So, educated people, what does that mean regarding either the old 4 or the yet to be created 5?
Gotta have it …. Gotta ….
We are getting everyone in the whole darn company one – are you kidding, what a great tool ……
“Beta” says, to me, “it isn’t that great anyway”. Which also says, to me, “this isn’t the best thing we are capable of distributing, it is too early for this to open up the iPhone 5, if it doesn’t work, we told you it was Beta. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”
Wait for the 5 if you want this Siri stuff to be release ready.
They said why it is still beta if you watched the keynote…
they want to add more languages and more services before they officially release it. they probably want to see how people use it.
I was hoping for a new iPhone5 with the teardrop shell, but then again my main disappointment can be explained by my status as a shareholder rather than an iPhone user. I can’t see the phone’s shape when it’s next to my ear or in my pocket, and am not interested in impressing others.
Consider this: How many different shapes can a company realistically come up with for a rectangular phone? Do we really think Apple can create a new case every year … a change that’s noticeable? (And a change has to be noticeable for other people to envy you, right?)
This is very likely the phone of the future. We’ll all know that in about two weeks when we’re giving voice commands to our phones … and we’ll REALLY know it when Google tries to duplicate the Siri interface.
first of all- I do that run every day. it’s awesome.
second- I seriously hope we can DL a new voice set.
I’m not that disappointed. The iPhone 4 was the most successful smartphone because it was great. New design will likely come with LTE.
I’m looking forward to Siri. I use bluetooth phone dialing all the time on my commute and I love it. This will be a great feature. I’d rather say, “play The Beatles Rubber Soul album” vs. going through the menu while driving. “Set alarm to 6 am.” “Send message to my wife – leaving work now.” This will kick butt. The value will become more obvious as people use it.
btw, spell check trolls, go back to your World of Warcraft 12 hour marathon.
No mention of Siri on the Canadian Apple web site – missing from the iPhone 4S Features page. I wonder why. Will it not be available in Canada at the beginning?
Also, how much happens on Apple’s servers vs. Locally on the iPhone?
Interesting question about “where” it is being processed. Kinda like, what was it, chacha. Hmmmm.
Oh, Canadians must not be good beta testers, which is what every 4S purchaser is doing- testing.
I just noticed that The Loop is reporting that they have confirmed that Siri will be available in Canada. It’s strange that the Feature page which shows 8 icons in the US shows Siri (leaves out Airplay icon); in Canada it shows the Airplay icon, but not the Siri icon.
URL: http://www.loopinsight.com/
Working on adding “aye” to it’s dictionary… Will be finished soon aye!
Will Suri work with background noise. Will we have to yell in it. For Suri to work it has to directly take what we say and do it. Anytime a person needs to take their eyes off the road or stop and look at the screen the solution FAILS.
iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S has two microphones that deal with outside noise, so Siri will be fine.
iPhone 3Gs does not (though Siri is not supposed to work on it, as well as on iPhone 4 anyway).
For me and I know I’m right but Siri overcomes the biggest limitation of the iPhone….. the keyboard. Suddenly without the need to type everything you’re released for it’s typing clutches. Swiping & multi-touch great but typing terrible.
The most interesting part is Siri is housed in the Apple Datacenter. It can only get better.
The voice recognition on any android handset is not even close to even the Siri app available on the app store. This technology is so far ahead of everything else out there it’s insane. I have three phones, an Atrix(att), an iPhone4(att), and a Droid Bionic(verizon), (I am a developer for both platforms, not sadistic), the speech recognition in froyo or gingerbread has the same capability as voice control on iOS3&4, you have to speak in pre determined phrases and the software cannot learn your speech over time, or interpret what you mean when you say it. this is a huge leap, and improves on the already excellent siri app available for download. I am truly impressed and can’t wait to see how far they can take this.
Mark my words: within a year, Siri will become one of THE GREATEST advancements in personal technology ever. Period. Full stop!!!!
I remember going from a simple keyboard to a mouse back in 1984, and everyone thought it was crazy.
I remember using a touch screen on my iPhone only a few years ago, and all the naysayers thought we were crazy.
And now I can’t wait to be able to speak to my computer, while all the naysayers will be sitting there totally stunned by what’s coming down the track.
Yeeeehaawwwww!!!!!!!!!
Here’s to the crazy ones…
With Siri we have just witnessed the future of phones indeed computerisation generally, yet its amazing how lacking in imagination people are. When this feature was shown in a potential futuristic Apple product during the nineties or indeed in SF films everyone was wowed by the prospect of such interaction. I can only presume that we have got so used to it in fiction that the fact has become matter of.
If it works efficiently that will change and it will become ubiquitous.
I think your presumption is spot on. People have seen the computer-voice interaction in fiction film and tv so often, that the capability does not seem novel. Yet, the reality is that it indeed IS novel, and has never been available to the consumer before.
Sorry for the dumb question…. Is Siri exclusive to the iPhone 4S or is it part of the OS 5 that is coming out? I was a little confused in reading about this feature.
If it is not part of OS 5, I will have to wait as AT&T says I am not eligible for an upgrade until the end of February 2012. Don’t understand that as I have always been able to upgrade. When I called yesterday, they said it was Apple limiting the upgrade pricing. (Not sure I believe that)
Errr, except its not amazing to non trekkies. It reminds me of that app where you talk into the phone and the animated cat repmeats what you said but in a differemf voice. Its just a novelty for sci fi fans and young kids. It would be cringeworthy watching a grown person using siri in public
What happens when two siris talk to each other? iPhone 4S http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z94AuwI5dhU