“Apple announced speech recognition for the next iPhone. Big deal. Android’s had it for more than a year. Apple is just playing ‘catch-up’ and the feature’s not really earth-shattering anyway. Right?” Mike Elgan asks facetiously for Cult of Mac.
“Wrong. Everything in that opening paragraph is wrong, except the sentence that reads ‘big deal,'” Elgan writes. “Siri is a very big deal, the biggest of deals.”
Elgan writes, “In fact, Siri is the most important thing to happen to mobile in this decade so far… Android Voice Actions is great technology, and is widely used by many Android fans. But it’s not really in the same class as Siri… [which] will be unlike anything the public has used before.”
“You can say things that technically or literally have nothing to do with what you mean, but Siri will in many cases figure out what you mean based on context, history and and artificial intelligence designed to understand regular human speech,” Elgan writes. “For example, if you want to set an alarm for your nap, just say ‘wake me up in 20 minutes.’ If you want to know what meetings you have scheduled for later, you can say, ‘how does the rest of my day look?'”
Elagn explains, “Android Voice Actions can’t do anything like this because it’s voice command software, not artificial intelligence… Apple via Siri will make A.I. a mainstream, everyday reality.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Android is for the cheap and/or ignorant. We pity those who settle for less than the best — a blatant, half-assed imitator, no less — especially when the best is basically the same price.
LOL, it sounds like Siri is just a friendlier-sounding name for Skynet…
everything IPhone and battery life so much better then android and HTC EVO 4g sucks battery life. I am getting a IPHONE next year october. Siri voice command vs android voice don’t match winner apple iPhone siri
Let’ make SIRI’s voice sound like Steve.
Then the 4s will really be “for Steve”
tw
Nice take MDN. Im gonna show my friends and family who own droids this article. Specailly the ones that think they had Siri (or something like) already for the past year .
Not to be at total nerd, but Star Trek is here (at least talking to the phone), but you-all are missing the big picture, what about all the other Apple products with this same feature, goodbye keyboard. Can you see the day when you TELL your Mac, iPad, TV, etc… what to do or actual hold a conversation. Again the possibilities are enormous.
AGREE! I have been looking at this software for years. I can’t understand why the amazing R and D people at Macintosh are not blowing the competition away with this technology? What’s not to like?
I don’t get it! Every time we’ve seen a glimpse of the future, through someones eyes, it’s imagined with machines we talk to and talk back. Yet when Apple, last week, showed that, most Tech journalist said people wouldn’t use it.
People put the most private stuff on FB and Twitter, yet the argument is that you don’t want random people knowing what you’re doing. In my household the one most looking forward to Siri is my 14 yr old. I think that generation will soon refuse to use a keyboard… “a keyboard, how quaint..” comes to mind.
Off topic somewhat, but when is this marvelous technology going to be available on the laptop? Productivity gets an amazing shot in the arm when we can simply DICTATE.
The technology is out there and it is good, really good.
I’m just wondering if we’ll always have to call it ‘Siri’ or if we can customize the name.
Hello Eve, show me where the nearest apple store is please.
Isn’t Voice Actions like the iPhone’s VoiceOver? Why are the fandroids comparing Voice Actions to Siri? The iPhone had voice commands since 2009…
Siri may well be brilliant and cutting edge technology and all that, but I’m not sure it will actually catch on. Do I want to interact with my phone/computer with my voice? I’m not sure I do. I wonder whether this technology may well go the way of video calling. The technology is there, but hardly anyone actually uses it.
Happy to be proven wrong though.
Like the article says, Siri is MORE than just voice commands. The more important part is the A.I. So, I see no reason why Siri will not expand to encompass all types of interactions with all types of computing devices, to make the interactions more intuitive and interesting.
It’s funny that when I read all comments here was like made by elementary and kids leaving in their moms basement…
I had the iPhone (original), 3G, 3GS then iPhone 4 – all of it was jail broken…
I’m typing now in my iPad 2 because my iMac is tired for the whole day of work, then my MacBook pro left in my Audi, and watching now a movie using an apple tv…
When my cousin who own 3 cellphone stores introduced Tmobile NEXUS S, I said its plasticky and cheap looking… He said, if you put a good case it will be better. He sell and jailbreak iPhone in all his stores but loves so much the NEXUS series phones.
One day he showed to me the dedicated capacitive button for google voice recognition/search and I was amazed of it can do, that’s out of the box experience – no hacking, rooting or jailbreaking.
My last iPhone-iPhone 4 had been jail broken and had installous. He put the best of the best personalization and applications but still if you will compare to his NEXUS S it pales in comparison in what it can do. Just hit the dedicated capacitive button for google voice recognition/search and tell to navigate me to disneyland and after you will say it, NEXUS S will do the rest – it will go to the super advance google maps that they always update 2-3 times per month.
If theses itards/isheep keep on glorifying apple even they NEVER INVENTED ANYTHING In their iPhone from the original till the latest one from hardware to software. They will STEAL, COPY & buy small tech. Company and get the credit and shout to the world IT’S FIRST AND MAGICAL…
APPLE ALWAYS LIE…
I was once an isheep
Wow! WHat a bunch of fanboys on this site. You guys should really educate yourselves on technology. Apple is not the promissed land and Android is not a cheap imitator for the uneducated. Serioulsy people, this site is like the Fox News of tech.