“Apple’s new Siri virtual assistant feature in the iPhone 4s is… incredibly useful and powerful — especially if you use my three Pro Tips at the bottom of this column,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld.
Google’s Android boss Andy Rubin’s “recent comment, essentially showing a personal bias against Siri-like technology (even though Google engineers are working hard to out-do Siri with their own technology), reveals a breathtaking absence of vision about the future of computing,” Elgan writes.
“Siri enables me to play music and podcasts, send and receive emails and texts, give myself reminders, make appointments, get directions and all the rest without needing glasses or even taking the phone out of my pocket,” Elgan writes. “I don’t understand how anyone can fail to understand how great this is.”
Siri Pro tips:
• Give Siri an assistant of its own
• Master Siri’s surprising e-mail power
• Be a dictator with Siri’s hidden Dragon
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
“Siri, find me a quarterbag.”
“I’ve found 8 drug dealers near you and ranked them based upon Craigslist feedback. Would you like me to call one for you?”
@Cubert
NICE!
Looking at your name, for the life of me I cannot tell what you mean.
😉
who the hell calls it a quaterbag?
It’s just quarter nowadays, grandpa. And no one has sold a dimebag in ages… sand why even mention a nickel bag unless you live in the ghetto.
lolz.
He’s a Rasta, dude. One love Jah!
Still think that somebody should’ve pointed out how massively crippled Siri [currently] is outside of the US.
I love how people think any newly released technology should roll out perfectly and globally all at once without a hitch. Especially while in beta form! To paraphrase Steve Jobs “It’s important to know what to criticize as what NOT to criticize.”. And every two bit critic who whines and opines prematurely ought to get a life and stop acting like Debbie Downer. Complain once the technology matures if you must. And remember spurious opinions are like anuses, everyone has one but that doesn’t mean we need to hear it or see what’s expelled from it .
If I wanted to listen to an arsehole, I would’ve farted!
You think I warranted such BS from one sentence stating that someone should’ve mentioned MOST of it doesn’t work in the UK?
This is an Apple product, not some plastic shit from HP.
The least they could’ve done is pointed out that all this ‘Find me a locksmith’, ‘Find me a great Greek restaurant’ etc DOES NOT WORK IN THE UK!
In the UK, you can basically get it to do exactly what the 3GS/4 did (Call family and friends, but that managed it without a network, the 4S can’t!!!), check share prices etc
Siri is amazing in the US with a US speaker, in the UK with a UK speaker, it’s nigh on useless at present!
In closing, sort your attitude out!
hehe.. nice insult man. lol.
“If I wanted to listen to an arsehole, I would’ve farted!”
I would imagine you’ve gone through life having most of your conversations with your own emissions. And from your comment, the noxious fumes have taken their toll on your intelligence. Try pulling your head out of your butt once in a while.
You mean you cannot do Internet searches, reminders, emails, directions on a map, text messages all with the sound of your voice? Sure, you cannot look for businesses based in England. That we know. But most of the rest works.
Btw, I am English accented , having grown up there, and it understands me perfectly. I know for a fact that most people speak a kind of slang that no educated person can understand. If you are one of those go and learn real English. One word for you…Troll!
Ok, looks like we’ve got a couple of dickheads in tonight.
Let me explain to you what happens in the UK and this is from someone who is quite capable of speaking clearly and correctly!
If you ask for anything requiring a direction or location, you get ‘Sorry [NAME], I can’t look for places in UK’
If I ask it to read email it says ‘You have at least x emails: I can’t read them to you. Sorry about that.’
If I say ‘Give me directions to XXXX’ it says ‘Sorry [NAME], I can’t provide maps and directions in UK.’
If I ask it to find me the nearest anything [McDonalds, Starbucks… ANYTHING] it says ‘Sorry [NAME], I can’t look for places in UK’
In conclusion, Paul… STFU!
I was watching a Macworld video where Jason Snell was running the 4S through it’s paces, and Siri said it couldn’t read emails, just text messages. Is this a function not yet enabled? I’m still on iPhone 4 so I don’t know. Oh, and my head really is shaped kinda funny; thanks for noticing.
Contrary to your experience seems to work fine for me with my accent. So stick your head back up your arse and sniff your guts like you say you always do.
Paul, just be quiet you idiot.
What part of Beta do you NOT understand. Especially in the UK, FFS.
So, every time you speak you force everyone else to listen to one?
Sounds like you need a data center. I’m sure Apple will be building more.
It is not the speaker that is the main issue. Until all the dots are connected, i.e., the data bases that have to be accessed, analyzed and stored, the service that Apple has introduced is beta.
“Siri is, in essence, a computer that you can interrogate for answers, kind of like a search engine that runs locally on your phone. If you’ve seen IBM’s Watson play Jeopardy, Siri is basically a cut-down version. She isn’t intelligent per se, but if she has access to enough data, she can certainly appear intelligent. Siri’s data sources are open APIs, like Wikipedia or Wolfram Alpha, and in theory there’s no limit to the number of sources that can be added (though it does require significant developer time to add a new data set). For now you can ask Siri about the weather or the definition of a word, but in the future, if Apple links Siri up to United Airlines, you’ll be able to book a plane ticket, just by talking. Because Siri runs locally, she can also send SMSes or set reminders, or anything else that Apple (or app developers) allow her to do.”
And you don’t do this overnight. The current beta version is primarily US centric. With the exception of what is on your iOS device, the rest of the world will have to wait for SIRI to compile enough data separately for virtually every country in the world in for it to do more than what it can now by prefacing your query for SIRI to look for places via the web, e.g., instead of saying, “SIRI, I am looking for a place to eat near Piccadilly Circus,” for now we have to say, “SIRI, please search the web for restaurants near Piccadilly Circus,” to get your answer.
Amazing how may expect Apple to achieve overnight what mothers have been attempting to do for hundreds of years every time they ask their children did they remember to take out the garbage. They are still waiting for the right answer.
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein
It did on Doctor Who.
That sounds like something Homer Simpson would have said.
If one does not like Siri, then turn off the feature in Settings. iPhone 4 is first and foremost, a communications device. If I need to talk to the device using Siri to obtain information, or to a human on the other end of the line, who cares how requested information is obtained? Having Siri to help me get information is just another convenient option.
And to you foreigners (like me) out there who are complaining about Siri, you better look up the definition of the word “beta”.
1
…and the word “crippled”.
You mean like your brain?
Stupid Googe Exec. Jealous because they can’t quite figure out how to ape Siri right now. Anyone that believes Google deserves to use their POS Android and cloud crap.
In the parallel universe of Slashdot, which should rename itself “BitterWhinyAppleHaters.com”, Siri is nothing more than a language parser hooked up to a search engine. That’s all. Nothing more. Apple never innovates.
F*** I’m starting to hate that place.
——RM
Google and all the other competitors have tinkered with this technology only because they heard Apple was. But they always have to wait until the Apple product appears to know exactly how it works. Hopefully they will be met by a wall of Apple patents.
I hear copy machines running…