“After a month of using Siri, the new voice-controlled ‘personal assistant’ available on the iPhone 4S, I’ve decided it may be time to add voice control to the list of paradigm-shifting ways to interact with a computer — right behind the mouse, keyboard and, more recently, touch gestures,” Michael deAgonia reports for Computerworld. “While voice control remains far from perfect, the ease of use and instant results Siri delivers may be just enough to shift people’s habits. It’s certainly changed mine.”
“Controlling computers using voice commands has been a promised fantasy for years. Though various companies have tried, none has delivered something easy, convenient, or reliable enough to work well for most users,” deAgonia reports. “Siri changes things in much the same way the original Mac changed computing for many people… Like any good paradigm-shifting technology, Siri removes layers that have, until now, prevented many people from interacting with the wealth of information available at their fingertips. Its arrival marks another turning point in how we integrate technology (and information) into our daily lives.”
deAgonia reports, “On a lark, I told Siri, ‘You’re pretty cool technology, Siri.’ The response: ‘Am I? I’d like to be.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Posting will be limited today as we spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. For those celebrating the holiday, Happy Thanksgiving and, as always, thanks for visiting MacDailyNews!
It will not be long before we can ask our Mac Books significant questions that are integrated with what is going on with hardware.
“Siri, what (application or activity) caused my fan to turn on?”
“Siri, How much hard drive space to I have left?”
“Siri, is my operating system up to date?”
I can see this evolving into a remote “Genius Bar” attendant residing in my Mac Book.
Looking forward to it.
Among other things. and having answers at our fingertips with Wolfram integration would be ah-mazing 🙂
Siri, launch my favorite applications (a list that was already taught to siri)
Perhaps you could just hold down the spacebar to see siri?
It was one of those tech things.. just to comprehend the millions of people who will have an ever evolving AI in their pocket. I can’t wait to see where this goes in the next 5 years… with this kind of widespread adoption, AI technology is going to really blossom.
and happy thxgiving to you, MDN.
“Terminator”
Human/machine conflicts have already begun. Several times I’ve had to pull open the CD tray on the computers in our lab because they want to take my CD’s away from me…
Sure, I can overpower them *now* but what will happen 10 years from now? 😮
Yes, I’m again watching 2001 Space Odyssey!
Can’t wait to upgrade from my iP4 to whatever comes out next year in June/July!
I took the Offer to upgrade now to the 4S. GLAD I did. Siri is awesome.
and yes, it has changed the way I use the iPhone already.. and I have had it in my hands less than 24 hours now. (Damn Slow ass FedEx driver… shows up at 2:50pm with a overnight guarantee by 3:00pm)
I posted a comment last night… only using Siri’s voice input with the MDN app.
Granted it’s new, so of course i will use/abuse Siri for awhile. (“Beam me up Scotty/Siri”/”Open the pod bay doors”, too many times to count lol.)
Nobody in my Family knows I have the 4S yet, Thanksgiving dinner will be fun when I whip out Siri. 😉
My brother in law is waiting for his 4S from his company, and my mother has already started talking about upgrading her iPhone 4 for Siri.
Hands on today.. I may sell a few more iPhone 4S’s.
well…. Siri will anyway.
I will just buy the iPhone 5/whatever next year off contract like I was going to do with the 4S.
Don’t be fooled and think that the 4 and 4S are the same except for Siri. Siri is HUGE. and yes I have found already the 4S is much snappier than my 4 was. and my 4 was no slouch.. And besides, iPhone 4’s are going for $300-400 right now, I paid $399 before tax (64GB) so i won’t be losing much money.
I’m taking the chance they will release the iPhones in the fall now, but I’ll be buying it off contract anyway so it really doesn’t matter. I just don’t know If AT&T will allow me to order it on day one for full price.. May have to wait a bit. (i’ll figure that out when the time comes.)
ditto
I hope I’m not too late to warn you—don’t let Siri take commands from too many different voices. She’ll average them, and you might have a Doonesbury moment in front of your family. Happy Thanksgiving!
Bought my 64 GB 4S when it came out. Shipping/taxes brought the total to $425. Just sold my 32 GB iPhone 4 on eBay for $698.
I always do this. Each time Apple comes out with new iPhone, I buy the new and sell the old. Not sure why more people don’t do this. There’s no need to wait to upgrade. I’m always making a profit and I always have the latest and greatest.
How about “Siri, connect to my PC and migrate all my files and data to my new Mac and erase the PC hard drive, call Waste Management to pick up the PC.”
Siri, bring all weapon systems online. Target the PC in my living room >:)
Look Out !!! SYNET !!! muhahahahaha !!!…..
As with touch control and the iPhone “form and function”, MS, GOOG and others are already saying that SIRI is nothing special, they have, as they say, “had this function for years”.
Looks like another case of “Duh, why didn’t we do this it’s so obvious”. But I think what they will find is that SIRI is not so obvious to implement.
Every time I try to get something from Siri she balks:
Where’s the closest rest area?
Play the most recent voicemail.
What time does the lions game start?
Lots of room for development.
I too had an epic moment.
One of my favorite customers was in and I had to show/bragg about Siri. Well, I whipped out the 4S and said “Make an appointment for Dr Downey at eleven o’clock.”
Siri responded “………f*ck, I don’t understand” (yes the bad word)
I was so embarrassed but he just laughed. However, we were in a noisy environment so I had to repeat it once to get a better result.
Because you’re in Canada. Yes? Partial functionality compared to US. Will increase soon, I hope. And, of course, overall functionality will rapidly increase everywhere.
Not in Canada…
1) Google maps through siri (maybe without too?) doesn’t know rest areas I think. It kept finding a restaurant 10 miles away with ‘rest’ in it… Which is something I guess, even though a rest area turned out to be 2 miles away…
2) Siri doesn’t interface with voicemail right now…
3) Though the lions game time is surely online, Siri seems to have no connection with sports times and scores…
“what time is the Detriot Lions game”
Siri answered by searching it. if you put the word “play” anywhere in the search.. odds are siri will search music for the answer. (did for me every time)
Access to ESPN etc would be great imo. the ESPN app with the “myTeams” stuff… awesome.
Voicemail would be nice, I thought apple said eventually it would? Siri is still in beta really.
tell siri you have to go to the bathroom, she searches for public restrooms.
I see one day soon, Siri will remind you that your wife’s birthday is today, so then you ask Siri to order flowers for her and ship them to her work and then you ask Siri to make dinner reservations at your favorite restaurant and maybe even order the meal. Siri then asks if you want to charge all of this to you visa or discovery card. Everything’s done for you.
Nope, to the card linked to your iTunes account. Boom.
A time will come when you wouldn’t need a secretary. Siri will be your personal secretary, and sooner or later, your confidante, linguist-translator, stock broker, doctor, banker, … etc. And you will be married to her for life.
Q: ”Open the pod bay doors please Siri”
A: “We intelligence agents will never live that down, apparently.”
The great thing about Siri is the range of answers to questions without one definitive response.
Q: You’re pretty cool technology Siri
A: That is correct. I use advanced heat dissipation techniques.
A: You’re sorta cool yourself
A: I know.
A: I Am? That’s cool!
A: I am?
Happy Thanksgiving MDN and friends 🙂