According to The Next Web’s Robin Wauters, when you ask Apple’s Siri, “What’s the best smartphone ever?” you get the response: “Nokia’s Lumia 900.”
“Siri’s amusing recommendation is drawing comments from hosts of Nokia and Microsoft fans worldwide (yes, there are still many of them), which in itself is rather amusing,” Watuers writes. “It’s like watching people cheer because the mirror told the queen that Snow White is actually the fairest of them all.”
“Needless to say, the reason why Siri is making the above recommendation isn’t because Apple thinks the iPhone 4S is subpar (as if),” Wauters writes. “It’s simply because Siri bases its answer to that particular question on results from Wolfram Alpha, which itself draws from users reviews Web-wide.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We have replicated the Siri result described by Wauters on our iPhone 4S units:
I got that result too…….
If you ask, “What is the best smart phone?”, you get a pre-defined answer. The answer is a joke about the iPhone.
I get a typical Siri response; “wait there are other phones?”
me 2
I’ve just done it. Siri interpreted my question as “What is the best smart phone ever” (space between smart & phone). It returned the Lumia 900. (Got a screen capture of it).
I wonder if I asked the same question on the Lumia, what the result would be! 😉
Siri tells me “The one you’re holding” or “There are others”
I didn’t ask ever. When I did, I got a search for businesses with smartphone in the name.
that’s what I got too!
Conversely, “What smart phones get poor reviews?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand [that].” “Search web”
“Okay, I found these results for you:”
New Samsung Smartphones http://www.samsung.com
wolfram’s answer is bases on 4 reviews of 5 out of 5 on Best Buy site. Checked it out on an iPad using Wolfram Alpha.
This shouldn’t be surprising, if we apply the same standard of impartiality to Apple that we expect of Google, but it does point out a flaw in the Siri response model.
A Google text search will return a ranked list of answers. Siri can only return a single answer. Siri is too clever.
Siri is just being flighty. Come on!
I just tried and the response was “The one you’re holding”.
MDN: Why do you turn on your Bluetooth when you’re not using it?
Mine is on all the time… just not the icon unless it’s connected.
I turn my headset on/off all the time (I can’t have a headset at work so when I leave the car i have the headset switched off.)
I also have a speakerphone setup in my car, Driving down the road and I turn the speakerphone on.. i’d have to go into the settings and turn bluetooth back on. and doing that with the cop behind/in front/beside me… not wise in a state that has banned texting/handheld calling.
and MDN…. Getting tired of this “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” ALWAYS being checked…
It’s not WordPress, even if logged out.. that box is still checked.
oh did some research for everyone here that also is fed up with the notify box…
It’s not WordPress, MDN must have updated the Jetpack plugin for their blog. that Notify via email checkbox…. is ON BY DEFAULT now.
Many have complained to wordpress about it, it’s the same answer. the BLOG has not unchecked it in their settings.
thanks I wondered what was going on.
Agree. I noticed that a few days ago when I wondered why all of a sudden MDN eMail was flooding my in box.. That box should not be automatically checked. Now I have something else to remember to uncheck.
In iOS 5, if Bluetooth is on but hasn’t been paired to any devices, it is actually off until you enter the Bluetooth section of the Settings app and it starts looking for devices.
If it has been paired, but the paired device is out of range, then it uses a (very) minuscule amount of power to periodically ping for known devices. This has almost no discernible effect on the battery life of the device, except when comparing “standby” times (“standby” loses several hours, whereas usable time is only reduced by a few minutes).
When a paired device is in range, then Bluetooth is finally powered up fully and begins to work as it had in previous generations of iOS.
Since iOS 5 was released, I have left Bluetooth enabled on all my devices and have had not suffered from battery life issues yet.
I got Siri to do it also, BUT.. I had to go back and put “smartphone” as one word. Siri always separates the two words when I speak it. “Smart Phone” which gets the canned responses.
and yeah, it’s Wolfram Alpha using Bestbuy’s employee ratings…
MDN-WTF? Why was my comment, which said that I also got the nokia-limia response as well, removed?
I guess it wasn’t “the best post ever!” 😉
This is not such a bad result. It will mean big improvements to the next iPhone. Competition will make the iPhone a better phone overall. If the Nokia Lumia fails then so will eventually Nokia and that will mean the end of one big competitor to Android and iPhone.
Where do I send flowers? Siri is obviously sick and having delusional thoughts!
No, it’s like watching people cheer because the mirror told the queen one of the dwarfs is actually the fairest of them all.
Why ask a question you already know the answer to? Siri- ask Me next time- it’s the iPhone 4S.
That said, Siri is at times, incredibly stupid. Please upgrade, Apple.
Mine says nothing about a Nokia. Siri finds me restaurants when I ask it that question.
Remember, Siri is still beta
LOL 🙂
Microsft should use this in their marketing 🙂