“Is Siri up to Apple’s standards?” John Paczkowski askss for AllThingsD.
“Some would argue that it isn’t, and that the speech-recognition personal assistant that’s built into the iPhone 4S was released before it was really ready,” Paczkowski reports. “Apple CEO Tim Cook disagrees. But during an interview at D10 Tuesday night, he said Apple is working hard to improve it.”
Paczkowski reports, “‘Siri is one of the most popular features of iPhone 4S,’ Cook said. ‘But there’s more that it can do, and we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you’re going to see over the coming months. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do. We have a lot going on on this. … Sure, it can be broader, and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here. We’re doubling down on it.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Beta.
Siri needs to learn a wide range of accents from around the world. This is why Siri is a public beta. Siri is in learning mode. Mossberg ought to know this.
If Apple never released Siri, but a personal assistant half as good as the real Siri was available on Android handsets, Walt would stain his pants while pecking out reams of praise.
He’s no Steve Jobs by a long shot. He lacks conviction but he is the man. I think he lacks the ability to grab the public’s attention where Steve was able to marry the public attention with the product. magical.
Cook actually grabs my attention more, because of his humility. I tend to gravitate toward people like that in general though, as I find it an admirable quality.
You and me are in the minority. Charismatic people able to influence large numbers of people (willingly) with their oratory skills and stage presence, raise my defences immediately, until I’ve gone over what they’re saying carefully.
Most people though are too easily led by emotion though, e.g. “it FEELS more correct.”
Glad somebody else gets it.
One area in which you’re not in the minority. ‘you and me are’. Try ‘ you and I’.
I have much more respect for Cook now
that I have witnessed him speaking at D10.
He spoke with enthusiasm and passion and hinted enough on products. He does not need to copy Steve. Other then his take home pay. He is in no DOUBT the right guy fro CEO.
Hurray, to five great years.
Give Cook some time MEES.
mees
He lacks conviction? Are you serious? He doesn’t lack conviction by any measure I can think of.
I think it’s silly to keep comparing him to Steve Jobs. Tim will take Steve’s advice and be the best Tim Cook he can be not an imitation Steve Jobs. Tim Cook is a very complex and capable guy. He is not a newcomer to Apple. He will be his own man and Apple will continue to prosper.If that isn’t good enough for you sell your stock and move on!
I also want a choice of Siri Voices, like you have with OS X. I prefer a British female voice because I can understand it, but it’s foreign enough to my ear that I can ignore the synthetic nature of it. But to get a British voice on Siri, you have to set it to England, which gives you a male voice, and the context of your searches changes to England. Not what I want.
Absolutely right MDN in this particular case it s vital that Siri is available in the real world to improve there is only so much improvement you can do in the lab, it will develop so much quicker and broader discovering the real world for itself
Mossberg ought to know this;
yeah, i think he does… but as stated…
poorly working betas is not considered the “quality”
Apple is know for. Yeah, Beta is in learning mode.
Lets hope the Beta is over. SIRI version 1.0
When Siri was first released, it worked much better than today, at least here in Germany. No idea why.
During that time frame, Siri was far less of an AI — it was not primed to handle the context of speech and understood it. This initial period marked SIRI more as a voice command application on it’s way to become a full AI. By the time it had showcased at All Things Digital, SIRI was finally this AI that developers wanted to achieve; after that, they sold it to Apple.
C’mon guys…. don’t you get it?!?! The only obvious reason Apple never changed the name Siri when it purchased the technology (based on SRI) is that Apple plans to change the name (rebrand it) once it is up to Apple’s standards. No one will even remember the name Siri 5 years from now.