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Apple Looking to Hire Writers to Enhance Siri's Witty Personality
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One thing I would like them to add is contextual awareness. If I am browsing looking at a photo, it would be really helpful to be able to say "email this photo to John" and have Siri do just that. I feel it's not integrated into the system enough and it feels like a assistant in training.
Can they?
Here in the UK, Millions of £ are being cut from budgets for councils. Free bus passes, winter fuel allowances are all ripe for curtailing, while at the same time the UK Government is sending hundreds of millions of £ a year for overseas aid.
I might be stupid, but to me it seems that if we didn't send all this money away to people who mostly never appreciate it, it would help here at home for some of the people that paid in all their lives and are now being shafted.
I don't know what utopian world you live in, but it sounds nice. There must be plenty of everything to go round and people want for nothing.
Money well spent
How about fix the most basic cockups first?
Temperature here is currently -3 CELSIUS. If I ask Siri what the temperature is in Fahrenheit it just repeats the 'witty' Celsius temperature by saying "Brr! its -3 outside.".
Basic little things like this really shouldn't take a few seconds to fix.
http://www.mcelhearn.com/2012/09/20/why-wont-siri-tell-me-the-temperature-in-centigrade/
On the iPhone, set your Weather app to C or F. Siri will respond in those units. On the iPad, it's hidden away in the Clock app. C or F. Go figure.
Thank goodness they are taking care of this before they update the MacPro.
Gotta have priorities.
Gotta have priorities.
Actually, you are in a serious recession, with deflation, brought about by government austerity in response to a deflationary crisis. It doesn't work, huh? No. It doesn't. What you (and we) have is a jobs deficit. Government spending (in the short run) for JOBS. You'll find the deficits just melting away once unemployment is down. THEN, when the economy is recovering, cut.
What I would love is a voice expansion pack so you could change the voice to Yoda like the Garmin Navigation. Yoda is just an example. It would be fun if they got creative with it. <opinion>Siri's voice is annoying.</opinion>
I agree with you ... and, as the saying goes, "charity starts at home"
Problem is, if governments decide to spend more of it's own money to help it's own, then the people who benifit are the friends of the government, not necessarily the people ruled by that govenment.
It's a fine line, and a balancing act... and... you can't please all of the people all of the time.... THAT'S what the real problem is.
Well, Apple has enough resource to do both and more.
To stay ahead of the curve, Siri needs to (1) innovate, (2) improve performance (both response speed and accuracy), and (3) become more fun.
Speaking of innovation, I read Ben Brook's "More Data Detector Please" blog post last night. He proposes integrating Siri to voice calls, where Siri can listen in to detect and make a note of things like appointments, phone numbers, addresses, etc. And at the end of the call, I can review the summary to confirm individual actions.
A watch would be interesting, a camera unlikely, a better set-top box really good although the whole idea of forcing everyone in your house to watch your apps instead of their favorite shows...
The biggest of big things would be to purchase or start a satellite network and/or become a broadband provider. Talk about industries that are popular and even necessary, but suck in so many ways. And not just a walled garden, but a walled universe...
Siri has witty responses? I wouldn't know, all she ever says to me is:
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by _____, would you like me to search for it on the web?", or
"I'm sorry, I can only search for businesses located in the United States."
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by _____, would you like me to search for it on the web?", or
"I'm sorry, I can only search for businesses located in the United States."
Well, to be honest a big joke is all Siri is really good for. And Apple must know that. I mean, how many people can seriously say that they use Siri for functional tasks on a regular basis?
Well one thing is lets be blunt Apple is playing it cheap on processing power for siri. Compared to google that will start transmitting your voice right off as it is recording. This gives Google servers a head start at translating what you want. Another thing I believe Google is doing is using predictive algorathuims to start perfecting data on its back side while it is still translating what you said. This means the turn around time from when you say your last word is quicker because a lot more work as been done ahead of time. Draw back is when they (google) guesses wrong they have to double up on getting everything. Also means they might be using more process running multiple guesses at the same time.
I thought perhaps I was the only one who didn't need Siri to be cute, or my friend. It's a piece of software, and I don't need, or want, it to be human-like, just to be able to understand a simple command like "Cancel timer" without doing something useless like re-setting the timer to the original setting instead of canceling the timer, as I asked.
I'm not interested in Siri be more humanoid, rather more accurate and effective. I don't need to pretend Siri is human, just a useful part of an electronic appliance.
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The expectations from Apple are very high . Yet if you look at this list of innovations objectively- they have 4 major contributions in the last 20 years. The original apple computer with the GUI and mouse in the 1980s (taken from Xerox but made main stream by apple), the ipod in 2001, the iphone in 2007 and the ipad in 2010. Smaller but significant changes are itunes and the macbook air (the ultrabook concept) and the app store .
It is impossible for any company to keep coming up with "innovation" every 2 years. However , the expectations from apple are very high because the came up with the iphone and the ipad in rapid succession within a span of 3 years when the competition was taken by surprise. The sad demise of Steve Jobs has lead people to believe that Apple is on the way down. However , even if Jobs were alive, I dont think that he could push out an "innovation" every year.
It is impossible for any company to keep coming up with "innovation" every 2 years. However , the expectations from apple are very high because the came up with the iphone and the ipad in rapid succession within a span of 3 years when the competition was taken by surprise. The sad demise of Steve Jobs has lead people to believe that Apple is on the way down. However , even if Jobs were alive, I dont think that he could push out an "innovation" every year.
They have spoiled us to the point that many are now expecting miracles from APPLE. A tough act for them to keep up. Call me an optimist, but there are so many thousands of very talented people working at APPLE, that I believe many more great things will be coming our way, given time.
That's not the problem he was talking about. He was referring to actual functionality (the conversion) rather than a useless response.
Macrumors forums are starting to resemble Crackberry forums in the sense that over 50% of the comments are now negative with disappointment, doom, gloom, and how Apples future is downhill from here.
Man I hope they get the next phone right. I hate the atmosphere here now.
Man I hope they get the next phone right. I hate the atmosphere here now.
Money well spent
How about fix the most basic cockups first?
Temperature here is currently -3 CELSIUS. If I ask Siri what the temperature is in Fahrenheit it just repeats the 'witty' Celsius temperature by saying "Brr! its -3 outside.".
Basic little things like this really shouldn't take a few seconds to fix.
Fahrenheit is ****ing stupid and you all should start using Celsius like the rest of the world does. It's much easier and you won't have such problems (which is HUGE) ... not it isn't, just kiddin'.