A Look at the History of Siri and How it Almost Became an Android Exclusive for Verizon

[KnightWRX]

Its a very minor point. They both use the same voice technology. The only real difference is one is for android (and can perform system commands, like Siri) and the other cant.

Well Google Now also does all the other nice tidbits like analysing your behavioral patterns and offering help/advice/information based around those without you having to actively request it, that also isn't available on iOS.

But yes, it is the same voice technology.

 

[WeegieMac]

Shame they didn't get it ...

 

[SmileyBlast!]

Originally Posted by JaySoul
Useless until it can successfully execute "Siri, make me a sandwich."

At the moment, Siri would probably miscomprehend and respond with something along the lines of:

"Sorry, I don't know how to turn humans into foodstuffs."

Funny!

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Shame they didn't get it ...

The more Market Share the iPhone has the better off we (iPhone owners) are.
Siri could have been a huge draw for Android potential customers. Jobs had to nix that deal.

 

[daneoni]

2 things im hoping for in 2013

-Eddy Cue manages to fix Siri and Maps
-Johny Ive brings it in terms of UI refresh.
-Federighi bolsters iOS functionality under the hood.

 

[Bantz]

Siri just isn't very good. Its very bad at recognising voices. Google now is much more useful . my Google now has learned my favourite football team and tells me live football scores. It also knows when I leave work and gives me traffic reports before I leave work. Its learned all this and more all by itself. Very impressive

 

[Bahroo]

Siri works quite well for me, is it just me?? I compared Siri to Google Now on my brothers NOte 2 and they both performed great Siri could do somethings Google now cant and somethins siri cant that google now can. Both were relativly fast in searching although i will say that Siri actually gave me answers to math problems faster consistently over Google Now. The key is to just talk slow and clear and concise.

I also did a test with Siri v Google Now and i asked both to do 5+5+5+5+5 and i kept saying plus 5 plus 5, Google now couldnt keep up with all the fives i was saying but Siri got every single thing i said.

 

[croooow]

Siri is useless, in our house all I ever hear people using it for is "X minute timer" when cooking and the occasional whats the sport score. It is quite handy at opening apps..... unless its noisy.

We are all tech savvy people, 4 iPhone 4's in the house and we hardly use it.

I am a very tech savvy person (it is my job!) with an iPhone 4. I watched a few people with their iPhone 4S or other Siri capable device a few times when it first came out and thought "that is pretty neat but not something I really need."

Since I got my iPad mini I have used Siri exactly zero times, not once. I did accidentally turn it on before, but I just exit it before Siri picks up anything.

 

[winston1236]

So tech savvy they don't even know what model iPhone they have

 

[metsjetsfan]

Is it still beta? If yes, how were they making all these big commercials about a beta product.

 

[derek4484]

To be honest

Who cares? Siri sucks. Have to ask it questions like 4 times. Google Search is much better. It's voice translation is almost instantaneous. Siri cant even tell you when the time change is. I used Siri a few times when I got my new iphone 5 and havent used it since. More trouble than its worth.

 

[davidwes]

Step 1. Double tap "Home button".
Step 2. Swipe to the right.
Step 3. Adjust brightness with slider.

Next question?

I just tried that. Nothing happened. Do i have to set a preference first for it to do that?

 

[staticv0id]

I just tried that. Nothing happened. Do i have to set a preference first for it to do that?

Brightness is only in the switcher on the iPad.

You're stuck with going into Settings>Brightness & Wallpaper.

 

[yegon]

Feature with tonnes of potential, but is utterly **** in terms of accuracy and usefulness. Waaaaay too early to market and really shows Apple had absolutely nothing exciting to say about the 4S. I say that as big iPhone fan, fanboys begone!

 

[cappadonna]

Siri just isn't very good. Its very bad at recognising voices. Google now is much more useful . my Google now has learned my favourite football team and tells me live football scores. It also knows when I leave work and gives me traffic reports before I leave work. Its learned all this and more all by itself. Very impressive

Not to take away from Google now, it blows siri out of the water, but of course you know it's "learning" based on what you search for. Pretty simple algorithm: "he searched for it once, show it again"

It's the implementation of that algorithm that makes Google now better than siri, but Google now can't just learn things on its own

I'm sure you know that already, just clarifying for those that might not.

 

[frayne182]

Siri is cool for a minute... The only time its cool is when someone who doesn't have it wants to see it... Or to show your grandmother how much tech has evolved.


Other then that.... never gets anything right.

 

[S.B.G]

... and many are looking for Apple to step up the pace of improvement with Siri in order to reestablish it in users' minds as a key advantage for Apple as it was touted at its 2011 launch on the iPhone 4S.

I would be one of the folks. My biggest issue with Siri is it's speed. It's slow to process and when I don't have a good cellular signal, it's near impossible to use. I wish they'd find a way to make some of the things it does, like change songs and such, be run on the iDevice rather than on their servers.

For some things, like web searches or a quick weather update, I've been using Google Voice for iPhone because it's much faster than Siri in my experiences.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Step 1. Double tap "Home button".
Step 2. Swipe to the right.
Step 3. Adjust brightness with slider.

Next question?

On the iPhone, swiping all the way to the right brings up the volume slider, not brightness.

 

[likemyorbs]

I actually use Siri a lot. Works great for me. Especially over wifi and lte, which I always have one or the other. I use it to control songs in the car mostly

 

[WeegieMac]

Originally Posted by JaySoul
Useless until it can successfully execute "Siri, make me a sandwich."



Funny!

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The more Market Share the iPhone has the better off we (iPhone owners) are.
Siri could have been a huge draw for Android potential customers. Jobs had to nix that deal.

Siri isn't even a big draw for potential iPhone customers though.

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I actually use Siri a lot. Works great for me. Especially over wifi and lte, which I always have one or the other. I use it to control songs in the car mostly

Which you could also do with basic Voice Control on the 3GS and up ...

 

[KnightWRX]

The more Market Share the iPhone has the better off we (iPhone owners) are.
Siri could have been a huge draw for Android potential customers. Jobs had to nix that deal.

And now, instead Android owners get Google Now, which is what they would've built on top of Siri, just now instead they built it on some other voice/speech recognition engine and it still works and is advancing more rapidly then Siri.

Let's face it, Apple really bites when it comes to online services. They've failed again and again in this arena, I dunno why they don't just stop trying at this point and make strategic partnerships with firms who understand online services and can deliver good experiences to users.

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Which you could also do much better with basic Voice Control on the 3GS and up ...

Correction in bold. The old voice control didn't rely on a data connection for such offline tasks.

 

[HMI]

But Siri is never going to out of Beta... Beta is Apple's new excuse for everything that doesn't work well. They still advertise and sell using it, but don't have to make it work as well as advertised.

So why would they ever take it out of beta? They can have their cake and eat it too, and legions of fans will defend them no matter what anyway. "It's just beta".

Just like gmail, right?! How long was that in beta?!

 

[likemyorbs]

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Which you could also do with basic Voice Control on the 3GS and up ...

Yeah but it was never really accurate with understanding song titles.

 

[unplugme71]

It amazes me how many people have problems with Siri. I rarely, if ever, have a problem with network connection or understanding what I'm saying. Maybe you guys talk way to fast or mumble. Just speak at a normal pace and clearly and you'll be fine.

Siri even knows when I say "I don't know" and when I say "I dunno".

I use Siri mainly for reminders, calendar, weather, sports, launching apps, sometimes get movie times but I usually watch from home, and asking web searches.

I do wish commands for the phone itself like setting reminders were locally stored. But I can see how that can take a few GB of memory.

 

[Mac21ND]

It amazes me how many people have problems with Siri. I rarely, if ever, have a problem with network connection or understanding what I'm saying. Maybe you guys talk way to fast or mumble. Just speak at a normal pace and clearly and you'll be fine.

Siri even knows when I say "I don't know" and when I say "I dunno".

I use Siri mainly for reminders, calendar, weather, sports, launching apps, sometimes get movie times but I usually watch from home, and asking web searches.

I do wish commands for the phone itself like setting reminders were locally stored. But I can see how that can take a few GB of memory.

I have to agree. I use it quite a bit, especially if I'm driving and I need to send a quick text to someone or call someone. I don't have to take my eyes of the road.

I find the people who have problems with it are people who are asking it questions it can't answer. I'm not saying that's not Siri's fault - Siri needs access to more data - but if you know what Siri can do, it's a nice app.

 

[AaronTheYoung]

Siri, what a waste of space that is!

It's awesome for no hands texting. I use it all the time. Siri clearly has a good understanding of the way I speak and gets my texts nearly perfect everytime.

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It amazes me how many people have problems with Siri. I rarely, if ever, have a problem with network connection or understanding what I'm saying. Maybe you guys talk way to fast or mumble. Just speak at a normal pace and clearly and you'll be fine.

Siri even knows when I say "I don't know" and when I say "I dunno".

I use Siri mainly for reminders, calendar, weather, sports, launching apps, sometimes get movie times but I usually watch from home, and asking web searches.

I do wish commands for the phone itself like setting reminders were locally stored. But I can see how that can take a few GB of memory.

I totally agree.

I'm waiting for Siri to do in bound information processing. I wish that when I was driving, Siri could ask me if I want to hear an incoming text message or automatically tell me I have a text from a VIP and then start playing it. Once it's done, she can give me the option to reply.

THAT would be a great feature and it seems so easily done. C'mon Apple!