Apple Airs First iPhone 4S TV Ad Featuring Siri

[hipnetic]

not sure who the little girl is ... but i heard they had to edit the puzzled look on her when a bunch of photos of Eric Schmidt popped up ...

Ah, you beat me to posting this!

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I was curious how Siri was responding to some of these queries, so I tried a couple of them out. Telling it, "We have a flat tire" results in a list of the closest towing companies. Kinda neat. But then I asked, "How do I change a flat tire?" to which it responded by pulling up a Wolfram Alpha page showing me how many calories I'd burn by repairing an automobile.

 

[Stelph]

What are you talking about, Siri works flawlessly with British or Australian accents.
There's plenty of videos of that on youtube.

You need to keep up on the news, outside of the USA Siri is non-functional

http://www.cultofmac.com/123687/siri-isnt-as-magical-as-it-looks-outside-of-the-u-s/

 

[Piggie]

Nicely made advert but very misleading.

So I buy an iPhone 4s and in the morning I tell it to remind me to get some milk when I leave work.
I leave work and get home and think dam no milk. Stupid phone.

 

[kjs862]

I feel that Apple has been doing some heavy advertising of the white iPhone on their on Apple.com, but in this ad, the only show one white iPhone. Who knows.

 

[dgalvan123]

How come they only show Siri's response to one of the queries? Anyone can ask those questions to any object. The selling point is how Siri would respond.

 

[BKF]

I could swear that's Betty Draper asking to be reminded to pick up the milk.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The little girl asking about weasels is hilarious. My (7 year old) daughter likes to do stuff like that with Siri. Only Siri has problems recognizing her speech. (She has a "General American" accent with no common little-kid slur or lisp - enunciates very well. I think it's just "kid voice" it has issues with.)

 

[aselekt]

AutoTune?

ol dude asks "how do I tie a tie again?" sounds its autotuned. dope.

 

[citi]

I don't know. It was alright, but I don't love it like some of you others out there. Definitely not their "best" work. More of a teaser to a bigger ad campaign.

 

[wrinklesmith]

Siri

SIRI's future is where the excitement is.

 

[brewcitywi]

Relate

It's good, but I miss apples old, epic, award-winning commercials. This seems very generic.

I totally relate to fearing that the advertising becomes flat. However, this isn't about a fringe product breaking onto the scene. This is about a breakthrough feature to a product which is trying to help a mass of users.

They must think that showing a string of realistic questions and answers would best illustrate what Siri could do.

I get it, and it's pretty effective!

Maybe, instead of the old mac/PC commercials, they could try talking to an android phone, then talk to an iPhone 4s.

 

[thirteen1031]

Very smart--and just right

Had to be said because it's true. That commercial is pure tripe.

Not at all! You're completely, utterly wrong. It's not true and it's not "tripe."

To the contrary, this commercial is exactly right for advertising Siri. You likely missed the clever aspect of it where the faces of the people are more or less hidden and what we see in almost all of the examples are their mouths; this not only emphasizes the idea of talking to the phone (rather than looking at it or touching it), but makes us identify with the speakers as it's easier to see ourselves in their position if we don't see the whole face. And as said, the phone is held as if it's a person they're talking to, and the questions they're asking are very conversational.

We don't hear the phone answering their question, which makes us hold out till the end wondering if it can answer and what it will say when it does. "Can it really answer a question like that?" we wonder. Again, very clever! We're not only given an impression of the phone's amazing versatility and usefulness, but made curious and eager to try it out ourselves.

All this may not be as mind-blowingly artistic as the iPod commercials, but it's very smart and quietly elegant. It points out to the viewer exactly what Apple wants to get across. Namely the difference between Siri and other talking machines. For years now, people have been made wary of talking devices thanks to what they've encounter over the phone: "I said I want an operator! Operator!" they scream, and the machine says, "Okay. I'll direct you to sales..." "NOOOOO!"

So you see, this first commercial wouldn't work if it was fancy or artsy or even mind-blowing--Apple had to show, very clearly and unambiguously, that this talking device was not only different, but trustworthy. Thus, the commercial shows people speaking conversationally--assuring the viewer that the phone will understand, no need to learn how to talk in some special way--and presents a variety of situations, meaning it's not rigidly limited like other talking machines. It is a quiet and calm commercial with people who are quiet and calm, indicating that there's no need to be afraid of the phone, it won't let you down or frustrate you. And the cherry on top is starting and ending with the phone being there for someone when no one else is--when you've a flat tire and kids in the car, or get locked out.

At those most fearful and frustrating times, you can relax. You're got the phone and it'll take care of things.

This is a very smart commercial; very on the mark

 

[lilo777]

SIRI's future is where the excitement is.

Was not it the case with other Apple's revolutionary inventions like ATV and FaceTime?

 

[thirteen1031]

How come they only show Siri's response to one of the queries? Anyone can ask those questions to any object. The selling point is how Siri would respond.

As I said in my longer post, this is very clever. The aim is to make the viewer wonder if the phone can answer any of those questions--and wait till the end of the commercial to see how it sounds and what it says when it does. If it answered right away, from that first question, there'd be no mystery to the commercial. This builds curiosity and keeps the viewer watching to the end to see what the phone does.

The viewer might not even know that the phone has a voice and answers back. So it might be quite a surprise when it does. That surprise has to be held off to the end, right? Also, not showing the answers to all these questions makes people want to buy the phone and ask those questions and see what answers they'd get. What does Siri give you if you ask how to tie a bow tie?

Ultimately, the phone only needs to be shown responding once to get across to the viewer what it does. The commercial does't waste this demonstration on showing that Siri can tell you the weather or wake you up, it saves its demonstration for the person who is tired and frustrated and needs help. Thus demonstrating not only what the phone does, but that it's helpful, friendly, practical. Yes?

 

[DESNOS]

This is what most ad makers don't seem to get. People want to know why they should care about your random device. Mindshare isn't enough. That's usually how Apple's ads go: "Here's what you can do with this device", "Here's the company that makes it", the end. Works wonders.

 

[Kadman]

I thought the ad lacked any excitement or generate that sense of urgency to run out and buy this ingenious new technology. It simply makes it look like a cheap gimmick. Who the heck scripted this spot? It's horrid!

 

[thirteen1031]

I thought the ad lacked any excitement or generate that sense of urgency to run out and buy this ingenious new technology. It simply makes it look like a cheap gimmick. Who the heck scripted this spot? It's horrid!

*sigh* Once again, remove yourself from the equation and think larger (and different).

Music doesn't scare people. It excites them and makes them want to sing and dance. People automatically love music. So with a music device, it's easy to go for the excitement factor. In fact, you want to pump that up to make your device look more exciting then any other music-playing device. With a device that lets you converse with people over a distance, that too, doesn't scare people. It's exciting, it's moving, it's very human.

But most people (unlike say you, me and most other tech lovers here) are scared of talking devices. Both experience and fiction (movies) have made them scared of them. The robot voice is weird (not pleasant like music), and talking to a device rather than to a person seems wrong. So the last thing this commercial should do is try to generate excitement (and exactly how would it do that, by the way, with a device that you're supposed to use to say, "remind me to buy milk"? Should the person be dancing in silhouette while they say it? ).

To sell a device that talks, an ad must avoid the voice of the machine (mechanical and off-putting), and make it seem useful, practical and friendly--and human. This the ad does that. Anything else and it chances scaring off its customers rather than luring them in. This isn't, like the iPod, a device that, if someone dances with it, mobs will pour in saying, "gimme, gimme, gimme!" This is a device with a robotic voice that makes people hesitate. The ad has to (metaphorically speaking), get down to the scared person's level, pet the phone and say, "See. Nice device. It won't hurt you...."

Later on, when everyone is used to it and it does't seem so strange or scary, THEN they can make an ad that generates excitement.

 

[thirteen1031]

Ask: What can you do? & What is the time?

I think it is going to be more frustration than it is worth if they don't publish an exact list of what it can do

Um, there's a list on the phone of what questions can be asked. Didn't you know that? (I think it was mentioned in the keynote) Just ask Siri "what can you do?' and it'll give you the list And each item on that list, if tapped, will offer more examples of how you can ask it to do these things.

Then nap time. "Wake me in 2 hours" Fine. "Do not allow incoming calls" "Do not allow me to be disturbed" "Go in airplane mode" WTF?? SERIOUSLY? Most BASIC use I can think of and it won't do crap.

Well, this is yet another reason why one doesn't want to generate "excitement" about this device in a commercial and have mobs buying it (like mobs of people aren't already buying it). It's still a beta, and it also learns, meaning the more you talk to it the better it will get, at least in understanding you. And for all that the commercial is trying to show its versatility, it still has a lot of limits.

Apple can only think of so much. And sometimes the most "basic" use that YOU can think of, isn't the most basic use that others will think of. Even at a company that's doing it's best to think of everything and make sure the device can do that everything. So, Apple puts this beta out into the world, and the feedback comes in. Like "what about THIS basic thing?" Siri gets adjustments and on the upgrade maybe it will now do what you want it to do.

Remember the apps we started with when they first showed up? Weather, finance, time? Pretty limiting. Users started saying, "What about an app for this? And for this? And for this?" And soon there were apps for all that and more. That, I think, is what Apple is doing with Siri. Putting it out there and generating ideas and ways to make possible what may not yet be possible. For example, it would be nice if Siri could open and use certain apps--but it can't, not yet.

Oh, and the next time you send a message to Matthew start with: "Send a message to Matthew on his mobile..." or whatever phone you want it to go to instead of Japan--Siri should ask in this instance, but apparently it doesn't. It would only ask if you were making an actual phone call. And the next time you're at the stove and want to time how long something takes to cook...ask Siri what the time is in your locale. Siri will tell you the time and bring up a ticking clock.

 

[Winni]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Siri, what is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to spend all your money on Apple products.

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*sigh* Once again, remove yourself from the equation and think larger (and different).

Music doesn't scare people. It excites them and makes them want to sing and dance. People automatically love music. So with a music device, it's easy to go for the excitement factor. In fact, you want to pump that up to make your device look more exciting then any other music-playing device. With a device that lets you converse with people over a distance, that too, doesn't scare people. It's exciting, it's moving, it's very human.

But most people (unlike say you, me and most other tech lovers here) are scared of talking devices. Both experience and fiction (movies) have made them scared of them. The robot voice is weird (not pleasant like music), and talking to a device rather than to a person seems wrong. So the last thing this commercial should do is try to generate excitement (and exactly how would it do that, by the way, with a device that you're supposed to use to say, "remind me to buy milk"? Should the person be dancing in silhouette while they say it? ).

To sell a device that talks, an ad must avoid the voice of the machine (mechanical and off-putting), and make it seem useful, practical and friendly--and human. This the ad does that. Anything else and it chances scaring off its customers rather than luring them in. This isn't, like the iPod, a device that, if someone dances with it, mobs will pour in saying, "gimme, gimme, gimme!" This is a device with a robotic voice that makes people hesitate. The ad has to (metaphorically speaking), get down to the scared person's level, pet the phone and say, "See. Nice device. It won't hurt you...."

Later on, when everyone is used to it and it does't seem so strange or scary, THEN they can make an ad that generates excitement.

I completely disagree. Most people don't have anybody to talk to anymore, and even less people buy a smartphone to make phone calls. Siri is their salvation.

 

[Winter Charm]

The other day i mistakenly took iPhone 4 to work (leaving 4S at home) and boy i was surprised when the phone didn't add my appointments i was telling it to add

When this happens you know it's not a fad or novelty about to wear off, haters try to show it that way though ... they fail.

Siri is amazing and knowing it's beta ...

Yeah. I'm still amazed that this is a beta... I can't wait to see what 5.1, 5.2 and eventually iOS 6 bring to Siri!

 

[ZipZap]

Has anyone noticed that the phones in the AD all appear to be LARGER than an actual iphone??

talk about distorting perspectives to sell product.

 

[McMahon.iCloud]

You need to keep up on the news, outside of the USA Siri is non-functional

http://www.cultofmac.com/123687/siri-isnt-as-magical-as-it-looks-outside-of-the-u-s/

What are you talking about??? I live in Canada and I use Siri on a daily basis and it works fine. The only feature that doesn't work outside the US is locations/maps. So in Canada Siri can't tell me my location or give me directions but other then that it works perfectly