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Apple Sued over 'Misleading' Advertising in Siri Depictions

AidenShaw said:
...but, as soon as Apple featured Siri in an ad he became a fundamental part of the product.

You can't feature something in your ad campaign, and then claim that since some fine print somewhere calls it "beta" you're not responsible if it utterly fails to do what you have advertised.
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I must say I agree, Apple should not be advertising something that is a beta product, and subsequently eschewing responsibility because it's still in beta. Certainly, beta software need to be tested publicly, but until you're prepared to take responsibility for the quality of the software, for heaven's sake, don't use it as a selling feature.
chinesedemo said:
I stopped using Siri to maintain my sanity and composure. Very poorly implemented in it's present state. I would say it's next to useless, and aside from setting an alarm Siri makes life more challenging. My Acura RL does a much better job of understanding what I am saying.
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OTOH my Honda Accord and Pilot are far worse at understanding me (and especially my wife) than Siri is. I find that Siri understands me correctly about 95% of the time, while my vehicles' voice automation (which has a much more limited vocabulary) is closer to 50% for me and not much better than 25% for my wife (she usually has to voice dial a number four or five times to get it right when using the vehicles' voice recognition).
WatchTheThrone said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I use Siri all the time and she gets what I'm saying about 95% of the time!! Sending text while driving.
Setting alarms without having to unlock the phone.
Setting timers when cooking and have my hands dirty just hold the home button!!
I actually use it more than I thought I would!! And it's only gonna get better with every iPhone gen from now on.
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I do find Siri quite useful when my hands are not free, or even when I want to dictate a text or email instead of typing it on the virtual keyboard.
 
MacinDoc said:
OTOH my Honda Accord and Pilot are far worse at understanding me (and especially my wife) than Siri is. I find that Siri understands me correctly about 95% of the time, while my vehicles' voice automation (which has a much more limited vocabulary) is closer to 50% for me and not much better than 25% for my wife (she usually has to voice dial a number four or five times to get it right when using the vehicles' voice recognition).
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Pound for pound my vehicles voice-control is far more adherent to it's intended purposes than what Siri is touted to be by Apple in their rather cheeky advertisements. I've actually gone as far as speaking with someone in the engineering department regarding Siri. I think the consensus is that Siri needs more time.
 
Good, I'm glad someone is making an issue of this, it is false advertising, no where does the advertisement state this is a beta program, nowhere.

And like it or not Apple fans, and I am one, Siri sucks, and is no where near what it is cracked up to be in the commercials.

Never use it because it just never works, complete waste of time!

Call me rock god, really, give me a break!
 
chinesedemo said:
Pound for pound my vehicles voice-control is far more adherent to it's intended purposes than what Siri is touted to be by Apple in their rather cheeky advertisements. I've actually gone as far as speaking with someone in the engineering department regarding Siri. I think the consensus is that Siri needs more time.
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No question Siri could use some more work, which is why it is still beta, but also why it's odd that Apple would advertise it as a feature.

One thing I have found with my vehicles' voice control versus Siri is that the vehicles' voice control is much more prone to misinterpret voices with non-North American accents (like my wife) and is much more likely to misinterpret instructions in a noisy environment (we do have 4 kids).
 
gatearray said:
I heard that this guy also sued McDonald's restaurant because his Big Mac didn't look like the picture. :)
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Reminds me of the article I read a couple of years ago, where the woman sued google maps for giving her the wrong directions, because she followed google's directions and walked onto the freeway, and got hit by a car
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

If the commercial shows a product shows a product doing something it doesn't do (and it's touted as the main feature) then this suit has legs. Apple used a BETA feature as the main reason to upgrade and are facing heat for it. I don't have the 4S, but my wife does and we've found the number of things it can't do so limiting that we don't really ever use it. That's not what the commercial looks like. The next upgrade should be huge, or SIRI will be a gimmick. And this is coming from someone who really does feel like voice recognition will be a huge part of the future. It just feels like Apple made an empty promise that that future was now.
 
What is a Beta?

I think some of us might not know what a 'Beta' Product actually is:

Beta

Beta (named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet) is the software development phase following alpha. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.

The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software without charge, often receiving the final software free of charge or for a reduced price.

Beta version software is often useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization and to prospective customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, prototype, technical preview (TP), or early access.

Some software is kept in perpetual beta—where new features and functionality is continually added to the software without establishing a firm "final" release.

Open and closed beta

Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version. Examples of a major public beta test are:

In September 2000 a boxed version of Apple's Mac OS X Public Beta operating system was released.
Microsoft's release of community technology previews (CTPs) for "Longhorn" in January 2005.

Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team may not find.
 
The Phazer said:
It's improved 0% in six months. If anything it's got worse.

How rapid is "rapid"?

Phazer
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Oddly, the voice recognition and information available in EVI is much better than Siri (I'm outside the US)...you would think Apple would be streets ahead with this one, given their resources and user base...
 
theheadguy said:
Will be interested to see how this works out. Apple does seem to be stretching it a bit with how great Siri is.

I won't say it's entirely useless, but I'll manually play the song, google the restaurant I'm looking for, etc., without waiting to see if Siri got it right.

photo.png
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Siri does seem to have a problem with longish reminders. I've learned to switch the syntax when I'm making one: "remind me on saturday at 2pm to buy christmas cards...etc."
 
ABernardoJr said:
So how should Apple advertise Siri if it were up to you?
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I would not dedicate commercials to a Beta feature. I'd Advertise the 4S, and sell all its working features.

Hey I wish Siri worked the way the commercials portray it, but lets be honest, that is not the reality.
 
Siri is like those 'augmented reality' apps a couple of years back. Cool party piece but you're only going to use it once.

Anyway, why is this consumer using the law to parade his stupidity? Surely do your homework to decide whether the 'hype' has any basis in reality. I hardly ever buy things only to be disappointed that they suck, because it's easy to find that out before purchase.
 
Similar results occurred long ago during the Apple Newton years with its handwriting recognition. Resulting words were occasionally hilariously wrong and a hindrance to correct; so up went the soft keyboard and tap away.
 
If Siri was the defining reason to buy or upgrade to 4S then you are a F-in moron

So if Apple has an iPhone commercial featuring angry birds does that mean Apple has to give Angry birds away to everyone for free because idiots bought the 4S cause they thought it came with the phone?

Another jackass in the world hoping to make a name for themselves or settle out of court with a company with 80+ billion sitting around in the bank.
 
Some people have ideas and enough drive to bring an inkling of an idea all the way down to a real product. Other people just sue the first category of people.
 
allbrokeup said:
With a name like Frank Fazio, I'm assuming his accent was interfering with Siri. Umm...He naturally assumes that broken English will suffice for a VOICE search. Get over it!
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Really? The name Barack Obama doesn't exactly sounds like someone who would speak clearly to Siri based on your "thought" process. You'd be wrong though.

Open your mind a little. But in case you were posting this because you thought you were clever - you weren't.
 
Apple should use Siri to record a reply to this guy.

"I don't understand what you are trying to say. Would you like me to search the web for 'why don't you go and get a life, idiot'?"
 
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