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Apple's Greg Joswiak: Siri Wasn't Engineered to Be Trivial Pursuit

rockarollr said:
The way this comes across to me... it's like a cleverly written PR piece, obtained directly from Apple, defending Siri and trying to spin the reader's mind into believing that Siri is on par, in general, with Alexa and Cortana. The quote from Joswiak just sounds arrogant. It also makes him sound like a bit of a smartass that's making an excuse for a poorly managed product he was "in charge of" for longer than he should have been. All of us here know that Siri is far from being on par with either Alexa or Cortana at this point in time. If you've tried either of the other two, you know firsthand what I'm talking about.

Who writes this stuff, anyway? I suspect it's either someone at Apple... or someone that's being paid by Apple. The "Reality Distortion Field" lives, maybe? Cleverly written... but not quite clever enough to hide the true agenda and who is behind it. With "HomePod" just around the corner... why not bolster some confidence in Siri amongst your biggest mouthpieces and true believers? Right, Apple? ;)
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I thought the same thing. They are 'getting their messaging out'. Prepping the market prior to new phones and ios. The recent flurry of iphone related 'articles' from 'respectable and trusted' outlets.

Got an Echo on sale just to try. Within a month have added three Dots, I dont know how many lights, switches, etc. it is so cool to just use voice from anywhere. And the reliability is above that of Siri on interaction. Even setting timers on Siri is not 100%. Have to hold down a button, not sure if should wait for a tone or not, get interrupted, It cant do whatever it needs to do to connect. Echo i just call out and say " Alexa set a timer for 10 minutes", and it's done. Everytime. Just by voice. Echo Alexa may do kess stuff but what it does is solid. I dont care how well it understands Portugese or Tagalog.
 
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French Siri sounds really off in iOS 11.

Regardless of pitch, it's still rubbish ! Rabbesh I tell you !
 
When siri can reliably - 100% of the time - understand when I tell her to turn off the lights then I'll be happy.

It's so unreliable and I never know when it's going to work.

At times I can just say "hey siri, turn off the bedroom lights" in one sentence and it's perfect.

However more often than not it stops after hey siri then I have to start it all over again.

Fix that first.
 
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I’m sure this was mentioned loads of times, but Google Assistant is massively better and more fun. I wish you could change the default of Siri to it.
 
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Over the weekend, I tried three times in a row to get Siri to start playing a music album I have in my library (and downloaded on my phone, for that matters). First two times, she started a random album form an unrelated artist on Apple Music, and the last time, she told me something random about how she can't search for movies(?) by that criteria, and to try by theme or actors instead...
I just gave up.
 
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mxmgodin said:
Over the weekend, I tried three times in a row to get Siri to start playing a music album I have in my library (and downloaded on my phone, for that matters). First two times, she started a random album form an unrelated artist on Apple Music, and the last time, she told me something random about how she can't search for movies(?) by that criteria, and to try by theme or actors instead...
I just gave up.
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Music has been a real hit and miss for me. When I'm in my car I try to use Siri so I'm not distracted. Sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it isn't even close. I have told it to play a specific song, and it works. A day or 2 later I ask to play that song again, using the same words, and it doesn't understand. Most of the other things I use Siri for either work or I knew I was pushing my luck trying but songs should be automatic. Especially since I only play songs that are downloaded to my phone. It's at times like this that I want to know what the rules for decoding meaning is for Siri.
 
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I would be pleased if Siri would understand what I'm saying. Google does, shouldn't Siri be able to?
 
Most of this sounds like the key folks have missed the point entirely. The major problem I see with Siri…is that it fails so often to do the most basic things. I can generally not get a single text message of more than 5 words to be close enough to correct…to not require manual editing. That editing quite often takes longer than just entering it to begin with.

I care little about the voice when this kind of problem exists…every single day. Fix that first. Focus on NOTHNG else until that works. Then expand the horizons of voice, context, etc.

I use Siri with my phone in my hand…close to me. I have better luck with Alexa from 15 feet.
 
Of all the voice assistants I've used, Siri is clearly the worst - by a large margin. Both Alexa and Google can understand me quite well, despite me having an Indian accent.

But Google on my iPhone understands me quite well (via chrome or Gboard keyboard). And Alexa seems to be even better, though that might be because of the Echo having better mics. Whatever the case, Siri can barely understand me. I stick to simple things like 'set an alarm for 5:30am', 'or call my wife' etc. Then too, if I say 'Wake me up at 5:30am' it doesn't understand me. It struggles with words starting with a W - words like will, would, wake. I'm sure it's my accent, but then too Alexa and Google never have this problem. And I use Google with same phone so it can't be the hardware.

I can try saying something like 'Define curmudgeon' five times. Every time enunciating it the best I can. And every time Siri hears it as 'Define karma gin', while Google gets it right every time. I've tried to define random words on these platforms to test, and Google's and Alexa's accuracy always impresses me, while Siri always disappoints.
 
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I remember when Siri was first introduced and I was so impressed. It was such a cool step up from just basic voice to text stuff. But it really feels like it hasn't progressed much ever since. After all these years all I use it for are reminders and quick texts, which it usually mis spells or gets wrong

BRING ME SOME COOL FUTURISTIC AI TYPE STUFF
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alex00100 said:
Said no one ever lol.
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It must have been said as a joke. It must have
 
I always love cheeky responses about why something is bad. Whatever it was engineered for it’s just not a very good personal assistant. In a time when my phone is being marketed as able to turn on my th and din the lights, order me something on amazon, and make sure my doors are
Locked I’d expect it to do that.

I’ve honestly never been impressed with Siri. Not since day one. And I give it the benefit of the doubt every single year. Every new os release.

I’ve never not had an iPhone (since they’ve existedmif course). I’ve also, for the last five years had an Android work phone. Google blows Siri away. iOS has many merits (I obviously choose to continue using it), but enough with the excuses already.
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RiddlaBronc said:
Siri needs third party integration. For example with Spotify. I stream all my music and have no desire to purchase or move to apple music.

Siri, play (song). It should automatically know i have it under a list on spotify and launch it immediately.
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To expand on this I should be able to set whatever music player I use as my main. I can be playing things on google play in my car. Exit. Go do some things. Come back. And it reconnected and starts
Okay if stuff from my music list instead of where I left off with google play.
 
mxmgodin said:
Over the weekend, I tried three times in a row to get Siri to start playing a music album I have in my library (and downloaded on my phone, for that matters). First two times, she started a random album form an unrelated artist on Apple Music, and the last time, she told me something random about how she can't search for movies(?) by that criteria, and to try by theme or actors instead...
I just gave up.
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Oh I understand why you gave up. Asking to play specific albums used to be a spectacular failure. I don't know if I trained stupid Siri to play a certain album when I ask for it by name or if it took millions of dollars of computer equipment to learn how to play the Hot Tub Time Machine soundtrack.
 
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What a load. Siri has trained me not to use it, and it'll take more than refining the damn audio to untrain me.
 
I use Siri and Alexa. I'd say if Alexa is 8 out 10, Siri is about 3-4. When something is around 3-4 out of 10 most people tend not to use it. Hope Apple can make Siri great again:)
 
tpham5919 said:
Nah, it does u a favor by telling u that it cannot be of help and send you off to Google search. Isn't she great!
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And you’re lucky I’m not in charge of Siri. I’d have her tell your to F*** off mate when she can’t find queries.
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joueboy said:
All of a sudden Siri is much better now because she speaks better now (or I say sounds more a regular american)? How? Must be Apple's magic! Tim should call this Siri Pro.
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You’ll be in for a treat when we announce Siri Edition
 
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It's kind of dumb that they acknowledge Siri is bad and then go on to say they're making the voice sound more natural as if that was ever the problem...

Siri's voice is the absolute LEAST of its problems... It can't understand half the **** I say and has no contextual awareness whatsoever.
 
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Zaft said:
The thing with Siri is you have to ask questions a certain way.
For example if I ask google "what is falafal made of"? Google reads the ingredients out loud.
If I ask Siri it just takes me to web results. BUT if i ask Siri "What are the ingredients of falafal"? Then I get the ingredients out loud.
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I just tried that 7 times and Siri couldn't even get falafel right. It kept thinking I was saying felafel, even though I tried overpronouncing the first 'a' a couple times. It did give me web results for falafel recipes, but didn't read them to me.

It's very frustrating- I live in a major Canadian city, Vancouver, with many places, attractions, landmarks named after the Capilano First Nations band. Capilano River, Capilano University, Capilano Road, Capilano Suspension Bridge etc. Yet Siri/Dictation can not get it right no matter how I pronounce it. Kappa Leno, Capela No, or sometimes I just get No.
 
What about Brits living in Australia? Siri does not get my accent at all.
I tried the UK version and it was worse!
Not 'strayn enough for AUS and too 'strayn for the UK.

I tried dictating a reply to a TXT while stopped on my bike as I didn't want to dig out my iPhone.
Utterly useless.

It still ***** me 'Set timer 12 minutes' has to go to the cloud. And because it takes so long it's going to be the wrong time anyway. You need to add an extra 30 seconds sometimes.

I now have a timer section on my watch face with 12 minutes on it.
Simples.
 
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