Apple's Siri Turns Six: AI Assistant Announced Alongside iPhone 4s on October 4, 2011

[Kabeyun]

How Apple can proclaim anything useful about Siri is a mystery. I keep a Photos folder of Siri’s Greatest Hits. Here are a few lovelies:

I want Apple to make Siri useful more than I want them to do almost anything else.

 

[User 6502]

this is exactly why they all fail to begin with. we should not have to learn how to talk to them.

I totally agree. Siri should just work, without needing a specifying way of wording the requests. At the moment it’s not intelligent at all, one could be impressed by its vocal recognition and voice, but it doesn’t actually understand even the most basic things and it can’t do very basic things (for example I can’t ask ‘switch on the lights in the bedroom and switch them off in the living room’, and I have to ask this in two separate commands). Moreover, ‘hey siri’ works really badly unless I’m holding the phone, but this completely defeats its point.

Siri really needs major improvements, I hope Apple puts more effort into it instead of worsening iOS gui.

 

[Joel888]

Siri has greatly improved over the years and has actually become a really useful tool. One feature that I wish Apple would add though, is to make a way to store some Siri commands offline, in the iPhone's own memory. For example, common phrases like "open xyz app" or "take a selfie" or some other common phrases that users can choose to store, should be possible. This way, you can use Siri for these actions without an Internet connection and it will also be faster. Besides, it doesn't makes sense to send these same commands over the Internet to Apple and back to the iPhone in order to perform the action.

"Hey Siri... please ask Apple to add this feature to iOS 12"

 

[jonnysods]

I remember how flat Tim sounded during the keynote. Little did we all know that Steve was dying as the keynote was on.

 

[teknikal90]

today, if you want cutting edge tech with a stainless steel build, you'd have to pay $999.
Oh Apple.

iPhone 4s - best phone ever made

 

[ignatius345]

I still find Siri fails me pretty frequently when trying to get information, but dictation has improved dramatically and continues to get better. I'm using it right now, in fact, in haven't had to correct any words manually.(Okay, there was a typo in that last sentence but does seem way more usable than it did even a year or two ago).

 

[fourthtunz]

Having the power button on the top on the 4s works really well but on the iPhone 5 I am unable to click it without having to really stretch when using it with one hand.
I prefer using a phone with one hand , the size of 5 and 4s is great size ratio for that.
I have an iPhone 7 now and while it is great to have a 4.7inch screen I would prefer a 4.7 or 4.2 inch screen in the size of iPhone 4s/5.
There is a market for smaller phones.

No doubt that there is the market for smaller phone.
Yep, the power buttons up there so you use both hands for the times you shut the phone off or sleep.
I have the 4s, and traded in my 6 for the 8 plus.
the 6 was a good size but thought I'd try out the 8plus, its not bad.
I bought the Watch 3 LTE so Im not having the using the 8+ one handed, using the watch a lot.
That said at some point I'll get the X or the SEX(special edition X) and trade in my 8+.
I think the SE is a great phone, just wish they'd put updated internals in it.

 

[kyleh22]

wow, I already forgot how robotic siri sounded.

 

[Sill]

That would be fantastic as well, but they need to move the power button to the side and not have it on the top.
an iPhone SE size with iPhone X from design would be a really easy purchase. (I do prefer the glass design of the iPhone 4s)

I would really like that, myself. But if Apple did that, bets on if they'd keep the beautiful flat edge of the 4 and 5, or would they go to the slippery rounded edge they've been using from 6 onwards?

 

[Mobster1983]

Seems to me that Siri has gotten worse recently. Since iOS 11 (beta) she cuts me off constantly and the understanding is just horrible, even for simple things. I find I have to speak much more slowly and distinctly than I used to. Her capabilities really do not seem to have expanded very much either.

Started using Google Chrome on my phone recently and the search voice recognition is far superior. Very disappointed in Apple's work on this project. :-(

Siri sounded a bit depressed when I asked her about it.

 

[Paddle1]

Setting reminders is much easier with Siri so I do like that.

 

[avanpelt]

I'm still waiting for the day when I can ask Siri to do multiple things at once with a single command. The most obvious use case for me would be to tell Siri to turn the lights in one room on and turn the lights in another room off. That takes two separate commands today.

It would also be nice if I could say to Siri, "Add milk and eggs to the shopping list and also send a text to my wife that says, 'I'm stopping at the store on the way home'." When I try doing that today, Siri completely ignores the first part of the request (add milk and eggs to the shopping list) and instead, it creates a reminder that is set to remind me when I arrive at my home to send a text to my wife that says I'll be stopping at the store." Brilliant, Siri.

 

[Applebot1]

Sometimes I wonder if the people being so hard on it, have given it a proper try, or, more importantly, understand the syntax needed for such personal assistants.

Siri works no better or worse than “Okay Google” does on my Android devices with regards to vocal recognition. I can respond to text messages via voice with minimal errors on both platforms, schedule appointments, and turn on devices in my home all the same.

Both also have some abilities the other lacks, and do an amazing job overall (IMO). Never thought I could reliably talk to devices like this within my lifetime. I think people’s expectations are unrealistic, but that is true for all tech recently.

Which is fine but 6 years on and you would expect improvements.
Plus recently there was that Apple
Employee(can’t remember who) saying how great the implementation was compared to others!

Apple had a head start others are overtaking.

 

[RickInHouston]

...while Google is currently killing it with their presentation of Google Assistant.

 

[BaccaBossMC]

i just realized that I was born on the same say as Siri... just 10 years earlier. Interesting trivia.

 

[Mobster1983]

How Apple can proclaim anything useful about Siri is a mystery. I keep a Photos folder of Siri’s Greatest Hits. Here are a few lovelies:

I want Apple to make Siri useful more than I want them to do almost anything else.

Your post just make me bust out laughing in the office. I have many similar experiences. Should start taking screenshots as well. The worst part about it is that she completely understands what you said, but has no clue. lol.

 

[mainomega]

So a lot of my switches are smart ones that work with Alexa/Google. I wanted to use my phone so I installed a home bridge setup. Siri has problems pretty much all the time. Alexa knows to turn on the landscaping lights, Siri works some times or says "here is what i found for turn on the landscaping lights"

 

[CarpalMac]

...while Google is currently killing it with their presentation of Google Assistant.

This.

It shows how unbelievably lame Siri is. That demo with the phone was impressive and they clearly are aiming for it to become the differentiator amongst all their products.

Shame the Pixel 2 phones themselves appear to be decidedly underwhelming. The cameras need to be epic...

 

[djlythium]

Awe, yea!

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Siri has seen great improvements over the years and is a very useful tool!

[doublepost=1507138862][/doublepost]

I'm still waiting for the day when I can ask Siri to do multiple things at once with a single command. The most obvious use case for me would be to tell Siri to turn the lights in one room on and turn the lights in another room off. That takes two separate commands today.

It would also be nice if I could say to Siri, "Add milk and eggs to the shopping list and also send a text to my wife that says, 'I'm stopping at the store on the way home'." When I try doing that today, Siri completely ignores the first part of the request (add milk and eggs to the shopping list) and instead, it creates a reminder that is set to remind me when I arrive at my home to send a text to my wife that says I'll be stopping at the store." Brilliant, Siri.

Dude, THIS! Would be amazing to use with devices in HomeKit.

 

[hortod1]

Siri has seen great improvements over the years and is a very useful tool!

Or not

 

[Porco]

Don’t care about Siri, but that iPhone 4S is so beautiful.

And iOS 5 was the best-looking iOS too IMHO.

 

[Candlelight]

Ah the iPhone 4S. Such an awesome phone.

 

[VulchR]

Oh the 4s. ...

Ah the iPhone 4S. Such an awesome phone.

I still use one, albeit I had to replace the battery and I suspect it will fail any day now. Never saw the point of upgrading until a device is knackered - sustainability and all that. Looking forward to upgrading to the 8 or X. Still haven't decided.

 

[Badger Lawyer]

"Will no one rid us of this meddlesome flatness!"

 

[hagar]

Just this afternoon I asked Siri directions to a nearby store. She sent me 900km away in another country. Even explicitly specifying my town and country did not help. And Google Maps? They had it correct the first time.