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Apple's Voice-Powered Virtual "Assistant" Coming to iOS
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Isn't it obvious that is going to be one of Apple's iPhone 5 ONLY features they demo when they announce the new phone? They will say something along the lines of it needs the A5 in the new phone to handle it vs. the A4 in the iPhone 4.
Unfortunately, canyonblue is probably right, i really hope not, i mean siri works great on my iPhone 4, so i would think that assistant would work well too but who knows
Thy Voice Commandeth
One suggetion here for AAPL to use with their $75 Billion in cash
AAPL should hire a crack A-team of GPS and Voice Command engineers to make a "magical" product "that just works" - both in GPS and voice command assistants products
Say a team of 10 senior level engineers/designers - paid 150,000 for 1 year - that will only cost a total of 1.5 million out of 75 billion
Just my 2 cents
Anyway thanks AAPL with your stock performance giving my portfolio a nice boost this past year
Thanks Mr. Jobs - with or without my advice
One suggetion here for AAPL to use with their $75 Billion in cash
AAPL should hire a crack A-team of GPS and Voice Command engineers to make a "magical" product "that just works" - both in GPS and voice command assistants products
Say a team of 10 senior level engineers/designers - paid 150,000 for 1 year - that will only cost a total of 1.5 million out of 75 billion
Just my 2 cents
Anyway thanks AAPL with your stock performance giving my portfolio a nice boost this past year
Thanks Mr. Jobs - with or without my advice
I'm not sure I'm willing to ask a friend to provide their location to my online service to help me buy movie tickets. It's just not that hard to do on my own. It certainly isn't going to happen the other way around. I have a great respect for my friends' privacy, and I likewise expect them to have respect for mine.
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Yup, this exact scenario happened to me. Never used Voice Control again. Absolutely terrible voice recognition.
Siri on the other hand is fantastic. Unfortunately it looks like once again, Apple is trying to make you give the keys to your privacy castle (uploading contact names, song names to them) just to use the service.
The Old Spaghetti Factory
In the video, I like how the results for "romantic Italian restaurant" include The Old Spaghetti Factory. There's nothing more romantic than a restaurant full of kids and spumoni ice cream! I guess "romantic" is all relative. But, I say Siri has never had a girlfriend with results like that!
In the video, I like how the results for "romantic Italian restaurant" include The Old Spaghetti Factory. There's nothing more romantic than a restaurant full of kids and spumoni ice cream! I guess "romantic" is all relative. But, I say Siri has never had a girlfriend with results like that!
I usually don't like voice control either, but I downloaded Siri awhile back and was quite impressed. At the very least, it had a lot of potential. It wasn't just dictation, or voice-controlled search. "Virtual Personal Assistant" is a very good description. It looks up events, tickets, reservations, traffic, and other things like that - with the goal of actually executing on these actions (e.g. getting a reservation for 2 at 7 PM) rather than simply providing search links.
It's pretty neat actually. And the whole "conversation" thing works pretty well - it knows what you've been talking about previously, so it understands the natural progression of a dialogue. Though it needs a lot of polish and integration (but hey, that's Apple's specialty).
Actually, I'm talking about names that are NOT in my contact list. Even more impressive
This is absolutely true, and in reality voice control has not been implemented well up to this point.
But remember that this is Apple we are talking about. They have a history of taking technology that's been around, and then developing it to the point that it's actually useful. Tablet computers have been around for a very long time, but it wasn't until iPad came out that tablet computing was good enough for many people to actually want them. Even touch screen capabilities were in existence years prior to the iPhone's release. It's all about who develops the technology and packages it to the point that it's actually easy to use. Who knows: in 10 years, phones that you actually have to touch with your hands could be considered a relic of the past.
Personally, I think Jobs gets all his inspiration from watching Star Trek episodes...
Voice control always seems to work when I'm trying to call a someone, which is nice while driving or walking. But, asking it to play a song never works. It'd be awesome if this Assistant thing really works out. In a few years we might be able to talk to our computers... like in Star Trek
I was always waiting for the Star Trek TNG episode where Picard speaks to the replicator and says "Tea, Earl Gray, Hot" and the computer responds with "Multiple matches found: Did you say Tea, Earl Gray, Hot or Tequila Shot?"
BTW: Going into "Edit" mode for a contact and adding fields for "Phonetic First Name" and "Phonetic Last Name" helps the phone recognize the names you are saying and helps the phone pronounce the names better. Just spell the names phonetically (like they sound) and it will improve accuracy. Mind you, I only do this with some common contacts that I often call so I don't have to listen to my iPhone slaughter their names. To the guy who said that it called his ex-girlfriend, if for some reason you have to keep that contact (which I do not advise) you can always make her phonetic first & last name into something you would never speak.
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You're kidding, right? Android has voice actions and I use it to compose entire emails and text messages with just 2 or 3 button presses.
I disagree on polish. Siri has one of the most revolutionary user interfaces I've seen on a mobile device. It's beautiful and efficient, and given Apple's recent UI choices, I'd wager that Apple's integrated version won't be as slick and usable. I think it's a shame Siri got bought. I'd rather have seen them develop and flourish as an independent service, mostly because I know that Apple won't deliver on the depth of Intelligent Agent I'd like to see in iOS. Assistant will likely be tied to Apple properties like searching iTunes for movies, and may have a couple other partners. I'd be glad to be wrong.
This comment is half-baked and not researched, I use voice commands on my Droid for just about everything from setting my alarms to finding a phone number for a local business and it is very accurate and well thought out.
Which is worse, the Voice Control on this or handwriting recognition on the Newton?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc3JzS0K3ys
Apple ads this feature, reduces display to a very smart power saving 2.88" and everyone is thrilled. Battery run times are tripled, crushing Android forever. Once again Magical & Revolutionary prevail.
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I've always found Siri works very well, as does Dragon/Nuance. One funny story. At the end of a long day, I was tired and frustrated. I opened Siri, thinking of a restaurant search. As a joke, I asked, "Find me the nearest prostitute." It answered, "Why, Jim, you bad boy!" I laughed, thinking there must be some real person there. It then gave a list of escort services in the area. VPA indeed. A nice comic relief at the end of a bad day.
I've always found Siri works very well, as does Dragon/Nuance. One funny story. At the end of a long day, I was tired and frustrated. I opened Siri, thinking of a restaurant search. As a joke, I asked, "Find me the nearest prostitute." It answered, "Why, Jim, you bad boy!" I laughed, thinking there must be some real person there. It then gave a list of escort services in the area. VPA indeed. A nice comic relief at the end of a bad day.
Siri sucks. I can't find anything in my city.
Seriously, who cares about 1 app with voice control? I predict they will all have it soon. One day, I'll be able to say:
"iPhone open iTunes."
"iTunes play song 'Beat It'"
"Itunes pause"
"Itunes play"
"Itunes shuffle"
"ITunes quit"
"iPhone open Ticketmaster"
"Ticketmaster, get me Kenny G tickets"
Ticketmaster: "How many would you like?"
"My bad, dog. I need 2 tickets. Front row"
Ticketmaster: "All sold out"
No way dude, I though I was the only one that like that dude!
Ticketmaster: "Apparently not"
Seriously, who cares about 1 app with voice control? I predict they will all have it soon. One day, I'll be able to say:
"iPhone open iTunes."
"iTunes play song 'Beat It'"
"Itunes pause"
"Itunes play"
"Itunes shuffle"
"ITunes quit"
"iPhone open Ticketmaster"
"Ticketmaster, get me Kenny G tickets"
Ticketmaster: "How many would you like?"
"My bad, dog. I need 2 tickets. Front row"
Ticketmaster: "All sold out"
No way dude, I though I was the only one that like that dude!
Ticketmaster: "Apparently not"
Tea Leaves
What's all the excitement? Hasn't anyone noticed the trend at Apple in the last few years? Every app they buy, they make a few topical improvements, and then either EOL it or simplify it so the "masses" can use it. Shake, Color, LiveType, Final Cut, Soundtrack, etc. Even Aperture was more competitive with Adobe's Lightroom at v1 than it is now at v3.
At this rate, Siri will eventually be reduce to a 12-word vocabulary, including "Apple" and "fantastic." But they'll make up for it - each word will be displayed on a hyper-super-retina-screen, spinning in 3D with multiple glow and shadow affects applied to each letter in a rainbow of colors - once again proving the genius behind the genius of Apple.
Apple used to have their place, but their focus on treating us like the fat and clueless bumbling boobs in Wall_E is starting to get old.
What's all the excitement? Hasn't anyone noticed the trend at Apple in the last few years? Every app they buy, they make a few topical improvements, and then either EOL it or simplify it so the "masses" can use it. Shake, Color, LiveType, Final Cut, Soundtrack, etc. Even Aperture was more competitive with Adobe's Lightroom at v1 than it is now at v3.
At this rate, Siri will eventually be reduce to a 12-word vocabulary, including "Apple" and "fantastic." But they'll make up for it - each word will be displayed on a hyper-super-retina-screen, spinning in 3D with multiple glow and shadow affects applied to each letter in a rainbow of colors - once again proving the genius behind the genius of Apple.
Apple used to have their place, but their focus on treating us like the fat and clueless bumbling boobs in Wall_E is starting to get old.
personal technology only works when it has information that is personal, otherwise the service isn't very useful.
Also, when do you ever have to upload song names to Apple? I know of the iTunes Store recommendations, but you can opt out of that. And when did Apple ever ask for your contact names!? I've been using Apple products for years and I've never had to upload my contacts to Apple.
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who responds to yelling, why should your phone??? both call and music work well, not perfect, but satisfactory for me. playlists requests or "songs by" seem to be the way to go-I use both call and music VC a lot while commuting on my bike (no car, fossil fuel freedom!) with great results-slowly, succinctly, enunciate-talk nice to ur phone and it will reward you...
Sedrick said:
who responds to yelling, why should your phone??? both call and music work well, not perfect, but satisfactory for me. playlists requests or "songs by" seem to be the way to go-I use both call and music VC a lot while commuting on my bike (no car, fossil fuel freedom!) with great results-slowly, succinctly, enunciate-talk nice to ur phone and it will reward you...