Audience's 'earSmart' Technology Explains Siri's iPhone 4S Exclusivity

[mdelvecchio]

Because it's been determined time and time again that Siri on the iPhone 4 is not limited by the hardware.

but...it...hasnt. the tech in this story confirms the inverse -- that Siri works *best* when it has its supporting technology to ensure it "hears" you properly. that tech does not exist in the A4, and the iPad2 does not have an additional noise cancellation mic like an iPhone does.

just because somebody hacked it to work in their den doesnt mean its going to work *well* in the field...in noisy bars, etc. simply put: if it dont mean apple's stringent reqs, they arent gonna green-light it.

get it? try harder.

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The simple truth to the matter is Apple put a BS software block for no other reason than to sell more

simple truth? according to you? surely not you -- youre no iphone engineer...youre not an apple executive. nor are you a marketing insider. so really, what makes you think youre qualified to determined truth?

to the contrary, theres growing evidence (like this story) that it's indeed hardware that gives it the best working experience. sorry that makes you sad.

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I'm pretty sure the title of this article wasn't "iPad 2 doesn't have Siri because it lacks 2nd microphone." But if it was, that STILL doesn't explain why the iPhone 4 lacks it.

...because it doesnt have the cited APIs in the A5 chip it doesnt have. iPad2 does have an A5, but doesnt have noise cancellation or proximity sensor.

how much clearer need it be?

 

[Mad-B-One]

What Apple failed at then is the same thing that Apple fails at now, which is providing superior technology AND simplicity in the same package.

Interesting view point. Just curious... which of the ultra light notebook can compete in price and technology with the MacBook Air? I mean, the competition announced they will produce but that didn't happen, yet. Also, which of the tablets is as user friendly and powerful as the iPad 2? Please keep in mind that thing is about to be replaced by the next one - and still - no real competition. Others are either bulkier or miss key features - and don't get me started on software issues the other ones have e.g. spyware, smoothness, speed. Now, if you talk about desktop computers, you are right - you get way more by building a hackintosh instead for less money - but this discussion is about mobile devices and right now, the competition is not even close to have an up-to-par product in my eyes. Sure, Samsung or HTC are shinier, have a bigger screen, slide out keyboard, etc. The moment I use all these features, I have to hope that my phone can stay on for my 8h day. Not so much a problem with my iPhone 4 (I frequently forget to charge it overnight). There are several benchmarks which prooved that the iPhone with its 512MB RAM is faster than the 1GB RAM phones - so what does that number get you?

 

[thekeyring]

I also never thought Siri as an iPad feature, it might not be on iPad 3 either. It's really for phones, you don't see people talking to their iPad, it would look quite weird. Despite the lack of A5, Siri working on iPhone 4 would be more plausible than it working on iPad 2.

When Apple introduced Siri they said "wouldnt it be great if you could talk to your device, in this case your phone..."

Sounds like Siri will make the same progression Facetime did: starting on iPhone and moving to Mac OS X and iPad.

What's strange is nobody bitched about Facetime being an iPhone 4-only feature. There's a rear-facing camera on the iPhone you could have used to make a version of it work. That seemed to go by unnoticed.

 

[iBug2]

When Apple introduced Siri they said "wouldnt it be great if you could talk to your device, in this case your phone..."

Sounds like Siri will make the same progression Facetime did: starting on iPhone and moving to Mac OS X and iPad.

What's strange is nobody bitched about Facetime being an iPhone 4-only feature. There's a rear-facing camera on the iPhone you could have used to make a version of it work. That seemed to go by unnoticed.

That would be absurd though, talking to someone on facetime either without them seeing you or without you seeing them. So it's not that surprising that nobody asked for FaceTime on older phones.

I don't see Siri being usable on an iPad even at home. iPhone can be brought to your mouth for much better voice recognition. If Siri's going to work from a distance we use tablets, then Apple better get some amazing mic in the 3rd one.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

You talk about Siri, not earSmart...

You might mix up background noise reduction with speech interpretation. These are two different animals.
earSmart is reducing the background noise so that the processed speech is free of noise coming from your office printer or your co-workers while you tell Siri what to do.

I mixed the two because they are apparently codependent on each other, and either the earSmart, or Siri, or both, are not working at all as advertised.

Case in point: Yesterday I try to get Siri to 'call my wife'. Siri responds 'What is your wife's name?' I respond with her name and Siri responds 'Cab Calloway?' And I say 'No' then Siri responds with 'Cab Calloway' again and I say 'No again and then Siri suggests 'Chi Nih' who I didn't even realize was in my contact list, I say 'Cancel' and Siri starts calling Mr Nih who worked/works at IBM. I pop the red icon and so ends another frustrating session with Siri/ear Smart... It's been so bad that I find myself dreading that bonging Siri makes when activated...

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What's strange is nobody bitched about Facetime being an iPhone 4-only feature. There's a rear-facing camera on the iPhone you could have used to make a version of it work. That seemed to go by unnoticed.

Could it be because aside from the Apple commercials, I have never known anyone to use FaceTime? It's a sweeping generalization to call FaceTime a wasted feature looking for a market, but if it was actually so usable and desirable, then I'm sure people would be standing around bitching that it was excluded. What probably helped squelch the protesters with torches and pitchforks is also because something externally physically was missing to do it: a front camera. Sure, you could do FaceTime into a mirror, but you could also probably text the person too... (WHich brings up my opinion that 'Voice Command' on the iPhone 4 worked better than Siri, so far, for me....

 

[cuencap]

I don't see Siri being usable on an iPad even at home. iPhone can be brought to your mouth for much better voice recognition. If Siri's going to work from a distance we use tablets, then Apple better get some amazing mic in the 3rd one.

Siri works just fine when my phone isn't near my mouth. Must be the earSmart Technology!!