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How to Use Siri on iPhone and iPad
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I find Siri very useful and use it frequently. A recent example where I was pleasantly surprised:
ME: "When does the Home Depot in Merrifield, VA close?"
SIRI: "I found two Home Depots. Tap the one you want."
ME: (tap)
SIRI: "The Home Depot is open from 8AM to 10PM."
ME: "When does the Home Depot in Merrifield, VA close?"
SIRI: "I found two Home Depots. Tap the one you want."
ME: (tap)
SIRI: "The Home Depot is open from 8AM to 10PM."
How about: "Siri, roll over," or "Siri, play dead".
I find Siri potentially to be most useful in my car. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth connection with my iPhone has been so unreliable that I've pretty much given up trying. Even though it's plugged in, saying "Hey, Siri" produces nothing but grief. Sometime Siri wakes up, sometimes it doesn't and most of the time it just does random things. If it worked more reliably, it'd be incredibly useful.
What percentage of readers of this site do you think are so new to iOS such that they need this level of instruction on how to use a pretty self explanatory function?
If they must continue to write these, surely there's a more appropriate place than the "front page" to put them.
This article is a complete waste of my time - at no point in the instructions did it explain to me how to identify the home button on my device
Give me my "How to locate the home button" article, please!!!
Give me my "How to locate the home button" article, please!!!
This site isn't just for existing readers or new ones that are specifically tech inclined, it's a much more mainstream site or at the very least on its way to becoming more and more mainstream.
As for front page, technically these articles aren't on the front page, they are on the side panel that contains small bits about other MacRumor articles (in this particular instances coming from the iOS Blog section).
People try to be coy about it and all that, but they are completely missing the point (and apparently wasting their time on something they can easily skip as I'm sure thousands of readers do with many articles that simply don't interest them on all kinds of topics).
Oh my. Really? Was that a grammar joke I didn't understand or do really not see the difference in your statements?
There's people who still complain that they can't hide channels on the Apple TV every time there's a news article about the forthcoming one.
I'd say that there's a significant number of people who need this level of instruction, new or no
.You lack of so many social skills in your comments... with Siri you have to yell at it. When you talk on the phone (I wonder if you ever had) you do not have to yell or raise your voice. It is obvious you will ask SIRI to do stuff from a distance where everybody around you can hear. DUH!
What a disgusting arrogant attitude you have, a complete failure.
My 4-year-old son loves to "play Siri" these days: I ask him a question, and he responds in a completely random (and often horrible) way. A typical exchange:
4yo: Daddy, ask me something for Siri!
me: Hmm... Siri... what's the weather going to be today?
4yo: OK... Here's a punch in the stomach!
me: Oof!
...
me: Siri, you're the worst!
4yo: I don't appreciate your tone.
At least 5 times a day now. It's just like having my phone on.
4yo: Daddy, ask me something for Siri!
me: Hmm... Siri... what's the weather going to be today?
4yo: OK... Here's a punch in the stomach!
me: Oof!
...
me: Siri, you're the worst!
4yo: I don't appreciate your tone.
At least 5 times a day now. It's just like having my phone on.
I've asked it before on this forum (and was never responded to and likely won't be now), why isn't there a Siri API or SiriKit? Developers could do so much with coming up with commands, workflows, etc., and it would give Siri the edge over Cortana.
How/why would anyone know that here? Seems like at best someone at Apple might, but as far as anyone here would go the answer is basically because that's how Apple has it so far.
Also an annoyance: "Siri, add a reminder tomorrow at 5 PM to return library books by Saturday." Siri then creates a reminder ... on Saturday. OK, maybe this is a little challenging for current machine processing of natural language, so what if...
Think you'll solve this problem by breaking it into two? "Siri, add a reminder at 5 PM tomorrow." "OK, what do you want to be reminded about?" "Return library books by Saturday." Siri will still create a reminder for Saturday, even though you tried to help by specifying the date separately--it's like it turns this input into my previous example before processing the whole thing.
This is my greatest annoyance right now. My most desired wishlist item is HomeKit automation (e.g., "Siri, turn off the kitchen lights," which Amazon Echo can now do with Philips Hue--but something like "Change to my sunset scene" or "turn the living room lights to red" would be even better).
i wish siri could handle multi-language commands. e.g. "siri, play the song <insert foreign language song here>".
siri could not even handle pronouncing names correctly, especially if the names are not "normal" names like michael, or tom etc.
siri could not even handle pronouncing names correctly, especially if the names are not "normal" names like michael, or tom etc.
That's when I use her the mostif not all the time.
That's what I do instead of using Siri.
Actually, quite the contrary. I can practically mumble into my microphone when I tell Siri to add an appointment to my calendar, something I do in public quite often. Much faster and more efficient than doing so with the calendar app.
On the other hand I often hear people practically yelling into their phones (iPhones and Androids) on the bus. So much so that I can hear their conversations as background noise even though I am listening to music with my earbuds.
It's an unfortunate but true statement that Siri is actually more intelligent than many of the people I am forced to speak to in public during a given day. So I don't find it awkward to speak to her in public whatsoever.
Disclaimer: 1) This is me using Siri on my work phone. 2) Jane Doe is my wife and not in my contacts on my work phone. 3) Yes, I know I could fix this.
I love and hate Siri. I want her to be good for so many things, but mostly use her to navigate or look up a song.
This is why I can't stand her:
Beebeep!
Me: "Call Jane Doe"
Siri: "I can't find a number for Jane Doe in your contacts."
Me: "Ugh..." (I know what's coming.)
Beebeep!
Me: "Dial 555-123-4567"
Siri: "Okay. Calling Jane Doe..."
Me: "$&{%#!"
Again, I know why this happens. I know how to fix it. Still she rubs it in my face by knowing who the number belongs to and announcing it. Siri is a bastard.
I love and hate Siri. I want her to be good for so many things, but mostly use her to navigate or look up a song.
This is why I can't stand her:
Beebeep!
Me: "Call Jane Doe"
Siri: "I can't find a number for Jane Doe in your contacts."
Me: "Ugh..." (I know what's coming.)
Beebeep!
Me: "Dial 555-123-4567"
Siri: "Okay. Calling Jane Doe..."
Me: "$&{%#!"
Again, I know why this happens. I know how to fix it. Still she rubs it in my face by knowing who the number belongs to and announcing it. Siri is a bastard.
The only thing I occasionally use Siri for is for a temporary reminder - i.e. "remind me 1 hour 47 minutes to take out the washing". This is the only task I feel Siri is faster for. For everything else, spotlight search for the app I want or a google search in Safari is quicker and easier to do and doesn't suffer from the feeling of idiocy that talking to an automated voice gives you.
Actually, the main instruction that I give Siri is "**** off, Siri" when it constantly activates itself by accident.
Actually, the main instruction that I give Siri is "**** off, Siri" when it constantly activates itself by accident.