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Need to demo Siri to UK user - what works?

craig1410

craig1410

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 22, 2007
1,139
926
Scotland
Hi,

A good friend has bought an iPhone 4S and although he is very happy with the majority of the phone's functions (it's his first iPhone) he is very disappointed with Siri and is calling it a gimmick. I am aware that there are limitations to using Siri outside the USA at present and I've explained this and the fact it is a Beta etc. However, he is visiting tomorrow and would like me to demonstrate what Siri CAN do outside the USA and since I currently only have an iPhone 4, I would appreciate some tips.

In short - how can I best demonstrate Siri to a non-USA iPhone 4S user? I want to try to minimise his disappointment if I can, however irrational that disappointment might be.

Thanks,
Craig.
 
Ask "whats the weather is going to be like today/tomorrow"

Ask it a sum e.g "Whats 15 x 35"

Ask it "Whos Elvis?"

Ask it "Set Alarm for tomorrow at 7am"

Ask it to Send a text. It will ask who to send it to etc.
 
I use it daily but only really to call a friend on the way home or to send a text message or to select music to play.

I was especially lazy this morning by asking it the time... seemed easier than getting the phone out of my pocket while walking to work.

I look forward to being able to get it to do more when we get the full functionality though.
 
1) Dictating a reply to an SMS using the Mic button on the keyboard (Not strictly Siri, but still voice recognition - and I can speak a short sentence and hit "Done" much faster than I can type it out)
2) Setting a reminder ("Remind me to pick up charlie at 2pm")
3) Setting an alarm for a power nap ("Wake me up in 30 minutes")
4) With bluetooth or earbuds, reading incoming texts and replying to them while on the go.

It does so much more, but these are probably the biggest timesaver and/or safety features for me so far.
 
like most people have said:

Sending a text.. e.g 'Send a text to Thomas Saying....."

Setting timers is another i do a lot "set timer for 15 minutes" very useful when you're baking or something and don't want to muck up all your phone... use a wooden spoon end to hold done the home button

Calling people and playing songs.

I also get him to read my text messages if i'm driving

I think showing a couple of the funny responses to questions might make them warm to him too!
 
nomad01 said:
I use it daily but only really to call a friend on the way home or to send a text message or to select music to play.

I was especially lazy this morning by asking it the time... seemed easier than getting the phone out of my pocket while walking to work.

I look forward to being able to get it to do more when we get the full functionality though.
Click to expand...

Do you just click your earphones for that? Does Siri just come on?
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for all the responses, I'll try to put together a convincing demo for him when he gets here. If only I had an iPhone 4S I could practice on... :(

Thanks,
Craig.
 
craig1410 said:
Hi guys,

Thanks for all the responses, I'll try to put together a convincing demo for him when he gets here. If only I had an iPhone 4S I could practice on... :(

Thanks,
Craig.
Click to expand...

Nip to a Carphone Warehouse, o2, vodaphone etc and fill your boots! :)
 
Thanks guys the demo went down a storm!

The biggest two reasons he was having trouble were because he had it on US English (it was on UK but he had been messing about trying to get it working better. The second reason was that his Contacts were all over the place having been imported from a SIM card and with duplicates and "Contact Moby", "Contact Home" etc. This was confusing Siri as to who he was trying to phone or email. He also hadn't allocated relationships such as Wife, Daughter, Sister etc which makes things easier.

Once this was all sorted out it was a lot better although probably still needs a bit of training to match his voice.

One problem we did come across was the absence of the "Phonetic First/Last Name" fields in Contacts. On my iPhone 4 I can add a field for Phonetic First and Phonetic Last names but he doesn't have these field types. I've seen other reports of this little glitch but no suggested solutions as yet. Anyone else seen this? It's not network specific as we are both on 3 network and I can see Phonetic fields and he can't. Mine is iPhone 4, his is 4s and we both use Mac's to sync running Lion 10.7.2. Very odd.

Anyway, thanks for your help.
Craig.
 
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