I totally agree.
Also, a fact I dislike: It's like "talking" to a sassy teen who has nothing else to do (and knows little of the world).
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Siri Co-Founder Suggests Apple is 'Looking for a Level of Perfection They Can't Get' With Assistant
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Also, a fact I dislike: It's like "talking" to a sassy teen who has nothing else to do (and knows little of the world).
Siri an all other assistants are very good to set alarms and "remind me to.. ". That is what I use them for
Why know give it a name as I please? Can't be that difficult. I'd call my "Siri" "Steve" in a second.
I had Siri disabled for a while but then I missed being able to tap my Airpods to start a playlist.
Yeah, I mostly use Siri to do things that would take a lot of typing and touching, like creating a new reminder of a calendar event when I'm on the go. Unfortunately, her stills are lacking:
Me: "Hey Siri, add a reminder tomorrow at 9 AM to do XYZ."
Siri: "OK, I've updated your reminder [changed time of existing reminder to tomorrow at 9.]"
Like, no--was something about adding a reminder not clear? She does fine if she hears "add a reminder" but messes up if she just hears "add reminder," which happens a lot. In either case, I think both phrases are clear and unambiguous, so this shouldn't be a problem. She also used to be bad if she heard phrases like "tomorrow" as part of the reminder text and always assumed that was the time you wanted, even if that was clearly specified elsewhere. I guess that's one way it's improved since I started using it.
I also use it for voice control over the few HomeKit-enabled devices I have (or one: Hue, plus a bunch of unofficial ones via HomeBridge), but Alexa works just as well (with much less trickery to make it actually work with the devices I want).
I don’t use it, I don’t want it, I wouldn’t even care if it was better than its rivals at everything it tries to do. I don’t want to use speech as a UI. I prefer to just keep speech for people, animals and maybe occasionally shouting at the TV (but without the expectation or desire for a response from it).
Constant disappointment is an accurate description of Siri. It’s not terrible but it’s not up to the standards of other Apple products. Especially given how mature it is. I keep waiting for Apple to do it’s thing and say we’ve made a voice assistant the right way but it seems like they don’t care about it.
Didn't Joswiak say that was a false narrative?
Privacy aside, at it’s basic Siri cannot understand nor execute basic intructions.
I’m driving - my device knows that - I ask Siri a question and she offer me a list of items found on the web.
Sigh .... that involves no privacy knowledge at all. Yet Siri cannot properly execute that simple request many times.
I dunno. Google has become synonymous with search. Personally, I think "Hey Apple" would be better than "Hey Siri". But thats just me. If they wanted to make it more personal, they could change it to "Hey Mac" short for macintosh. Or better yet, "Hey Steve" in honor of their founder Steve Jobs. Lol. Why not.
In other words, there is no excuse why Siri should suck. Other than Apple not wanting to make it better.
-t
They need a complete reboot where on newer devices all the logic is processed locally and is in a "always on" state and you would speak to it just as you do when someone is sitting next to you or in the phone.
alexa is a much better product. that's sad because apple had the jump on all of them but didn't develop it. amazon did what apple usually does...take someone else's idea and perfect it.
I have a different view of this.
Apple reads the forums, the reviews, the tech journalists opinions. They don’t have their heads buried in the sand. I think they have chosen to concentrate on getting Siri to be good at doing things that they believe people actually want to do. Half of the things that Siri and other assistants can do, are hardly ever used by the majority of people.
Consider that most people aren’t as tech savvy as those of us who read this forum or read tech journalism. They probably don’t know or care wether Siri can or cant do some of the things that are often complained about in Tech media. Apple ignores the noise because half of it really is just hot air. I use Siri every single day in my car with CarPlay and its great. I use it to check the weather, to send a message, play music and make reminders. It does all of those things incredibly well in my opinion. Other people will use Siri in other ways and I’m sure they get what the need, some people may not.
Does that mean I think Siri is perfect? No. But I do think that in the long term, Apple is taking the right approach. Protect our privacy, and find a better way. Yes they could toggle privacy off as some have suggested. But that isn’t better, it’s just easier. Siri will take time to reach the level that the more tech savvy would like but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s better to be best rather than first. Siri was the first to be well known to consumers but others who have rushed in to follow have compromised on privacy to do it. I don’t think you have to choose. You can have both, if you take the time to do it right.
Apple reads the forums, the reviews, the tech journalists opinions. They don’t have their heads buried in the sand. I think they have chosen to concentrate on getting Siri to be good at doing things that they believe people actually want to do. Half of the things that Siri and other assistants can do, are hardly ever used by the majority of people.
Consider that most people aren’t as tech savvy as those of us who read this forum or read tech journalism. They probably don’t know or care wether Siri can or cant do some of the things that are often complained about in Tech media. Apple ignores the noise because half of it really is just hot air. I use Siri every single day in my car with CarPlay and its great. I use it to check the weather, to send a message, play music and make reminders. It does all of those things incredibly well in my opinion. Other people will use Siri in other ways and I’m sure they get what the need, some people may not.
Does that mean I think Siri is perfect? No. But I do think that in the long term, Apple is taking the right approach. Protect our privacy, and find a better way. Yes they could toggle privacy off as some have suggested. But that isn’t better, it’s just easier. Siri will take time to reach the level that the more tech savvy would like but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s better to be best rather than first. Siri was the first to be well known to consumers but others who have rushed in to follow have compromised on privacy to do it. I don’t think you have to choose. You can have both, if you take the time to do it right.
We used to live in a shoe box in the middle of the road! Oh you were lucky.. we have the Swedish version of Siri.
Well, it gets it right when you ask when spring starts. Too funny.
The other day, while my Watch was charging, I asked on my phone, “Hey Siri, what’s the Apple Watch battery at?”, to which she responded “The Apple Watch battery level is at 56%.”
Yesterday, I did the same thing, and she pointed me to information about the Apple Watch battery on Apple’s website.
What?! How did she get dumber over time, when the opposite is supposed to happen?
My overall impression is that Apple can dramatically improve Siri without compromising privacy, but it would infringe on patents. So, both Siri and Apple are in a sandbox of sorts, trying to operate with such tight constraints. Until Apple either creates a new, proprietary, algorithm, or purchases a company with such tech, we’ll only see small improvements in Siri’s capabilities.
Yesterday, I did the same thing, and she pointed me to information about the Apple Watch battery on Apple’s website.
What?! How did she get dumber over time, when the opposite is supposed to happen?
My overall impression is that Apple can dramatically improve Siri without compromising privacy, but it would infringe on patents. So, both Siri and Apple are in a sandbox of sorts, trying to operate with such tight constraints. Until Apple either creates a new, proprietary, algorithm, or purchases a company with such tech, we’ll only see small improvements in Siri’s capabilities.
The activation phrase should be customizable. Then only newbies and our parents would be saying "Hey Siri".
The problem with this take is some of the things Siri isn't good at have nothing to do with privacy. Privacy isn't a crutch that should be leaned on to excuse Siri. As I said earlier, and is quoted in the article, Joswiak said the privacy angle is a false narrative.
Chuckle ... so true!
Siri never seems to reliably realize I’m not home when I ask for info like that.
I don't love it... but I enjoy the help. I use ir daily too, to make calls, add reminders and appointments, play music/podcasts and set timers. Paired with the airpods, I never touch the phone for these tasks anymore. What would improve it for me would be the power to do more stuff on all other apps.
Here’s my most recent Siri fail experience:
Me: "Hey Siri, play Sting on HomePod".
Siri starts playing Sting on my iPhone.
Me: "Hey Siri, play Sting in Living Room".
Siri starts playing Sting on my iPhone.
For the love of Pete, Apple. WTF ?
-t
Was your phone in the living room?
An assistant that can respond to queries with anything other than, "I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean by ____________ but I can search the web for it"?! Truly such levels of perfection will remain forever unattainable by mere mortals!
This doesn't sound right.
First, it has been years since Siri came to be, and even if there are so many categories of features (not that many, really), we would assume it ought to be less STUPID by now. Second, it can't even get speech recognition right, so that can't be explained by what was said here. Third, there is no indication that Apple has been aiming at anything resembling perfection with Siri at all.
It would be more helpful and less infuriating to people to just admit that Siri is not where it should be at this point, and that Apple is at fault for failing to developing it properly, but that this could be fixed if Apple would get its act together.
First, it has been years since Siri came to be, and even if there are so many categories of features (not that many, really), we would assume it ought to be less STUPID by now. Second, it can't even get speech recognition right, so that can't be explained by what was said here. Third, there is no indication that Apple has been aiming at anything resembling perfection with Siri at all.
It would be more helpful and less infuriating to people to just admit that Siri is not where it should be at this point, and that Apple is at fault for failing to developing it properly, but that this could be fixed if Apple would get its act together.
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