Siri on HomePod Correctly Answered 52.3% of Queries in New AI Test

[Rogifan]

Because it's a 1.0 product and current features are playing music, homekit and answering a few random questions you would ask. Half the things she doesn't do is due to privacy concerns. When or if she can distinguish two or more voices things might change.

What does privacy have to do with wanting to know who’s won the most gold medals at the Olympics?

 

[73CortinaV8]

"Navigation: 12%"

This is Jack's complete lack of surprise.

 

[Heineken]

What does privacy have to do with wanting to know who’s won the most gold medals at the Olympics?

That's why i said half not everything. It's clear that the goal was not to delay it any further and launch it.

As far as i can see it does this: help.apple.com/homepod/ just fine and it seems has the best mic system.

Software is going to be improved.

 

[Rogifan]

A "navigation" category on a device with no screen sitting statically at home? What kind of practical uses does it have? I could totally understand Apple not investing any effort into that.

That being said, the result is pretty pathetic. Apple was 1st in terms of vocal assistant when Steve Jobs launched Siri on the 4S, but now they're definitely the last on the race.

Steve Jobs didn’t launch Siri or the 4S. He was on his death bead the day it launched.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I measure the success of any purchase by the price / years of use.
There's nothing in the Home Pod that can't be improved upon over the next year or so that requires new hardware.
In that respect the Home Pod is a clear success. The software, and AI, are fixable.
Can you say the same about the other smart speakers?

It's been for sale for 2 days. How can you measure success?

 

[falainber]

But why does it have to be stereo? I know we've all been raised believing listening to quality audio must in stereo but the idea that stereo is necessary for good audio quality is nonsense. If your favourite singer was in your living room singing to you, would they sound terrible because the sound is only coming out of one mouth? Of course not, they'd sound great.

If you're wearing headphones, yes, stereo is important. But if you are listening to speakers, most people do not sit in an optimal position, nor is their room acoustically designed for music listening. The stereo effect and what it's designed to do is lost in these cases. Having a speaker that can read the room and adjust and project different frequencies based on what it reads sure sounds like to me that it will my far superior to a standard stereo system. The need for stereo separation is moot here when you have a speaker than can dynamically project the music into the room.

So far reviews have said the HomePod is actually all that it's cracked up to be. But of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I certainly look forward to finding out.

Stereo is important because it allows for creation of spatial sound effects. This has been universally recognized for decades. There are reasons why all artists hire specialists to produce their music in stereo. Multi-channels systems can (and do, for example, read about Audyssey) do room-based correction. Single channel speakers, on the other hand, are very limited in what they can do about the sound spatiality.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I think Siri is more than adequate for what most need it for the HomePod. Is it better than Google Home? No. Does it need to be better than the competition? Not necessarily. I use Siri all the time and I really don’t have any general complaints, aside from not understanding some of the things I ask it. None of these voice assistants are perfect.

And Siri is at the bottom of the pile. Maybe Siri would be adequate for some lower level company, but for Apple? Please. They should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[jshin100]

Issa no! For 350 plus taxes, you had better do more than “sound” good. I’ll wait for Home Pod 2.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Don't be fooled by HomePod's sound quality-focused first step into smart speakers; Apple has a grander vision than delivering a better sounding Echo. While not present in the first version of HomePod (i.e. you can't even make a phone call with HomePod), we believe Apple's goal is to make Siri a ubiquitous, ambient presence that connects and controls all your connected devices and services - and to make a leap forward in the transition to voice-first computing.

From the article....

I fully agree with that. As the saying goes, there are many roads that lead to Rome. Siri is now on my phone, tablet, watch, car, tv and now in HomePod. Basically the same assistant is on all devices that I've got with me all the time.

My guess is that there is a grand vision, and the effort into implementation is here and now and will steam ahead. Voice recognition and coverage (meaning in relation to where I physically am and when the device can hear me) is pretty much everywhere. Unrivalled by any of the competition, the software part is the easy part

 

[AppleScruff1]

Steve Jobs didn’t launch Siri or the 4S. He was on his death bead the day it launched.

So he had nothing to do with Siri or the 4S?
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Siri on HomePod can’t do X therfore it’s at the bottom of the pack when it comes to doing X. Well duh. If the product you want is the smartest AI assistant then HomePod isn’t for you. Then again Apple isn’t marketing HomePod as that. If you want to argue that HomePod should be a different product than it is, fine, but that’s a different conversation. Reviewing/grading HomePod on things you know it can’t do and Apple never said it could do is dumb.

Siri is at the bottom of the pile period. Forget the HomePod, it sucks on the iPhone.

 

[Westside guy]

What does it score on the iPhone?

It seems pretty bad on the iPhone/iPad as well - although none of them are particularly good. Just this morning I asked Siri what time flight "American Airlines flight 1709 from Sacramento to Seattle" arrived today - it returned a generic link to American Airlines' flight tracking page. When I gave a looser query to the Google app ("what time does the American Airlines flight from Sacramento to Seattle arrive?"), it returned actual flight info - albeit for the wrong flight!

But the frustrating thing with a number of Apple technologies is they seem to be going backwards. It sure seems like Siri is worse than it used to be, although it's possible that I just attempt a broader range of questions now than I used to. But I also would swear that my iPhone's predictive keyboard is much worse than it used to be too - it used to seem extremely accurate, but now it seems to frequently auto-correct stuff I've typed correctly into a completely different two-or-three-word phrase.

 

[falainber]

I'll tell you: Let's ignore the deep creepyness of Google tracking everything I do on the internet and changing what adverts I get due to what I do. But fact is that 99.99% of all targeted adverts that I get are f***ing useless. That's because once I have informed myself about some product class _and purchased something_ I'm not interested in any adverts about that kind of product anymore. I looked for washing machines. I bought one. For the next year I'm followed by adverts about washing machines. You f***ing idiots. I just bought one. I'm the one personin the world who is least interested in adverts about washing machines because I just bought one.

0.001% is still infinitely better than 0%, is not it? I do not find it very useful either but you may look at it this way. If those ads are targeted (or perceived to be targeted), it's likely that they are valued higher. As a result, there is a chance that you may see fewer of them (because the content provider can make the same money with fewer ads)

 

[topmounter]

"Munster broke this information down further, stating that Siri is good for "local" and "commerce" queries, like asking about nearby coffee shops..."

So an Apple product is good at helping one to locate a Starbucks?

Go figure...

A Starbucks near your house even...

 

[AppleScruff1]

I didn’t buy HomePod so it could give me driving directions. I think Apple is pretty upfront about what skills HomePod has outside of playing music. No one buying it should have any illusions about its skills. Now if it’s terrible at what Apple says it can do then that’s another story but we’re not hearing that because people are reviewing the product as they wished it to be rather than what it is.

So you already bought the HomePod even though you couldn't see the point of it a week or so ago?

 

[tubular]

Ordering shoes is not that different from ordering a song

If you’re using it for streaming music, which I don’t. None of the big streaming services work well enough with classical to be worth the money.

 

[SoGood]

Stereo is important because it allows for creation of spatial sound effects. This has been universally recognized for decades. There are reasons why all artists hire specialists to produce their music in stereo. Multi-channels systems can (and do, for example, read about Audyssey) do room-based correction. Single channel speakers, on the other hand, are very limited in what they can do about the sound spatiality.

You’ve been stuck in history. Obviously there are times when stereo or even quadphonic are essential. Fact is, they were in the days when individual speaker boxes were unidirectional and could not generate spatial sound. Things are different with HomePod and the like where it has treble speakers that radiates in all directions. You just have to listen to one to realise how well HomePod has achieved this. Yes, I have and I was mightily impressed. HomePod is not a mono single megaphone.

 

[Elijen]

What good is "superior" listeng skills if it can't answer many of the questions?

Because the main purpose is to listen to your conversations and serve you better ads

 

[treyvonnk]

Because you would have to take your phone out of your pocket anyway eventually. Sorry, but this is dumb and we live in the present anyway. The future is for the dreams.

Apple has never been about innovating for the present when they think they can innovate and open doors for the future. That’s why every news outlet reports on every iOS release, every hardware reease, every new product category. It’s not just about Apple’s net worth, otherwise we’d be seeing headline news whenever Exxon releases a fiscal report.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What good is "superior" listeng skills if it can't answer many of the questions?

I've read surveys asking women to describe the perfect man. One dominant want in most of them: "a great listener that doesn't try to actually solve any of their issues." Maybe this product is aimed at women?
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This test is bogus. The “correct answer” rate of 52% for HomePod includes questions that HomePod doesn’t yet support. This is wildly deceptive. The test should measure how accurate HomePod is at handling the queries it supports.

That's right! Change the test so that Apple can win it. That's the only way any such tests should be given.

After all, if you test only the queries it supports, it will get ALL OF THEM right. Perfection... exactly as we all knew it would be.
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It's been for sale for 2 days. How can you measure success?

I have to believe that sometimes some of us write down an Apple defense and don't read it before posting. That was a classic.

 

[0947347]

So HomePod isn't very good at navigation? Maybe that has something to do with the non detachable power cable and lack of batteries? What good would it be to ask a HomePod questions about navigation? You can't take the HomePod with you in your car.

But of course you can. The answer for your problem is “a generator” . Put diesel in a plug HomePod. Your car will stink from inside too, plus that awful noise, but, oh well, convenience sometimes takes a sacrifice

 

[ryknoll3]

A "navigation" category on a device with no screen sitting statically at home? What kind of practical uses does it have? I could totally understand Apple not investing any effort into that.

That being said, the result is pretty pathetic. Apple was 1st in terms of vocal assistant when Steve Jobs launched Siri on the 4S, but now they're definitely the last on the race.

It's not that complicated. I was getting ready to leave for the airport and packing up my stuff. Asked my Google Home how long it will take to get to the airport to make sure I leave on time and it replied with the travel time and sent the directions to my phone. Works great. Don't understand why this is some big complicated mystery and would be so difficult for Home Pod to do.

 

[The Game 161]

It's not that complicated. I was getting ready to leave for the airport and packing up my stuff. Asked my Google Home how long it will take to get to the airport to make sure I leave on time and it replied with the travel time and sent the directions to my phone. Works great. Don't understand why this is some big complicated mystery and would be so difficult for Home Pod to do.

While I get why this could be good surely everybody should know how long it would take to get to their nearest airport from home? when away from home I get but from home?

 

[ryknoll3]

While I get why this could be good surely everybody should know how long it would take to get to their nearest airport from home? when away from home I get but from home?

In Chicago we have this thing called traffic. Can turn a 45 run to the airport to double that. It's nice to kno before you leave.

 

[The Game 161]

In Chicago we have this thing called traffic. Can turn a 45 run to the airport to double that. It's nice to kno before you leave.

I do get that but I know whenever I'm going to the airport I would certainly give myself double the time anyway to get there. As I said I get why it is useful and wouldn't be against siri being able to do this but I don't see it as that important.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

While I get why this could be good surely everybody should know how long it would take to get to their nearest airport from home? when away from home I get but from home?

Google maps is smart enough to provide different answers based on traffic between home and a destination. I much prefer that to hoping to catch reports of traffic on the radio and trying to estimate the delay(s) myself. Google knows!
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I do get that but I know whenever I'm going to the airport I would certainly give myself double the time anyway to get there. As I said I get why it is useful and wouldn't be against siri being able to do this but I don't see it as that important.

Oh I see now: if Siri can’t answer something, nobody should desire such information from a virtual assistant. I now grasp the perfection that is Siri. Thank you.