Voice recognition and control was revealed as Apple's surprise feature for the iPhone 4S. The technology, which Apple acquired in its acquisition of Siri, is now built into iOS 5 and supported on the iPhone 4S.
In the demo, Apple's Scott Forstall asked Siri "What's the weather like today?" and received the forecast. "Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto." "I've found 14 Greek restaurants... 5 of them are in Palo Alto. I've sorted them by rating." Forstall says "I've been in the AI field a long time. This blows me away." Siri can also return Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha searches, or return word definitions.For decades technologists have teased us with this dream that we can talk to our technology. But it's never come true! It's such a let-down! What we really want to do is just talk to our device!
In addition to following voice instructions, Siri can also read your messages to you, straight from the notification queue, hands-free.
This Is My Next, commenting on the Siri demonstration, is impressed: "the tech is pretty amazing -- Siri will follow along with your actions and understand context. Still, Scott has to talk to the machine slowly, like you would to a child or a foreign language speaker."Compose and dictate email right to Siri. Set timers. Look up contacts, create notes, search the web, search Wikipedia. It's absolutely blow-away. Well, who is Siri? Just ask!" Siri: "I am a humble personal assistant."
Siri does dictation -- now whenever you see a keyboard, you'll see a microphone. Talk to Siri, tap done, and in the blink of an eye it comes back with your text. Speak with your natural language.
Siri includes support for English, French, and German -- in beta. "It will be beta at the start; by beta we mean we'll add more languages and services over time."
Article Link: Siri Voice Recognition Arrives On the iPhone 4S