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The problem with a lot of these tech sites is that they are basically enthusiasts rambling about product.

If you want to be a credible site you really need to have a good testbed for reviews no matter how smaller.

A review or bake-off of voice enabled technology should entail testing speed, testing accuracy of results, testing semantics (different ways people say things) and testing the complexity of utterances.

As DodgeV83 says ...relative static questions are low hanging fruit and don't tell us much about how complex a given tool may be over another.

So you probably will discount anything from Anandtech then? :rolleyes:
 
I don't think this was a good review, for reaaons already stated, it doesn't go in depth. Siri isn't good because it can process static commands, we've had things like that for years, Siri is good because of the artificial intelligence it uses.

I'm not sure how these tests would go, because I'm not familiar with the new Google Voice, but how about saying things like:

"Remind me when I get to my Dad's to call Mom and let her know I arrived."

"When is my next meeting with Scott?"

"Am I free tomorrow at 11am?"

"Is it going to rain this weekend?"

"Wake me up in 8 hours"

"Move my 3pm meeting to 4:30"

"Reschedule my appointment with Dr. manning to next Monday at 9am"

"Shuffle my workout playlist"

"Tell my girlfriend I'll be 10 minutes late"

"Remind me when I leave, to pick up milk"

"Did my girlfriend send me an email today?"

"Show me my last email from my Mom"

"Is my son still at school?"

It's Siri's intelligence that sets it apart from just dictating the words into a Google search. Does the new Google Voice have these capabilities?

I had no idea Siri was that intelligent. I knew about some of them but not all.

Hopefully Googles is as intelligent. I think I'll be using the calendar etc features more than search.

"remind me when I leave to pick up milk" I could use that nearly every day!
 
Its a wash. Anyone complaining about half a second difference in response time to a spoken query is splitting hairs.

If anything, it could be the fact that google has waaaaaaaaaaaaay more servers than Apple and can leverage their cloud for faster responses
 
That's because google search WAS faster in the timer comparison. It was only because of the way Siri responded though to be fair.

I honestly don't believe that he can tell the 1/4 of a second difference in real time like that. It's not like he was playing back video in slow motion. The weather difference was a couple of seconds long. Yeah, that one is easy to call. But 1/4 of a second? I'd call that "the same" if I were watching it.


One of the reasons he feels that Google blows Siri away is that the voice is so much more human-like than the Siri voice. He did demonstrate that in the video and I do feel he is correct in that sense. The Siri voice still seems a bit automated in comparison. There is also one case where Google displayed the correct answer without needed further prompting from the user.

I feel your allegations of his being bias is rather off base. He has gone on record that after trying a number of different devices, he still prefers using the iPhone as his primary phone.

I'm not saying iOS should always win no matter what. I'm saying I find his review technique lacking.


It's worth noting that this guy is a hardcore Apple/iOS fanboy. For him to say something like this about Google, he must really believe it.

Noted.

Part of my problem is that I find off-the-cuff reviews like this to always be pretty terrible. I'd rather read something someone has taken time to think about. So maybe it's more me than him.


Siri took longer cause it was saying "ok" a lot of the time in that video

I suspect you have your cause and effect backwards. I'm betting she says 'ok' to help cover up her thinking time.
 
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I know a few of you have said this but I don't think enough is being made of it. Literally no one is using this google voice assistant feature yet well everyone with a 4s and some people with ios 6 beta on new iPads are using Siri so obv it's going to be a tad slower. But I do hope this motivates apple to make Siri quicker because I've used it recently and it does take a second or 2 longer then I'd like.
 
I don't think this was a good review, for reaaons already stated, it doesn't go in depth. Siri isn't good because it can process static commands, we've had things like that for years, Siri is good because of the artificial intelligence it uses.

I'm not sure how these tests would go, because I'm not familiar with the new Google Voice, but how about saying things like:

"Remind me when I get to my Dad's to call Mom and let her know I arrived."

"When is my next meeting with Scott?"

"Am I free tomorrow at 11am?"

"Is it going to rain this weekend?"

"Wake me up in 8 hours"

"Move my 3pm meeting to 4:30"

"Reschedule my appointment with Dr. manning to next Monday at 9am"

"Shuffle my workout playlist"

"Tell my girlfriend I'll be 10 minutes late"

"Remind me when I leave, to pick up milk"

"Did my girlfriend send me an email today?"

"Show me my last email from my Mom"

"Is my son still at school?"

It's Siri's intelligence that sets it apart from just dictating the words into a Google search. Does the new Google Voice have these capabilities?

I have a 4S and a GNex with JB sitting in front of me right now. I can assure you, when it comes to things like sending text messages, working with appointments, etc, Google's solution is nothing compared to Siri.

It's also very much a "one input one output" type of system. No follow up questions or interaction with the user that I have experienced.

It also seems to think I am in Washington DC when I ask for the weather. -_- That could easily be a bug though, JB is only a Developer Preview right now.

All in all, it's a huge improvement over Google Voice Actions of the past but I still give Siri the win when it comes to actually getting things done.
 
I have a 4S and a GNex with JB sitting in front of me right now. I can assure you, when it comes to things like sending text messages, working with appointments, etc, Google's solution is nothing compared to Siri.

It's also very much a "one input one output" type of system. No follow up questions or interaction with the user that I have experienced.

It also seems to think I am in Washington DC when I ask for the weather. -_- That could easily be a bug though, JB is only a Developer Preview right now.

All in all, it's a huge improvement over Google Voice Actions of the past but I still give Siri the win when it comes to actually getting things done.

Make a video and post it proving your points. Surely we aren't going to just take your word for it.
 
Yeah I saw it. Pretty amazing seeing something finally beating Siri in it's game.

Finally? I don't think it took long at all. Siri isn't even out of beta yet. And honestly, from the little I tried of Siri, I totally was not impressed (Granted I've only gotten to play with it in the store, I won't be getting a new iphone until the newest one comes out). Don't know about the new Google voice thing but everything I hear sounds like it is definitely a contender at least.

If Apple is putting a lot of their eggs on Siri, they better be worried.
 
Google Search (is that what it's called?) looks impressive in speed, but it seems like Siri takes the time to make clever remarks and the results are 'prettier'.

On the Reminder request though, I think Siri wins as the whole reminder can be set hands-free while the Google variant required the user to select an option for when to be reminded. Also the timer was simply set as an alarm on the Nexus, not sure if that's an error or not.

It is convenient that the Nexus can search Google instantly without having to select a "search the web" option.

It didn't REQUIRE the user to select an option. A toast notification pops up indicating that the reminder had been set, and then it opened the options so that the user can modify them if they wish. The reminder defaulted to 12am, which might not have been desirable, so it gave the option to change it.

This would be better done via voice however.

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That's comparing typed Google searches to Siri. :p

"Google understands 100% of the questions (not surprisingly, since they are keyed in)"
 
That's comparing typed Google searches to Siri. :p

"Google understands 100% of the questions (not surprisingly, since they are keyed in)"

The typed responses were 100% but Google's voice input got 86% of those right in the same tests. (From the Giz source article)

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/29/minneapolis-street-test-google-gets-a-b-apples-siri-gets-a-d/

Piper Jaffray published the results Thursday in a note to clients:
  • Google understands 100% of the questions (not surprisingly, since they are keyed in)
  • Google replies accurately 86% of the time
  • Siri comprehends 83% of queries in noisy conditions, 89% in a quiet room
  • Siri answers accurately 62% of the time on the street and 68% in a quiet room.
 
It's talking about typed Google search responses, not spoken ones. It doesn't mention Google voice search anywhere.

Bloody hell, you are right!

I re-read the article (without assuming it's about Google using voice search) and it's as clear as day now.

What a tit I am. :D Reading comprehension fail.

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So the nexus smartfones always gets the latest OS updates via OTA?

Nexus handsets have always had OTA updates and they (normally) get them first. Only the CDMA handsets seem to be lagging behind when it comes to updates.
 
Bloody hell, you are right!

I re-read the article (without assuming it's about Google using voice search) and it's as clear as day now.

What a tit I am. :D Reading comprehension fail.

I thought the same as you but I went back and re-read the "keyed" bit I posted above and I thought... that's a weird phrase, I haven't heard that before, until I realised they literally meant KEYED in, as in typed in :p

It's a bit of an odd comparison as they're not quite the same, but they're obviously just trying to see which is more reliable - asking your phone (Siri) or using a Google search.

It's probably the timing that made us think it's regarding voice search :p
 
So the nexus smartfones always gets the latest OS updates via OTA?

Yes they get them directly. As mentioned CDMA phones and tablets are usually behind a bit (probably) thanks to Verizon) but even then they get the latest updates before othe CDMA phones.

The Nexus S and Xoom are older but still running the latest versions of Android. My Razr was the only exception I made to only buying into the Nexus line.
 
OMG Jesus Diaz strikes again.

Folks ...hit the back button. Nothing good EVERY comes from Jesus Diaz

damn you onthecouch again. You're dead to me.

;)

Actually I hate Jesus Diaz too. But the article was about the 1600 question test which he had nothing to do with.
 
Noted.

Part of my problem is that I find off-the-cuff reviews like this to always be pretty terrible. I'd rather read something someone has taken time to think about. So maybe it's more me than him.

Eh, the guy is terrible at reviews. I have seen many of them and he doesn't go very well into detail. But then again we are both thinking from a technical perspective. I think he does a good job speaking to the average Joe out there in terms of what the average Joe might like. Ironically, I wouldn't expect a whole lot of hits from average people "just looking for a phone", but rather hits from technology enthusiasts. I could, of course, be wrong about that last point though.

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That's wonderful. Why would a voice have to do with how well it preforms?

It has to do with the enjoyability of the product. For what it's worth, this thing performs very well, at least as well as Siri has for me (admittedly I don't set many reminders with Siri so I cannot speak much to those regards on either platform). It's a preference thing. He prefers a more human voice. So do I. As it turns out, so do a handful of people in this very thread.
 
Another comparison:

http://blog.gsmarena.com/voice-sear...-apples-siri-a-thing-or-two-about-web-search/

Looks like Google speaks web searches back whereas Siri just displays them. The former is obviously more desirable when driving.

Despite Siri's intelligence I think I'll have more use for Google's voice search, especially as it's lightning fast :) All the reviews are saying it kicks Siri's ass so far.

There are workarounds. I could just say "Remind me to buy milk at 5pm" rather than "remind me to buy milk when I leave", for example, as I know I leave work at 5pm.
 
Make a video and post it proving your points. Surely we aren't going to just take your word for it.

Meh, I might. Honestly, an internet argument probably isn't enough to make me get my camera equipment out and set everything up in a way that the test don't reveal any privacy info.

Biggest thing that might make me do it is that I've yet to see one video comparison that actually does any of the things Siri does that the new Google thing doesn't even though they are there.

EDIT: It does seem to compose text and emails BUT you have to give it to JB in one full command. You can't say "Email John Doe" to Google because it's going to pull up an empty email then give you the option to hit the button to send. Siri will ask you what you want the email to say. That's the whole "one in one out" thing I was talking about.

Also, JB seems to have more issues with difficult names. More simple names in my contact list it recognizes. More complicated names in my contact list usually result in a Google Search no matter what I'm asking it to do.
 
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