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Walt Mossberg Calls Siri 'Too Limited and Unreliable' to Compete in 'Coming AI Wars'
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Yeah. I haven't really found a use for it, and after a while just disabled it so it doesn't screw me up when trying to get into the home screen.
This was months ago, it might very well be my memory failing me and Alexa actually gave the right answer. The point was that it have a useful answer to the exact same query.
After years I found a use for Siri. I bike, so I wanted to talk to my phone while keeping me hands on the handlebars... but guess what, the function that I primarily wanted, Volume Up/Down is not available! So much for Siri, didn't even get out of the gate.
Siri is most helpful in that she helps me get around the terrible reminders app.
That's about it.
That's about it.
I gave up on Siri . What i use is the dictation which is sometimes a lot faster then typing. In particular on my iPhone.
I gave up on siri a long time ago. now when apple brought it to mac an TV, i just laughed. Siri is apple's another MobileMe joke.
"If you try most of these broken examples right now, they’ll work properly, because Apple fixed them after I tweeted screenshots of most of them in exasperation and asked the company about them."
- Mossberg
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/12/13251068/walt-mossberg-apple-siri-is-dumb
Your problem is that you are using gendered terms like "dad" and "father". Siri doesn't acknowledge such bigoted and offensive language.
It's simple, queries on Google Now are powered by its search engine.
They've already indexed pretty much everything. You will see that if you type the same queries from google now into google search you will get the same answer.
However the last time I tried out Google Now it wouldn't create calendar appointments for me, something simple that Siri has done for years.
Seems like a voice enabled search engine rather than a personal assistant.
And it's biggest shortcoming is that it's not always on. I can say "Hey Siri" whenever I want.
They've already indexed pretty much everything. You will see that if you type the same queries from google now into google search you will get the same answer.
However the last time I tried out Google Now it wouldn't create calendar appointments for me, something simple that Siri has done for years.
Seems like a voice enabled search engine rather than a personal assistant.
And it's biggest shortcoming is that it's not always on. I can say "Hey Siri" whenever I want.
The thing I find odd about Siri, is that she doesn't know when I'm speaking Chinese in the English interface. When I change the language settings to Chinese she understands. When I say Ni Hao under the English language settings I get some where in Hawaii lol
When Siri became available in my native Finnish in iOS 9.3, I tried to start using it more. However, in Finnish there's an extra catch with the most common Finnish versions of "play" and "call" both being the same verb "soita". In normal conversation you can infer the proper meaning from the context, but I don't think it's a surprise to anyone here that Siri's success rate is less than stellar in this regard.
For me Siri underlines the issue with Apple...stagnant. Like many on here I find it frustrating of the lack of innovation. No, watch straps don't count lol.
No doubt. I've been using Siri a lot, so I see her flaws a lot. It's really frustrating watching her atrophy while the others grow by leaps and bounds.
Mossberg has a valid point here and I'm happy that he seems to bave enough autority now Apple seems to listen to his comments. I really disliked Siri in the past and to give commands in the past using my headphone microphone wasn't something I could get accustomed to, I still have to appologize sometimes when I ask people in the supermarket if everything is okay with them when I see them talking to a bottle of milk while discover afterwards that they where actually talking in a small hidden microphone. To keep it short, talking to Siri seemed awkward to me to put it mildly.
But.... as years past on I started to notice that I was using Siri myself more often, especially because I could only use Siri in English. And although I speak English, I can't hide that I'm Dutch, so if you read this and think I' sound like a drunk Swedish rabbit it's because I'm not that familiar with the English grammar. But then then the option of talking to Siri in Dutch came around and now I was able to send my girlfriend a message without having to worry that I accidentally ordered a pizza instead. I noticed that for these small task Siri works great and it started to grow on me. That's why I was looking forward to use Siri on daily basis with Siera now as well, but now I'm using it more frequently I see exactly what Mossberg is aiming at.
Don't get me wrong, I'm truly amazed what Siri offers all ready, but it could be so much better i.m.h.o.
But.... as years past on I started to notice that I was using Siri myself more often, especially because I could only use Siri in English. And although I speak English, I can't hide that I'm Dutch, so if you read this and think I' sound like a drunk Swedish rabbit it's because I'm not that familiar with the English grammar. But then then the option of talking to Siri in Dutch came around and now I was able to send my girlfriend a message without having to worry that I accidentally ordered a pizza instead. I noticed that for these small task Siri works great and it started to grow on me. That's why I was looking forward to use Siri on daily basis with Siera now as well, but now I'm using it more frequently I see exactly what Mossberg is aiming at.
Don't get me wrong, I'm truly amazed what Siri offers all ready, but it could be so much better i.m.h.o.
Ha, I just asked Alexa what was the Beatles first album and she said Please Please Me. So I don't know what that other guy was talking about...lol
I hate to admit it but I agree. The watch is slowly shaping up into something, but one innovative product in 5 years? They have become EXCELLENT at iterating products. Evolution with no revolution. Air Pods? Meh. iMacs that haven't been redesigned in years? Meh. Laptops that haven't really changed much since the Air? Meh. The completely forgotten Mac Pro, iPods, AirPort, AirPlay? Meh. The half baked fourth gen Apple TV? Meh.
This makes me sad. Apple needs a visionary.
Google Now is awesome. I had a Note 7 until the recalls. Now I'm forced back into iPhone land and Siri takes 6-10 seconds to respond. It's an iPhone 7+ FFS! /Infuriating
I agree that Siri could do better, see my previous posting on this, but the difference with Apple and the rest is that both Google and Microsoft have the possibility to look into your files and combine the information, including what you've been writtin within an e-mail for example with information from the internet, on top of that Apple doesn't want developers 100% access to all of your (private) information as well. That also makes Siri limited as well. It's something one must take in consideration as well i.m.h.o. I agree Siri can do much better, but privacy is also something that I find important.
Facebook might offer big possibilities in the near future, giving you to possibly to order a ticket using Google Now for example or Microsoft voice assistant in the near future, but much can be done because these assistants can combine all the given information you provide using Facebook or Google + for example, information that I still considder private. I've no issue with voice assistance platforms using given information that a user is providing but not when it comes to use that information for commercial exploitation as well, withou my approval.
First lets just say, its beyond amazing that you could talk to a computer. Second, Siri has incredibly improved in understanding what you say.
Third, my experiences tells me that with Apple, they either get it right the first time (ipod, iphone, OS X) or they never get it right (MobileME, Ping, Siri?)
Third, my experiences tells me that with Apple, they either get it right the first time (ipod, iphone, OS X) or they never get it right (MobileME, Ping, Siri?)
I also have the feeling that Siri actually got stupider. I can't see any improvement over the last few years. A typical change these days:
Me: Siri, set the timer for 50 minutes
Siri: Ok, I set it for 15 minutes
Me: No, change it to 50 minutes
Siri: Your timer is already set, change it?
Me: YES!
Siri: for how long
ME: F*****G 50 minutes
Siri: Ok, I set the timer for 15 minutes
The funny thing is that she didn't have these issues last year
Me: Siri, set the timer for 50 minutes
Siri: Ok, I set it for 15 minutes
Me: No, change it to 50 minutes
Siri: Your timer is already set, change it?
Me: YES!
Siri: for how long
ME: F*****G 50 minutes
Siri: Ok, I set the timer for 15 minutes
The funny thing is that she didn't have these issues last year
Siri sucks, nothing new there. I gave up on it years ago and now exclusively use Google Now which is a hundred times better! None the less with improvements claimed by Apple I tried it again but it failed to answer correctly as usual. Its *****
PS. No swear words allowed here now...interesting. I've been asterisked! LOL!
PS. No swear words allowed here now...interesting. I've been asterisked! LOL!
i got a mod warning/deleted post once for using the turd emoji instead of the word ****.
so yeah, no profane emoji either.. don't be posting those eggplants.
Siri sets my alarms every night, and adds items to my Grocery list in Reminder. That's it. Apart from that, things like "Call my dad" completely confuzzles her where she tries to call ME... yet "Call my father" works fine. No logical sense whatsoever.
I've pretty much given up on Siri because 99% of the time, anything out of the ordinary (timers, reminder items) seem to just get me a snarky, useless response which triggers my nerd rage.
Can't even do that properly. Haven't tried in english, but in my native language, if I say "wake me at 6 35" it set the alarm correctly to 6.35. If I say "wake me at 6 30" it sets the alarm to 18.30, wtf -.-