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First Look: Using iPhone 4S with Siri voice assistant - Page 2

post #41 of 220
10/15/11 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

Yet when the iPhone 5 or whatever comes with a bigger screen, Apple will have it right.

It's pretty obvious that some people would like a larger screen, while others prefer the existing size. Why do you assume that your preference is more correct, especially since the iPhone, with its tiny screen, continues to outsell every other phone and break launch sales records?
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post #42 of 220
10/15/11 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhanded View Post

Nah, not upset. Just giving the previous reply a lesson on what the word "literally" means!

All I was trying to do was get siri to send a text message.
- Hold down home button to get siri prompt
- Say "text <contact name>"
- Siri responds with "What do you want to say to <contact name>"
- Say "Swan 930"
- Siri responds with "'s one 930"

My guess is that when composing the body of a text message, there is a lot less context to work with than after a word like "text" or "call" when siri looks for a name, or "find" when siri looks for a place so that is why the voice recognition falls down when several words or phrases have similar sounds.

For example, I tried to compose a text saying "Wales deserved to win" (rugby fans will know what I am referring to here ) siri came back with "Wheels deserved to win".

I think you're right.

Now that I'm clear on what you were trying to do, it seems that the problem is a combination of your accent or intonation making small errors ("Wheels" instead of "Whales"), and the fact that text messages are not "regular speech."

If you wanted to compose an email instead and said "meet me at the swan at 9:30 PM," instead of "Swan 930" it might be more accurate.

For instance if Siri said that second item back to you it would probably say "Swan nine hundred and thirty," (assuming it finally got the Swan part right).
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post #43 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

... Yet when the iPhone 5 or whatever comes with a bigger screen, Apple will have it right. ...

We know from very recent polls however, that even with all the hype about the bigger screens in the marketplace, and even given the fact that many many people fully expected a bigger screen this time, that only a measly 17% of people (in the USA) were disappointed when it didn't happen.

It's much more likely that a year from now, there will be even less people (than this small minority of US users), who will be interested in a larger screen.

Apple has a history of making products smaller, thinner, and lighter, usually without changing the screen size. Again, it's much more likely that next year's iPhone will be smaller, than bigger.

If they follow past practice, the next iPhone will have the same screen size, but all the components inside, outside, and around it, will shrink. Physically, the shell could be a quarter to a half inch smaller in two dimensions and still have the current screen size. They might be able to make it thinner as well.
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post #44 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetry View Post

Trying to test Siri on a friend's 4S this evening was completely unsuccessful. It understood the words just fine - reproducing them on the screen - but then, after 10 or 15 seconds, responded that something "seemed to have gone wrong" and to "try again". I'm wondering if it is another case of the servers being swamped.


?????? Is that testing? only one try? even the most stable software does similar stuff once in awhile.

I have been using it, and I would say I have been successful around 80% of the time, and English is NOT my first language...really cool,

I am sure that with time, it will be improving with updates, but without doubt , it is amazing.

About the Iphone, it is really faster(I use ATT), and surprisingly I am not dropping calls including in my home where I have spots with bad reception. The new antennas are doing a better job.

Overall, very excited, and happy with my extra storage! 64

George
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post #45 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post

I think you're right.

Now that I'm clear on what you were trying to do, it seems that the problem is a combination of your accent or intonation making small errors ("Wheels" instead of "Whales"), and the fact that text messages are not "regular speech."

If you wanted to compose an email instead and said "meet me at the swan at 9:30 PM," instead of "Swan 930" it might be more accurate.

I tried email body text of "meet me at the swan for 9:30 PM," and got "meet me at the 14 9:30PM" (that confused me until I realised 14 was "one four" rather than "fourteen"...)

"Wales" (the country) is a tough one and I was expecting something like "Whales" (the sea mammal) rather than "Wheels". siri obviously doesn't follow the rugby world cup.

I've tried all of my local drinking haunts and got 100% failure on "Tabard", unsurprisingly siri thinks I was talking about iPads and translated it as "Tablet". "The Raven" worked most of the time except for a few "Rhythms" but siri's favourite pub in West London is "The Duchess of Cambridge" which was 100% correct.
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post #46 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:16am
Can Siri read out your messages and or emails etc ??
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post #47 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetry View Post

It's pretty obvious that some people would like a larger screen, while others prefer the existing size. Why do you assume that your preference is more correct, especially since the iPhone, with its tiny screen, continues to outsell every other phone and break launch sales records?

So if the iPhone 4S came out with a 4inch screen do you doubt for 1 second that everyone would be praising the 4inch retina display?
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post #48 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post

We know from very recent polls however, that even with all the hype about the bigger screens in the marketplace, and even given the fact that many many people fully expected a bigger screen this time, that only a measly 17% of people (in the USA) were disappointed when it didn't happen.

It's much more likely that a year from now, there will be even less people (than this small minority of US users), who will be interested in a larger screen.

Apple has a history of making products smaller, thinner, and lighter, usually without changing the screen size. Again, it's much more likely that next year's iPhone will be smaller, than bigger.

If they follow past practice, the next iPhone will have the same screen size, but all the components inside, outside, and around it, will shrink. Physically, the shell could be a quarter to a half inch smaller in two dimensions and still have the current screen size. They might be able to make it thinner as well.

I wish we could bet on this some how. I have no doubt when the do change iPhone body it will get a bigger screen. Its not a flip phone where smaller is better. It is a smartphone where you use the screen all the time.

If I were to believe your cool aid then why not a 7inch iPad......oh that is right because Apple said bigger is better.
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post #49 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

The iPhone 4S is a nice phone and will sell well, but its the same shite different day and Apple better step it up next year.

Oh boy ...
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post #50 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scafe2 View Post

Can Siri read out your messages and or emails etc ??

For me, it won't read emails but it will read new text messages.
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post #51 of 220
10/15/11 at 9:59am
Watching the demo video makes Siri seems really amazing and useful. It's like what we see in the movies are actually becoming a reality. Too bad you have to speak American to use it.
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post #52 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:10am
Try "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood'. We laughed so hard it hurt with each answer, they are not static.
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post #53 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhanded View Post

I tried email body text of "meet me at the swan for 9:30 PM," and got "meet me at the 14 9:30PM" (that confused me until I realised 14 was "one four" rather than "fourteen"...)

"Wales" (the country) is a tough one and I was expecting something like "Whales" (the sea mammal) rather than "Wheels". siri obviously doesn't follow the rugby world cup.

I've tried all of my local drinking haunts and got 100% failure on "Tabard", unsurprisingly siri thinks I was talking about iPads and translated it as "Tablet". "The Raven" worked most of the time except for a few "Rhythms" but siri's favourite pub in West London is "The Duchess of Cambridge" which was 100% correct.

There are greater differences in the accents of the island of Britain than in the US. Far more. And no standard accent either. (RP isn't common). So speak like an English neutral speaker. The welsh accent is totally different to even it's near neighbors like Bristol or Cornwall. I can't understand the welsh very well and I live here.
I wanted dsadsa bit it was taken.
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post #54 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

So if the iPhone 4S came out with a 4inch screen do you doubt for 1 second that everyone would be praising the 4inch retina display?

A 4 inch retina display would look beautiful. A 6 inch even more so. Unfortunately it's also a phone, and as many have pointed out, needs to be easy to hold and to fit in pockets. I think that is the limiting factor. And again - I'm not questioning those who prefer larger, but don't project your preferences onto everyone else.

I would like to see the screen size maximized relative to the current physical phone size.
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post #55 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scafe2 View Post

Can Siri read out your messages and or emails etc ??

Did you watch the video?
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post #56 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by procapital View Post

?????? Is that testing? only one try? even the most stable software does similar stuff once in awhile.

I have been using it, and I would say I have been successful around 80% of the time, and English is NOT my first language...really cool,

I am sure that with time, it will be improving with updates, but without doubt , it is amazing.

About the Iphone, it is really faster(I use ATT), and surprisingly I am not dropping calls including in my home where I have spots with bad reception. The new antennas are doing a better job.

Overall, very excited, and happy with my extra storage! 64

George

Limited testing for 15 minutes or so, with a range of commands ranging from "call xxxx" to questions about the weather and the Apple stock price example on the intro screen. None worked, but do not discount operator incompetence as the explanation, although several users have noted that the servers in the western US seemed to be down yesterday evening.
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post #57 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhanded View Post

I tried email body text of "meet me at the swan for 9:30 PM," and got "meet me at the 14 9:30PM" (that confused me until I realised 14 was "one four" rather than "fourteen"...)

"Wales" (the country) is a tough one and I was expecting something like "Whales" (the sea mammal) rather than "Wheels". siri obviously doesn't follow the rugby world cup.

I've tried all of my local drinking haunts and got 100% failure on "Tabard", unsurprisingly siri thinks I was talking about iPads and translated it as "Tablet". "The Raven" worked most of the time except for a few "Rhythms" but siri's favourite pub in West London is "The Duchess of Cambridge" which was 100% correct.

I'm detecting a pattern....

Maybe test out siri on a non-pub crawl night?

Just joking. I'm just jealous.
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post #58 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

So if the iPhone 4S came out with a 4inch screen do you doubt for 1 second that everyone would be praising the 4inch retina display?

Cell phone size and features are a combination of compromises. I personally like the current size of the iPhone as it fits easily in the front pocket of Levis 501s. Steve may have had a similar preference. Sure a larger screen is useful in certain situations but I don't spend very much time with the screen of the iPhone, I use it mostly as a phone so a larger size is not my top priority. Each user has to decide for themselves which compromises they are willing to make a select the corresponding product that more closely matches their criteria.

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post #59 of 220
10/15/11 at 10:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

I wish we could bet on this some how. I have no doubt when the do change iPhone body it will get a bigger screen. Its not a flip phone where smaller is better. It is a smartphone where you use the screen all the time.

If I were to believe your cool aid then why not a 7inch iPad......oh that is right because Apple said bigger is better.

Now you are being either silly or just disingenuous. You know perfectly well that the criteria for the ideal size for a tablet are different from those for a phone. If bigger is simply always better, why not a 10 inch iPhone?
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post #60 of 220
10/15/11 at 11:29am
So in conclusion Siri doesn't work very well, should not be a primary selling feature as in Beta still and is basically a novelty that will wear off soon enough.

Controversial maybe but let's get real here
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post #61 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:03pm
I appreciate the kind of "stress test" that you've put on the system. It's the first video I see doing that on the internet. It's interesting to see Siri's limits, and see how it will evolve. Thanks!
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post #62 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:09pm
So, what happened to Apple's iMessage?
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post #63 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxhunter101 View Post

So, what happened to Apple's iMessage?

It's in the top left corner of the screen. Why, what's your actual question?
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post #64 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:11pm
A few things:

Siri works best with a headset. The fact that it works at all with an "open-air" mike is a minor miracle. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to filter out background noise?

The audio processing and compression are done on the phone. The voice recognition and answer generation are done by Apple's backend servers.

Siri learns over time, but gets confused when multiple people use the same phone. The happiest Siri users will be the ones who are the sole users of their devices.

If you're getting network issues, disable Siri, power off, power on, re-enable Siri. Try again.

Microsoft's TellMe on Windows Mango is much closer to Android or Voice Command. It's much more limited.

The killer is how well the dictation mode works. I've been writing multi-paragraph e-mails by voice with nary a word out of place.
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post #65 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Twelve View Post

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to filter out background noise?

No, but that's why there are two microphones on the iPhone, I thought.
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post #66 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:13pm
All of a sudden this morning Siri is not working on my iphone 4S. WTF? That expensive new datacenter in NC can't handle the 1 million preorders + however many first day sales? This doesn't bode well given RIM had recent outage and people were moving from BlackBerry to iPhone. Hope this isn't true...

At 8:40am EST this morning, Siri would not respond. Constantly received this respone, "Uh oh, there's a problem. Can you try again?"
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post #67 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

It's in the top left corner of the screen. Why, what's your actual question?

That's AT&T's instant message (for me), Verizon or Sprint instant message for others. Apple was supposed to introduce their own iMessage, instant message. It was to be modeled after Blackberry's instant message service.......
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post #68 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxhunter101 View Post

That's AT&T's instant message (for me), Verizon or Sprint instant message for others. Apple was supposed to introduce their own iMessage, instant message. It was to be modeled after Blackberry's instant message service.......



No, seriously, what's your question about iMessage?
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post #69 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:19pm
You: "Call my mom."
Siri: "What do you want to call your mom?"
You: "A dirty crack whore."
Siri: "OK. Here is your message to your mom:" (displayed text) "You are a dirty crack whore."
Siri: "Are you ready to send it?"

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post #70 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

... If I were to believe your cool aid then why not a 7inch iPad......oh that is right because Apple said bigger is better.

I agree that Apple has said some contradictory and self-serving things in regards screen size. I wouldn't be surprised if they come out with a 7" iPad at all for that reason. Most of the "reasons" they gave for not doing smaller sizes are kind of made-up IMO.

But I'm not drinking the kool-aide or selling any of my own. I'm just thinking about what's likely based on past performance and knowledge of how Apple has operated in the past.

I'm actually kind of hoping (now Steve Jobs is dead), that they might start to loosen up a bit on some of the Jobsian edicts, and some of the way they typically do things because I think that they don't always make sense. The famous "choice restriction" they do in the design phase for instance, that they typically get praise for, works far better for hardware design than it does for software design.

I would love to see them stop being so strict about that and give us some customisation options. I know I'm far from the only person who is sick and tired of swiping the phone to open it for instance. I understand the reasoning behind it, but that reasoning is arguably faulty in some situations.

As more and more people in more and more differing situations gravitate towards Apple products, the correct response IMO is to start giving people more options and being more flexible about what they can or cannot do with the software.
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post #71 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post

above

You just don't get it at all, do you?
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post #72 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post

I wish we could bet on this some how. I have no doubt when the do change iPhone body it will get a bigger screen. Its not a flip phone where smaller is better. It is a smartphone where you use the screen all the time.

If I were to believe your cool aid then why not a 7inch iPad......oh that is right because Apple said bigger is better.

Why does being right on an Internet forum matter so much to you? Don't you have any self-esteem?

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post #73 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post



No, seriously, what's your question about iMessage?

Wasn't Apple going to introduce their own iMessage service like Blackberry's where only Apple device users could instant meaasage each other on only Apple devices. Not the icon in the upper left corner, that the carriers' instant messaging service.
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post #74 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post

You: "Call my mom."
Siri: "What do you want to call your mom?"
You: "A dirty crack whore."
Siri: "OK. Here is your message to your mom:" (displayed text) "You are a dirty crack whore."
Siri: "Are you ready to send it?"

ILMAO, did Siri really say this?
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post #75 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The-Steve View Post

"Change 500 mexican pesos into US dollars."

This is not a *question*; why are you surprised that there is no answer?

Siri: "OK. Here is your penny."

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post #76 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxhunter101 View Post

Wasn't Apple going to introduce their own iMessage service like Blackberry's where only Apple device users could instant meaasage each other on only Apple devices. Not the icon in the upper left corner, that the carriers' instant messaging service.

SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY. \
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post #77 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxhunter101 View Post

ILMAO, did Siri really say this?

No.

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post #78 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:32pm
The fact that it runs on server means that apple can collect all the mistakes it ever makes and correct them. It really is great to have such huge server with so much feedback. If it was a standalone software in your phone it might be a gimmick, but since it's connected to the "mother ship" it can evolve with time. I am sure Apple can adjust the responses after it looks at what people ask the most often. Pretty amazing.
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post #79 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxhunter101 View Post

Wasn't Apple going to introduce their own iMessage service like Blackberry's where only Apple device users could instant meaasage each other on only Apple devices. Not the icon in the upper left corner, that the carriers' instant messaging service.

I have not upgraded my iPhone yet however on the iPad the icon is Messages but the application is iMessage which we did not have before on the iPad. It is interesting to me that you can test which of your friends has upgrade to iOS 5 because iMessage tests the to: address before it starts working and if the person is not registered with iMessage it doesn't let you and flags it with a red remove warning.

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post #80 of 220
10/15/11 at 12:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY. \

Hasn't anyone else heard about Apple's own proprietary iMessage service? That would allow some of us to dump our carrier's high price (and for the carrier, very high profit) messaging plans?
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