Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson promotes Apple team-up on 'Rock X Siri: Dominate the Day' YouTub...

AppleInsider

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has declared that he has partnered with Apple to develope The "Rock X Siri: Dominate the Day" -- a film that will debut on YouTube on July 24.

Update: The short film, which amounts to a long commercial showing off Siri's capabilities, is now live.

Very little is known about the movie, other than what Johnson himself said about it in a Tweet.

Teamed w/ @Apple to make the biggest, coolest, sexiest, funnest (is that a word?) movie ever. Drops TOMORROW!#ROCKxSIRI #DominateYourDay pic.twitter.com/STwlCPsVUh

-- Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock)

July 23, 2017

Johnson's Facebook post about the movie says:

Our movie debuts TOMORROW:
#DominateYourDay

I partnered with #Apple to make the BIGGEST, COOLEST, CRAZIEST, DOPEST, MOST OVER THE TOP, FUNNEST (is that even a word?) movie ever.
And I have the greatest co-star of all time - #SIRI.
I make movies for the world to enjoy and we also made this one to motivate you to get out there and get the job done.
I want you to watch it, have fun with it and then go LIVE IT.

9secondkox2

Ha!

that is awesome. 

Totally cheesy yet entertaining and cool at the same time. 

macky the macky

"Siri, save my ass!"

"I didn't understand what you said there."

wigby

Before everyone flies off the handle exclaiming Apple has lost their mind, read the story carefully.

This is a short film or rather an extended commercial. I don't view it any differently than the short films they create to open WWDC except they're releasing it in Youtube. It's simply an introduction to the new Siri with updates already announced. Perfect precursor to the new iPhone release coming soon.

sergioz

I think Siri has something cool up its sleeve. I am sure Apple engineers are cooking something special for us. What do you guys think?

cali

wigby said:

Before everyone flies off the handle exclaiming Apple has lost their mind, read the story carefully.

This is a short film or rather an extended commercial. I don't view it any differently than the short films they create to open WWDC except they're releasing it in Youtube. It's simply an introduction to the new Siri with updates already announced. Perfect precursor to the new iPhone release coming soon.

I sure hope they release VocalIQ tech the day this is released. Otherwise this film will be cringey.

sergioz said:

I think Siri has something cool up its sleeve. I am sure Apple engineers are cooking something special for us. What do you guys think?

Apple acquired VocalIQ long ago for very cheap. Basically "discovered" them. VocalIQ created an AI system that recognizes human speech %90 of the time where Siri is closer to %30.

and no they didn't just ask robotic questions but tested with actual conversation.

netrox

Love it!

mejsric

Can't wait for next sequel.

leavingthebigg

With all of the analyses that have declared Apple not having a clue about Hollywood, how did this film remain a secret?

rogifan_new

leavingthebigg said:

With all of the analyses that have declared Apple not having a clue about Hollywood, how did this film remain a secret?

It’s not a film, it’s an long-form ad posted to YouTube.

jintech

mejsric said:

Can't wait for next sequel.

We will see that during the iPhone 8 announcement. 

ireland

Guys, assistants evolve and improve over time. There will never be a time where Siri is suddenly amazing. It’ll eventually reach good enough and the line between that an amazing will be long and blurred. Right now it’s not near good enough.

edited July 2017

soli

sergioz said:

I think Siri has something cool up its sleeve. I am sure Apple engineers are cooking something special for us. What do you guys think?

Hopefully that includes a more natural sounding voice.

bigbinks

Siri answered like six times on my phone during that commercial...

lukecage

cali said:

wigby said:

Before everyone flies off the handle exclaiming Apple has lost their mind, read the story carefully.

This is a short film or rather an extended commercial. I don't view it any differently than the short films they create to open WWDC except they're releasing it in Youtube. It's simply an introduction to the new Siri with updates already announced. Perfect precursor to the new iPhone release coming soon.

I sure hope they release VocalIQ tech the day this is released. Otherwise this film will be cringey.

sergioz said:

I think Siri has something cool up its sleeve. I am sure Apple engineers are cooking something special for us. What do you guys think?

Apple acquired VocalIQ long ago for very cheap. Basically "discovered" them. VocalIQ created an AI system that recognizes human speech %90 of the time where Siri is closer to %30.

and no they didn't just ask robotic questions but tested with actual conversation.

What are you basing that 30% figure on, can you provide some form of evidence?

rogifan_new

I didn’t get this. It didn’t show Siri doing anything amazing. After a while it got annoying hearing him say ‘Hey Siri’. Certainly didn’t need to be almost 4 minutes long.

avon b7

Soli said:

sergioz said:

I think Siri has something cool up its sleeve. I am sure Apple engineers are cooking something special for us. What do you guys think?

Hopefully that includes a more natural sounding voice.

The new Spanish Spanish female voice is horrible. Far, far worse than the previous one. Completely unnatural.

rayz2016

rogifan_new said:

I didn’t get this. It didn’t show Siri doing anything amazing. After a while it got annoying hearing him say ‘Hey Siri’. Certainly didn’t need to be almost 4 minutes long.

Let's face it; you were never going to like it, no matter what. 

wandelwonder

Long shot... could the space scene mean that Siri gains basic on-device, offline language processing? I’m no expert but this could decrease response time right?

cloudmobile

jsmythe00 said:

Ehh. Wasn't impressed. Felt like a long winded commercial. 

Now if they would have shown some type of proactive Siri feature that would have been cool 

You aren't the target market. In the past 10-15 years or so Apple has gone from "counter-culture" preferred by hip artsy types over against the Wintel/IBM establishment to being the preferred brand of middle-aged suburban affluent types. Moves like buying Beats, launching "Planet of the Apps" and the "Vital Signs" thing with Dr. Dre and this is Apple trying to appeal to a more younger, urban market. It is the same move that Samsung tried to some degree of success back before (very nationalistic) Samsung essentially crushed their Samsung USA marketing division for having the nerve to outperform the Korea one ... signing athletes and musicians as endorsers to target the "young, hip, urban" crowd. It worked to a degree and Samsung still has pockets of loyal customers in certain urban areas to this day because of it.

The question is whether Apple's play is effective. Seriously, the Rock is 45 years old and is now as mainstream as they get. This would have been a good play for them 10 years ago back when he was still somewhat edgy and more associated with his pro wrestling career (back when WWE was decidedly not family-friendly). Dr. Dre? An even bigger geezer ... in his 50s and hasn't been a factor in music since being responsible for giving us Eminem going on 20 years ago. Oh well, at least it wasn't Puff Daddy ... it reminds me of Cook's decision to use not-relevant-musically-in-decades U2 to promote an operating system release.

I have no idea if there is anyone edgy, hip or urban because I no longer follow pop culture. Hollywood has changed so much there probably aren't any "stars" anymore anyway, and certainly no one edgy or controversial. Maybe Robert Downey, Jr. and Iron Man when they were at their peaks at the beginning of the decade, but then again Samsung tried hitching themselves to that with special Iron Man versions of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note but to not much avail. Who else ... Lady Gaga maybe 6-7 years ago? Rihanna, also 6-7 years ago? Or some Fast and the Furious promotion to goose Apple's international sales? Then again that franchise peaked in 2015 didn't it? So I got no ideas. But the point is that if Apple wants to chase young and hip ... they need to get someone who is actually young and hip and not someone who is old enough to be a granddad like Johnson. 

danny showalter

Watched on my iPad. Every time Dwayne said “hey Siri”, Siri on my iPad would try to answer his question!  😂