Funny, ’cause I just asked Siri “What time will it be nine hours from now” and it answered correctly. Including the key “now”—which is both proper context and grammar—seems like a no-brainer to me. But I’m also not a lazy @ss user that smashes the mouse up and down on the desk and then whines about how it doesn’t work. Maybe that’s the difference.
While intuitiveness is a worthy goal, most things in life require you to find out, or figure out, what works. Stop being lazy, people.
"It just works (as long as you alter the way you speak to match our diction engine)"
I thought the article was good. It's basically a "claim chowder" article in which we retroactively look at the claims coming from the usual nattering nabobs and compare with reality.
Siri is not perfect and Apple realized this and pivoted. Shortcuts is future and when it's mature its going to be far more sophisticated than Alexa or Google Assistant. The best way to understand a shortcut is to deconstruct a ready made one. We have some with If Statements and Conditionals. There's a lot of power lurking under the surface. The are clearly some changes that need to happen.
1. The ability to record or step through actions to build workflows is going to be essential for people that get dizzy when the programming terms come up. 2. The UI of Shortcuts isn't up to Apple standard yet. Hell I can't even name my shortcut without going to another page. 3. Shortcuts on the Mac as a replacement for Automator - This is a given. 4. Need better Help and training materials. Clear explanations of features is essential 5. More plug in languages. We've got Javascript but I'd love to see Python support.
At WWDC we'll see how important the Siri/Shortcut combo is. I'm guessing that Apple will show "significant" updates to Shortcuts to make it more approachable. Once it comes to the Mac I'll build a bunch of Shortcuts and sell off my Google Home spycrap.
Like any other assistant, you do have to use certain keywords to maximize your success...
I use Siri all the time for all kinds of things, and don’t generally have an issue...
But I like Apple because it's not like other tech companies, and in like manner I want Siri to be better so those "certain keywords" are no longer necessary to "maximize your success." And just because you don't have issues does not automatically mean others do not.
Can you provide some examples of how you would like Siri to set a reminder for you without using the words “remind” or “reminder”? I’m also curious how we should expect Siri to put something on a calendar without using the words “calendar”, “set”, “appointment” or “meeting”. I’d like to know how people set reminders and calendar events using Echo or Google Home.
I’ve said this before, I have very few issues with Siri, just like @Chasm. The thing that baffles me is when some people query Siri and get a poor result but when I query Siri using the exact same wording I get the result I expect. I think it was @SpamSandwich that used the example of asking Siri who starred in a particular movie and the response given was clearly incorrect. When I asked the same question using the same words I received the correct response. We both posted screenshots to the same thread. That was several months ago so I have no idea what thread it was in. Why would two people asking the exact same question get wildly different results? It’s bizarre.
Also, as @chasm mentioned, it’s “Siri”, not “SIRI”.
DED articles are the girl that cried "Wolf!", it's fun in the beginning but after a few years it gets boring and predictable.
The boy who cried wolf is a story about lying and then subsequently not being taken seriously.
The “DED articles” you malign with your mangled-nonsensical metaphor haven’t “cried wolf” about anything. Specific to Alexa and voice, they’ve set a record of being consistently correct for years while punditry were spewing grand forecasts and dire warnings about a lot of wolf-stuff that never ended up happening.
And if you want to take real action about being boring and predictable, look in the mirror. Your comments are ceaselessly, pointlessly, embittered naggy barbs that don’t add anything to the conversation.
No reason to be so aggressive. He actually IS right, while often interesting and sometimes correct, your articles tend to be far too wordy and one-sided. Even something called an Editorial can be balanced and focused. Just a hint from a former journalist gone app developer.
Can you provide some examples of how you would like Siri to set xxx for you without using the words “yyy” or “zzz”?
I’ve said this before, I have very few issues with Siri...
Oh please. If I don't provide you with example magic words you contend that "Siri" cannot be made better than it is now?
I am contending that Siri is lacking. It needs to understand the context of my words so I can ask a question to Siri and then have it remember that conversation so I can move to the next, related point.
And I couldn't care less of people spell it siri or Siri or SIRI, nor should you. That's unnecessary nitpicking.
Can you provide some examples of how you would like Siri to set xxx for you without using the words “yyy” or “zzz”?
I’ve said this before, I have very few issues with Siri...
Oh please. If I don't provide you with example magic words you contend that "Siri" cannot be made better than it is now?
I am contending that Siri is lacking. It needs to understand the context of my words so I can ask a question to Siri and then have it remember that conversation so I can move to the next, related point.
And I couldn't care less of people spell it siri or Siri or SIRI, nor should you. That's unnecessary nitpicking.
Where did I contend that Siri cannot be made better? My post even cited an example where Siri gets the exact same question incorrect for some people and correct for others, though you left that part out when you quoted me. That’s certainly an area that can be improved.
But expecting Siri to understand what you want without using basic words, as you alluded to in the post I quoted, seems like nonsense. What other assistants can set a reminder without hearing the word “remind” or “reminder”. Are you expecting Siri to just intuit what you want when you blurt out “7 o’clock hair cut”? I doubt it but that isn’t clear from your post when you said certain keywords shouldn’t be necessary. Certain keywords are what all of use to properly communicate with each other.
Certain keywords are what all of use to properly communicate with each other.
A "limited set of fixed keywords" is NOT how you and I communicate. Our level of communication is more complex than that. I content that Siri should understand more complex speech, more akin to natural human language. That includes inference as well. And no, I don't think it's impossible either. At the very least, we should be empowered to TRAIN Siri, which is something we cannot do now. And I don't mean simply train Siri on extremely simplistic matters such as names of people. Even then Siri still can pronounce my daughter's name right. She seems to forget her training and reverts back to her basic rules of pronunciation. Furthermore, I want Siri to be empowered to control more things on my Mac and iPhone. I don't want to hear her say, "I can't do that" or similar. Moreover, I don't to invoke Siri on my iPhone and ask a simple question that she could answer quite simply and end up with Siri giving me a bunch of links I need to subsequently open in Safari. I want her to extract a simple answer and if she then wants to provide links for "additional details" that's fine. I could go on, but I hope you get the idea. I want Siri to be her best. She's not at her best now. My words shouldn't surprise anyone. Most people know just how limited Siri is. I want that to change. If Apple allowed every Siri user to train Siri, perhaps giving her an AI that can truly learn from all that crowd-sourced info, imagine how smart she'd become in a very short period of time. Who knows. She might even become SkyNet.
The author would seem to be somewhat of an Apple fanboy, but makes some valid points: - Apple makes big money selling hardware - Amazon sells alot of Alexa devices, but does the revenue stream stop there? - Amazon is investing HUGE amounts on Alexa, will it pay off in the end?
However,Apple has made some serious missteps: - Homepod is a colossal flop; an over-priced bluetooth speaker and not much more. - Siri pales so much in comparison to Alexa its laughable... I have gotten so used the competence of Alexa that I find myself wanting to lauch my iphone across the room when Siri claims ignorance (which is alot); When I talk to Siri on my watch half the time it tells me to pick up my phone to continue...if I wanted to interface with my phone I would've had it in my hands in the first place. Alexa on the other hand seems to constantly improving.... I have asked it questions I never expected it to be able to answer, and it didn't...however, I have asked the same question weeks later only to find that it WAS able to answer. - Homekit is just bad. I have many different technologies in place in my home...Z-Wave/X-10 (Homeseer), D-Link, CE Smart Home, Philips Hue, Tailwind... Homekit kind of deals with some of them, Alexa excels at integrating all of these technologies seamlessly - Whatever happened to Apples wireless charging pad?
Bottom line is we are fortunate to live in a world with high tech companies competing for our hard-earned dollars --- we can choose the best of breed for our own purposes... but to declare one (ie. Apple) as the overall winner doesn't cut it for me.
Comments
Siri is not perfect and Apple realized this and pivoted. Shortcuts is future and when it's mature its going to be far more sophisticated than Alexa or Google Assistant.
The best way to understand a shortcut is to deconstruct a ready made one. We have some with If Statements and Conditionals. There's a lot of power lurking under the surface. The are clearly some changes that need to happen.
1. The ability to record or step through actions to build workflows is going to be essential for people that get dizzy when the programming terms come up.
2. The UI of Shortcuts isn't up to Apple standard yet. Hell I can't even name my shortcut without going to another page.
3. Shortcuts on the Mac as a replacement for Automator - This is a given.
4. Need better Help and training materials. Clear explanations of features is essential
5. More plug in languages. We've got Javascript but I'd love to see Python support.
At WWDC we'll see how important the Siri/Shortcut combo is. I'm guessing that Apple will show "significant" updates to Shortcuts to make it more approachable. Once it comes to the Mac I'll build a bunch of Shortcuts and sell off my Google Home spycrap.
I’ve said this before, I have very few issues with Siri, just like @Chasm. The thing that baffles me is when some people query Siri and get a poor result but when I query Siri using the exact same wording I get the result I expect. I think it was @SpamSandwich that used the example of asking Siri who starred in a particular movie and the response given was clearly incorrect. When I asked the same question using the same words I received the correct response. We both posted screenshots to the same thread. That was several months ago so I have no idea what thread it was in. Why would two people asking the exact same question get wildly different results? It’s bizarre.
Also, as @chasm mentioned, it’s “Siri”, not “SIRI”.
That would be great.
I am contending that Siri is lacking. It needs to understand the context of my words so I can ask a question to Siri and then have it remember that conversation so I can move to the next, related point.
And I couldn't care less of people spell it siri or Siri or SIRI, nor should you. That's unnecessary nitpicking.
But expecting Siri to understand what you want without using basic words, as you alluded to in the post I quoted, seems like nonsense. What other assistants can set a reminder without hearing the word “remind” or “reminder”. Are you expecting Siri to just intuit what you want when you blurt out “7 o’clock hair cut”? I doubt it but that isn’t clear from your post when you said certain keywords shouldn’t be necessary. Certain keywords are what all of use to properly communicate with each other.
- Apple makes big money selling hardware
- Amazon sells alot of Alexa devices, but does the revenue stream stop there?
- Amazon is investing HUGE amounts on Alexa, will it pay off in the end?
However,Apple has made some serious missteps:
- Homepod is a colossal flop; an over-priced bluetooth speaker and not much more.
- Siri pales so much in comparison to Alexa its laughable... I have gotten so used the competence of Alexa that I find myself wanting to lauch my iphone across the room when Siri claims ignorance (which is alot); When I talk to Siri on my watch half the time it tells me to pick up my phone to continue...if I wanted to interface with my phone I would've had it in my hands in the first place. Alexa on the other hand seems to constantly improving.... I have asked it questions I never expected it to be able to answer, and it didn't...however, I have asked the same question weeks later only to find that it WAS able to answer.
- Homekit is just bad. I have many different technologies in place in my home...Z-Wave/X-10 (Homeseer), D-Link, CE Smart Home, Philips Hue, Tailwind... Homekit kind of deals with some of them, Alexa excels at integrating all of these technologies seamlessly
- Whatever happened to Apples wireless charging pad?
Bottom line is we are fortunate to live in a world with high tech companies competing for our hard-earned dollars --- we can choose the best of breed for our own purposes... but to declare one (ie. Apple) as the overall winner doesn't cut it for me.