Barbra Streisand corrected Siri by calling Tim Cook

AppleInsider

Singer and actress Barbra Streisand has problems with Siri like everyone else, but she got to fix her irritation by phoning up Tim Cook.

Siri on iPhone

Siri's pronunciation of names and places is pretty good as far as text-to-speech goes, but it's not perfect. In one instance where Siri was getting it slightly wrong, one very famous user decided to complain to the top of Apple.

Recounting the 2016 story to BBC News in promotion of her new memoir, "My Name is Barbra," Streisand was unhappy with the way her last name was being said by Siri. The singer didn't like how Siri was saying the name as if it was "Streizand" instead of "Streisand."

"My name isn't with a Z. It's Strei-Sand, like sand on the beach, now how simple can you get?" the singer told the interviewer.

In trying to solve the problem, Streisand decided to complain to the company. "I figured I'd better call Apple, the head of Apple, you know, Tim Cook. And he had Siri change the pronunciation of my name to be correct."

"That's one perk of fame," Streisand concluded.

Getting support from Tim Cook over Siri wasn't Streisand's only notable brush with technology. The Streisand Effect, the phenomenon when someone attempts to censor information online but instead it propagates to a much wider audience, is named after the singer's failed 2003 lawsuit to eliminate a photograph of her mansion from a coastline erosion project.

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michelb76

Maybe she can phone in some of the long standing Radar's.

imat

There's even an effect named after her...  

Draco

I've pretty much given up on Siri for anything other than placing calls to people in my Favorites list. If I want to do an internet-based search for information, I use Google Assistant. It's voice recognition is 10X better than Siri, and it speaks the search results vs. Siri's "...here's what I found on the internet..." 

mike1

I guess she didn't know you can correct the pronunciation herself. At least on her own devices.

jimh2

You know you have no shame when you do this and then brag about it and it shows just how out of touch with reality and self-consumed you are.

jimh2

Draco said:

I've pretty much given up on Siri for anything other than placing calls to people in my Favorites list. If I want to do an internet-based search for information, I use Google Assistant. It's voice recognition is 10X better than Siri, and it speaks the search results vs. Siri's "...here's what I found on the internet..." 

You have also given up on privacy, but that may be OK as long as you do not mind adding your questions to your tracking profile.

[email protected]

“It’s voice recognition”… Kettle calling the pot black much?

[email protected]

Body is required. Body is 10 characters too short.

robin huber

Wouldn’t it be cool if Cook accepted a few calls every day from randos, not just celebs?

darkvader

Maybe it's time to start calling it the Streizand Effect.

netrox

jimh2 said:

You know you have no shame when you do this and then brag about it and it shows just how out of touch with reality and self-consumed you are.

She said "perk of fame" which she clearly knows that reality is most don't get that opportunity.  

sunman42

jimh2 said:

You know you have no shame when you do this and then brag about it and it shows just how out of touch with reality and self-consumed you are.

Every human being, rich or poor, deserves to have their name spelled and pronounced correctly.

lowededwookie

To be honest I’ve been pronouncing it the way Siri does long before Siri was a glimmer in the milkman’s eye.

chasm

Draco said:

I've pretty much given up on Siri for anything other than placing calls to people in my Favorites list. If I want to do an internet-based search for information, I use Google Assistant. It's voice recognition is 10X better than Siri, and it speaks the search results vs. Siri's "...here's what I found on the internet..." 

I agree that there's a long way to go in using Siri as a substitute for Google, but you can blame Google for that. Apple wanted to put search-engine like smarts in Siri, but Google offered them 20-plus billion a year not to, so ... and don't tell you wouldn't have taken the money also!

The reason Google Assistant can do this better than Siri ever will is because of Apple's privacy policies, and Google's complete lack of any understanding of what "privacy" means. So hopefully YOU understand that you are giving away valuable information that Google enriches itself on by selling your requests, your voice recordings, and everything else they can get on you to advertisers.

What Siri does do, and does perfectly for me, is tell me what's next on my calendar, give me directions to the next place I have to be, send my ETA to the people I'm meeting with, inform me of weather conditions where I'm going, remind me of things I'm meant to do, read me my shopping list when I ask, and a dozen other things a **personal assistant** would normally do for me.

So you're right -- Siri isn't a very good search engine. But as a personal assistant, I find it frankly marvellous.

Draco

jimh2 said:

Draco said:

I've pretty much given up on Siri for anything other than placing calls to people in my Favorites list. If I want to do an internet-based search for information, I use Google Assistant. It's voice recognition is 10X better than Siri, and it speaks the search results vs. Siri's "...here's what I found on the internet..." 

You have also given up on privacy, but that may be OK as long as you do not mind adding your questions to your tracking profile.

My voice search is the same as what it would have been had I chose to type it in, so there's no difference in privacy. And if Google wants to track that I once asked how tall Taylor Swift is, I couldn't care less. 

mike1

Draco said:

I've pretty much given up on Siri for anything other than placing calls to people in my Favorites list. If I want to do an internet-based search for information, I use Google Assistant. It's voice recognition is 10X better than Siri, and it speaks the search results vs. Siri's "...here's what I found on the internet..." 

I guess I use ask different questions, because I get spoken answers most of the time. Most of my interactions are for asking Siri to do something. Play or skip a song, control something in my home etc. Also, the vast majority of my requests are through a HomePod. I'd say 90% to only about 10% through the phone.