neat Siri tip -- instruct her to "learn how to pronounce [contact xxxx]", and she will run thru a multi-part wizard that allows you to set the pronunciation for the first and last names of that contact.
This vaguely reminds me of the Newton MP. It had a rudimentary input system based on learning a specific handwriting style. It was sort of neat for it's time, as it had an input that wasn't a keyboard. Dictation software was all the rage then too. In the end, it simply didn't have the accuracy or polish necessary. Powerbooks took off, people got used to using them for the tasks, and that was that.
For Siri to be acceptable, it really has to be dead on accurate all the time. I know many people that tried it, see it is unreliable, and then never use it again. Fairly, I'm in the category myself. It just isn't useful to me in it's current form.
Well Apple has a lot of work to do on Siri to get it to understand what is asked if it is going to be a universal way of doing things. On my iPhone 6 Siri is successful about 30% at best.
I like the Siri one where I invoke "Hey Siri" in the middle of the night, dead silent bedroom and ask, "Hey Siri what time is it? and get back Siri responding with options for Time Magazine! So useful.
Siri is always accurate for me tho I do get Siri activating when any word has the 'siri' sound in it like seriously also when it's plugged in Siri randomly turns on when the room is silent I don't say anything and Siri activates
Me: How many weighs [sic] is Washington DC from here
Siri: It looks like Washington, D.C. is about 307 miles away, Michael.
[Map of Washington D.C.]
Also...
Me: How far away is Washington DC
Siri: Washington, D.C. is about 307 miles away, Michael.
[Map of Washington D.C.]
I'm not sure how you asked or even if Siri actually understood you, but even when she didn't "get" what I said exactly, she still understood what I wanted and gave it to me.
Added Google results... "how many miles to washington dc"
Got a map with driving directions. Hmmmm.
Weird. I just tested, I got a map with Washington D.C. marked out. No kilometer value whatsoever. What could explain such discrepancy in our results?
"Siri, I've had a crash, call an ambulance to my current location." No need for Onstar!
I would be very surprised if Apple took on the responsibility that Onstar does without a fairly expensive monthly fee... If it works even slightly like my grandpa's warning system, they have a serious liability in case they don't respond properly to a crisis. Apple avoids "liability", as any sane tech company not in the health business (the real one, not the cool-device one)
Also, did you know you can name your Watch? I have no clue why I'd want that, but mine's Imperial Might from day one
So the next Apple TV is going to be an Amazon Echo with TV controls. Which would be awesome. The Echo is the coolest tech gadget Ive gotten since the iPhone. If Apple's home assistant comes out at the same level, and there is no reason to think it wouldn't, they it will be a huge hit. And if is like the Echo and the software lives in the cloud, then Apple can improve the device without limit.
This vaguely reminds me of the Newton MP. It had a rudimentary input system based on learning a specific handwriting style. It was sort of neat for it's time, as it had an input that wasn't a keyboard. Dictation software was all the rage then too. In the end, it simply didn't have the accuracy or polish necessary. Powerbooks took off, people got used to using them for the tasks, and that was that.
For Siri to be acceptable, it really has to be dead on accurate all the time. I know many people that tried it, see it is unreliable, and then never use it again. Fairly, I'm in the category myself. It just isn't useful to me in it's current form.
No voice system right now is even close to being reliable on the voice recognition and what it returns if you don't coach your demand to the systems quirks. Once you learn how they work, and their limitations, they're much much better.
Thanks for confirming my experience. I asked the exact same question and sometimes she told me the answer and sometimes I got a map like you.
Tried the distance between Lille and Brussels, and I got the list of football players of Lille. What baffles me is, in each case, the sentence was perfectly translated to text. If Siri was silently misunderstanding you, I'd get the weirdness but here, we're talking of a 20% success rate, with a 60% completely off-the-mark rate, and a 20% "responded with something somehow related"... I'm stumped (and so, so curious of the underlying working of the system).
No voice system right now is even close to being reliable on the voice recognition and what it returns if you don't coach your demand to the systems quirks. Once you learn how they work, and their limitations, they're much much better.
While true, that's also the Windows philosophy, and I certainly expect Apple to offer much more than this. I think Siri does too much in a not-so-efficient way, and it would be way better if it only knew how to change the music, set reminders, send emails/sms/messages, and start calls and timers... That's already a lot, and it does it relatively well. The rest of the features muddles up the efficiency of the whole system, for now.
Siri also wants to be expanded, but I think for that to happen Apple is going to need to allow apps to be set as "defaults" for certain actions. E.g., all find-a-restaurant-related questions go to Yelp, all movie questions go to IMDB, and so on.
Otherwise you end up with the same problem as you do when you double-click a text document on the Mac. Lot's of people can open it, but who does so by default?
Similarly, lot's of apps could answer "where are the best tacos?" But which one should do so?
Comments
This vaguely reminds me of the Newton MP. It had a rudimentary input system based on learning a specific handwriting style. It was sort of neat for it's time, as it had an input that wasn't a keyboard. Dictation software was all the rage then too. In the end, it simply didn't have the accuracy or polish necessary. Powerbooks took off, people got used to using them for the tasks, and that was that.
For Siri to be acceptable, it really has to be dead on accurate all the time. I know many people that tried it, see it is unreliable, and then never use it again. Fairly, I'm in the category myself. It just isn't useful to me in it's current form.
Siri is always accurate for me tho I do get Siri activating when any word has the 'siri' sound in it like seriously also when it's plugged in Siri randomly turns on when the room is silent I don't say anything and Siri activates
This would be a great spying method tho.....
I just asked the same question...
Me: How many weighs [sic] is Washington DC from here
Siri: It looks like Washington, D.C. is about 307 miles away, Michael.
[Map of Washington D.C.]
Also...
Me: How far away is Washington DC
Siri: Washington, D.C. is about 307 miles away, Michael.
[Map of Washington D.C.]
I'm not sure how you asked or even if Siri actually understood you, but even when she didn't "get" what I said exactly, she still understood what I wanted and gave it to me.
Added Google results... "how many miles to washington dc"
Got a map with driving directions. Hmmmm.
Weird. I just tested, I got a map with Washington D.C. marked out. No kilometer value whatsoever. What could explain such discrepancy in our results?
Weird. I just tested, I got a map with Washington D.C. marked out. No kilometer value whatsoever. What could explain such discrepancy in our results?
Whoa. I asked exactly the same question again and it gave me a kilometer response. That's... weird.
"Siri, I've had a crash, call an ambulance to my current location." No need for Onstar!
I would be very surprised if Apple took on the responsibility that Onstar does without a fairly expensive monthly fee... If it works even slightly like my grandpa's warning system, they have a serious liability in case they don't respond properly to a crisis. Apple avoids "liability", as any sane tech company not in the health business (the real one, not the cool-device one)
Also, did you know you can name your Watch? I have no clue why I'd want that, but mine's Imperial Might from day one
So the next Apple TV is going to be an Amazon Echo with TV controls. Which would be awesome. The Echo is the coolest tech gadget Ive gotten since the iPhone. If Apple's home assistant comes out at the same level, and there is no reason to think it wouldn't, they it will be a huge hit. And if is like the Echo and the software lives in the cloud, then Apple can improve the device without limit.
Whoa. I asked exactly the same question again and it gave me a kilometer response. That's... weird.
Thanks for confirming my experience. I asked the exact same question and sometimes she told me the answer and sometimes I got a map like you.
This vaguely reminds me of the Newton MP. It had a rudimentary input system based on learning a specific handwriting style. It was sort of neat for it's time, as it had an input that wasn't a keyboard. Dictation software was all the rage then too. In the end, it simply didn't have the accuracy or polish necessary. Powerbooks took off, people got used to using them for the tasks, and that was that.
For Siri to be acceptable, it really has to be dead on accurate all the time. I know many people that tried it, see it is unreliable, and then never use it again. Fairly, I'm in the category myself. It just isn't useful to me in it's current form.
No voice system right now is even close to being reliable on the voice recognition and what it returns if you don't coach your demand to the systems quirks. Once you learn how they work, and their limitations, they're much much better.
Thanks for confirming my experience. I asked the exact same question and sometimes she told me the answer and sometimes I got a map like you.
Tried the distance between Lille and Brussels, and I got the list of football players of Lille. What baffles me is, in each case, the sentence was perfectly translated to text. If Siri was silently misunderstanding you, I'd get the weirdness but here, we're talking of a 20% success rate, with a 60% completely off-the-mark rate, and a 20% "responded with something somehow related"... I'm stumped (and so, so curious of the underlying working of the system).
No voice system right now is even close to being reliable on the voice recognition and what it returns if you don't coach your demand to the systems quirks. Once you learn how they work, and their limitations, they're much much better.
While true, that's also the Windows philosophy, and I certainly expect Apple to offer much more than this. I think Siri does too much in a not-so-efficient way, and it would be way better if it only knew how to change the music, set reminders, send emails/sms/messages, and start calls and timers... That's already a lot, and it does it relatively well. The rest of the features muddles up the efficiency of the whole system, for now.
Siri also wants to be expanded, but I think for that to happen Apple is going to need to allow apps to be set as "defaults" for certain actions. E.g., all find-a-restaurant-related questions go to Yelp, all movie questions go to IMDB, and so on.
Otherwise you end up with the same problem as you do when you double-click a text document on the Mac. Lot's of people can open it, but who does so by default?
Similarly, lot's of apps could answer "where are the best tacos?" But which one should do so?