Anything that has to do with Cloud, Apple has fail to compete. A lot of these have to do with Internal culture issues. I am hoping the Campus 2.0 ( as strange as this may sound ) will improve things a bit.
Completely agree with the many here that siri is lacking.. IMO it's total shit. Not because I'm expecting anything spectacular (although with minimal improvement over 6 years something is terribly wrong), but siri can't do BASIC things. The contextual awareness promised is almost non existent. Asking siri to search for anything is almost worthless, no matter how much you try to help it with context. If I want to find a location it only shows a list of places showing how far they are away from me. If I ask show me locations for _______ in Maps I just get the same list again, instead of opening Maps and showing the locations. Then I have to pick a location and get lucky. If it's not the location I want, or its in the direction opposite from the one I want to go, I have to manually type in a search (which of course, is terrible). You'd think Apple would be able to program in such a basic function that I'm sure a lot of other people have been annoyed by.
Once again, with nearly every Apple service, the only thing siri does well is rote tasks, like reminders, making calls, things that require no sophistication at all; for which i use siri very effectively on a daily basis.
How can Apple be heads and shoulders above all of its competition in nearly every single respect, but be sub-par, and even terrible at times, at any service that is not a rote task (or sometimes even rote tasks*)?
With all of Apple's resources, and after multiple outright failures (mobile me, ping, soon to be Connect**) this seems pretty inexcusable.
*Ever try searching your iCloud email when trying to access it through a web browser.. it gives very limited, and even incorrect results to simple keyword searches! **How could Apple make the same exact mistake with Connect that they made with ping. It boggles the mind. I kept waiting for some extra announcement or feature add to connect, but it never came, allowed to languish into obscurity for a year. How hard is it not to release a social app before you have 1) a compelling product and 2) the critical mass needed to actually make it work!?
Completely agree with the many here that siri is lacking.. IMO it's total shit. Not because I'm expecting anything spectacular (although with minimal improvement over 6 years something is terribly wrong), but siri can't do BASIC things. The contextual awareness promised is almost non existent. Asking siri to search for anything is almost worthless, no matter how much you try to help it with context. If I want to find a location it only shows a list of places showing how far they are away from me. If I ask show me locations for _______ in Maps I just get the same list again, instead of opening Maps and showing the locations. Then I have to pick a location and get lucky. If it's not the location I want, or its in the direction opposite from the one I want to go, I have to manually type in a search (which of course, is terrible). You'd think Apple would be able to program in such a basic function that I'm sure a lot of other people have been annoyed by.
Once again, with nearly every Apple service, the only thing siri does well is rote tasks, like reminders, making calls, things that require no sophistication at all; for which i use siri very effectively on a daily basis.
How can Apple be heads and shoulders above all of its competition in nearly every single respect, but be sub-par, and even terrible at times, at any service that is not a rote task (or sometimes even rote tasks*)?
With all of Apple's resources, and after multiple outright failures (mobile me, ping, soon to be Connect**) this seems pretty inexcusable.
*Ever try searching your iCloud email when trying to access it through a web browser.. it gives very limited, and even incorrect results to simple keyword searches! **How could Apple make the same exact mistake with Connect that they made with ping. It boggles the mind. I kept waiting for some extra announcement or feature add to connect, but it never came, allowed to languish into obscurity for a year. How hard is it not to release a social app before you have 1) a compelling product and 2) the critical mass needed to actually make it work!?
There's one underlying thread that binds all that - Eddy Cue.
It's 9pm. I'm going to take a one hour nap before working my night job. "Hey Siri" wake me up at ten o clock" Siri sets an alarm for the next morning. I'm late to work, get written up, lose a $750 quarterly bonus. "Hey Siri, thanks a lot. "
Maybe a silly question, but; if you plan on waking up in an hour, why not just say that? I do that all the time and it works fine. But if you want a specific time, say "am" or "pm" too, so she doesn't assume you're going to bed with "wake me up". I mean, if you told me in the evening to wake you up at 10, I'd assume morning too lol
The big mistake Apple made was not allowing developers to use Siri for application services in the iOS SDK. If Apple gave developers the building blocks to extend Siri (like Amazon is doing with their Alexa platform), it would be a much more useful feature by now. But, like it always does, Apple kept Siri closed (for its own ends) and starved it.
AI assistance is the future not sure why Apple seems to not give a f***. There's billions left on the table. My number 1 wish for iOS 10 is improved Siri. But it should be improved every iOS release.
Siri has been improved with each iOS update. I just think that we are becoming so used to fast-moving technology that we demand more and faster updates from Apple.
I, too, wish that Apple would have a more incremental update process... releasing smaller updates (publicly) throughout the year. Feed the need, rather than keeping the updates bottled up for an entire year and then doing a big release.
Based on recent evidence, I think that Siri is gearing up for a big update this year. With the service coming to Macs, Apple better be plowing new ground for on-device processing of the speech-to-text.
Siri is still less featured than the original app that Apple bought. The voice recognition technology has improved, but AFAIK that is being powered by Nuance, so it isn't even Apple's contribution (besides, Google and Microsoft have much better voice recognition anyways).
And like you point out, Siri isn't even on Macs yet. I don't understand how Apple didn't do this within months of releasing Siri on iOS.
It really boggles my mind. Back when Apple was the underdog they released ground-breaking product after product. Now that they are the wealthiest company in the world, they sit around doing very little when they could be changing the world like never before. They have become the fat dinosaur that they always made fun of. (First IBM and later Microsoft) As a fan of Apple since 1984, who made my career and raised a family by using apple products, this really upsets me. I didn't believe that the magic of Apple was really just Steve Jobs but now I'm starting to believe this is the truth. Siri should blow away the competition. Apple home automation technology should be up and running and blowing away the competition. I suppose the Apple watch is head-of-class but it not a useful tool for me. Nor is an Apple car unless it looks and performs better than a Tesla which doesn't seem possible.
I suppose it comes to no surprise. The original players came with the package when Apple purchased it years ago. Their golden-handcuffs released and like entrepreneurs they are, they really didn't like the corporate stodginess that comes with a shop like Apple. Tough to be just an employee when you were running the show before.
What will likely happen is that Apple will simply buy them up again, rinse and repeat. Nothing much really to read here.
What's sad are the internal conflicts being reported (rumored) at Apple. Honestly... I hope Tim Cook is keeping an eye on this stuff. Sounds like he might have to drop the hammer on some key people if they don't shape up.
I don't get this. These people create SIRI, Apple limits the function, and after a set period of time the same people just recreate what Siri was and call in VIV. Can't Apple just sue them? They're just re-creating their work from the past.
People forget that AI (artificial intelligence, not Apple Insider) is really hard to do. Each incremental improvement in Siri is serious work. Just because after decades of AI research we have something like Siri, doesn't mean that 5 years later you can converse with her like a grown up and save yourself the salary of your secretary...
I live in Canada and Siri is 99% useless. She can't find anything on the web, "doesn't understand" any web queries like what a barber or hair cut or hair is, and doesn't know where she is half the time. She can find the NHL scores fast - that's it. wooo
Apple has a long history of only taking things just . . . so . . . . . .far - and then just coasting along. Not sure why they tend to do this, but it's not a new thing. Pretty sure this practice was going on with Jobs around. I think iCloud is a good example someone made above. It has always had just barely enough functionality to be useful, but nothing exciting ever gets added. Plus for many, it can be a bit confusing and confounding to use and little has been done to make it easier and more intuitive to configure.
I guess you could say this is part of Apple's careful and methodical process of design and innovation. They move at their own pace and don't chase trends and fads in technology. Microsoft to me appears to spend a lot of time and money coming up with flashy, gee-whiz features for their OS and applications (Word) that most people never use. Of course their constant spew of software features does periodically create something useful, if you can find it amoungst all the chaff. Maybe limited development of apps and features like Siri is just Apple's way of doing things. Siri works fine for me most of the time and I use it in the car frequently. It would be nice to see some new features and connections though.
More often than not, I end up shooting, "You're an idiot!" when using SIRI. It cannot understand anything beyond the most rudimentary request. And, it too often directs me to a Web page instead of just telling me the answer.
Not all that surprised. Siri hasn't advanced at the rate it should of by now. I don't use it and most people I know who use Apple products don't either. I have tried on a few occasions to go back and see if it has improved at all over the years, it hasn't! And still feels like a step backwards after Google Now. Yet another neglected and there for sub-par service from Apple like Airplay, iCloud and others...Cue be gone! That guy and Cooks apathy IMO are largely responsible for the abysmal state of Apple's services. They're a hardware company first and foremost and still don't seem to be able to get past that, even though they really need to now.
I have very good experience with Siri, so I don't know where are you coming from. Mistake rate is almost 0% for me and I use it a lot. Siri is a backward compare to Google? That's your opinion. I found Google tried too hard too much. So, which is better is relative. Siri will go nowhere but keeps getting better, I am excited.
Comments
Once again, with nearly every Apple service, the only thing siri does well is rote tasks, like reminders, making calls, things that require no sophistication at all; for which i use siri very effectively on a daily basis.
How can Apple be heads and shoulders above all of its competition in nearly every single respect, but be sub-par, and even terrible at times, at any service that is not a rote task (or sometimes even rote tasks*)?
With all of Apple's resources, and after multiple outright failures (mobile me, ping, soon to be Connect**) this seems pretty inexcusable.
*Ever try searching your iCloud email when trying to access it through a web browser.. it gives very limited, and even incorrect results to simple keyword searches!
**How could Apple make the same exact mistake with Connect that they made with ping. It boggles the mind. I kept waiting for some extra announcement or feature add to connect, but it never came, allowed to languish into obscurity for a year. How hard is it not to release a social app before you have 1) a compelling product and 2) the critical mass needed to actually make it work!?
I mean, if you told me in the evening to wake you up at 10, I'd assume morning too lol
https://youtu.be/kqDqmFKtGPI?t=33s
And like you point out, Siri isn't even on Macs yet. I don't understand how Apple didn't do this within months of releasing Siri on iOS.
What is your native language?
Each incremental improvement in Siri is serious work.
Just because after decades of AI research we have something like Siri, doesn't mean that 5 years later you can converse with her like a grown up and save yourself the salary of your secretary...
She can't find anything on the web, "doesn't understand" any web queries like what a barber or hair cut or hair is, and doesn't know where she is half the time.
She can find the NHL scores fast - that's it.
wooo
I guess you could say this is part of Apple's careful and methodical process of design and innovation. They move at their own pace and don't chase trends and fads in technology. Microsoft to me appears to spend a lot of time and money coming up with flashy, gee-whiz features for their OS and applications (Word) that most people never use. Of course their constant spew of software features does periodically create something useful, if you can find it amoungst all the chaff. Maybe limited development of apps and features like Siri is just Apple's way of doing things. Siri works fine for me most of the time and I use it in the car frequently. It would be nice to see some new features and connections though.