[Editorial] Could Apple's 'Siri' be More Significant than We Realize?

[Viktorr]

I don't mind talking into my phone when there's a person on the other end, but to be frank, my phone is just that, a phone. Yes, I have a smartphone. It does more than just provide a means to talk to someone else. I access the internet to look things up and stuff, play games if I'm bored, or whatever. Watch movies. An Mp3 player in my vehicle during trips. A calender reminder for payments I need to make...I use it for a lot of things. However, it is NOT my personal assistant. I don't need to personally talk to my phone. Voice search? It's been there for quite a while. Is it faster? Dunno, but don't care, though I did use my voice features on my phone / apps and was NOT impressed really. To put it honestly, I really do not want to talk to a computer. A human is perfectly fine by me, and always will be. No other.

 

[Immolate]

I know there are a lot of frustrated Knight Rider fans out there, but other than it being embarrassing, rude and annoying to have a public conversation with your phone, I'm sure there's little to keep Siri from becoming the be-all, end-all, best technology ever (putting aside human nature and efficiency and other irresistible forces that are impossible to put aside). Voice technology has been available for a long time in a great variety of context and other than on Apple commercials, movies or back-yard barbecues, you'll never witness it in use. If you use it in public, those around you will immediately assume that you are geeky nerd attempting to show of your silly toy and they will be correct. Bottom line, Siri is like masturbation and best done in private. Perhaps if they came up with some kind of clicky dolphin language that you and your phone could use, it wouldn't be so painful to witness. Whatever they do, maybe they can make it so that you talk to your robot lover by holding your phone up to your head so that there's at least a chance that people around you will assume you're some kind of control freak talking to someone on the phone.

It is better to be thought a fool than to use Siri and remove all doubt.

 

[circsmonky]

i posted this in the same thread on HTC forum

the technology has been around for a long while, i back in the day on my mac computer had turned on the voice stuff where if you said "computer" it would start listening and follow some commands right after, just like in star trek, the problem was every time you or someone near by said computer it would listen and might do something you didnt want. this technology could become something one day. i honestly dont think a cell phone is where it would be best used. most people use their phone quietly i dont like others hearing what im doing on my phone its none of their business. but who knows where things will go. i really like apple products. i like android phones better. i would never have just an iphone. if i ever needed 2 phones i would have an android and an iphone. but the iphone would really just be a toy.

found here [Editorial] Could Apple's 'Siri' be More Significant than We Realize?

also a little history on apple and voice recognition history Speakable items - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[czerdrill]

I know there are a lot of frustrated Knight Rider fans out there, but other than it being embarrassing, rude and annoying to have a public conversation with your phone, I'm sure there's little to keep Siri from becoming the be-all, end-all, best technology ever (putting aside human nature and efficiency and other irresistible forces that are impossible to put aside). Voice technology has been available for a long time in a great variety of context and other than on Apple commercials, movies or back-yard barbecues, you'll never witness it in use. If you use it in public, those around you will immediately assume that you are geeky nerd attempting to show of your silly toy and they will be correct. Bottom line, Siri is like masturbation and best done in private. Perhaps if they came up with some kind of clicky dolphin language that you and your phone could use, it wouldn't be so painful to witness. Whatever they do, maybe they can make it so that you talk to your robot lover by holding your phone up to your head so that there's at least a chance that people around you will assume you're some kind of control freak talking to someone on the phone.

It is better to be thought a fool than to use Siri and remove all doubt.

You can just hold it up to your head and talk...normally.

You don't have to talk to it like a control freak either. Posts like these make it glaringly obvious that you've probably never even seen someone using siri let alone used it yourself.

Is siri some amazing brand new tech? Not at all. Is it the same thing as the poorly implemented android voice controls? No...not at all. I always laugh when ppl say "we've had siri for years"

 

[blacksoxing]

It also depends on your voice

Mine isn't the greatest, so I'm sure if I were asking it a question, it might not understand me like a human would.

And that could be counter-productive

Now, if it did...it'll be the greatest thing since sliced bread! But, I've used programs before where it was hit or miss...

 

[tjk629]

Is it a threat? No. Are we going to see a growth towards speech recognition? Yeah.

It's not a bad thing. It's just another way to use your phone. Nothing wrong with that.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Captmilk]

I agree that it's a cool idea....That being said so is the Wii and Kinect (Technologies that are "changing the way we play games") but for me these system addons just sit there while we play on our controllers.

 

[Trusstopher]

Does this thread have a lot of rhetorical questions? Maybe.

Anyway... doesn't Siri just use Wolfram Alpha to look up answers? I've always thought that WA was an amazing resource to finding solutions to the most random of problems/questions... so to me it seems like the "revolutionary" part of answering questions isn't even based within Siri but the database it uses... but that is only the answering random questions part of it... I don't know what else siri claims to be able to do that is AI-like, so I can't really comment on that.

Oh, and for those that have never used it, give it a shot:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

 

[Immolate]

You can just hold it up to your head and talk...normally.

You don't have to talk to it like a control freak either. Posts like these make it glaringly obvious that you've probably never even seen someone using siri let alone used it yourself.

Is siri some amazing brand new tech? Not at all. Is it the same thing as the poorly implemented android voice controls? No...not at all. I always laugh when ppl say "we've had siri for years"

So you're saying that what we see in the commercials are not typical use cases? There are cooler and better things to do with Siri than Apple dares to put in their advertisements? Who knew?

And no, I haven't used Siri. I don't own an iPhone 4S. Who in their right mind does?

 

[powtow]

i've read all the comments, and almost every one of you think that siri is just an overhyped voice recognition program which will soon become practically useless other than for showing-off and accompanying pathetic lonely geeks.

but don't forget, apple's main strength now lies on their fanboys who praise their igadgets more than their sense..

right now siri maybe just a simple virtual assistant with no special abilities, but over time (despite its usefulness), as more and more apple fanboys keep using and playing and showing it off, some people will see the huge costumer basis and thus also the profit opportunity by making some app that enables siri to do more than it originally does.
and when it does, those fanboys will rejoice, and some other people will follow making another app, and more and more fanboys will rejoice and then infecting those who originally not a fanboy, and we'll see a snowball in the consumer-level artificial intelligence rolling unstoppable, reaching every aspect of the known digital life. and oh yes, the snowball has the bitten apple logo etched..

apple (err..steve jobs i mean) has a deep understanding of what most people likes and wants, and that includes making a more 'human' gadgets..remember what drove nokia to a huge company in the late 90s and early 2000s? they sold cellphones with 'human technology'. meanwhile, the tech-superior ericsson forced to merge with sony.

i'm not an apple fanboy (obviously) and don't even have (and want) an iwhatever, but i must admit that apple does the job in seeing what makes people happy, and they wrap it and sells it better than anyone in the industry.

if android wants a share in the future world, google must pay attention for human's natures and implements that in android, and (probably the most important part) wraps and markets android better than they are doing it now.
Job's departure should give google some time to catch up.

by the way, all of the statement above are my opinions only..most people around me are using iphones and ipods and blackberrys, so i think i know their reasons and behaviour toward gadgets.

in reply to thread's title: yes, it could be more significant.

 

[czerdrill]

So you're saying that what we see in the commercials are not typical use cases? There are cooler and better things to do with Siri than Apple dares to put in their advertisements? Who knew?

And no, I haven't used Siri. I don't own an iPhone 4S. Who in their right mind does?

Wait, now we're talking use case? Sounds like a straw man. Your post was about how stupid and idiotic it is to talk to your phone like a control freak, and how it would be "better" if you could raise it to your face. I responded that you can raise it to your face, and there's no need to scream at the phone like a control freak (sounds like some dramatics from you).

If you do wanna discuss use case, then yes there is more to do with Siri then asking it what the weather is in NY. Like I said, if you've never used it it doesn't make sense for you to bash it as useless. It's not some amazing, unbelievable never before seen tech, but its also not like android voice controls. That's not to say that Siri is amazing, or that everyone is going to start using it, but comparing it to voice controls is wrong, because its nothing like voice controls. Since you've admitted you've never used it, I guess there's not much else left to say.

 

[MadBlackLady]

Nope. Glorified google

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[pyro6128]

I didn't know it used wolfram alpha for its answers. I just used voice search on my phone and said "search wolfram alpha for..." and it took me to a search results page with the first option being the answer to my question. Only 1 extra click to get siri like answers, pretty interesting stuff.