Siri – A Closer Look
Siri is the iPhone 4S voice-recognition software assistant and navigator, which can answer questions, make suggestions and perform operations by sending requests to various web services. It can perform such tasks as ordering a cab or reserving you a table at a restaurant. Apple claims that Siri uses learning algorithms to enable it to adapt to an individual’s use patterns and preferences over time.
Siri began life as a general iOS app available through the App Store, and was then acquired by Apple Inc in April 2010. Plans to port the software to Blackberry and Android devices were shelved after Apple’s acquisition. Siri is now an integrated part of iOS 5 and is available only on the iPhone 4S. Apple announced in November that it does not intend to support Siri on older devices – people will just have to buy an iPhone 4S to enjoy the new functionality. Nevertheless hackers have attempted to adapt Siri for use on earlier iPhones, with mixed success.
But Siri is more than just a voice-recognition text input program – it is integrated into the entire iOS 5 operating system to add a new dimension to human-smartphone interaction. Users can switch effortlessly between physical and spoken input to accomplish tasks. For example, users can hold down the Home button and instruct Siri to set a timer for 15 minutes, or simply tell it to launch a particular playlist from iTunes. It can even reserve a table in a restaurant. Apple has been careful to stress that Siri is still a beta version – repeated instructions, even for simple tasks, are often necessary when ambient noise levels are high, and at the stage misunderstandings are common, suggesting that the complex algorithms behind Siri’s voice recognition are not mature. Anyone expecting overnight resolution of these teething troubles is likely to be disappointed; Dragon Naturally Speaking, for a decade the market leader in voice recognition software for the PC, claimed accuracy of around 99% five years ago and is still frustrating to use. But users have taken to Siri well, most people finding its failings amusing or at least a price worth paying for the improved ease of use it brings to the iPhone experience.
Speakers of English with strong accents have found the service difficult to use, and others have experienced poor connectivity with the Siri servers. Siri’s processing is all done online via Apple’s dedicated Siri servers and the service was down for almost an entire day in November, leaving users without voice recognition services. All in all Siri’s voice recognition capabilities are quite impressive – internet searches and other basic tasks (arranging appointments, storing reminders, text dictation) generally run acceptably well, by which we mean it’s a vast improvement on having to perform these tasks manually, at least while on the move. Yet an active internet connection is required for Siri to function for each and every task which can be a nuisance if you’re ever out of range.
Enjoy these screen shots of Siri:
The overall monthly cost to your tariff should not be significant, however even with frequent use of Siri. 10-15 net-based queries (‘How many calories in a muffin?’, ‘What was Jude Law’s first movie?’, ‘Get a list of the Mexican restaurants in San Jose) and three or four shortish emails, together with a couple of pages of text input for a document – that lot on a daily basis will eat up around 30MB of your monthly allowance. That seems reasonable enough.
Enjoy this Apple video of Siri:
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