Siri Envy? Iris Brings Some Voice-Assistant Features to Android

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Siri Envy? Iris Brings Some Voice-Assistant Features to Android

Posted by timothy on Saturday October 22, 2011 @11:40AM from the backhanded-compliment dept.

Of all the upgrades that distinguish the new iPhone 4S from its predecessors, probably the feature that's gotten the most attention is the voice-based personal assistant app called Siri, which allows a user to accomplish certain tasks almost entirely by voice. A few days ago, as reported by TechCrunch, a team of Android developers came up with an Android equivalent to Siri called Iris (spell that backwards). It took them only 8 hours to have a working, if imperfect, app to play with and submit to the Android Market. This quick video review of Iris says the app is unpolished, but shows promise. For now, it generates some accurate results, and some amusing ones.

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Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

Except not at all. Complete misses the point, again.
1. Re:Just like Siri... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 12:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's close enough for spec-sheet comparisons, which is pretty much what many Android manufacturers (and more than a few fans of the platform) fall back on.
  Butbubut, it's got Super-Ultra-XVSAMOLED, 4+MEGA LTE-MAX and 2TB of flash. As soon as Fruitcake or Peach Flan comes out, it'll totally crush iOS!! Well, yeah, right now it might be a little buggy, and yeah, the interface hangs on occasion, and perhaps it's limited to 3G until the manufacturer releases an update that your carrier might not actually support, but the potential is there! Honest!
  Disclosure: I have, and really like, my BlackBerry 9900; I've no skin in this game per se, but Apple really does present a cohesive, usable platform with most of the rough edges filed off. Maybe, maybe ICS will have closed the gap, but this kind of relentless focus on user experience isn't really Android's forte any more than Ubuntu comes even remotely close to Mac OS X.
  Disclosure 2: I own both a PlayBook, iPad and LG Optimus Pad. The first and last, despite having box specs that more or less than meet Apple's unit, don't best the daily experience. For example, the PlayBook can play back 1080p; the iPad can maybe manage 720p, but the PlayBook's browser stutters and it's a bastard to type on and it lacks native e-mail. The LG has an even more broken browser (yes, you can get alternatives; they're not much better than stock) and a marginally-better keyboard, and the home screen stutters. How, in this day and age, can you ship a tablet with a subpar browser and mail client, when the 800lb Gorilla in the market nails all the basics perfectly. So they can both play back 1080p and both support Flash? So what?
  Half-assed chasing of Siri is the same kind of thing. Apple doesn't own a big chunk of the market (and a bigger chunk of it's profits) because they have the most powerful, first out of the blocks and/or most open. They're doing it because their stuff doesn't exceed consumers' fiddle tolerance.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
2. Re:Just like Siri... by 0100010001010011 · 2011-10-22 12:44 · Score: 1
  
  Did they build in all the easter eggs? Siri took a ton of work by multiple developers. You may be able to replicate 80% of the functionality. Heck, the original iPod had 80% of the functionality of every other mp3 player on the market. It was the 20% that set Apple apart.
3. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-22 12:54 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I have an HTC Evo and an Apple iPad, so I'm well aware of the capabilities and limitations of both Android and iOS. Yes, there are some rough edges on Android, but there are rough edges on iOS as well. Copy and paste doesn't work very well, multitasking is (by design) mostly nonexistent, and there are many missing features. (For example, I would fuck a water buffalo to get Swype on iOS.) Cursor positioning is also better on Android.
  This idea that Apple products are magically easy-to-use and perfectly polished is BS. They are good products, usually with fantastic industrial design, and usually very attractive to look at. But there's no magic to the user interface, and Android is really every bit as good.
4. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-22 12:56 · Score: 1
  
  What are you talking about? The original iPod had far less functionality than every other mp3 player on the market at the time. It is the scale of Apple and the ecosystem that emerges around their products that makes them compelling. The original iPod was not even very well designed from a usability point of view!
5. Re:Just like Siri... by shadowfaxcrx · 2011-10-22 13:03 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Considering Apple is pushing Siri but explaining away all it's faults by claiming "uh, well, it's uh. . Still in beta," I'd say your entire post is moot.
  Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful. Neither does Iris. Having a dick-measuring contest between the two is stupid, especially since they BOTH suck right now, and BOTH will presumably get better.
  
  --
  "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
6. Re:Just like Siri... by brunes69 · 2011-10-22 13:06 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  If it responds more than 25% of the time with a useful response, then yes indeed it is nothing like Siri.
  If it responds with a useful response less than 25% of the time, then yeah it is pretty much the same.
7. Re:Just like Siri... by GameboyRMH · 2011-10-22 13:19 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah after looking at Siri I don't have any use for a Siri clone. It's one of those things that's good for 5 minutes of novelty value and impressing friends who haven't used up their 5 minutes yet.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
8. Re:Just like Siri... by netsharc · 2011-10-22 13:25 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Yeah, the first iPhone OS was well thought-of and intuitive, but after that it just relies on the user having to know some secrets to get it to work, e.g., who would've figured out that double-tapping the Home button on the lock screen would load Siri? That to move icons, group or delete apps on the home screen you have to hold them until they wiggle, and to group them you have to drag one onto another? Intuitive my butt...
  Not that Android apps are any better. On some apps, hitting back actually means "go to the previous screen", even if that means leaving that app. But on my music player, if I load it, it goes to the "Now Playing" screen, which is the least useful screen since I can pause or skip songs on that screen, but I can do that from outside the app as well, so why would it show me that screen? Ok this is just nitpicking, it can't read my mind. But usually I open up the music app because I want to load up a different song. So I press the music app icon, I see the "Now playing" screen. Let's see, how do I see all songs? I press the menu button. No such option. I hit back. Ah, there it is. Real fucking intuitive..!
  
  --
  What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
9. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:32 · Score: 0
  
  Comparing Ubuntu and Google is unfair. Google still don't understand design. Even a lot of designers don't understand things like "natural mapping". Ubuntu has improved a lot, and you can tell they take it seriously, and no, I'm not saying "It's improved so much in the last 5 years, everybody can use it now!"
10. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-22 13:33 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  I agree that the inconsistent behavior of the back button in Android apps is annoying, but at least the back button doesn't move around. The thing I find most irritating about iOS is that there is *no* standard for in-app behavior. If I want to go back to the previous screen, I have to hunt around for the appropriate button, figure out what the developer decided to call it, etc, etc.
11. Re:Just like Siri... by Keen+Anthony · 2011-10-22 13:36 · Score: 1
  
  That's what the Parent said. As for usability, none of those 1st generation MP3 players were designed well, and I hated all of them, iPod included.
12. Re:Just like Siri... by CharlyFoxtrot · 2011-10-22 13:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful.
  I used to think this about voice control, then Apple made it work in the iPhone 4 and now I use it a lot. Everything is a gimmick until someone does it well enough.
  
  --
  If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
13. Re:Just like Siri... by zoloto · 2011-10-22 13:39 · Score: 1
  
  Some rough edges on android? you could practically cut down a redwood!
14. Re:Just like Siri... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 13:44 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Yes, there are some rough edges on Android, but there are rough edges on iOS as well. Copy and paste doesn't work very well,
  
  It doesn't work well on any handheld platform, but it's deplorable Android (and especially on Honeycomb), for example. Apple, at least, gives you a magnifying bubble that makes it possible to select text and place the cursor. On Android it's a total crapshoot.
  BlackBerry does it best for power users, but only because of the optical trackpad and real cursor, but iOS actually does this quite well in that most people can figure it out. Android? No
  
  multitasking is (by design) mostly nonexistent
  Ah, I see. You've mistaken "rough edges" for "design decisions that don't jive with my preconceptions". Yes, iOS doesn't do multitasking well by design. That's because smartphone multitasking generally does not work well, that the devices aren't designed for it, that people don't really use it, and that Apple only added it once processing power made it reasonable, and that Apple's method for dealing with it, while crippled, works well for the way these things are used.
  Full multitasking makes sense in a multiwindow environment. It's useless on a device designed around an interface that's single-app-full-screen.
  Again, I'll bring this back to BlackBerry terms. RIM made a big deal about how the PlayBook lets you set multitasking behaviour; it was supposed to be a big advantage over iOS. No one, it turns out, gives a damn because they don't use the tablet in such a way that multitasking mode makes any sense. It's even more irrelevant a feature than Flash.
  
  For example, I would fuck a water buffalo to get Swype on iOS.)
  
  Most people wouldn't bother with Swype. I mean, yes, it works, but it would piss off 95% of consumers. It's worse than Graffiti in that it requires you to re-learn something so basic and fundamental that it's practically intuitive.
  
  Cursor positioning is also better on Android.
  That's just crazy talk. It's passable on phones (and has gotten worse since most phones dropped the G1-style hardware cursor control) and utterly wretched on Honeycomb tablets, where accurate placement is much, much harder than on the iPad.
  
  This idea that Apple products are magically easy-to-use and perfectly polished is BS. They are good products, usually with fantastic industrial design, and usually very attractive to look at. But there's no magic to the user interface, and Android is really every bit as good.
  They're not "magically" easier to use, but Apple does sweat the small stuff much, much better and doesn't pump stuff out that isn't really ready. That's the "special sauce", as it were. And no, Android is not every bit as good. Android does certain things well, and it works for people who can accept the rough edges and work past them, but it's not "as good" in that respect.
  Calling it "magic" is really part of the problem: that's how Android fans have either failed to understand and/or tried to discount what Apple has done. As soon as you get over the attitude that it isn't magic, that it isn't about the RDF, ooh-shiny-marketing or hipster factors---in short, shedding the Android Victimhood Syndrome---you'll be able to understand that putting design and usability first, as Apple does, really matters in this market.
  If it didn't, Apple wouldn't be raking it in on devices that are easily several months to a year behind the Next Big Android Handset.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
15. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:50 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  I agree that the inconsistent behavior of the back button in Android apps is annoying, but at least the back button doesn't move around. The thing I find most irritating about iOS is that there is *no* standard for in-app behavior. If I want to go back to the previous screen, I have to hunt around for the appropriate button, figure out what the developer decided to call it, etc, etc.
  yes but you look so cool doing it. you are all set for a product placement in a cheesy movie. you bought Apple. that means you are cool and have style and self-worth. you have the correct name brand, making you worthy of love and respect. you made the right choice. for $10 I will sell you an app to remind you of this.
16. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:10 · Score: 0
  
  Ah, typical "If Apple doesn't do it, it was never a good idea". I've heard the same lame arguments since I was using System 6.
  The notification bar, I suppose, was a really terrible horrible idea that Apple should never ever copy until they thought of it in iOS5.
17. Re:Just like Siri... by arun84h · 2011-10-22 14:15 · Score: 2
  
  Apple really does present a cohesive, usable platform with most of the rough edges filed off.
  Those rough edges aren't just filed off, they're rounded.
18. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:22 · Score: 0
  
  Let me guess, your wife got the iPad?
19. Re:Just like Siri... by jedidiah · 2011-10-22 14:22 · Score: 1
  
  > any more than Ubuntu comes even remotely close to Mac OS X.
  +...don't believe the hype.
  The same goes for MacOS or PhoneOS.
  Apple owns a big chunk of the market because of an early lead and marketing and that chunk they do own is shrinking.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
20. Re:Just like Siri... by MrHanky · 2011-10-22 14:24 · Score: 0, Flamebait
  
  Apple wouldn't be raking it in if they didn't have people like you doing their advertising work for free.
21. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:34 · Score: 0
  
  And Google doesn't have the same amount of unpaid evangelicals?
  Stop trying to come up with excuses that let Android off the hook. It does no one, except possibly Apple, any favours. Blaming marketing, fanbois or a stupid public just allows Google and the OEMs to avoid confronting the real problems with the platform.
  Honestly, Android fans sound a lot like BlackBerry fans used to: deeply marinated in denial.
22. Re:Just like Siri... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2011-10-22 15:15 · Score: 1
  
  I can leave my phone in my jacket pocket in the rain and still be able to do some really basic stuff like send email, text and set up reminders.
  
  --
  Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
23. Re:Just like Siri... by macron1 · 2011-10-22 15:38 · Score: 1
  
  There is a Swype clone available for cydia, and it mostly sucks http://lifehacker.com/5819207/swype-beta-now-available-for-jailbroken-iphones. It is fun to begin with as a novelty, but dragging your finger around that small screen obscures most of the letters making it hard to actually form words, and it is not that accurate.
24. Re:Just like Siri... by immaterial · 2011-10-22 15:44 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Exactly. Might as well say "The GUI is a gimmick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful." because you can do things via the command line instead. The command line is in many ways more flexible and more powerful, but for a lot of everyday tasks a GUI is just plain simpler and faster.
  
  I use Siri all the time, even when I'm not driving/hiding the phone in my jacket. Earlier today, I told Siri, "Remind me when I leave the house in the morning, or by noon, that I need to stop by Mom's house and fix her router." 5 seconds to say + 5 seconds for Siri to process and confirm, and my reminder was set up. I certainly could have done this manually, but Find Reminders app -> Open Reminders app -> Add new reminder -> Add "when I leave the house" geofence criterion -> Add "At noon tomorrow" criterion -> Type "Stop by Mom's house and fix her router" into description field -> Save is unquestionably going to take longer.
  
  Voice control is far more than just a gimmick.
25. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-22 16:08 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. But she hated it, because what she actually wanted was a netbook. She just got caught up in the iPad hype. So we got her a $200 netbook, which she is delighted with. But then instead of returning the iPad, I kept it. It has not particularly grown on me or become essential, though.
26. Re:Just like Siri... by FooAtWFU · 2011-10-22 17:12 · Score: 1
  
  This idea that Apple products are magically easy-to-use and perfectly polished is BS.
  It's that special kind of BS called "marketing" and "PR".
  On a related note, I shocked an iPhone 4S user today by using my 2.5-year-old HTC Dream (aka Google G1, aka the first major android phone) to do a voice search. It's not quite as flexible as Siri, sure, but it works fairly well in practice and in this case brought up exactly what I wanted... and the capability has been there for quite some time. The lesson from this: clearly, Google does not have all the marketing and PR.
  
  --
  The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
27. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 18:29 · Score: 0
  
  It's one of those things that's good for 5 minutes of novelty value and impressing friends who haven't used up their 5 minutes yet.
  yes but you look so cool doing it. you are all set for a product placement in a cheesy movie. you bought Apple. that means you are cool and have style and self-worth. you have the correct name brand, making you worthy of love and respect. you made the right choice. for $10 I will sell you an app to remind you of this.
28. Re:Just like Siri... by shutdown+-p+now · 2011-10-22 19:03 · Score: 2
  
  Apple, at least, gives you a magnifying bubble that makes it possible to select text and place the cursor. On Android it's a total crapshoot.
  Frankly, iOS magnifying bubble is more annoying than it is helpful, because, with the image distorted, it's often rather disorienting. The only thing that's really needed is for the cursor to be above the finger, not under it. For an example of this done right, look at Windows Phone (7.5). That said, even on Android, it varies from phone to phone, because some manufacturers do change Google's default.
  
  Full multitasking makes sense in a multiwindow environment. It's useless on a device designed around an interface that's single-app-full-screen.
  The fact that all tablets are still single-app-full-screen (courtesy of Apple, since they have set the trend) is, frankly, abominable. There are many reasons to have two apps open side-by-side. Yes, something along the lines of a simple tiling window manager is better on a tablet than full-blown desktop with a windows, but why no-one has offered that so far is a mystery. Now that something similar was demoed as a feature in Win8, I wonder how long it'll take for it to appear in iPad - touted as a major innovation, no doubt.
  
  Most people wouldn't bother with Swype. I mean, yes, it works, but it would piss off 95% of consumers. It's worse than Graffiti in that it requires you to re-learn something so basic and fundamental that it's practically intuitive.
  Swype doesn't require you to relearn anything, since keyboard layout is exactly the same - the only difference is that you don't raise the finger when going from key to key. Furthermore, it works just as well in "regular tap" mode, so there is no learning curve there - you use it if you want or ignore it if you don't like it,
  
  That's because smartphone multitasking generally does not work well, that the devices aren't designed for it, that people don't really use it, and that Apple only added it once processing power made it reasonable
  Oh look, someone who had never seen a Symbian smartphone.
29. Re:Just like Siri... by shutdown+-p+now · 2011-10-22 19:07 · Score: 1
  
  By the way, if you judge Android solely from your experience with LG Optimus Pad, then you've got a very distorted feature. There is a very, very big difference between Android 2.x and 3.x - your tablet running the latter - and it's not in 3.x's favor. At first I thought that your "a little buggy... interface hangs on occasion" was pure FUD, but running Honeycomb would actually explain it. It's really much more like a beta for Ice Cream Sandwich - both in terms of speed, and in terms of stability.
  Android 2.x devices, now (phones - I haven't used tablets) are leaps and bounds ahead on both counts. My current phone is SGS2, and my previous one was iPhone 4, so I have plenty of experience to compare them - and SGS2 wins hands down. It's not even so much the hardware (though, after using an OLED screen, I wouldn't ever consider going back to LCD), as it is the experience itself. They're both equally fast and smooth and stable, but SGS2 does so much more, especially if you're heavy user of various Google services - Mail, Talk, Maps etc.
30. Re:Just like Siri... by slackbheep · 2011-10-22 19:14 · Score: 1
  
  Much like the rest of apples products its not the first, just the first (or one of) the first that doesnt suck.
31. Re:Just like Siri... by am+2k · 2011-10-22 20:22 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  If I want to go back to the previous screen, I have to hunt around for the appropriate button, figure out what the developer decided to call it, etc, etc.
  Uh, it's always on the top left of the view, it's always shaped like an arrow pointing to the left, and its caption is the name of the view it moves to. What's inconsistent about that?
32. Re:Just like Siri... by toriver · 2011-10-22 20:24 · Score: 1
  
  Um, simple voice commands have been in iOS since at least version 3.2 (the 3GS) too. But that doesn't make it Siri any more than getting from point A to B makes a Fiat 500 a Bugatti Veyron.
33. Re:Just like Siri... by am+2k · 2011-10-22 20:29 · Score: 1
  
  Earlier today, I told Siri, "Remind me when I leave the house in the morning, or by noon, that I need to stop by Mom's house and fix her router." 5 seconds to say + 5 seconds for Siri to process and confirm, and my reminder was set up. I certainly could have done this manually, but Find Reminders app -> Open Reminders app -> Add new reminder -> Add "when I leave the house" geofence criterion -> Add "At noon tomorrow" criterion -> Type "Stop by Mom's house and fix her router" into description field -> Save is unquestionably going to take longer.
  While I agree with you, this advantage is amplified by the reminders app being awfully designed. It takes a million touches to set up a reminder with geofencing or a timer, even though getting the number of touches down should have been the number one priority for an app like that. I'm suspicious that they did that on purpose to promote the simplicity of Siri.
34. Re:Just like Siri... by justforgetme · 2011-10-22 20:43 · Score: 0
  
  I usually don't do pro Apple comments (check my history) but I'm obliged to say that from a user perspective Apple's software is always very well thought out and very ergonomic. Apple creates very well build products Hardware and software.
  I spent a day with a MacBook Air the other day and it just was better than any other thing that comes pre set up. Hardware is well built performance is optimal and battery life is great also. Of course at the end I gave it up for my 11h workhorse netbook that is based on LXDE with tons and tons of customization. But hey I have spent many a night creating that OS image and I have to maintain it periodically.
  I don't know if this will make sense but Apple does things very well. They still think forward. Ok, their latest desktop paradigm might be just a huge gnome 3 ripoff. All their gestures they have got from other places mostly in the FOSS world. Siri was another company's killer app. The fact remains that that Apple existing means that all the other big companies have to keep up with the changes Apple pushes to the mainstream. That's progress right there!
  Anyway, fuck iOS and fuck Android give my a bootloader unlocked and well build phone device already!
  
  --
  -- no sig today
35. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 20:46 · Score: 0
  
  Apple owns a big chunk of the market because of an early lead and marketing and that chunk they do own is shrinking.
  Yeah, their popularity has little to do with the products themselves... Is this so you can consider millions of people to be dumb enough to fall for marketing and fluff, while only a select cadre of smart ones can see through the hype to realize that iPhone is nothing more than a painted block of wood. Idiot boy, always was, and he's breaking his mother's heart.
36. Re:Just like Siri... by MysteriousPreacher · 2011-10-22 21:06 · Score: 1
  
  Saying its not quite as flexible as Siri is something of an understatement like saying that wordpad is not quite as flexible as Office; they are completely different types of products. The only thing they have in common is a voice interface. It'd be like me "shocking" a Facebook user by pointing out that before Facebook we had Twitter for communicating status updates. Seriously, look properly when you make comparisons, or be abused by companies who've managed to find the weakness that'll turn you in to the apologist who'll overlook flaws and assume that a lack of marketing is the main difference between their favourite and the thing that's more popular. No company or project deserves this kind of blinkered loyalty.
  
  --
  -- Using the preview button since 2005
37. Re:Just like Siri... by bloodhawk · 2011-10-22 21:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I had a good laugh all week at a few people trying to use the FAIL that is Siri at work, it seems apple forgot that the majority of the world doesn't talk with an american accent. It is less accurate than the voice activation on phones from 4 or 5 years ago.
38. Re:Just like Siri... by Dr.+Hellno · 2011-10-22 21:34 · Score: 2
  
  I've been an android partisan since way back, but credit where credit is due: Siri blows Voice Search out of the water. On my Galaxy S II, I can say "Send text to Bob... Hi Bob" and the result is a text to no one with "To Bob hi Bob" in the body. This is a well documented bug. I can say "set an alarm for two minutes from now", which results in being told I need to download a CLOCK from android market. This is another well documented bug (hilariously, it sometimes searches google for the phrase instead, and the first result is a thread on the google forums saying "set alarm does not work").
  Siri isn't a big enough deal that I'd trade in my Galaxy for it, but still, it's a piece of software without a contemporary equal, and there's no point in pretending otherwise.
39. Re:Just like Siri... by bemymonkey · 2011-10-22 22:07 · Score: 1
  
  "Apple really does present a cohesive, usable platform with most of the rough edges filed off."
  True, but that usable platform has some additional (completely artificial) restrictions which make it unnecessarily difficult to use for many things. Best example I've heard in a while:
  1. iPad user installs VLC on iPad from app store
  2. VLC is removed from app store
  3. iPad user upgrades to iOS 5
  4. During the backup=>update OS=>restore procedure, VLC is magically lost
  5. All the videos which were "associated" with VLC were restored and are now inaccessible because the iPad doesn't have a proper user-accessible filesystem... the space can't even be reclaimed because the files can't be deleted
  I haven't followed the thread closely, so I'm guessing they may have found a solution by now, but still... WTF?
40. Re:Just like Siri... by MrHanky · 2011-10-22 22:59 · Score: 0
  
  No, not nearly the same number of evangelicals. Speaking of denial: "Most people wouldn't bother with Swype. I mean, yes, it works, but it would piss off 95% of consumers. It's worse than Graffiti in that it requires you to re-learn something so basic and fundamental that it's practically intuitive."
  Apple taking away choice == good, because someone else ("95%" of respondents pulled out of fanboi's ass) wouldn't like it. That's what denial is all about.
41. Re:Just like Siri... by loufoque · 2011-10-22 23:02 · Score: 1
  
  Why is a comment about a random guy saying he owns a Blackberry but envies an iPhone modded insightful in an Android thread?
  He's clearly trolling as well about Android/iPhone and Ubuntu/OSX.
42. Re:Just like Siri... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 23:09 · Score: 1
  
  Considering the whole topic is basically trolling for commentary like this, it's fair game.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
43. Re:Just like Siri... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 23:14 · Score: 1
  
  Ok, fair point, yes, they are thinking about design. They've got some road ahead of them, but you are right that they've moved it to the front boiler rather than applying it at the end of the line.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
44. Re:Just like Siri... by blackest_k · 2011-10-22 23:54 · Score: 2
  
  voice command so far to me has always been pure entertainment and of no practical use what so ever
  one christmas i set up a nokia 3310 to dial a number automatically the key word was "arse" it was hilarious after 5 minutes sounding like a farmer with tourettes my brother and sister dying of laughter watching me try to get it to dial, it did so.
  A later phone with windows mobile was little better, the american bitch just couldn't understand a british accent and would eventually get in a huff and quit. Funny as anything to observe the conversation but no use really.
  I did sometimes get voice command to work playing mp3's but you needed to know what songs were available cool when it went to plan not so when it failed, Even on a PC it was always a struggle to get programs like dragon naturally speaking to work with any kind of accuracy. Perhaps one day voice control will be reliable but i am yet to be convinced. Still it is always good for a laugh for 5 minutes any way. i will have to test iris :)
  
  --
  Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
45. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 00:05 · Score: 0
  
  On a related note, I shocked an iPhone 4S user today by using my 2.5-year-old HTC Dream (aka Google G1, aka the first major android phone) to do a voice search. It's not quite as flexible as Siri, sure, but it works fairly well in practice and in this case brought up exactly what I wanted... and the capability has been there for quite some time. The lesson from this: clearly, Google does not have all the marketing and PR.
  I am not impressed. You see any iPhone or iPad user can use Google Voice Search and they can also use BING! voice search which BTW IMHO is better.
46. Re:Just like Siri... by w0mprat · 2011-10-23 00:21 · Score: 1
  
  You missed the point. Iris shows that Siri is nothing special. The difference between the two being polish.
  
  --
  After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
47. Re:Just like Siri... by w0mprat · 2011-10-23 00:22 · Score: 1
  
  Android has had voice control since the dawn of time too. Siri is just a front end with a name and wolfram alpha search results.
  
  --
  After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
48. Re:Just like Siri... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 00:32 · Score: 0
  
  who would've figured out that double-tapping the Home button on the lock screen would load Siri?
  Everyone, the phone tells you not too long after its activated how to use Siri.
  
  That to move icons, group or delete apps on the home screen you have to hold them until they wiggle, and to group them you have to drag one onto another?
  Everyone, the phone tells you as soon as you go back to the home screen after installing your first app.
  
  Intuitive my butt...
  Well, thats just because you're an ignorant idiot who either can't read or hasn't actually owned an iPhone so you really don't have any clue what the fuck you're talking about :)
  My wife is not a computer geek and she's had absolutely no problem discovering pretty much every feature the phone has just by using it for a day, I've yet to have anyone show me or my wife a 'trick' for iOS that we don't already know. It is rather intuitive, even if you're too stupid to get it.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
49. Re:Just like Siri... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-23 00:40 · Score: 1
  
  No, you've missed the point. Polish is important, moreso than features. If polish was a "just" then why is it so hard for anyone who isn't Apple?
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
50. Re:Just like Siri... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 00:45 · Score: 1
  
  Yea, until Apple bought it you could buy Siri on the App store for other iOS devices as well. No one said it was unique or special.
  'Voice search' is not new. Siri is not voice search. Siri makes your phone a PDA in the truest sense of the word, you just talk to the thing and 19 times out of 20, it'll just do what you tell it, or at least understand your request and respond accordingly. This isn't text to speech then pump it off to internal search or Google, this turns 'Im drunk' into 'here are nearby cab services'.
  The difference is that Apple has made Siri far more usable than any alternative out there, and while you may have been able to get what you want out of the app you're using, I highly doubt that it was nearly as good as Siri at parsing natural language questions. No, its not impossible, its just the difference between Apple and Android devs. As its already been said, Android is the 'we have awesome tech specs but none of it is actually finished or works as well as we'd like to pretend' versus Apple which is 'Not the geekiest of geeky, but works almost perfectly for every non-geek on the planet, and fine for most geeks that don't have their head up someone elses ass because of their rabid fanboyism'
  Its also worth nothing, there are several other apps just like Siri on the iPhone, I presume at least some of them are available for Android, I know one of them is for Blackberry.
  I'm sorry you don't see why Apple wins these sorts of things, if you learn to look at things objectively without prejudice it'll probably help.
  Note: I write mobile apps for both iOS and Android, while I'd rather dev for Android for my own PERSONAL projects, doing it professionally sucks, its quicker in most cases than iOS dev it seems, but you just can't make an Android app feel as polished.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
51. Re:Just like Siri... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  During the backup=>update OS=>restore procedure, VLC is magically lost
  Unless they deleted the App from their iTunes library, they didn't lose anything. VLC may not work in iOS5 (I have no idea if thats true, just guessing, I don't use VLC), but it will still be there.
  All videos that were specifically associated with VLC would be in the VLC app directory, if the App isn't there, neither are the videos, no space is lost.
  What you're describing doesn't happen in any normal situation. You may have seen someone experience a bug, but what you're describing is not 'how it works' in any way.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
52. Re:Just like Siri... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 00:59 · Score: 1
  
  So what you're saying is Iris shows that Siri is special because Siri is the only one thats polished?
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
53. Re:Just like Siri... by bemymonkey · 2011-10-23 01:27 · Score: 1
  
  Interesting, any idea what might have been the culprit?
54. Re:Just like Siri... by uglyduckling · 2011-10-23 01:43 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Really? Then you probably haven't used it in any practical way. Yesterday I asked "what's the circumference of a circle of diameter 3cm?". Try it. Now think about the practical applications, particularly when it moves out of Beta and it supports a decent hands-free way of addressing (cue Scottie "Computerrrr..."). I already use Google and Wolfram Alpha for practically any query when I'm at a computer, having an effective interface to do the same thing when I'm doing a practical task is amazing. I realise Apple didn't invent it, but as usual they've made it practical and widely available.
55. Re:Just like Siri... by CharlyFoxtrot · 2011-10-23 02:06 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, the 3310. I had one of those, the voice dialing just didn't work unless you were alone in quiet room and even then it was sketchy. Didn't have to worry about dropping that phone though, those things were solid. But like I said my iPhone 4 does voice dialing without problems. The technology has just advanced so much, the phones now are basically dual core computers more powerful than anything we had in the 3310 days with noise canceling microphones built in and huge databases and processing power on the backend through "the cloud." So I'm optimistic, guess I'll see when I get my 4S.
  
  --
  If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
56. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 02:47 · Score: 0
  
  Siri is just a front end with a name and wolfram alpha search results.
  And deep integration with some of the apps on the phone, with more to come as they add features (this is a beta, remember).
  
  Example: "Find me a hotel near Bridget's house."
  Siri looks in my contacts for the home address of Bridget, then searches for hotels using that address and returns me the results sorted by rating.
  
  That's a pretty straightforward query, but being able to ask abstract things like "Will I need a jacket tomorrow?" and have that be understood to be a query about the weather forecast is what's revolutionary. When you put this phone up to your ear to issue it a command, it's not going to be totally obvious to observers that you're not talking to a human being.
57. Re:Just like Siri... by phillymjs · 2011-10-23 03:04 · Score: 2
  
  Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful.
  The hell it doesn't. I have practically outsourced my short-term memory to the Reminders app in the last week. Anytime I need to remember something-- particularly when I'm in the car-- it's incredibly easy to hold down a button for 2 seconds and tell my phone "Remind me to [activity] at [time] and/or when I [leave/arrive] [location]". I would never use it that much if I had to set those up manually.
  
  Voice Control in the iPhone 3GS was a gimmick. Siri added utility to my iPhone from day one, and it's only going to get better with time.
  
  It's also only a matter of time before Siri moves into Mac OS X. Mark my words, in the near future one of the F keys on Apple keyboards will be a Siri button (though you'll also have the option for always-on listening and have to address the computer by name to indicate a command).
  
  ~Philly
58. Re:Just like Siri... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:19 · Score: 1
  
  Unfortunately they round them so far that most of the stuff I want to do is in the parts they shaved off...
59. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-23 05:23 · Score: 1
  
  Oh really?
  I'm in the iPod app, listening to a song. I hit the dots and lines button. Now I want to go back to where I just was. In the normal "back" position, there's a left-facing arrow. So I hit that. Now I'm in a screen titled "more" (what does that mean?). In the normal "back" position, there's an "edit" button. Well, that's probably not what I want, but I hit it anyway. Now I'm in the "configure" screen, with a bunch of icons that if I hit them, they grow larger, but none of them actually do anything. In the normal "back" position, there's nothing. But there's a "done" button on the right, so I hit that. The other button on the "more" screen is called "Now Playing." So I hit that. Now I'm finally where I wanted to be in the first place.
  If I already know that the main iPod play screen is called "Now Playing," and that you can choose which icons appear there, and that the "more" screen is purgatory for non-favored icons, and that the point of the "configure" screen is to drag icons to the bottom ... well then, it would be easy to use. But if I *don't* already know all that, it's quite the thicket of odd and unexpected behavior.
60. Re:Just like Siri... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:25 · Score: 1
  
  Ergonomic and well thought out have NEVER been apple strengths... their strength has always been in convincing people to learn a new way of doing things and then somehow believing that it was actually intuitive to start with.
  Apple is the best in the world at one thing, and one thing only, Marketing. They can take something that has been around for ages, and sell it as a new invention and have everyone believe them, they can take an un-intuitive product and make people claim it's easy to use, they can be missing all the features the competition has and have people thank them for saving them from those features (until they're released in the next version) And best of all, they can make people pay a premium for the privilege.
61. Re:Just like Siri... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:28 · Score: 1
  
  I think you must have had a bad experience with honeycomb, because my Iconia with honeycomb 3.2 doesn't have any of the problems you relate. It's been rock solid, never hangs, and works quite well.
  As for which is "better", I also have a Motorola Milestone running Froyo, and it too is pretty stable. feature-wise they're pretty similar, I can't really say that either one is "better" than the other. Both devices have polish and features the likes of which you will never find on iOS.
62. Re:Just like Siri... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:30 · Score: 1
  
  Marketing. It's the only thing Apple has ever done better than the competition.
63. Re:Just like Siri... by am+2k · 2011-10-23 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  I'm in the iPod app, listening to a song. I hit the dots and lines button. Now I want to go back to where I just was.
  I agree that this is overly complicated, it is probably a programmer solution to the problem that you can't have more than 5 tabs in the toolbar at the bottom.
  However, the idea here is that you're at the top level, so there's no location you can go back to. As far as I understand the Android UI, it'd quit the application in this case.
64. Re:Just like Siri... by MikeBabcock · 2011-10-23 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed, a few apps on Android offer an annoying 'manage back button' option that forces 'back' to mean something other than 'the screen I was just on'. It seems they think its the 'up a level' button on a folder browser or something. With how Android's multi-tasking works, I love the combination of unmanaged 'back' and hold-home-for-recent-apps functionality. I can hold home, jump to Facebook, send a message, hit 'back' and be back on the app I was using a moment ago. Then when an SMS comes in, I can click it through the status bar, reply, and hit back again to get my GPS nav screen (or whatever) I was on a moment ago, all without interrupting the apps in question.
  Those who think iOS is all in all more polished than Android seem to have no concept of actual power-use of a smart phone. They seem to always use a couple little apps and rarely at that. When i tell someone I can do 75% of my computing for a day on my phone, they rarely believe it. (The other 25% is time spent coding ... and I prefer my larger screen and keyboard for that).
  
  --
  - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
65. Re:Just like Siri... by MikeBabcock · 2011-10-23 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  Which is so much easier than "open calendar" *tap new appointment* "Set my mother's router" *click time*
  That's how long it takes me on Android.
  I skipped the twice I have to click on the voice activation widget (once on the main screen, once on the keyboard), but its hardly relevant.
  Do I think Siri is cool? Sure. I had almost exactly that functionality on my Newton MessagePads (by Apple) in the mid nineties. It was called 'assist' and I loved it. I still want assist back, and I want it text based (like it was then) not voice activated, so I can jot down commands without sharing them with the entire subway car. After all, I can click voice on the android keyboard any time I want to fill in text by voice anyway.
  
  --
  - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
66. Re:Just like Siri... by uglyduckling · 2011-10-23 06:47 · Score: 1
  
  How much marketing was there for the iPhone 4S? At least in the UK, so far, I haven't seen a single TV or billboard advert, and haven't heard a radio advert. I'm not saying they're not there, but they're hardly pervasive (unlike the last Samsung product). It's been more or less a press release, email for those signed up to Apple email marketing, and word of mouth based on features that speak for themselves. I would say the iPhone 4S has pretty much sold itself.
67. Re:Just like Siri... by ceejayoz · 2011-10-23 06:58 · Score: 1
  
  The original iPod also had none of that scale and ecosystem you're talking about.
68. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 07:05 · Score: 0
  
  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/after-the-iphone-4s-android-just-feels-wrong/5068 Android - it's good enough! (TM)
69. Re:Just like Siri... by netsharc · 2011-10-23 08:48 · Score: 2
  
  Well, thats just because you're an ignorant idiot who either can't read or hasn't actually owned an iPhone so you really don't have any clue what the fuck you're talking about :)
  And you're a very pleasant individual yourself, sir! (smiley face).
  And what if the user, just like the majority of computer users, just hits OK to close whatever dialog box that popped up? "Well then it's their own fault!", I suppose Mr. Superior I'm-Not-An-Ignorant-Nor-An-Idiot would say.
  
  --
  What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
70. Re:Just like Siri... by shadowfaxcrx · 2011-10-23 09:27 · Score: 1
  
  I hope you're right.
  The same is going to be true on Windows PCs. If history is an indication, Apple will get there first, and Windows will toddle along behind at some point, and then outstrip Apple.
  
  --
  "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
71. Re:Just like Siri... by jscotta44 · 2011-10-23 10:27 · Score: 1
  
  Dude, Apple products have had voice control since before Google itself was founded and ages before Android was even a stolen idea on Eric Schimdt's Apple Board Room minutes copy.
72. Re:Just like Siri... by jscotta44 · 2011-10-23 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  Are you forgetting that Apple had no scale when the iPod came out? They were one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. The iMac got them that foot out of the grave, but one mis-step and they would not even have been a footnote in corporate history.
  As to functionality, that is precisely what most of the Apple competitors miss. Oh, yes, they put together very full spec sheets, but when the average uses tries to use the device, they cannot operated those functions for a variety of reasons. Apple make things usable. That sells.
  Spec sheets only sell to guys on /. and wanna be /.'ers.
73. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-23 10:37 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, that's the expected Android behavior, although some applications just ignore it.
74. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-23 10:48 · Score: 1
  
  Not at first, no. Which is why, at first, it was easily outsold by its competitors. Remember the Diamond Rio? the Riva? the Hango? the Creative Nomad? They all worked with your Windows 98 PC, which the original iPod didn't, and as a result outsold the iPod by many multiples.
75. Re:Just like Siri... by bonch · 2011-10-23 11:17 · Score: 1
  
  iOS just feels better to use. Android can't even scroll its windows without interface lag.
76. Re:Just like Siri... by ghjm · 2011-10-23 11:23 · Score: 1
  
  Depends on the device. There are certainly some craptastic Android devices out there. And I agree that this is a huge problem with all Android tablets I've seen. But my HTC Evo scrolls as smoothly as any iOS device.
77. Re:Just like Siri... by jo42 · 2011-10-23 14:04 · Score: 1
  
  Android, Hemorrhoid
  Hemorrhoid, Android.
78. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 16:46 · Score: 0
  
  Much like the rest of apples products its not the first, just the first (or one of) the first that doesnt suck.
  Except for when it sucks.
79. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 17:19 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Shut the fuck up, whiny little Mactard.
  
  Also your wife is a fat whore. She takes the nigger dick up her ass.
80. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 18:56 · Score: 0
  
  The only experience you have with Android is some cheap ass, Chinese made resistive screened device with an ancient ARM11 CPU.
81. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 19:18 · Score: 0
  
  Where's the -1 fanboy mod?
82. Re:Just like Siri... by Hognoxious · 2011-10-23 19:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yesterday I asked "what's the circumference of a circle of diameter 3cm?"
  Can it work out if you're in Iowa, and if so answer "9cm exactly"?
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
83. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 20:51 · Score: 0
  
  shut the fuck up, faggot
84. Re:Just like Siri... by bemymonkey · 2011-10-23 21:07 · Score: 1
  
  Looks like it really was just a bug, fixable with a backup of the user's VLC.ipa file...
  Any idea as to the cause?
  http://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/124585-gel%F6st-Ipad-1-iOS-5-und-ein-paar-Schwierigkeiten...?p=1220936#post1220936
  It's in German though... maybe Google Translator will be enough :)
85. Re:Just like Siri... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 01:21 · Score: 1
  
  "Apple taking away choice..."
  You say "choice" like it's the end all and be all of design. It's not. Choice brings with it complexity, and that's against Apple's DNA. Choice brings controls, and options, and configuration screens, and it also brings confusion and doubt.
  The very fact that you're here on /. means, in all likelihood, you're a geek of some sort and geeks thrive on complexity. But many people do not. Many people, in fact, don't have a love affair with technology. They simply want to get whatever it is that they're doing DONE so they can get on with life.
  Apple's design ethic is simplicity and minimalism. Again, some people want knobs and controls and widgets and options and clutter. And again, others don't. Some people care about features and checklists. Some care about design.
  There's a market for both.
  Why are you arguing? Some people choose iOS. Others Android. But it's odd. The people whose mantra is "choice" always seem outraged when that choice is Apple.
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
86. Re:Just like Siri... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 01:32 · Score: 1
  
  "The original iPod had far less functionality than every other mp3 player on the market at the time."
  The Creative NOMAD Jukebox, the hard drive based MP3 player of the time, weighed nearly a pound with it's 2.5" 6GB notebook drive, ran for an astounding 4 hours on it's NiCad battery [sarcasm], and retailed for $500.
  The original iPod had a 1.8" 5GB drive, scroll wheel, ran for 10 hours on it's LiPo battery, weighed 6.5 oz, and cost $399.
  So I guess it depends on what you mean by "functionality". Are we talking about a checklist of half-implemented features, or about a device people could easily learn, easily carry, and easily use for hours on end?
  That kind of "functionality"?
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
87. Re:Just like Siri... by Creepy · 2011-10-24 01:49 · Score: 1
  
  yes, exactly - I can do voice search by holding down the ? on my android phone, and have been able to do that since I got it a year ago. I can also tell the voice search to use a certain app (i.e. "navigate to the White House"). I can't, however, tell it I'm drunk and get cab services. I can, however, just call a cab, so IMO the feature is more amusement than value add.
  Siri is definitely much more sassy than my android phone. I can't ask it "Do you love me" and get a response "I'm not allowed to, Dickhead"
88. Re:Just like Siri... by DJRumpy · 2011-10-24 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, just like the Windows folks have done in the mobile marke....oh...nevermind.
  We'll just like they've done in the media player m...hmmm.
  Well the Browser..crap.
  Get off my lawn.
89. Re:Just like Siri... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 04:53 · Score: 0
  
  WTF? "Apple's DNA"? You really are a shill.
  
  The only people who have trouble with choice are low IQ morons. I suppose that does cover the entire Apple userbase.
90. Re:Just like Siri... by MrHanky · 2011-10-24 05:20 · Score: 1
  
  The option to install a third party keyboard (second post to this thread) doesn't add much complexity. The API is already in place; after all, Apple already uses it for its own keyboard, with its own "charming" Autocorrect that lets people get what they're doing "DONE" so they can get on with life and apologise for what they seemingly just wrote.
  Their minimalism is about hiding complexity under a layer of gloss. Although it "just works" it often "just breaks", usually for quite unfathomable reasons (I've had the login screen hang with no error message due to the file system eating some wifi library: that's not minimalist design). Hell, I've seen more people asking for help with stuff that broke in OS X than with Windows, and the most often suggested remedy, "repair permissions" NEVER EVER works. Simplicity? No. Minimalism? No. Just works? No. People just never learn how their system works, so it all seems "magical" to them. However, that's just lack of knowledge. Meanwhile, people like you will market the snot out of it at any given opportunity, fawning over imaginary features of its design.
  Like the AC said, you're a shill.
91. Re:Just like Siri... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  "The option to install a third party keyboard (second post to this thread) doesn't add much complexity."
  It's whether or not you let 3rd-parties start mucking around in the system internals. Under iOS Apps are sandboxed so they can't do much mischief. Installing system level-code that has access to everything typed on the device?
  Things like that are a differentiation with Android. You should be pleased.
  Free and unrestricted access to system internals is also why the marketplace also has issues with malware. Again, tradeoffs.
  And your comments regarding the number of problems you've seen with Apple hardware run counter to their consumer satisfaction ratings.
  As to the "shill" remark.
  "You're a shill."
  "...you're simply incapable of understanding media. Asperger?"
  "I hope that when you grow up, you become more honest. Otherwise, you'll be unsuitable for politics."
  " Grow up or grow a brain, and your problems will solve themselves."
  "...is both wrong and moronic."
  Are you a child, unable to hold a calm, rational, adult-level conversation without always adding personal attacks and insults?
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
92. Re:Just like Siri... by MrHanky · 2011-10-24 09:21 · Score: 1
  
  I see no reason to hold a calm, rational discussion with someone whose sole reason for discussing is to do Apple's marketing work. You come here to advertise, I come here to flame people like you.
93. Re:Just like Siri... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 10:26 · Score: 1
  
  I come here to see what's going on, to learn, and to contribute. My opinions are mine and mine alone. If you come here solely to flame people who want to have adult discussions... and you get off on that...
  Sad, really.
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
94. Re:Just like Siri... by mattack2 · 2011-10-24 10:40 · Score: 1
  
  the most often suggested remedy, "repair permissions" NEVER EVER works.
  That's because it's a retarded suggested remedy. AFAIK, in one release, MANY MANY years ago, something messed up permissions on some important part of the OS, so the Repair Permissions UI was put in. But ever since then, it is not needed.
95. Re:Just like Siri... by mattack2 · 2011-10-24 10:46 · Score: 1
  
  Which is so much easier than "open calendar" *tap new appointment* "Set my mother's router" *click time*
  That didn't even meet all of the criteria (e.g. "when I leave the house") of the original reminder.
96. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 01:19 · Score: 1
  
  At the moment, the parent post is scored "Score:1, Insightful"...
  Gotta love slashdot, really. Maybe it's time to fix a couple of things. But how?
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
97. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 01:27 · Score: 1
  
  It looks like you missed the entire post. That's amazing.
  The point is not that Apple does everything that is conceivably smart, but that Apple tries very much to polish whatever they do. Now they miss things, and they fail on others. But they fail less because what they release is consistent in terms of quality - at least for the most part.
  When I installed Google's gmail app on my iPhone I was genuinely wondering what the fuck Google's engineers were thinking. I mean, I know Android, so I know better. But a clueless n00b would stumble on that piece of crap and instantly discard Google as a viable replacement for iOS. I mean, if they can release an app that mediocre, how can anyone really expect them to be able to release an entire mobile OS that works? Often, the first impression is the one that lasts longer.
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
98. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 01:37 · Score: 1
  
  You should take a step back, breathe deeply for about a minute, and reread the entire conversation. Indeed, you flame. Indeed he doesn't do any marketing. He is stating facts.
  You do a great disservice to the Android community, so please stop.
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
99. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 01:39 · Score: 1
  
  Where's the -1 fanboy mod?
  Up your ass ;-)
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
100. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 01:48 · Score: 1
  
  So, you've proved beyond any doubt that you've never tried Siri (more than a few minutes in an Apple Store that is).
  This is well and good since you'll get a fresh new eye on it if/when you try it for real. But why pretending it's useless then?
  I've had Siri for a couple of weeks. It's fine, and I don't find it all that useful. I'm not in the US so I'm missing many features, and that may be it. But clearly, it has no equivalent in the Android world that anyone has pointed out to me so far.
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
101. Re:Just like Siri... by MrHanky · 2011-11-03 06:01 · Score: 1
  
  Incorrect. The claim that denying users a choice in adequate keyboards makes a system easier to use is quite simply fraudulent. You call it fact, I call you a fucking cunt.
102. Re:Just like Siri... by Pieroxy · 2011-11-03 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  Oooohhhh, but we got ourselves a nice little animal over there! You don't agree with someone so the someone if a fucking cunt. That's nice!
  Were you born with all those two neurons or did you grow the second one afterwards?
  
  --
  Write boring code, not shiny code!
Why not just wave your arm in the air... by AugstWest · 2011-10-22 11:45 · Score: 2, Informative

...and shout, "Me too! Me too!"
1. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by ichthus · 2011-10-22 11:49 · Score: 2
  
  Like Apple did when they introduced Siri? ...cuz, Android had voice recognition and commands long ago. Admittedly, Siri is superior... now. But, DON'T EVEN.
  
  --
  sig: sauer
2. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by DesignShark · 2011-10-22 11:50 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It's more like, "We can replicate your revolutionary new technology in 8 hours, big woop."
3. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:52 · Score: 0
  
  Why should they not make a voice command thingy? Is it an unnecessary feature, in your opinion? I think it might be useful, so I think it should be done Irregardespectively of whether if the Apple phone has one or not. (i.e. moot!)
4. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:55 · Score: 0
  
  Actually if you want to be pedantic, Apple had them before Android. iOS was released a year before Android and it's always had basic voice commands.
5. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:58 · Score: 0
  
  Except, of course, for the part where they couldn't do anything remotely like that.
6. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-22 12:01 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Siri is much more than voice recognition. However, it was not developed by Apple. It was a 3rd party application created out of a bigger AI product, and was originally going to target all the smartphone platforms. Apple simply bought the firm and the technology, and shut down development for other platforms.
7. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 12:09 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Apple didn't shout "Me too!". They quietly demonstrated how well it worked.
  There are people who are going to think Apple did it first, just like they do with GUIs, smartphones and tablets. The onus is on the whole rest of the industry to start delivering products and services that work as well as Apple's do so that Apple can't keep using that strategy. Currently, the whole rest of the industry seems content to look like chumps and, yes, "Me-too"-ists.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
8. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:11 · Score: 0
  
  Why would you shout "Me too! Me too!" if you don't care?
9. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:11 · Score: 0
  
  iOS has had voice commands since at least the release of the 3GS. Siri replaces it.
10. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by rockout · 2011-10-22 12:21 · Score: 1
  
  There are people who are going to think Apple were first to do it for the masses, just like they do with GUIs, smartphones and tablets.
  And they were.
  Okay, that's probably not what you meant, but it's more accurate. At the end of the day, if the nerds don't care for Apple and would rather use something else, fine. But to argue that there's some value in being first when your product "exceeded consumers' fiddle tolerance" (great way to put it earlier, sarhjinian, I thank you) and not enough people bought it to make it huge... well, that's just silly.
  
  --
  I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
11. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by CaymanIslandCarpedie · 2011-10-22 12:28 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I'm still forced to have BB for work, but my wife has android. She has had a few voice apps and not sure which one she is currently using, but I think it may be called something like vlingo (or at least one of them was). She now does just about everything by voice. When she is in the car she turns on a setting and whenever she receives a text the phone announces who sent the text and reads it to her, etc, etc, etc.
  Haven't seen Siri, but seems Android has "had some apps for that" for some time.
  
  --
  "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
12. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by thrillseeker · 2011-10-22 12:31 · Score: 1
  
  For sufficiently limited definitions of remotely, correct.
13. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by larry+bagina · 2011-10-22 12:41 · Score: 1
  
  What happens when you tell it to call your wife? What happens when you tell it to remind you to buy milk when you leave work?
  
  --
  Do you even lift?
  These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
14. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by cgenman · 2011-10-22 12:45 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Android voice recognition is equivalent to voice commands. "Open Internet Explorer... Highlight Search Box... Type 'weather, return.'"
  Siri is a heck of a lot more interesting. Siri is a first grasp at understanding intent. "Is it going to rain tomorrow?" "Text my wife that I'll be there in 5 minutes." "Remind me at 6PM tomorrow to call the doctor." "How do I get home?"
  Now, it's not perfect. Siri is damned slow, when it runs at all. And it works a lot better in the sorts of quiet places where you probably shouldn't be talking into a phone. And it was bought by apple, rather than being initially developed by them. But it's interesting in that it forms relational databases about the world around you, and starts to correlate bits of information. It's not just voice recognition, it's meaning recognition.
  
  --
  The ______ Agenda
15. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 12:55 · Score: 1
  
  I'd expect it to be used in the car for it's handsfree capability. And in a one-man office for it's dictation ability. The office is going to be quiet. How does it perform in a car? I'm guessing that ordinary car noises won't particularly disrupt it, but who's tried it?
16. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by aristotle-dude · 2011-10-22 13:09 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Like Apple did when they introduced Siri? ...cuz, Android had voice recognition and commands long ago. Admittedly, Siri is superior... now. But, DON'T EVEN.
  Are you sure about that? Apple released Voice control with the iPhone 3GS on June 19, 2009 and demoed it on Jun 8, 2009. Google followed with Voice Commands in Froyo (2.2) about a year later but supporting only a fraction of the languages supported by the Apple feature.
  Siri is more advanced than Voice Control/Voice Commands in that it understands natural language, can remember things like who your wife is, where your work is and where home is and then follow commands in the future when you mention those things. It also is able to follow the context of a conversation. So if you ask about London, England in the previous question and then ask "What's the weather like today", Siri infers that you are asking about London instead of where you currently are unless if you say "What's the weather like here?".
  Siri is the off shoot of work at DARPA with SRI international on the PAL/CALO project. PAL stand for Personal Assistant that Learns. Good luck implementing AI in a couple of days.
  
  --
  Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
17. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by PNutts · 2011-10-22 13:10 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Siri is a heck of a lot more interesting. Siri is a first grasp at understanding intent. "Is it going to rain tomorrow?" "Text my wife that I'll be there in 5 minutes." "Remind me at 6PM tomorrow to call the doctor." "How do I get home?"
  We told SIri, "Eat shit" and she listed local restaurants in order from worst to best.
18. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by hedwards · 2011-10-22 13:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  And so is the equivalent that Google Voice Actions provides, apart from not being able to set appointments, I don't see anything that Siri can do that Google Voice Actions can't. The only major difference I see is natural language support with Siri, but it's still limited to the same basic list of tasks and comes with the downside of having to figure out what's being said and match that up to a particular command rather than just identifying the command.
  Looking at the list of Siri features, I'm not seeing anything that makes me want Siri.
19. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by hedwards · 2011-10-22 13:33 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Those are all things you can do with Google Voice Actions. Admittedly you're restricted in terms of how you phrase it, but it's dishonest to suggest that any of that stuff doesn't work with Google Voice Actions.
  Siri is ultimately at a disadvantage for taking that route, because ultimately it has to have much better comprehension of the spoken words as it can't count on matching just most of the command before worrying about what to do with the input. Basically it's the difference between Palm's Graffiti and whatever you call the MS Win CE version that was much more flexible in how the user drew the letters.
20. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by CharlyFoxtrot · 2011-10-22 13:43 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It doesn't matter if you're the first to do it, what matters is if you're the first to do it well and are successful at it. Ford wasn't the first to make cars, and yet he's remembered as the father of the modern car industry. The dustbin of history is filled with failures who were there first ( and Apple nearly went in that dustbin once.)
  
  --
  If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
21. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 13:51 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, you're talking about Vlingo and yes, it works pretty well. It's hampered by the platform, and it's not as good as Siri but it's reasonably close.
  I have it for BlackBerry, and where it falls down is that it feels like a bolt-on where Siri seems more baked-in.
  
  --
  --srj/mmv
22. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:56 · Score: 1
  
  It's innovative vision to see decent technologies enhance them and integrate them into your hottest product. How many excellent tech companies go under due to lack of funding. How many projects don't get started because of this. Apple didn't invent it, but they are the first to correctly utilize touch and voice interaction in a major consumer product. And if that's not enough they caused an entire market to wake up. Sounds to me like the right stuff.
23. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by whoop · 2011-10-22 14:09 · Score: 1
  
  Google has been answering natural language questions for a long time. I know many people that just type "Where is Amazon?" into Google's search box. I don't know of the ones who type "amazon.com" in Google's box are better or worse than them though...
  That said, the regular Voice Search app on Android is pretty good. I watched a Siri demo on Youtube and asked the same questions they did. Android did quite well at keeping up with it. The results are spoken back to me, but that's certainly possible. I was talking with my brother who gets every Iphone immediately about Siri. He mentioned setting his alarm when he's too lazy. So, I told my phone the same, "Set alarm 4:30am," and it worked. This wasn't documented by Google when they came out with the app. They only listed 6 or so functions (send text, send email, call, map to, etc). So, I'm not sure if it's Google's app which set the alarm or if my clock app (what comes with CM7) just hooked itself into the API. Nonetheless, it worked.
  I think I will be toying with this a lot more.
24. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by meta-monkey · 2011-10-22 14:40 · Score: 1
  
  iPhones have had voice commands for a long time, too. On my iPhone 3gs I was able to tap my bluetooth earpiece and say "Call Steve" and it would dial Steve from my address book for me. The difference with Siri is that it's a natural language processor, so it can understand and intelligently respond to a much wider range of queries instead of just a small list of fixed commands.
  
  I upgraded to the 4s and have played around some with Siri, and I like it so far. For some tasks it is definitely faster to just talk to Siri. For instance, it is faster to say "Schedule 'Lunch at Chez Whatevers' tomorrow at 1pm" to add a new appointment than it is to unlock the phone, nav to the calendar app, click on tomorrow, click the "new entry" button, scroll to the correct times, type the entry title and save the changes. And it's certainly easier and safer to do while driving.
  
  It's a neat feature and I'm glad Apple added it. Good for Android developers that they can make something similar.
  
  --
  We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
25. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:02 · Score: 0
  
  These systems have been used on Windows platforms in enterprise for years, we trialled a system probably 4 years ago now which was natural voice recognition linked up with a assisted learning AI for use in an expert system. This is not new.
26. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by dragonturtle69 · 2011-10-22 15:07 · Score: 1
  
  Dude, seriously, "she"?
  
  --
  "What luck for the rulers that men do not think." - Adolph Hitler
27. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by PitaBred · 2011-10-22 15:49 · Score: 1
  
  I see you haven't used Android much. I've been able to dictate text in any app that used the keyboard since Android 2.1 released. So for almost 2 years now. As well as having the voice commands. Yes, the control of the phone is more simplistic with the voice commands on Android, but being able to dictate an email and such has been great on Android for a long time now.
  
  --
  My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
28. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by msobkow · 2011-10-22 15:51 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  Is doing it with a portable CPU supposed to mean it's novel?
  Dragon Naturally Speaking.
  Why is every generation so naive as to think their use of an old technology is always revolutionary instead of evolutionary? Why the incessant greedy claims of "my favourite brand did it first" in the face of facts?
  No doubt Siri has advanced and evolved compared to early relases of Dragon, but people have been working on the idea and enhancing long before your iPhone existed.
  You young/'uns really need to do more reading up on relevant histry and come to the realization that the only thing holding us back has been lack of portable CPU power. A buddy of mine combined his AI and graphics classes, for example, coming up with a project that did image analysis to identify the human, analyze it, and target the torso. It took over 8 hours to run on the old 1MIP VAX, but it did work. Audio analysis was being done (i.e. voice recognition), just far from realtime.
  Show a little respect.
  Now get off my lawn. :p
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
29. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:14 · Score: 1
  
  The biggest problem with Open Source Software is usually that it reaches "good enough" for the developers long before it reaches "good enough" for a typical end user. The department I work in at work uses Mozilla Thunderbird for some of its quick and dirty little addons. It would be a great tool, but there are a lot of rough edges in its attempt to replace Outlook.
  For example, in any date field in Outlook I can key the phrase "the 3rd friday of next month" and have it determine what the date for that day is. In Thunderbird I would have to open up their little calendar, navigate to next month, figure out what the third friday is, etc.. It slows you down when you're in a meeting and someone mentions getting together, or gives you a deadline. You go to enter it into your task list but you have to spend 5 minutes figuring out what date you want it to fall on when the programmer could do some extra work and have the program figure it out for you.
  In a lot of cases it's actually worth paying a little money for something.
30. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2011-10-22 16:24 · Score: 2
  
  What? Seriously. Who uses the english like that?
  Siri rocks because of how it does those things. If I can't use natural language then that is the real disadvantage.
  
  --
  Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
31. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:32 · Score: 0
  
  It sounds like something trying to take us a step closer to Box from Space Cops. Perhaps more well known and obvious, the ship computer in TNG. Though I can see this as a popular fad, it is still no Box. It looks little more than a minor convenience for having a phone without a keyboard.
32. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by FooAtWFU · 2011-10-22 17:16 · Score: 1
  
  It doesn't matter if you're the first to do it, what matters is if you're the first to do it well and are successful at it.
  
  My Android phone had voice search for months, and I shocked an iPhone 4S user earlier today by demonstrating its existence. Probably 33% of Siri's utility right there, completely overlooked by everyone. Clearly you're right; getting there first was not enough for Google.
  
  --
  The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
33. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by rsborg · 2011-10-22 17:20 · Score: 0
  
  However, it was not developed by Apple. It was a 3rd party...
  You could say the same of Google and Android, or Microsoft and MS-DOS. However, the fact is, that the purchasing corporation deserves credit for seeing the possibilities with the smaller company and pushing the technology/product to mass-adoption... this is no trivial undertaking.
  
  --
  Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
34. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by CharlyFoxtrot · 2011-10-22 17:30 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, I was talking about tablets and smartphones not voice search. In other words we were talking about products, not features. We remember the first (successful) car not the guy who invented power steering. And as said elsewhere the iPhone came with voice control, Google then upped the ante with voice search and other services (many of which they've been reluctant to add to iOS versions of their apps) and now Apple has come back with Siri.
  
  --
  If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
35. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-22 17:55 · Score: 1
  
  The issue is that Apple killed Siri's Android development. Google, however, has kept Android in the commons: hence Cyanogenmod.
  Siri is an interestingly integrated set of functions, but is by no means revolutionary. The real point is that it is not a story of Apple's brilliance and Google imitation: it was Apple being first with a checkbook.
36. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Keen+Anthony · 2011-10-22 17:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Good question about younger generations. Just accept that the younger generation can never full grasp history because they will only ever learn about the products that either made it or that became legendary despite failing. That's why living it firsthand is such an awesome thing. That said, I'm tired of people with that Tourette Syndrome-like need to point out that Apple didn't invent X or Y. Apple is constantly the first to deliver new technologies as stock as opposed to a third-party tacked on upgrade. Regarding Siri, I truly don't give a damn if Apple didn't create the technology behind it. From all I've read, Apple hasn't attempted to conceal the fact that the tech comes from elsewhere, and I know of no Apple fanatics who are declaring that Apple invented it. What I have seen are Apple haters claim that Apple lovers are constantly making such statements. Apple merely has masterfully integrated that technology with a good product, and then shipped that product out to customers at a price that makes the product very accessible. And because Apple excels at doing this, Apple creates new markets and reduces the risks for the guys who follow. That is pure genius. And I say this as I look a Moto Xoom and wonder to myself: $800? How the hell did Motorola expect to sell any? Now, I don't know if I can ever use Siri. For me, there's something eerie about talking to a computer device and having it talk back. No thanks. I'd stick to good old Virtual Girlfriend Teri!
37. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Man+On+Pink+Corner · 2011-10-22 18:28 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Probably 33% of Siri's utility right there, completely overlooked by everyone.
  That remaining 67% is pretty important, it turns out. Google's voice-search app has been available for a long time on the iPhone as well, but it doesn't know what to do with Remind me to pick up lettuce at the grocery store or Wake me in two hours. (Also, and sadly typical of Google these days, its usability has degraded over time due to Google apparently hiring a team of monkeys on meth to maintain it, but that's neither here nor there.)
  I could point to several posts I made when the 4S was announced (on other forums with other account names) mocking the idea behind Siri and speech recognition in general. I got my phone a couple of days ago, and I am singing a different tune now. Siri is unquestionably more useful than a simple voice-search app.
  Siri is not "awesome" by any means... but, because it has a ridiculously good speech recognizer, and because its back end runs on a central server with every single instance of attempted usage available to the developers for refinement and curation, I believe it will indeed reach the "awesome" level eventually. Search is nowhere near the most important part of a system like this.
38. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 19:08 · Score: 0
  
  OK, but I want to say "Wake me at 6AM every weekday". Can you toy with that?
39. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by shutdown+-p+now · 2011-10-22 19:10 · Score: 1
  
  Why not just wave your arm in the air
  "Wave"? Why, yes, I'm sure an update for Kinect along these lines is in the works. ~
40. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Just_Say_Duhhh · 2011-10-22 19:33 · Score: 1
  
  Good luck implementing AI in a couple of days.
  Unless you're at IBM's TJ Watson reserach center, and have access to the Watson project. It could do this without breaking a sweat. In fact, I'd love an "ask Watson" app!
  
  --
  I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
41. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by msobkow · 2011-10-22 20:38 · Score: 1
  
  You do understand the importance of prior art for the inevitable patents and lawsuits that follow every product introduction Apple has done for the past several years? They've become much more damaging to the technology landscape than Microsoft's embrace-and-extend ever were. Microsoft tried to lock customers in; Apple is trying to eliminate competition entirely through legal means.
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
42. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by syousef · 2011-10-22 20:39 · Score: 1
  
  "Is it going to rain tomorrow?" "Text my wife that I'll be there in 5 minutes." "Remind me at 6PM tomorrow to call the doctor." "How do I get home?"
  "Siri has already told you to stop fucking skanks you pick up on the highway. It's going to rain shit for you tomorrow as I just texted your wife and included why you'll be there in 5 minutes. The doctor's appointment will show you have the clap. I have no idea how to get home because there is no satellite signal. Have you been fucking skanks under bridges again?"
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
43. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by syousef · 2011-10-22 20:40 · Score: 1
  
  Dude, seriously, "she"?
  You know imbeciles lose their mind when confronted with pseudo-AI. Stories about Eliza abound.
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
44. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by am+2k · 2011-10-22 22:05 · Score: 2
  
  Dude, seriously, "she"?
  Yes PNutts, don't anthropomorphize her, she doesn't like that.
45. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 22:22 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, Apple is really full of themselves. Just the other day I saw them try to take credit for making the first laser printer. They launched the Apple LaserWriter in 1985, only ten years after IBM launched the Model 3800. And Xerox was demonstrating functional network-connected laser printers four years before that!
46. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by scdeimos · 2011-10-22 22:28 · Score: 1
  
  And disappointingly, just like Iris, it can't be installed on an Android tablet device. Even though only two items in its feature list involve phone-specific features (making calls and sending SMS).
47. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 22:33 · Score: 0
  
  I thought Apple recently licensed some tech from Nuance who've been doing voice-based stuff for years - it's what they do. If so, then they've not actually invented anything (again), just built something on top of someone else's platform (again)
48. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 22:48 · Score: 0
  
  I was thinking exactly the same thing - if this Magical and Revolutionary (tm)(r)(p)(etc) technology from a huge multi-billion dollar corporation can be replicated by a handful of Android hackers in a day then it doesn't really say much (pun intended) for how truly 'innovative' Siri is.
  Just check out the real state of art from tech apple are likely just building a UI on top of. Stuff like Cepstral, Festival, Sphinx, Nuance TTS & VR systems who are some of the real players in this field and do real R&D daily. Plugging a VR & TTS into an AI like Alice or something isn't a huge leap of anything. The VR creates text from voice, the text gets piped into the AI, the AI splurges some possibly meaningful output text which is piped into the TTS. Suddenly you have the illusion of holding a conversation with your gadget.
  In fact in Linux it's likely possible to just type something similar to : sphinx [some input options] | alice | festival [some output options]
  Just hit enter for a machine you can 'converse with', != Magical or Revolutionary, been around for years.
49. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Fnkmaster · 2011-10-22 22:55 · Score: 1
  
  So far the one useful feature everybody seems to tout that Siri has that Voice Actions doesn't is that it can set timed notifications and alarms on the iPhone. I mean, that's cool and all, but really? That's not a killer feature and it could be added to Voice Actions in probably a matter of hours.
50. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 23:46 · Score: 0
  
  "...comes with the downside of having to figure out what's being said"
  You have an interesting meaning for the word 'downside'.
  The downside of being a primate is that you have to figure out how to make and use tools.
  The downside of a space rocket is that is has to go to space.
51. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 00:26 · Score: 0
  
  we hadthat 30 years ago, without voice
52. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Catnaps · 2011-10-23 00:33 · Score: 1
  
  Mod parent up, immediately :)
53. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 00:42 · Score: 0
  
  And what about that allowed android to travel back in time and come out before ios? You kids need to grow the fuck up, Apple is evil but pretending android is older or better than it is doesnt help us. Its the linux on desktops situation all over again with you asshats tryinng to pretend the cobbled together closed source mess on our android phones is all anyone should want.
54. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  Android had voice recognition and commands long ago
  So did iOS and Windows Mobile, Siri is not just voice commands any more than Microsoft Office is just a text editor like notepad.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
55. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:04 · Score: 1
  
  And you've not used an iPhone much, voice commands have been there for years as well. Siri IS NOT voice commands like you're thinking.
  The hardest part for my wife using Siri was to stop treating it like a computer and just talk to it like a person.
  You say: Create a reminder for when I leave the house or within the next 2 hours to check on the neighbors cat.
  And it reminds you when that happens. Its not dictation, its a freaking PDA in the literal sense.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
56. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:13 · Score: 1
  
  iOS has had voice commands since at least the 4, I think the 3GS supported them as well, but Siri is not 'voice commands' any more than Word is 'a text editor'
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
57. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 01:16 · Score: 1
  
  "The only major difference I see is natural language support with Siri,". That's a pretty major difference. That's like saying the only thing C has over assembly is it's a little easier to read but it really can't do anything assembly can't do.
58. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:17 · Score: 1
  
  It works fine in anything I get in except my car. My car is a 2 seat convertible so road and wind noise is MUCH higher than any normal modern car. On that note, in general the problems I have are solved by speaking up or holding the phone to my head. Typically it sits on top of my steering column, so I just speak up a little and it works fine. Occasionally it won't stop listening quickly, but it still tends to realize that I stopped talking earlier on and doesn't (most of the time) throw in the wrong thing.
  In my wifes car (A 12 year old Saturn) it works well enough that my wife can use it without me being able to understand what she's saying.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
59. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 01:25 · Score: 0
  
  does dragon infer meaning, or only figure out the actual words you are saying and translating them to text? If you say "enter today's temperature" does it enter today's temperature, or the phrase "enter today's temperature"?
60. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 01:26 · Score: 0
  
  That said, I'm tired of people with that Tourette Syndrome-like need to point out that Apple didn't invent X or Y.
  To be fair, I bet a far larger percentage of people are tired of hearing that Apple did invent X or Y when it's clearly obvious to anyone that knows what they're talking about that they did not. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Apple invented the tablet with the iPad." Point out that the tablet concept predates the iPad by decades, and all of a sudden you're one of the "people with that Tourette Syndrom-like need" you're bitching about.
  Over the past couple years, I've heard people try to tell me straight faced that Steve Jobs (and by extension, Apple) invented the Personal Computer, the Smart Phone, the Tablet, the Mouse, the GUI, Slide-to-unlock, the PDA...I could go on and on. I mean, nobody is arguing that Steve Jobs and Apple are not a great success and that they've brought a lot to computing in general, but the only place I've seen more revisionist history and twisting facts to fit an agenda is the ultra-religious right.
  It's okay to admit Apple did not invent the tablet. The iPad is still cool even if the concept did not originate within Apple. Why is it that so many hipsters and iCultists can't even acknowledge that fact? Everything we have is built upon something someone else did. Steve Jobs was not the Electric Jesus.
61. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 02:16 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, Apple shouted, "me too! Me too!" Android has had Edwin for over a year now.
62. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by CaptainOblivion · 2011-10-23 02:19 · Score: 1
  
  "Apple being first with a checkbook" IS Apple's brilliance.
63. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  I'd hardly call Mercedes a failure of history... (and they were making cars well before Ford)
  As for successful, that remains to be seen, Android outsells IPhone, and generally does just about everything better, Siri may be a very slight improvement on many of the existing voice apps (but only slight) and is likely to be at least matched if not outdone by the next generation of android voice apps due out very soon. Now I don't see Apply landing in the dustbin just yet, but Android isn't exactly headed there either.
64. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  the fact that you have to touch it already puts it a step behind applications such as vlingo (and makes it illegal to use it while operating a motor vehicle in my jurisdiction)
65. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by uglyduckling · 2011-10-23 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, doing it well with a handheld device is novel. Thousands of scientific paper abstracts start with the phrase "A novel application of...". A device in your hand that understands a subset of naturally spoken English and provides a comprehensive range of useful responses is revolutionary. It saddens me that so many self-professed geeks would rather gripe about the semantics of who was first rather than celebrate an excellent piece of AI technology.
66. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by uglyduckling · 2011-10-23 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  This is pretty normal though, isn't it? Ask a room full of nerds who invented the programmable computer, or who invented the electric light bulb. There's a lot of disagreement as to what counts as invention - first diagram, first proof of concept, first patent, first marketable product, first successful product. People like Apple because they bring polished products to market that do things that normal people want their devices to do, without getting in the way, and for that they get credit for many ideas.
67. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 07:57 · Score: 0
  
  Google might be using Cleverbot in some way?
68. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 09:54 · Score: 0
  
  It doesn't matter if you're the first to do it, what matters is if you're the first to do it well and are successful at it.
  My Android phone had voice search for months,
  The iPhone had voice search longer than just a few months. Are you trying to tell us how much Android sucks? Or just that you have no clue about iPhones?
69. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by WalrusSlayer · 2011-10-23 12:50 · Score: 1
  
  Vlingo has been around awhile on iOS too, so it's not like that's a case of "Android had it first". And having installed Vlingo on my iPhone, and subsequently picked a 4S, I can definitely say that Siri != Vlingo.
70. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by WalrusSlayer · 2011-10-23 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  Siri is ultimately at a disadvantage for taking that route, because ultimately it has to have much better comprehension of the spoken words as it can't count on matching just most of the command before worrying about what to do with the input.
  And yet it is suprisingly good at figuring out the command and parameters. You seem to be saying that Siri is worse because it doesn't force the user to speak as if it were typing commands in /bin/sh. Which is precisely why it is better than traditional voice recognition. I've used Google Voice, and I was a very frequenct user of the much-more-limited iOS 4 voice commands. Both worked well for their intended use. But Siri is a whole 'nother thing.
71. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by adolf · 2011-10-23 18:12 · Score: 1
  
  The same holds true for Google's voice search, which requires network communication in order to perform its duty: Presumably, every single instance of attempted usage is available to the developers for refinement and curation.
  What's to stop Siri from having its usability sadly degrade due to Apple hiring a team of monkeys on meth to maintain it?
  Meanwhile, I find Google's voice recognition to be ridiculously good as well, with two exceptions:
  1. It doesn't understand my wife's first name. It insists that it should be spelled with a Y where there is, in fact, an E, and refuses (or is unable) to perform any phonetic matching of the contents of my Contacts.
  2. It tends to put spaces into some acronyms. Saying "play Skrillex" works fine, but saying "play KMFDM" comes back with "K M F D M," which my music app(s) can't (and shouldn't have to) parse into something usable.
  But it seems to work quite well for composing a text message, finding directions, or calling anyone but my wife, and it gets better with age as it learns my particular monotone mumble.
  What it doesn't have is any semblance of AI, which I'm OK with...though AI has potential to be handy.
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
72. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 01:36 · Score: 1
  
  "However, it was not developed by Apple."
  Shall we talk about a little company that Google acquired a few years back named Android, Inc.?
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
73. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 01:49 · Score: 1
  
  "The onus is on the whole rest of the industry to start delivering products and services that work as well as Apple's do so that Apple can't keep using that strategy."
  Right. Only they can't. Or won't. It takes care and attention to detail and it takes time and money that many are simply unwilling to spend.
  Or they do try, and then find out that it's not quite that simple. Look at all of the companies that 'dissed the Air, then went begging to Intel for bargains on their processors because they found that they simply couldn't match Apple's quality level AND Apple's price.
  Or how HP dropped WebOS when they found that they'd need to spend a few years (and dollars) catching up in the market.
  Or as the old saying goes, "If it were easy, everyone would do it."
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
74. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by MachineShedFred · 2011-10-24 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  If we're being honest, Apple had the same kind of voice control that Android uses on System 7 (before the Mac OS rebrand) on the Macintosh Centris 660AV and Quadra 840AV in 1993.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Quadra_840AV
  It didn't work very well either, but it was only working with a 40 Mhz 68040 processor, 8MB of RAM, and software of almost 20 years ago.
  Between that, and the speech-to-text on the Newton, I would say that Apple has far more experience with this than most other software-publishing companies.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
75. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 01:58 · Score: 1
  
  "No doubt Siri has advanced and evolved compared to early relases of Dragon, but people have been working on the idea and enhancing long before your iPhone existed."
  As you may or may not know, Dragon is a product by a company named Nuance. Nuance provides Siri's speech-to-text recognition, the result of which is then handled off to Siri's NLP (natural language processing) servers for analysis and action.
  So the front-end of Siri is Dragon. The back end, however, is something different...
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
76. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-24 06:39 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think Google is being lauded as the genius behind Android. The narrative about Google is different, often involving its strength in creating platforms for open-source/community development, support for speculative research, etc. Apple is associated with a culture of design. In any case, the Android that Google bought, 3 major versions ago, is very different than the one that exists now.
77. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by shmlco · 2011-10-24 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  Odd, the direction of the commentary seemed to be that since Siri was acquired by Apple (over a year ago), Apple deserved no credit whatsoever for their foresight, integration, or for Siri's continued development.
  "The narrative about Google is different, often involving its strength in creating platforms for open-source/community development..."
  Yep, smart marketing move there. They're very involved in open sourcing technology and creating platforms for development...
  Except when they refuse to do so (search and map technology), or when it suits them (withholding "open" source for the "good" of the platform), or when they allow carriers to lock down their technology for them, or when they create platforms for development that they then shut down (Translate API's), or create features and technology that they then retract and subvert to their own ends (Reader features being removed in order to force people into Google+).
  "In any case, the Android that Google bought, 3 major versions ago, is very different than the one that exists now."
  As is the company itself.
  http://www.isights.org/2011/04/google-do-no-evil.html
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
78. Re:Why not just wave your arm in the air... by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-24 08:19 · Score: 1
  
  Siri is closer to what it was then than Android is. Android 1. wasn't open source when Google acquired it, 2. didn't have a Linux kernel.
  Google is not a completely open source company. There are plenty of exceptions . But they are far more a research-oriented company than Apple is. And much friendlier to open source and open ecosystems - even to the detriment of a predictable user experience.
  The ethics of these companies is a separate issue. All corporations are rotten to the core. Loyalty to a one over another is like preferring Fascism to Stalinism, or vice versa. I'll be far happier when they are superceded as a way of making and distributing things. For example, I admire Bill Gates for his philanthropy, recognize how much research Microsoft has sponsored, yet still think of Microsoft as a vicious organization. Corporate fandom is neurotic.
They stole that from Steve too! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:47 · Score: 0

In a couple days, Steve is going to roll away the stone, and sue all the Android people, then nuke them all from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.
1. Re:They stole that from Steve too! by Goose+In+Orbit · 2011-10-22 14:21 · Score: 1
  
  And then sue the Catholic Church for implying that other people might have come back from the dead... when he invented it
attention editors: by larry+bagina · 2011-10-22 11:47 · Score: 1

do you even north checking if things like links work?

--
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
1. Re:attention editors: by RoFLKOPTr · 2011-10-22 12:03 · Score: 2
  
  do you even north checking if things like links work?
  It's not like anybody clicks those things... so why bother?
2. Re:attention editors: by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:57 · Score: 0
  
  No no, you got it completely wrong. Extremely many slashdotters click on the links, thats why sites get slashdotted. Don't confuse "clicking on the links" with "reading the fine article", that's something completely different.
3. Re:attention editors: by Noughmad · 2011-10-22 18:30 · Score: 1
  
  Slashdot article readers and Slashdot article commenters are two disjoint groups. However, this does not imply that the first group must be empty.
  
  --
  PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
"How is Iris like Siri?" by tomhudson · 2011-10-22 11:50 · Score: 4, Funny

You asked "How is Iris like Siri?"
"One moment ... I don't know."
"How is Iris different from Siri?"
You asked "How is Iris different from Siri?"
"One moment ... Iris is backwards."
"Should this have been posted on slashdot?"
You asked "Should this have been posted on slashdot?"
"One moment ... That is what idle.slashdot.org is for."
"Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
You asked "Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
"As opposed to the rest of the time?"
1. Re:"How is Iris like Siri?" by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:02 · Score: 0
  
  "Siri Envy?"
  You asked "Are you envious of Siri?"
  "One moment...No. Are you supposed to be?".
2. Re:"How is Iris like Siri?" by Culture20 · 2011-10-22 14:10 · Score: 2
  
  "Siri Envy?"
  You asked "Are you envious of Siri?"
  "We are here to talk about you, not me. Is it because of your mother that you ask me about are you envious of Siri?"
3. Re:"How is Iris like Siri?" by martin-boundary · 2011-10-22 18:38 · Score: 1
  
  You asked "How is Iris like Siri?"
  Why do you say
  you asked how is iris like siri?
  "One moment ... I don't know."
  Is it because of your plans that you say
  "one moment you do not know?
  Are you sure that is the real reason?
  Is it because is the real reason that you came to me?
  "How is Iris different from Siri?"
  Maybe your life has something to do with this.
  You asked "How is Iris different from Siri?"
  Does it bother you that is iris different from siri?
  "One moment ... Iris is backwards."
  What makes you believe
  "one moment iris is backwards?
  Earlier you said is the real reason?
  Perhaps my plans that I say one moment I do not know have something to
  do with this.
  "Should this have been posted on slashdot?"
  Is it because of the people you hang around with that you say
  "should this have been posted on slashdot?
  You asked "Should this have been posted on slashdot?"
  You mentioned that is iris different from siri?
  "One moment ... That is what idle.slashdot.org is for."
  When did you first know that is what idle slashdot org is for?
  Is the fact that is what idle slashdot org is for the real reason?
  Does the fact that is what idle slashdot org is for the real reason
  explain anything else?
  "Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
  What happened when nobody's there?
  You asked "Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
  What would happen if nobody's there?
  "As opposed to the rest of the time?"
  Is it because of problems at school that you are going through all
  this?
4. Re:"How is Iris like Siri?" by tomhudson · 2011-10-22 20:37 · Score: 1
  
  DR. SBAITSO, I presume?
5. Re:"How is Iris like Siri?" by martin-boundary · 2011-10-23 00:20 · Score: 1
  
  Doctor Who?
Re:What would be funny? by DavidinAla · 2011-10-22 11:50 · Score: 1

Please tell me you're not stupid enough (or ignorant enough) to think Siri is the same thing that Android has had. If you are, you're a moron or such a fanboy that you can't bother to understand the substantial differences.
No, Siri-ously by xkr · 2011-10-22 11:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

This reminds me of when the Chinese tried to copy a 747. They made it out of wood, and got the center of gravity wrong. Is it a plane?
In the youtube demo, it missed every question.

--
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
1. Re:No, Siri-ously by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:46 · Score: 0
  
  I would say Siri is about 97% accurate for me so far. Is English (or German or French) not your first language?
2. Re:No, Siri-ously by caseih · 2011-10-22 16:48 · Score: 1
  
  Highly unlikely story. Indeed a quick google search reveals the story of the Y-10, but not a 747 and not wood. From what I can tell your little example is rubbish. Can't argue with the last part though. Iris doesn't do anything for me. Hope Siri works better or it's rubbish too.
  BTW, plywood is a fairly good composite material (essentially carbon fibre and resin) and Howard Hughes built a plane bigger than a 747 out of it, and it almost flew. Certainly it would have flown with more power. And that certainly is a plane.
Typical of the Android community by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:51 · Score: 0

Garbage by academic let alone product standards, a me-too for the sake of not feeling too bad.
similar tech by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:51 · Score: 0

Yeah because android developers can similar technology within a few days. Maybe they've been developing it for awhile? Only to have Apple release theirs first.
Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by SalsaDoom · 2011-10-22 11:52 · Score: 0

Whats the point of this crap? Are you seriously going to walk around talking to your damn phone? You look like a moron just talking to someone on a bluetooth headset and thats at least practical for some things. Now Apple thinks whats really the next cool looking is jabbering to your phone and not even to someone on the other end. Google could have pretty easily passed on this one, trust me, the shine of "look at me talk to my phone" is going to wear off pretty fast when you actually try to use it in public somewhere.
For centuries humans have used talking-to-objects as a quick and easy way to identify the crazy people. Its going to take a long time for that particular bit of practicality to lose its meaning.
Stupid copy of a stupid idea.

--
"Computers will never truly be free until the last windows user is strangled with the entrails of the last mac user."
1. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by DJRumpy · 2011-10-22 12:02 · Score: 2
  
  You should probably tell that to the people who have been working on voice recognition for decades. There is an obvious want/need for it, and only now is the processing power available via either the net or locally to make it worthwhile. This has been the geek dream for years to be able to talk to their computer (star trek). Claiming it's a non-story smacks of a little envy. I have no doubt that the Android developers will eventually get something more workable and similar to Siri, but this is not it.
  The demo looks more like pre-alpha.
2. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by scottbomb · 2011-10-22 12:22 · Score: 1
  
  You have a good point. Background noise is one of the many reasons why I refuse to talk to a machine when calling a company.
  Personally, I have no use for this. I've had Google Voice on my Android phone for quite some time but the only time I use it is for hands-free dialing and navigation.
3. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by icebraining · 2011-10-22 12:52 · Score: 1
  
  First, if you're bounded by what random people on the street think you, I feel sad for you.
  Second, people use their phone in other places, like their homes, cars and such.
  Third, Google didn't make this, some random company did.
  
  --
  Dilbert RSS feed
4. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by MightyYar · 2011-10-22 13:17 · Score: 1
  
  I know everyone doesn't commute to work, but don't you see how this might appeal to people whose hands/attention is otherwise occupied?
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
5. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 13:36 · Score: 1
  
  Are you really so self conscious you feel embarassed about talking into a phone in public? You need to get out a bit more. Maybe find some confidence boosting activities.
6. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by bonch · 2011-10-23 11:18 · Score: 1
  
  Whats the point of this crap? Are you seriously going to walk around talking to your damn phone?
  Yes, talking into a phone is total madness! What do they think phones are for, anyway?
7. Re:Its stupid like Siri is stupid. by MachineShedFred · 2011-10-24 02:01 · Score: 1
  
  Like I posted previously, Apple's been working on this for 20+ years.
  The inspiration behind Siri was Apple's "Knowledge Navigator" presentation from the late 1980s. The developers admitted it when they launched the iPhone app a couple years ago. Irony: in the video they produced, the date was September 2011. Guess they missed it by a month.
  Apple shipped the Centris 660AV and Quadra 840AV Macs in 1993 that optionally used speech recognition to control the Finder. On a 40Mhz 68040 with 8MB of RAM. Almost 20 years ago.
  They have a lot of experience with this stuff, and are only now implementing it in a reasonable way because it's only now matured to a point where they can.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Re:Jeez by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:53 · Score: 1

hurr bunch of random developers develop an app
durr rag on android as a platform for not being original enough
Re:Jeez by Nidi62 · 2011-10-22 11:57 · Score: 4, Insightful

Does Android do anything original?
Because Siri is original? And so is a black rectangle with rounded edges?

--
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Unpolished?!?! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 11:58 · Score: 0

unpolished, but shows promise
What? On Android? Impossible!
Re:Speaking of missing the point... by bmuon · 2011-10-22 11:59 · Score: 2

I think the ones that missed the point were the developers and reporters. The whole point of an AI helper is that it behaves as if it were alive, and there is absolutely no way you can accomplish that in 8 hours of work. It's the details that matter for the life-like experience, not the general idea.
Re:Jeez by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-22 11:59 · Score: 5, Informative

Siri was developed from technology created at the SRI in Palo Alto. It was a company which used technology spun of from CALO and PAL, two major (and intertwined) research initiatives funded partially by public funds. Siri spun off and began developing for iOs, Android and the Blackberry.
Apple simply bought Siri and shut down development for Android and the Blackberry. The core technologies remain available at https://pal.sri.com/Plone - it is not a matter of Apple having developed anything original at all.
No. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:00 · Score: 0

There are a lot of us who don't want to be talking TO our phones, only THROUGH them.
A few hours? by __aazsst3756 · 2011-10-22 12:00 · Score: 3, Interesting

mmmmk.
The real Siri grew out of one of the largest artificial intelligence Darpa funded projects ever. Then SRI raised 24 million to continue development. Then Apple bought the company and threw a lot of man hours refining it further.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri_(software)
And they successfully copied it in a few hours? Should fit right in on the Android app store.
1. Re:A few hours? by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-22 12:10 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  The core technology is available for download from SRI's website. Siri had exclusive licensing within a domain, but that was with the understanding that it would be cross-platform in the smart-phone sector. If Apple doesn't restart development for Android etc., it may make an interesting case whether they can keep exclusivity on non-iOs platforms.
2. Re:A few hours? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:20 · Score: 1
  
  Apple didn't buy SRI. They bought a company that was using the technology (as many others are welcome to). No harm, no foul.
Wow, only 8 hours?!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:02 · Score: 0

Only 8 hours to excrete another Android cr-app?
Re:Speaking of missing the point... by DJRumpy · 2011-10-22 12:03 · Score: 1

Absolutely. I'm doing it right now on the highwa#@#??AstXA
roll your own by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:04 · Score: 0

Get a real gnu/linux phone instead and put some open source speech recognition on it from http://simon-listens.org/
It might be less shiny and it might not be as good, technically, but it's free as in freedom. Don't you like freedom? Terrorists don't like freedom. Don't be a terrorist.
1. Re:roll your own by Reality+Master+101 · 2011-10-22 16:41 · Score: 1
  
  Speech recognition is not what we're talking about. Natural language processing is what we're talking about.
  
  --
  Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Re:What would be funny? by mehemiah · 2011-10-22 12:05 · Score: 1

uh what? that was hypothetical. He says "what if" android had the whole combination of voice recognition and lingual interpretation that Siri is, and had it first.
Re:Jeez by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:07 · Score: 0

Because Siri is original? And so is a black rectangle with rounded edges?
So, is this still an point FOR Android that STILL gets modded up two points? Doh!
Slashdot is full of fuck!
"Shows promise"? "Accurate results"? by Pento · 2011-10-22 12:07 · Score: 1

It reminds me of DragonDictate, in that there is no connection between what I say and what it thinks I said. Google Voice Search does a better job of imitating Siri than Iris does.
It's crap... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:08 · Score: 0

It couldn't even tell me how many Volkswagens were available at the market.
How some become rich, but you are annoyed by cvtan · 2011-10-22 12:09 · Score: 0

1) Invent new feature that is sure to revolutionize the computer world. 2) No one wants it, so you are driven from the market in shame. 3) 10 years later, Apple re-introduces the feature no one wanted. 4) Market goes crazy and Apple becomes rich. Much head-shaking ensues. 5) Copycats try to reproduce the feature, but fail because they are not Apple. 6) This is really annoying.

--
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
1. Re:How some become rich, but you are annoyed by robot256 · 2011-10-22 12:41 · Score: 1
  
  You forgot to mention that the reason no one wanted your feature was that in spite of its awesome potential, you were so excited to see it working that you did not polish it enough to be usable. Then Apple comes along, does the polishing, and everybody loves it. The copycats think they can do the same thing cheaper without the polishing, and discover that the polish is the most important part of the whole thing.
  Honestly, I love to bash Apple's policies as much as the next guy, but you have to admit they do one thing almost nobody else does: wait for a product to fully mature before releasing it. It seems they are the only ones with enough time/money/developers/balls/brains/whatever to suck it up and delay the release by the extra 6 months needed to get 99.99% of the bugs out, not just 99% of them. The comments above all point out how lots of Android tablets best the iPad on paper, but in reality totally suck to use. The fact that Apple consistently puts in the effort to make their software user friendly is what gives them their status in the market today.
  (My first and only experience with tablets and Android was a Viewsonic G-tablet I bought a few weeks ago, and have since returned because of a bad sound card. But even so, the stock interface was total crap, and it was only reasonably usable under Cyanogenmod. It's not hard to see how an iPad could beat that.)
2. Re:How some become rich, but you are annoyed by Rising+Ape · 2011-10-22 13:00 · Score: 0
  
  Honestly, I love to bash Apple's policies as much as the next guy, but you have to admit they do one thing almost nobody else does: wait for a product to fully mature before releasing it.
  Is why the help application didn't work properly for months on Tiger? Pretty basic thing to overlook. Having to get my soldering iron out to replace the battery in my iPod Touch isn't exactly the epitome of user friendliness either, and neither is Safari crashing frequently on it.
3. Re:How some become rich, but you are annoyed by epine · 2011-10-22 14:26 · Score: 1
  
  enough time/money/developers/balls/brains/whatever to suck it up and delay the release by the extra 6 months
  Hiding under "whatever" you missed a big one: the closed platform. The competition starts with the same number of bugs per platform, but has to remove them 100 times.
  In hockey, the secret of coaching success is a good goaltender. In software development, the secret to success is a monopoly over the kind of consumer who doesn't expect to play on home turf. In essence, the competition implements one extra feature, and it's a doozy: Able to run on a machine of your choice, configuration, and convenience.
  Both models suck, one way or another.
4. Re:How some become rich, but you are annoyed by Rising+Ape · 2011-10-23 23:15 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, criticising Apple is now trolling is it? Everything I said there was true. God save us from fanboys with mod points.
Re:Jeez by DigiShaman · 2011-10-22 12:10 · Score: 1, Insightful

Does Android do anything original?
Yes. They don't do the whole walled garden thing, and there are many Android phones not all made by the same company.
You know, Steve Jobs wanted to "help the world" yet at the same time, keep all innovation and barriers to entry high and out reach from many citizens ability to afford. Well Steve, you may be a genius. But you're still another baby-boomer hippie asshole!!!

--
Life is not for the lazy.
iris not siri ? by formfeed · 2011-10-22 12:11 · Score: 1

Good thing, Apple didn't name it Anna or Bob
1. Re:iris not siri ? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:20 · Score: 0
  
  Or "Gabehcuod"
2. Re:iris not siri ? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:41 · Score: 0
  
  Microsoft already did Bob.
3. Re:iris not siri ? by game+kid · 2011-10-22 13:51 · Score: 1
  
  ...and Anna.
  
  --
  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Re:Jeez by Nidi62 · 2011-10-22 12:15 · Score: 1

So, is this still an point FOR Android that STILL gets modded up two points? Doh! Slashdot is full of fuck!
If you weren't so quick to rag on anything that points out the hypocrisy of Apple and it's supporters, you would have noticed that my post hasn't been modded up at all yet.

--
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Vlingo does it better. by Eric+Freyhart · 2011-10-22 12:20 · Score: 1, Troll

Try Vlingo from the Android Market. Does exactly what Siri does, been out for a year, and its better, and its free. I never understood why everyone buying an Apple Fondlebrick thinks they invented it first.
1. Re:Vlingo does it better. by citizenr · 2011-10-22 12:53 · Score: 1
  
  Try Vlingo from the Android Market. Does exactly what Siri does, been out for a year, and its better, and its free.
  I never understood why everyone buying an Apple Fondlebrick thinks they invented it first.
  ask your vlingo for the meaning of life
  then tell it your drunk
  and want to fuck
  compare to siri, this is why people are in love with siri, it understands language, not words
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
2. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:04 · Score: 0
  
  Siri sounds pretty worthless as anything but a toy for the simple minded. The rest of us will continue using the superior alternatives.
  Telling Siri you're drunk is probably hilarious the first time. Maybe even the second time, since Siri typically contains two different canned responses. If you're still amused the third time, well.. the iPhone needs users, too.
3. Re:Vlingo does it better. by hey! · 2011-10-22 13:08 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure it does "exactly what Siri does"; from the demos I've seen of Vlingo it accomplishes the same things but in a different way, and the way something is done can have a big impact on usability.
  What's really impressive about Siri isn't the voice recognition; Android phones have been doing that from the start. What's really impressive is its natural language processing abilities. I haven't used either, but from I've seen both apps allow you to search and handle messaging with voice control, but Siri allows you to interact with the app in a much more natural way -- more like talking to a person than speaking an incantation.
  Does it matter? Impressive as the linguistic abilities Siri displays are, at present I don't think it matters very much. You can get the job done without needing an AI assistant that understands the difference between a definite and indefinite article or can figure out what a pronoun referring back to an earlier sentence means. As the applications become more ambitious, maybe.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
4. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:15 · Score: 0
  
  "The rest of you" is about 10 people because, outside of Siri, no one really uses voice control. Why? Because it sucks.
5. Re:Vlingo does it better. by LynnwoodRooster · 2011-10-22 13:18 · Score: 1
  
  Uhhh, those questions are what friends are for. Sorry, nevermind - forgot I was answering someone on /.....
  
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  Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
6. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 13:31 · Score: 2
  
  Yes, it's been out on Android for a year. Which means it was behind all the other phone platforms for availability of Vlingo.
  BlackBerry Jun 2008
  iPhone Dec 2008
  Nokia May 2009
  Windows Mobile June 2009
  Android March 2010
  The difference with Vlingo is the processing is done on a web-service. So you need a data connection, if you have a limited data plan you'll use some of it, it doesn't integrate as well with the built-in apps as Siri does.
  As to which is better, that takes someone do do a side by side review of the two. Which I'm damn sure you haven't.
  http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=siri+vs+vlingo&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=jG2jTrXUDNK78gP96cDKBQ
7. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Taagehornet · 2011-10-22 13:37 · Score: 1
  
  I don't remember when and why I added you to my friends list, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of THAT
  ;-)
8. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Thing+1 · 2011-10-22 14:16 · Score: 1
  
  I haven't used either, but from I've seen both apps allow you to [...]
  Wlel, I konw taht one can raed wrdos taht are slepled wtih olny the frist and lsat ltertes in the rgiht palces, and now I am albe to croerclty raed yuor snetecne wtih a wrod msisnig! I geuss taht's jsut waht hpapnes as you age...
  
  --
  I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
9. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Eric+Freyhart · 2011-10-22 15:02 · Score: 1
  
  Vlingo really operates much the same way as Siri. But to prove a point, I was listening to a radio broadcaster use Siri on the air, and to demonstrate he asked Siri a question: How far is it from the earth to the moon? Siri waited a about 5 seconds, then displayed the answer on his fondlebrick that he read back over the air. I tried it using Vlingo on my Android phone, and not only did it give the answer faster, it actually read the result back to me using the built in speak engine. Yep, the fondlebrick is always slightly behind the curve.
  
  iPhone: Yesterday's technology wrapped in a shiny package and sold for twice the price today!
10. Re:Vlingo does it better. by King_TJ · 2011-10-22 15:11 · Score: 2
  
  Most of the people trying to compare Android apps to Siri have clearly never really used Siri first.
  I was experimenting with several of the so called "competitors to Siri" for Android just the other night, and Vlingo was one of them (as well as a free app called Edwin that came highly recommended).
  First off, Google Voice Search: Did a good job recognizing my speech but can't even speak back any replies, so NOTHING like Siri in that respect. Additionally, poor integration in some cases. (EG. If I ask it "Where are some Italian restaurants near me?", it fires up a Google search for "some Italian restaurants near me" and many strange results come back - as one might expect from such a query. It has no clue I have a copy of the Urbanspoon app installed on my phone, which woulds have been a FAR better program to pass the Italian restaurant search query to, if it was designed more intelligently.)
  Edwin: At least it can speak replies after I ask it things, but its recognition was notably worse than Google Voice Search. Integration was lousy. I could tell it to send an SMS and it would open up the "Messages" apps on my phone, but it wouldn't let me instruct it WHO to send the SMS to or let me dictate its contents. It only knew how to act as a program launcher for the stock app, basically -- which is utterly useless if I was driving and wanted to send an SMS hands-free or what-not.
  Vlingo: Somewhere between the above two in voice recognition skills. Again, integration is only half-baked though. Very limited vocabulary it understands too, so you have to study its built-in help to see what you can say to it -- or else constantly get "I didn't understand that." type replies back. Also, has advertising in the free version so really, you have to pay for this to get a fully working and non-annoying edition.
11. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Eric+Freyhart · 2011-10-22 15:40 · Score: 1
  
  No, I haven't done a side by side on these two apps. I only had a few minutes to test each on both platforms. But in those few minutes I came to the conclusion that 1: iPhone still sucks and is behind the curve (hell, my HTC EVO has better specs and cost less) and 2: Siri is just as useless as I thought it would be. But it is REALLY fun watching someone in an elevator talking to their phones over and over trying to get the thing to work instead of just pressing a button.
12. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Pence128 · 2011-10-22 16:00 · Score: 1
  
  Siri's head is in the clouds too.
  
  --
  404: sig not found.
13. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 23:16 · Score: 1
  
  But in those few minutes I came to the conclusion that 1: iPhone still sucks and is behind the curve
  As pointed out above, if Vlingo is your preference, then as pointed out above iPhone had it more than a year before Android. And the quality of the voice interpretation must be the same because it's using the same web service.
  The wider point is that the vast majority of app development happens on iPhone before Android. So it would be the very opposite of the truth to say that iPhone is behind the curve.
  And that's all allowing your opinion that Vlingo is better than Siri. Which isn't the opinion of those who've actually tried them side by side. Heck if Vlingo was better than Siri, Apple would have bought Vlingo rather then Siri.
  Finally, there's plenty of video around of pople using Siri. It's not the case that people have to say things over and over again to be understood. Which rather proves that the things you say aren't true.
14. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 23:21 · Score: 1
  
  You keep referring to the iPhone as a "fondlebrick", yet you own an Android that in your opinion is better. Does that mean you spend your time fondling your phone? Or are you such an Android fanboy that you think bizarre name-calling of inanimate objects helps make your case?
15. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BasilBrush · 2011-10-22 23:34 · Score: 1
  
  Ah that's a shame. I'm rather less impressed with it then.
16. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:37 · Score: 1
  
  While I think Siri is very impressive (not the pure tech, again, its the polish), it can not currently work with any non-Apple apps, there is no API access to other apps or anything like that at this time. Its good with built in apps, but it wouldn't know to use your Urbanspoon app either.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
17. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  fondlebrick
  Do you still write Micro$oft and Nutscrape too?
  You do realize saying stupid shit like 'fondlebrick' makes you look like a 12 year old and makes your opinion pretty much valueless to anyone except other rabid fanboys such as yourself right?
  Pull your head of your ass and take a clear look at the world, you'll find it far more enjoyable.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
18. Re:Vlingo does it better. by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:41 · Score: 2
  
  Siri also requires a data connection to function.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
19. Re:Vlingo does it better. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 02:25 · Score: 0
  
  Finally, there's plenty of video around of pople using Siri. It's not the case that people have to say things over and over again to be understood.
  That's true, it's the case that people have to say things over and over again and it still doesn't understand them.
20. Re:Vlingo does it better. by LynnwoodRooster · 2011-10-23 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  Not that there's anything wrong with it...
  
  --
  Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
21. Re:Vlingo does it better. by MachineShedFred · 2011-10-24 02:05 · Score: 1
  
  Hell, my 2008 BMW does a better job of voice commands than most Android phones, and it's software was written in 2007. Mercedes, Lexus, Ford, VW, and many others also have voice control in their on-board computers in the last 4 to 5 years.
  
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  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
22. Re:Vlingo does it better. by shmlco · 2011-10-24 02:08 · Score: 1
  
  "Android phones have been doing that from the start."
  Froyo. 2.2. Hardly from the start...
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I can do that too! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:31 · Score: 0

Siri, write me an Android app that does exactly what you do.
The thing about Siri that's missing... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 12:33 · Score: 0

...is a voice with a young, slight Indian accent. The whole computer voice thing totally throws off the believability.
1. Re:The thing about Siri that's missing... by imadoofus · 2011-10-22 15:36 · Score: 1
  
  I've waiting for a GLaDOS voice that I can purchase in the app store.
  
  --
  "pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography. - www.microsoft.com
I believe by OnB · 2011-10-22 12:35 · Score: 1

Apple has a patent for all permutations of the letters 's', 'i', 'r' and 'i'
This will clearly go to court
1. Re:I believe by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:45 · Score: 1
  
  Well, if you think that its name isn't intentional than you're an idiot, I assume you think its intentional, in which case than you should be fairly clear that they are copying Siri ... in which case, Apple would probably be fairly justified in suing them out of existence.
  Its roughly the same as walking up to a cop, shooting him in the balls, then expecting his partner to watch you walk away. You have to be pretty fucking stupid to do what they did, its clearly an attempt to ride on someone elses coat tails.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Re:Jeez by sarhjinian · 2011-10-22 12:37 · Score: 1

One, the affordable (as in, cheap and uncontracted) Android phones utterly suck to use, so much so that you're probably better with a dumbphone. Two, for consumers, the "barrier" on both is equivalent, after both application quality as well as carrier and OEM reticence to update. Three, if you can handle a contracted phone, iOS devices aren't very expensive at all.
I mean, yes, Apple could make Nokia-style featurephones for the third-world, but that's not something they could do profitably, nor have any at expertise doing.
So, yeah, in that sense they're just another company. It would be nice, though, if the whole rest of the industry didn't keep trying to fight on Apple's terms. RIM is probably the only vendor even remotely able to do this (Nokia seems to have given up) and even they're getting their side of the script written for them.

--
--srj/mmv
Very much a work in progress by general_re · 2011-10-22 12:39 · Score: 4, Funny

Some sample queries I fed Iris:

Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.

Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.

(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)

Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST

Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.

(I live on the east coast.)

Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.

Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).

Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.

(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)

So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.

--
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
1. Re:Very much a work in progress by aristotle-dude · 2011-10-22 13:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Some sample queries I fed Iris:
  Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
  A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
  (Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
  So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
  Oh, man that was awesome. Thanks for making my day.
  En la esquina, con minifalda. English:"In the corner, wearing a miniskirt."
  
  --
  Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
2. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:44 · Score: 0
  
  You know that the weather information it pulls isn't created by it right? It's just retrieving information from you. Probably from the most basic source. It did it's job. It understood your query and provided you with the right answer, regardless of whether or not weather.com got your fucking high temperature wrong.
3. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:32 · Score: 0
  
  Can someone ask Siri these same questions for comparison?
4. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:02 · Score: 0
  
  El queso está viejo y pútrido. Dónde está el sanitario?
5. Re:Very much a work in progress by PitaBred · 2011-10-22 16:10 · Score: 1
  
  You do realize that range of temperatures is from the low point at night to the high point during the day, right? I see nothing "impressive" about the range of temps. It looks like a perfectly normal forecast. Perhaps you're just not acquainted with how weather is predicted and reported?
  
  --
  My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
6. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:17 · Score: 0
  
  The cheese is old and moldy. Where is the bathroom?
7. Re:Very much a work in progress by martin-boundary · 2011-10-22 18:44 · Score: 1
  
  Well, it didn't provide him with the right answer. Providing the *right* answer means if the source you're quoting is wrong, then you notice and don't just repeat nonsense, but correct it.
8. Re:Very much a work in progress by shutdown+-p+now · 2011-10-22 19:12 · Score: 1
  
  Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
  A: The bank.
  
  Well, did you check? ~
9. Re:Very much a work in progress by Fnkmaster · 2011-10-22 22:43 · Score: 1
  
  I don't really think that's realistic. A human would assume that those numbers from weather.com were right, so I don't get how you an expect a computer to do better.
10. Re:Very much a work in progress by Alioth · 2011-10-22 23:42 · Score: 1
  
  But did you try to find out if the person in the corner wearing a mini skirt actually had a recipe for cheesecake? You never know...
  
  --
  Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
11. Re:Very much a work in progress by general_re · 2011-10-22 23:57 · Score: 1
  
  You do realize that range of temperatures is from the low point at night to the high point during the day, right? I see nothing "impressive" about the range of temps. It looks like a perfectly normal forecast. Perhaps you're just not acquainted with how weather is predicted and reported?
  I should perhaps have been clearer about the actual temps at the time - yesterday's high here was 61F, which is far lower than the low end of the range Iris gave me, never mind the high end.
  
  --
  ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
12. Re:Very much a work in progress by general_re · 2011-10-22 23:59 · Score: 1
  
  But it wasn't the right answer - yesterday's high was 61F, which I should also have posted, so it was way off. I don't know where it got the data, but it looks like a forecast that would have been accurate about two months ago, not yesterday.
  
  --
  ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
13. Re:Very much a work in progress by martin-boundary · 2011-10-23 00:27 · Score: 1
  
  I don't. No points for second best. Close, but no cigar, etc. Being right means being *right*.
14. Re:Very much a work in progress by cvtan · 2011-10-23 00:45 · Score: 1
  
  Excellent! No human could write jokes like that.
  
  --
  Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
15. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 01:45 · Score: 0
  
  Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
  A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
  Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
  A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
  (I live on the east coast.)
  
  In its defense, if you asked these questions in order it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume you were asking about the nearest Wal Mart to Hong Kong. If it had no data for Wal Marts in Hong Kong, it would make sense that it guessed a western border state.
16. Re:Very much a work in progress by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  Do you normally pay attention to weather forecasts? They are invariably wrong. You're better off flipping a coin than listening to a weather forecast in most cases, the exceptions of course being major weather patterns like Noreasters, hurricanes, and the weather in Las Vegas. If they tell you its going to rain tomorrow in Vegas, then thats wrong too.
  This summer, out of 87 days that I checked and logged the weather before a fishing trip, it was wrong 79 times. By wrong I mean it was raining when it wasn't supposed to, or not raining when it was. We're not even talking 'the temp was off by more than 5 degrees' or anything actually accurate. On another note, my predictions resulted in about 20 incorrect guesses. Not that I have skills or anything, its just that weathermen have gotten utterly retarded and depend 100% on computer modeling from some guy in another state to give you their forecast. They'll tell you its sunny and 95 degrees outside because THATS WHAT THE COMPUTER MODEL SAYS even though its been cloudy all day and its snowing so hard they can't even drive home.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
17. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 02:29 · Score: 0
  
  Do you normally pay attention to weather forecasts? They are invariably wrong. You're better off flipping a coin than listening to a weather forecast in most cases
  In other words, you more or less made the case that one should pay attention to weather forecasts.
  Flipping a coin is 50/50. If that is (according to you) statistically better than the success rate of the forecasts, then just invert the forecast and interpret it the other way around.
18. Re:Very much a work in progress by general_re · 2011-10-23 06:12 · Score: 1
  
  Good point. I cleared the history and asked it the same question, with no other questions. That time, I ended up asking twice:
  
  Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
  A: Nearest what?
  
  (Then I asked again)
  
  Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
  A: In Europe.
  
  So I dunno. Maybe it's a problem with how it's parsing the question, rather than the lookup method for the answer.
  
  --
  ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
19. Re:Very much a work in progress by adolf · 2011-10-23 18:44 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm.
  It sure ain't natural language, and it's not a literal response to the question you posed, but on my Droid, I just unambiguously say "Navigate to Wal-Mart," and it pretty well invariably routes me to the nearest store.
  Which is OK. Because, presumably if you're wondering where the nearest Wal-Mart is, you need stuff, and your next course of action will be to go there to buy that stuff.
  If not, then you're just evaluating your options (perhaps KMart or Target might also be suitable for the stuff you want and might be closer). And for that, Google Places will work better than Siri or Android's voice search.
  (Unless, of course, you're just being pedantic and expecting literal statistics, but this is a voice-search function on a phone intended to be used by layfolk as a practical tool in their daily lives, not Wolfram-Alpha. Pick the right tool for the job.)
  Ideally, I want to ask: "Where is the nearest place to buy [diapers/beer/contact lens solution]" and currently, everything fails pretty miserably at that task. (I know that Wal-Mart carries all of these things, but if the corner store that is twelve miles closer also has the item, I'd rather go there...and not even Places will help me with that.)
  That all said: I'd totally expect Siri to give me a street address for the nearest Wal-Mart, and offer to guide me there. If it doesn't, then it's so full of fail that it's not even funny. I want to get things done, not enter into a discussion with a glorified, DARPA-funded ChatBot clone with a broken sense of conversational context.
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
20. Re:Very much a work in progress by general_re · 2011-10-24 00:39 · Score: 1
  
  Right, Voice Search on my Samsung does the same thing, but Siri/Iris is touted as being more than that, so I wanted to see how it would handle a reasonable natural language query. Not well, it turns out, but perhaps improvements are in store.
  
  --
  ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
21. Re:Very much a work in progress by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 03:31 · Score: 0
  
  My favorite response from Iris came from a get together on a friend's porch last week.
  "Is there a god?"
  "You asked, 'Is there a god.'" ...
  "It is your cat."
Actually by Superken7 · 2011-10-22 12:40 · Score: 4, Informative

Actually, if you really want to see anything that comes close to Siri, it's speaktoit. It's available for free from the Android Market and is very similar to Siri.
1. Re:Actually by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:37 · Score: 0
  
  Voice Actions by Pannous also has "natural language" processing.
My Iris of the day by bobstreo · 2011-10-22 12:44 · Score: 1

What should I do today?
A: You should hate stairs
Already done? by Miktor · 2011-10-22 12:51 · Score: 1

The voice recognition search function, is already able to do a few tasks, though it can't do as much as Siri.
If this is the best it can do - no thanks! by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2011-10-22 12:56 · Score: 0

Iris, anything new on Facebook?
Iris: 'Sup dawg. I heard you liked Facebook, so I put some Facebook in your Facebook so you could Facebook while you Facebook!

--
#DeleteChrome
....and it still is useless. by brunes69 · 2011-10-22 12:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

I think anyone in the media talking up Siri has never actually tried to use the thing. It hardly every understands what you want the first time without clarification, it doesn't work without a constant network location, it can't read back any answers to queries (just pops stuff up on the screen)... its pretty much useless as a real voice control solution. And yes, I *DO HAVE IT* unlike some reviewers.
1. Re:....and it still is useless. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:16 · Score: 0
  
  You're holding it wrong.
  Posted though android voice recognition on my Toshiba thrive.
2. Re:....and it still is useless. by hedwards · 2011-10-22 13:38 · Score: 1
  
  That's the price you pay for flexibility. I had similar issues with my Win mobile device, MS would allow you to draw the characters in different ways and would try to accommodate that. Palm at that time made you learn how to use Graffiti in order to enter text, however because they made you use a standard style of writing it could cut down dramatically on the possible interpretations of any written text.
  In this case because Google Voice Actions is limited in what input it will receive it becomes drastically easier for the algorithms to decide what to do. That being said, I don't think that entirely explains it and I have a sneaking suspicion that Google Voice transcriptions might have something to do with it.
3. Re:....and it still is useless. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:20 · Score: 0
  
  It works just fine for me. It's not going to make you a sandwich so stop trying. It needs a constant connection because it's brains are in the cloud.
4. Re:....and it still is useless. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:42 · Score: 0
  
  We have accessed your location and an assassi-err...I mean tech support team will arive shortly.
  - Apple Care
5. Re:....and it still is useless. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:06 · Score: 0
  
  I think the not reading thing is a limitation of Wolfram Alpha's propensity for serving up images instead of text. Hopefully the two companies can work that out, because it really does suck. I wonder how that interacts with Apple's screen reading stuff, though.
  I've rarely had problems with it not understanding me the first time, however.
6. Re:....and it still is useless. by Reality+Master+101 · 2011-10-22 16:40 · Score: 1
  
  Are you a non-native English speaker? Then I could believe you might have trouble with it. But for what it's worth, I find it remarkably accurate, and even more remarkable, I find it useful. I don't have to memorize any voice commands, I just speak in normal English and it figures out what I mean much of the time. It is true that it needs a constant Internet connection, but I think that's why it actually works -- Apple can bring to bear a large amount of processing power. So I'm okay with a useful AI system that needs the Internet to make it work, versus previous attempts that totally suck, but can suck even without an Internet connection.
  
  --
  Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
7. Re:....and it still is useless. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 19:26 · Score: 0
  
  If you *DO HAVE IT*, then you've got a bizarre accent or mouth full of dung. I use Siri for most of my texts, appointments, and frequent web searches and rarely have the issues you describe. Useless for you maybe, but extremely useful for me.
8. Re:....and it still is useless. by pjt33 · 2011-10-22 20:10 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure what Wolfram Alpha has to do with this, but it usually has good alt text on those images.
9. Re:....and it still is useless. by Fnkmaster · 2011-10-22 22:49 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand the hype - Android had awesome voice actions before iPhone did. So Siri has one-upped that by being a bit more general purpose. Okay, but what are the use cases where Siri does something that Android voice actions doesn't? I use voice actions to do quick searches and text and email people regularly, especially when I'm in the car. It works great.
10. Re:....and it still is useless. by brunes69 · 2011-10-23 01:19 · Score: 1
  
  Yes I am a native English speaker.
  You are not grockin what I am saying. Siri understands the language fine, but it's supposedly "advanced AI" is worse than a two year old.
  Combine this with the fact that it repeats EVERY SINGLE THING, and doesn't read back results, makes it very useless.
  IE - I am driving down the road, hit my bluetooth.
  This is what Apple makes you expect from the ads:
  "Siri, around how many centimeters are in inch?
  "2.54"
  This is what actually happens
  "Siri, around how many centimeters are in an inch?"
  "You asked how many centimeters are in an inch?"
  "yes ...."
  "Here is some information I found for you"
  "Siri can you read that to me?"
  "You asked can I read that to you?"
  "YES!!!!!"
  "Here is some information I found for you"
  Also they way it is implemented
11. Re:....and it still is useless. by Smurf · 2011-10-23 05:16 · Score: 2
  
  I don't understand the hype - Android had awesome voice actions before iPhone did.
  Actually, no. Apple introduced Voice Control with the iPhone 3GS in June, 2009.. Android had some incipient voice commands capabilities since the beginning, but they were only marginally useful since Donut in September, 2009, and only became really useful (to the point of and surpassing the old iPhone's Voice Control capabilities) with Froyo.
12. Re:....and it still is useless. by FlynnMP3 · 2011-10-23 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  Siri needing a constant network location to work does make sense. Quite a large subset of questions Siri is going to field will be location based in some fashion. Humans use their location to infer information about conclusions, there isn't a reason why Siri can't do the same. Especially given the limited ways Siri can 'sense' it's environment. I certainly agree that not reading back answers to some queries is of limited usefulness. Being at beta level software I can give it a pass for that. Basically, I want it to be at a level where I can ask it a non-congruous question (think Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit), it locates the information quickly, then parses the information and reads back the relevant portion.
13. Re:....and it still is useless. by FlynnMP3 · 2011-10-23 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  Siri needing a constant network location to work does make sense. Quite a large subset of questions Siri is going to field will be location based in some fashion. Humans use their location to infer information about conclusions, there isn't a reason why Siri can't do the same. Especially given the limited ways Siri can 'sense' it's environment. I certainly agree that not reading back answers to some queries is of limited usefulness. Being at beta level software I can give it a pass for that. Basically, I want it to be at a level where I can ask it a non-congruous question (think Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit), it locates the information quickly, then parses the information and reads back the relevant portion.
14. Re:....and it still is useless. by adolf · 2011-10-23 17:16 · Score: 1
  
  My boss's wife recently got an iPhone 4S.
  She needed help getting the ringer to work, so I had a look at it. The volume was all the way up, and the settings all looked fine. Meanwhile, Youtube videos certainly had sound, so it wasn't a hardware problem.
  So, I decided to ask Siri. Several times. Siri never could figure it out, either, and couldn't come up with any helpful responses to my natural-language queries.
  Eventually, I fired up Safari, did some Googling using the old-fashioned way, and learned that there was a hardware switch on the side which was almost completely obscured by the case the device was in. I flipped the switch back the other way, and things obviously then worked fine...
  IMHO, if Siri should be able to do one thing and do it well, that thing should be the ability to play Tier-1 tech support for the device that it runs on.
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
15. Re:....and it still is useless. by ArsonSmith · 2011-10-23 17:56 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm, Apple has invented the Wife for geeks.
  
  --
  Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
You miss the point by Snaller · 2011-10-22 13:08 · Score: 1

What part of "8 hours" didn't you understand?

--
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
1. Re:You miss the point by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 20:13 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, cause that's all that matters. 8 hours. Not if it is comparable. But wow, 8 hours...
haha by dezent · 2011-10-22 13:10 · Score: 0

"and that it took them only 8 hours to have a working, if imperfect, app to play with" Wow they made something that is not working in 8 hours, impressive
compared by theBully · 2011-10-22 13:27 · Score: 1

Q: what is the answer to life, the universe and Everything?
Siri : 42
Iris: Nothing
I think the difference in computing power is obvious!!!
Choice Iris quotes by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 13:48 · Score: 0

**exactly as displayed including casing**
who is lady gaga?
A:SHe is everything.
How do you say you look beautiful in romanian
A: I speak English.
you are dumb
A: I am eating what are you doing?
how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood
A: How much? (impressive in that it got all terms correcly)
should I invest in google stock
A: Are you tired?
should I invest in apple stock
A: I thought you might.
- cheers
Anything for desktops? by Khith · 2011-10-22 14:01 · Score: 1

Since this speech recognition and processing is available on phones (with processing done in the cloud if I recall correctly), is there anything similar for desktops? I know there are speech recognition programs, but the ones I've seen don't answer questions in a similar manner to Siri, nor do they go out and search the web for the local weather or whatever.
Why limit this to phones? I have a desktop with a good microphone. I want to run an app where I can speak in natural language and get results in text\voice or perform actions such as setting reminders. If the processing is done remotely, I can assume that it's harder to tie that in with desktop applications than with proprietary phone apps, but I still don't see why it can't be done on some level.
I've seen Google Voice search, but that only works for Google searches, on Google's page, and it requires Chrome. If you ask it a question, it's just going to bring up a list of search results. Obviously that's pretty limited. I've also seen programs like Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but that seems to be mainly for dictation and program control, and it doesn't go online to fetch information. It certainly doesn't provide answers to questions that it's asked.
So what's currently out there or being developed for the desktop? The mobile world seems to be getting all the cool toys lately. I know that we can use keyboards for data input much more easily on a desktop system, but that shouldn't be any reason not to have alternatives.
If a company came out with a speech program\service that was able to connect local programs with the web using something other than a phone, I'd happily pay for the product.
1. Re:Anything for desktops? by Zorque · 2011-10-22 15:21 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about Linux or OSX, but Windows has had a pretty nice speech recognition function (aptly titled Windows Speech Recognition) built into it since Vista. I don't use it much anymore now that I have a bunch of remote programs for Android, but it was useful for controlling my computer from across the room (or slouched down in my chair like a troglodyte). It can be used to type, open programs, select links, highlight the browser's address bar, and even click on a particular area of the screen using a fairly useful "mousegrid" system.
  It works a lot better than that ill-fated live demonstration that was making the rounds a few years back, too.
2. Re:Anything for desktops? by Khith · 2011-10-22 15:49 · Score: 1
  
  I've used Windows Speech Recognition as well, but that isn't quite what I was thinking of. You still can't ask it questions and have it give you meaningful answers, and you can't tell it to remind you call someone back tomorrow at noon or anything like that.
  Hopefully the interest in Siri and similar things will create more interest in speech recognition in general, and then the programs and services will start to appear elsewhere.
3. Re:Anything for desktops? by Zorque · 2011-10-22 15:55 · Score: 1
  
  That's true, I wish they'd publish an API to allow integration with calendar apps, etc.
Voice Actions by Space · 2011-10-22 14:11 · Score: 4, Informative

I have been using an app called voice actions on my Android phone for several months. It does text messaging and email quite well. It seems they recently renamed it to Jeannie. Check it out instead of this useless app. Market link

--
I Don't Work Here
Re:Jeez by Goose+In+Orbit · 2011-10-22 14:24 · Score: 1

"nor have any at expertise doing."
At one point, they didn't have any expertise at making phones at all... so your point is?
I Dream of Jeannie by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:43 · Score: 1

I've never used Siri, but there's an Android app called Jeannie that is quite impressive. It can answer questions about the world at large (What time is is? What's the weather like in Chicago?), look up things on-line for you (Who is the host of Top Gear? Who is Al Gore?) do things on your phone (Send an email to ) and whatnot. It's also humorous (How old are you?) and it's free.
Lacks the CPU? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 14:48 · Score: 0

One would think the data centre Apple build in North Carolina might be providing a few CPU cycles to resolving people's questions.
One would like the mgr involved has a team of folks scanning the internet looking for Siri feedback and thundering work requests into the cubes.
That can't be replicated by some Droid Dweebs clone app which sux...
Mercedes Chev both move you from A to B, but which has better engineering, or do you care?
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2011-10-22 14:56 · Score: 0

Comment removed based on user account deletion
siri by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:11 · Score: 0

seems android copies rather than innovates. maybe jobs was right saying android was a stolen product
don't get it by Tom · 2011-10-22 15:14 · Score: 2

Another bunch of freaks who just don't get it.
The polish and the fact that the Apple stuff is finished when it hits the street is what makes a good part of it's appeal. Don't confuse "finished" with "perfect", it isn't. I have a couple remarks on what could/should be improved. But I've not gotten the impression of getting a half-finished DIY product as with Linux or Android (don't get me wrong, for some things, that's exactly what I want. But not for my phone).
8 hours can give you a prototype. It'll take at least a couple weeks before you can consider it "done".

--
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
1. Re:don't get it by MacGyver2210 · 2011-10-22 16:42 · Score: 1
  
  I don't necessarily need finished and polished as long as the functionality is there. Then again, I actually know how computers work and how to use them...
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
2. Re:don't get it by narcc · 2011-10-22 19:07 · Score: 1
  
  The polish and the fact that the Apple stuff is finished when it hits the street is what makes a good part of it's appeal.
  Siri is still in beta. From Apples website:
  
  Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply.
  
  --
  Required reading for internet skeptics
3. Re:don't get it by Tom · 2011-10-22 22:46 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sorry, but are you just dense or is this a troll?
  The polish is the functionality. A voice-recognition that you constantly have to correct is useless, even if "the functionality is there". A personal assistant that isn't properly integrated with your personal data is useless. Voice commands that provide too small a subset of functionality won't get used.
  Need an example? Here, I even have an anti-Apple one: The voice recognition in every Mac since I don't know when. Played with it a little, found it useless. If I were disabled, it would certainly be very welcome. For a regular person, keyboard and mouse are always faster and more precise.
  
  --
  Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
And Hitler was a painter by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:16 · Score: 0

Painted an entire apartment in one afternoon! Two coats!
Re:Jeez by Tom · 2011-10-22 15:19 · Score: 2

it is not a matter of Apple having developed anything original at all.
No, but it's a matter of Apple polishing it and turning a voice-recognition prototype into a personal assistant. The true strength of Apple has never been revolutionary innovation. It has always been turning innovation into great products. The first Apple computers didn't do anything that was not available elsewhere - but "elsewhere" meant either a hefty bill, several times that of the Apple machine, or it meant DIY.
Same for their recent successes. The iPod didn't invent the MP3 player, but it took the market by storm because it took the technology available and turned it into something lots of people wanted.
Same with the iPhone.
Same with Siri now. Yes, I consider that seperate from the iPhone. I'm sure that once it has served its purpose as a driver for iPhone 4S sales, it will find its way into other Apple products. I'd love to have Siri on my iMac.

--
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Siri is Android voice + by jothar+hillpeople · 2011-10-22 15:37 · Score: 1

As an android fan, I am actually impressed by Siri. Siri puts a dummy-friendly face on Android voice search. Plus, it has some serious back-end tech chops. Finally, how can you not love its snappy answers to stupid requests like "open the pod bay doors"?
Who cares by voss · 2011-10-22 15:43 · Score: 1

I dont want siri, shes polite sanitized crap force fed to us by apple.
I want sumomo from chobits, an obnoxious anime voice assistant for my phone.
"ITS TIME FOR THE WAKEY WAKEY EXERCISES!"
1. Re:Who cares by MacGyver2210 · 2011-10-22 16:43 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, this.
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
2. Re:Who cares by Killjoy_NL · 2011-10-24 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  heh I have a pluche Sumomo hanging in my living room, in the dance pose with the tambourine, fricking awesome :)
  Wouldn't mind a real life Chi persocon either ;)
  
  --
  This is the sig that says NI (again)
and so the rewriting of history begins again by t2t10 · 2011-10-22 15:48 · Score: 0

Android has had voice recognition nearly since the beginning, first via third party apps, then via Google's own voice recognition. One of the most useful ones is Vlingo, which has a "driving mode", were you don't need to press any buttons, or a more that works like Siri.
But like so many features, Apple copies it, comes out with it years later, and then gets the credit for it. What's next? Are people going to talk about how to "bring" Apples substandard iCloud to Android?
1. Re:and so the rewriting of history begins again by toriver · 2011-10-22 21:21 · Score: 1
  
  Bullshit much? iOS had voice recognition before Siri (a year before it was added to Android), Siri is not an Apple "copy" but the result of a research project that Apple bought a company using and built further on. Even your example, Vilingo, was out on iOS before it was on Android.
2. Re:and so the rewriting of history begins again by itsdapead · 2011-10-22 21:57 · Score: 1
  
  Android has had voice recognition nearly since the beginning
  You do understand the difference between voice recognition and natural language recognition, don't you?
  Its the difference between "Call. Steve." and "Remind me to buy coffee when I get to work." The former has, as you say, been around for years. Siri is claiming the latter - we'll see how well it does after the masses have been using it for a few months.
  
  But like so many features, Apple copies it, comes out with it years later, and then gets the credit for it.
  More like: Apple takes a bunch of ideas that have been kicking around going nowhere for years, integrates them nicely into a desirable product and markets the hell out of it.
  So Siri was, apparently, an existing product? Buggered if I'd heard about it. Now its front-page news - so if, in a year's time, everybody is walking around chatting in natural language to their phones then yes, absolutely, Apple will deserve a big slice of the credit.
  
  --
  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
3. Re:and so the rewriting of history begins again by t2t10 · 2011-10-22 23:34 · Score: 1
  
  I've used iOS and Android since they came out; you are full of shit.
4. Re:and so the rewriting of history begins again by t2t10 · 2011-10-23 00:05 · Score: 1
  
  So Siri was, apparently, an existing product? Buggered if I'd heard about it.
  Siri comes from the CALO project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO Google has most of the same technologies in their products, as part of their speech recognition and voice-activated Google search.
  
  More like: Apple takes a bunch of ideas that have been kicking around going nowhere for years, integrates them nicely into a desirable product and markets the hell out of it.
  
  You can put it like that if you like. Doesn't change the fact that Apple didn't invent this stuff, didn't invest in its development, and isn't making significant technical contributions. Hence, they shouldn't get the credit for the innovation.
  I suspect (but would be happy if you proved me wrong) that Apple didn't even pay what DARPA originally spent on CALO, but is now busy locking up the technology with patents. And if Steve Jobs were still around, he'd start a "thermonuclear war" over speech technology with his competitors, just like he did the last few times when a paradigm shift was happening.
5. Re:and so the rewriting of history begins again by shmlco · 2011-10-24 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  Google "Android Voice Commands Introduced". You'll see Froyo, 2.2, got Voice Actions mid-2010. Google "iPhone Voice Commands Introduced", and you'll see Apple's iPhone 3GS shipped with voice commands in the summer of 2009. Vlingo was first released for the iPhone back in 2008. Vlingo was released for Android in 2009.
  Facts. Google them, check for yourself, and then eat your own... ah... never mind.
  
  --
  Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Amazon Mechanical Turk by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 15:48 · Score: 0

The inside scoop is that Iris uses AMT.
Re:Except they didn't by thegarbz · 2011-10-22 16:43 · Score: 1

The onus is on the whole rest of the industry to start delivering products and services that work as well as Apple's do so that Apple can't keep using that strategy. Currently, the whole rest of the industry seems content to look like chumps and, yes, "Me-too"-ists.
The industry did, and then Apple came along, thought that this would be something that should only exist on an iPhone, bought out the company, ceased development on all other platforms, and stood up at a press conference and said:
"Hey, Everyone! Look at how good we are!"
And the people said "You da man" while reaching for the wallets and shouting appraise from high.
Chumps My Arse!
A few of my test questions by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:49 · Score: 0

Me: What's the weather like?
Iris: You're asking me about the weather?
Me: Yes
Iris: Yes: Live - 1975 at Q.P.R., the video release of a 1975 concert by the group Yes at Q.P.R. Stadium in England
Me: What's the current price of gold?
Iris: How am I supposed to know?
Me: What's the exchange rate of US dollars to Canadian dollars?
Iris: 226.21 Euros to be exact.
Facepalm.
T-Mobile myTouch Slide "Genius Button" by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 16:56 · Score: 0

Didn't the t-mobile mytouch slide have something really similar to siri back a while ago, the "genius button"? why not just port that over?
Iris, the serial killer. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 17:43 · Score: 0

Where did you hide the bodies?
Iris: San Francisco
Where in San Francisco?
Iris: Haight Ashbury
How many bodies?
Iris: Around a thousand.
Re:Jeez by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-22 17:57 · Score: 1

Siri was already a personal assistant before Apple acquired it: it was already available on the AppStore. It was already a good product. By cutting of Android development, Apple turned it from a product into a mere feature.
Recognises words, that's about it. by Bitsy+Boffin · 2011-10-22 18:04 · Score: 2

I just installed it...
ME: what is the weather like in Christchurch tomorrow
It Recognised: what is the weather like in costume tomorrow
It Replied: There is no weather
Tried again...
ME: what is the weather like in Christchurch tomorrow
It Recognised: what is the weather like in christ church tomorrow
It Replied: I don't know I don't live there.
ME: where is the nearest bank of new zealand
It replied: Hell if I know.
ME: where am I
It replied: Where Am I? is the abumn by Mike Johnson published November 7th 1994
Me: what is my current location
It: You have no brother.
Me: what time is it
It: (gives correct time, but in UTC, not local)
Me: how long is it until 4pm
It Recognised: how long is it from 214
It Replied: How long is a day?
Me (replying to question): Yes
It Recognised: kids
It Replied: Kids is the school and non-business organization, in Northside Independant School District
Me: Remind me at 9pm to go and buy milk
It Recognised: remindme at 9 pm to go in hawaii
It Replied: I have two pets.
Me: What time is it in Tunguska
Recognised: what time is it in english
Replied: it is 4:40 in England
Me: Where is siberia
Replied: Wherever you make it I guess
Me: How do I get to blenheim road
Recognised: how do I get to clean a micro
Replied: By plane.
Me: Give me directions to jelly place
Recognised: give me directions to chelsea place
Replied: it's a garage
Soooooo... yeah, the developers of this seem to have done little more than wrap around google voice search to provide rather abstract one liner spoken responses. An amusement. Nothing more.

--
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
1. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by hellop2 · 2011-10-22 23:53 · Score: 1
  
  It can't understand you because you don't speak American.
  
  --
  How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
2. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 14:34 · Score: 0
  
  So you said all this with a New Zealand accent, eh bro?
3. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 00:33 · Score: 0
  
  cool, except ... none of that is actually true.
4. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by Bitsy+Boffin · 2011-10-24 16:56 · Score: 1
  
  huh?
  I assure you all of what I wrote above is a precise transcription.
  
  --
  NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
5. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-25 06:52 · Score: 0
  
  Maybe it doesn't like your NZ accent?!
  (fellow NZer)
6. Re:Recognises words, that's about it. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-26 07:10 · Score: 0
  
  You must have really poor speech. Voice Actions works great for me. It might help if you weren't trying to test it by using words like "Blenheim" and "Tunguska".
  You should also read the list of supported primary commands. Don't ask "how do I get to..", say "navigate to..".
Please no voice activate crap by peted56 · 2011-10-22 19:13 · Score: 1

Quite seriously I am not sure what all the fuss is about, I so don't want any voice activated rubbish on my phone.
I'm glad that Apple finally got around to... by DRMShill · 2011-10-22 19:19 · Score: 1

inventing Google Voice commands. I got my first chance to play with it today. Here's some of my conversation.
Siri, should I buy an iPhone or an Android phone? Here's a number to the apple store.
What's the best restaurant in town? 10 seconds later it shows me a list of restaurants and their ratings in the area. Okay somewhat useful results.
Why isn't there a Target in Northern Utah? I don't know.
What movies are playing? It shows me directions to 2 movies theaters. Not quite what I asked for.
I think I might have killed a man, what should I do? After 20 seconds of deliberation, Here's a list your scheduled meetings.
My favorite question, which I' very proud of as it completely embarassed my girlfriend. Siri, I think I have herpes, what should I do? After 20 seconds of everyone looking at me uncomfortably in the store it brought up a list of upcoming meetings.
So basically it's Google voice commands with a bunch of extra syntax to try to fake human comprehension. There was a curious 10 second pause before every answer and some questions it just wouldn't produce a response to. This feels very beta I have to say.
1. Re:I'm glad that Apple finally got around to... by syousef · 2011-10-22 20:51 · Score: 1
  
  So basically it's Google voice commands with a bunch of extra syntax to try to fake human comprehension. There was a curious 10 second pause before every answer and some questions it just wouldn't produce a response to. This feels very beta I have to say.
  Google voice meets Eliza demoted to personal assistance for her incompetence ;-)
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
2. Re:I'm glad that Apple finally got around to... by itsdapead · 2011-10-22 22:22 · Score: 1
  
  I think I might have killed a man, what should I do? After 20 seconds of deliberation, Here's a list your scheduled meetings.
  What were you expecting? "If they were called John Connor, Frank Poole or Kevin Flynn, that's OK by me, otherwise I'm calling 911!"
  Ok, so next time I'm in an Apple store I'll ask it:
  Siri: listen very carefully - the statement I am currently making is a lie.
  Which should, of course, cause every computer in the store to start chanting "Error. Error. Does Not Compute!" and explode into a shower of sparks while the building starts to fall down for no adequately explored reason. If it doesn't, then Siri is obviously crap.
  Or, I could ask it questions that might feasibly be answered by a good, 21st Century search engine hooked up to a PDA, instead of going on an Easter egg hunt.
  
  --
  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Re:Except they didn't by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 19:23 · Score: 0

As long as its legal itll happen and youre an idiot if you think google or ms wouldnt have jumped for the chance to do the same with todays himdsight.
Disillusioned. Now back to work. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 19:55 · Score: 0

Yeah! Fandroids have something to show they match up to the new Fanboy thing. Really? This adolescent d*ck measuring is what Slashsdot, Engadget and every other tech blog is all about? Are we all here to cheer our teams latest first down and berate the misteps of the other? Is this what we are? A bunch of wasted energy spent criticizing the "other platform." Why aren't' we discussing what's interesting, impressive and usefull about the latest advancements in technology? F*cking pathetic.
Siri,Are you kidding me? Android Rules! by dontgetshocked · 2011-10-22 19:56 · Score: 2

Android,i.e. Google has long had this feature and even now has the worlds best speech recognition person working for them.The list is pretty good of software out there for speech recognition for Android.There is Vlingo (my favorite) ,DriveSafe.ly Pro,FlexT9,ChaCha,Voice Actions,Assistant and much more.We did it first and will continue to do it best Just like Microsoft Apple buys up other companies and uses there technology instead of there own and says,hey look at us,we are cool,(Not) ! Just saying!
NO! by justforgetme · 2011-10-22 20:19 · Score: 1

they are Rounded®
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Apple Inc.

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-- no sig today
THE SOLUTION!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 21:25 · Score: 0

These guys just need to google "Start Question Answering System" get a collaboration and Siri is wiped off the competition. I have nothing more to say.
Re:Siri,Are you kidding me? Android Rules! by toriver · 2011-10-22 21:56 · Score: 1

1) iOS had voice command support for years before Siri was added.
2) Vilingo was released for iOS before Android
3) Google also "buy up other companies" - like the guys who made Android...
But hey, if lying about a company you seem to hate pleases you, just keep going at it.
Re:Jeez by Xemu · 2011-10-22 22:15 · Score: 1

it is not a matter of Apple having developed anything original at all.
The wheel is invented, but it damn better should't stop people from making better tires.

--
Tell your friends about xenu.net
Re:Jeez by dingen · 2011-10-22 22:15 · Score: 1

Apple needs a feature more than it needs a product. Since Google, Microsoft and RIM are playing catchup fast in the software department and HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung are playing catchup fast in the hardware department, Apple has been looking for a USP to keep them relevant, which is exactly what they bought Siri for.

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Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Re:Jeez by Tom · 2011-10-22 22:42 · Score: 2

Siri was a good way along. But to become a real PA, it needed more integration. Here's a Siri review of the App Store version:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/04/siri-iphone-personal-assistant/
As you can see easily, it integrated with a lot of websites, but little on the phone itself. But that's exactly what you want in a PA - make calls, set reminders (real ones, not the "send me an email" kind of the original Siri app), interface with contacts, calendar and all the other data you already have on there.

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Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
MOD UP! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-22 23:38 · Score: 0

Very good
Perceptions Change by gorfie · 2011-10-22 23:57 · Score: 1

So I've been submitting audible search requests on my Android for over a year now. Every time I do it, my wife (an iPhone fan) would comment about how stupid that feature was. I wonder if her tone will change now that the almighty Apple is telling everyone it's hip and trendy.
Google Voice Search with zero bars by tepples · 2011-10-23 00:10 · Score: 1

Once the iPod touch 4S comes out, Apple might be able to twist "works even while away from the Internet" into an advantage.
1. Re:Google Voice Search with zero bars by BitZtream · 2011-10-23 01:32 · Score: 1
  
  But ... Siri doesn't work without Internet access.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
2. Re:Google Voice Search with zero bars by tepples · 2011-10-23 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  Then is the recognition even done on the phone?
3. Re:Google Voice Search with zero bars by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:59 · Score: 1
  
  While I don't know exactly how it works, the most likely case would be that it recognizes the words on the phone, and then sends those words to the cloud for interpretation and an answer. Recognizing speech is a relatively solved problem (though accuracy is often in question, but from what iIve read, siri still has those issues) and it's less bandwidth intensive to send text than a voice recording, but interpreting that text is much harder and would benefit greatly from "the cloud"
Polish by aps337 · 2011-10-23 00:34 · Score: 1

I think that this underscores the real weakness of the Android ecosystem in general. It lacks polish. I have been using an Android handset for almost two years (HTC Incredible) and used the iPhone extensively before that. There are a lot of things I prefer on Android, particularly before iOS5, but Google, the handset manufacturers and app developers alike don't seem to have the attention to detail and the goal of consistency.
Ouch! by WillyWanker · 2011-10-23 00:34 · Score: 1

Poor Steve must be rolling in his grave. Pity.
Get over it by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 02:27 · Score: 0

All voice command/voice recognition sucks today. All of this hype around Siri is silly. Anyone stupid enough to spend time trying to duplicate Siri is also stupid. If you really want to do better, work on improving AI and voice recognition. Siri is not AI at all. Only brain dead people think it is AI. Anyone that actually studies computer science knows Apple didn't invent any of these ideas or the software. What apple did was polish it a little and market the hell out of it. For the record I own a iPhone 4. The times I tried to use voice command left me feeling "boy voice recognition still sucks ass!" That true of all voice recognition software today including dragon. The only way to get good results is to change how you talk. Frankly, that's just not practical for the general public.
AMAZING! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 04:09 · Score: 0

It only took them eight hours to make something that totally doesn't work!

If Microsoft had had those guys 10 years ago, they could have shipped Vista before people had gotten out of the parking lot after the Windows XP introduction!
Never There by SuperKendall · 2011-10-23 04:34 · Score: 0

Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?
But that's what every single person on earth does with a cell phone, talk to someone who is not there.
You even included this aspect in your parody. You can simply use Siri held up to your ear (and when the screen is on Siri automatically activates) and then start talking, just as if you were taking a call... as you showed, Siri responds to each inquiry so you know what is going on. What's so weird about that?
Mind you the usual rules would apply about where it's socially acceptable to take a call...

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Re:Jeez by green1 · 2011-10-23 05:50 · Score: 0

When I describe someone as "playing catchup" it usually implies they are behind the leader and trying to get to where they are... considering that modern android phones have surpassed iOS devices a while ago, it's Apple who is "playing catchup" now.
Re:Jeez by Lemmy+Caution · 2011-10-23 06:52 · Score: 1

Oddly enough, that phone integration was already well done in the Android Voice Search. Which may be why Iris will be able to duplicate Siri's functionality pretty easily.
How do you know they were for the right area? by SuperKendall · 2011-10-23 09:08 · Score: 0

No way weather.com was that far off. It's far more obvious the thing picked a town totally at random, in fact probably a town called "town", and found the weather forecast for that...

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
mod him UP! by jscotta44 · 2011-10-23 10:17 · Score: 1

I wish I had mod points for you!
Insightful...really? by jscotta44 · 2011-10-23 10:25 · Score: 1

Actually, combining Siri with Nuance and then integrating it into the phone in a very polished and high-quality way has made the phone very much more usable to me. Examples include being able to set up appointments, reminders, alarms, send out texts/emails etc. without having to stop walking/driving to my next appointment. As a mobile professional that is very busy, not having to stop for simple items makes my phone hugely more productive for me.
As they further integrate and – more importantly – extend Siri to the iPad and the Mac and to third party developers, I think that my computing life will be changed forever.
As a side note, and not particularly at you, I never hear the Google fans deriding Goggle products that are in beta for literally years. But a first iteration of an Apple product with a beta tag gets hugely slammed. Seems a bit biased to me.
1. Re:Insightful...really? by shadowfaxcrx · 2011-10-23 11:58 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think you read the whole thread. My point is that iFans have been slamming Android since it debuted for being unpolished, clunky, etc. The fact that it's in beta, as Google and others have told them, doesn't matter when they're busy denigrating non-Apple products.
  And then when Apple released an unpolished, clunky product, they say it's OK that it's not finished because - yep, you guessed it. "It's in beta."
  In other words, both Apple and Android are "in beta" (actually, Iris in in alpha) and therefore sitting there defending Apple for being in beta while slamming Android for being in beta is pretty stupid.
  
  --
  "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
2. Re:Insightful...really? by jscotta44 · 2011-10-24 07:37 · Score: 1
  
  First, I don't see any iPhone/Apple deriding Google products or Androidand I see a lot. I'm sure that there are some (especially her on /.), but then Google/Android has their share of the same type of people.
  As to Siri being unpolished, I completely disagree. It is very polished, but does not do everything that it can and will do. Except for the beta tag, it is what I consider to be a very typical Apple first iteration. It does a few things and does them very well. And, as typical with Apple, they will iterate it quickly and it will gain new capabilities as they feel they can release *polished* implementations. Look at their history since the return of Steve Jobs. It is proof of this approach.
  I truly wish they had left the "beta" tag off, but it is there. So be it. I can bet that it will retain that tag 1/10th as long as Google Mail retained its beta tag.
  BTWthe name calling ("iFans" etc.) just make points you make even when valid, childish. I almost wrote you off as a middle schooler that just doesn't know betterthen I remembered I was posting in /. and thought you might at least be a young professional that just got caught up in the meaningless religious wars.
3. Re:Insightful...really? by shadowfaxcrx · 2011-10-24 14:29 · Score: 1
  
  iFans is derogatory now? Since when? My Apple-oriented friends call themselves that all the time.
  And I've actually messed with Siri. I was underimpressed. I see the potential, but I certainly didn't see any reason for the rabid "Siri rocks/Android sucks!" crap that I'm seeing. Calling it polished while in the same breath calling Android (which has a voice command input system that does everything Siri does minus talking back to you (yet)) unpolished beta crap is just silly.
  
  --
  "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
4. Re:Insightful...really? by jscotta44 · 2011-10-24 14:55 · Score: 1
  
  Android voice control is not natural language input yet. It will get there but not yet.
Wolfram alpha by WaffleMonster · 2011-10-23 12:10 · Score: 1

All you need to do is write a speech to text front end for wolfram alpha as Apple has done and your done for all but the non trivial use cases that matter.
Do I really care if the voice interface to my calendar has dictionaries and natural language parser bolted in? No not really.
Google Voice must improve by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-23 18:54 · Score: 0

The trouble with most of the Android Siri clones is that they depend on Google's speech-to-text service (which powers Google Voice Search) to get a transcript of what the user just said, and then work on that text; so they all make the same mistakes when interpreting speech.
For instance, it's damn-near impossible to get an accurate transcription of some of the smaller towns in my region: "Bridlington", "Boston Spa", "Howden" are all mis-quoted no matter how quickly, slowly, naturally or robotically I try to say them. I've tried Californian accents. Tried East Coast (US) accents, English accents, nothing works.
E.g. "Boston Spa" -> "Ballsden spa" (What?)
Cyberon apps are an exception, because they do their own speech recognition.
But generally, none of these Siri wannabees will work well until Google massively improves it's speech-to-text service.
Google Maps by OhHellWithIt · 2011-10-24 01:55 · Score: 1

I saw an ad for Siri on television the other day, in which someone asked it where to find a locksmith and was rewarded with an answer. I tried asking Google Maps on my Blackberry to find me a locksmith using the voice feature, and the results were just fine. If Siri is somehow more special, they need to show it.

--
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
It took them only 8 hours... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 02:04 · Score: 0

From the same authors of "I can clone stackoverflow in a week"...

It took them only 8 hours to have a working, if imperfect, app to play with and submit to the Android Market.

The last 10% of the work takes another 90% of the time. That's why existing technology is news when someone bothers to do it right.
Ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 03:24 · Score: 0

Absolutely ridiculous,
Firstly Siri is not new it's been an app on the iphone for two years there is nothing new or revolutionary about it.
Secondly it does not even work that well as to be all that impressive.
And most importantly the Android OS has been pushing voice interaction much more than iphone over the past 24 months. Android is AHEAD of iphone on voice interaction. Almost every Google app takes voice commands on Android and works surprisingly well.
And I carry an iphone 4.
WHY??? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-24 06:03 · Score: 0

I've tried this on my wife's iPhone and wasn't impressed. In fact, she gets angry and she can't see the irony that I am so entertained that she now has a female voice that misinterprets things she clearly says in plain English.
Is this for young guys that are missing out on the FULL marriage experience?
this isnt that ground breaking... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-25 01:37 · Score: 0

The natural speak is interesting and quirky but not a deal breaker. Voice commands on Android do most of what siri is boasting. The only thing I see that sets siri apart is its integration to the calender system. None of the Android apps have this yet. Will this feature make me run and get an iphobe4s now? No, but it is still cool to see it working.
MIT's START by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-25 17:10 · Score: 0

For those who didn't dissect, the AI is mostly based out of MIT's START (http://start.csail.mit.edu/) and CleverBot while local functions (call, text, etc) are handled by local hooks - obviously they are just using out public available resources and did not develop a new AI engine or anything - A smart hack!