Slashdot Mirror
Apple Tells Siri To Stop Recommending Nokia
judgecorp writes "Apple has changed the answer Siri gives to the question 'What is the best smartphone ever?' to prevent the voice-driven assistant from promoting the Nokia Lumia 900. Originally Siri trawled online reviews on the web, using the Wolfram Alpha search engine, to come up with the Lumia, much to Apple's embarrassment. Now, Apple has intervened, replacing that answer with a joke: 'Wait there are other phones?'"
I searched "best web browser" on Google and the second result was mozilla.org
Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of all...
When I tried "What is the best cell phone ever?" SIRI came up with a cell phone store. Apparently the SIRI algorithm is essentially:
1. Is this a built-in joke phrase?
2. Does this contain keywords like "alarm" or "weather" for various command phrases?
3. Is there something with that name nearby?
4. Did a Wolfram-Alpha search come up with something?
5. Bomb.
Which kind of demos how useless the whole thing. Especially with the ridiculous lag times. The old 3GS voice commands were perfectly usable for controlling the iPod app and making phone calls. The new SIRI-fied version is entirely useless because instead of working, you just get to wait some 5-10 seconds for the SIRI servers to process whatever it was you said. Assuming it works at all.
"Call mom."
(15 seconds later) "I'm sorry, something went wrong."
(sarcastically) "Most advanced cell phone ever."
"I found a place matching 'cell phone' close to you."
"You're useless, SIRI."
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
The term is "search engine Filter Bubble" -- see the nice introduction at http://dontbubble.us/ (admittedly focussed on avoiding personalisation).
If you use a meta search engine that doesn't collect personal information, such as DuckDuckGo.com, you can escape that problem.
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
Interesting. Second result for me is Opera, and I'm a Chrome user.
No, the "ever" qualifier is what triggered the Wolfram Alpha results. "What is the best phone" without ever always returned the joke.
"Siri, what would the old Siri recommend as the best phone?"
Apple's perfected their time machine, then, because "wait, there are other phones?" is one of the (several) "joke" responses I got from asking "what's the best smartphone?" on the 4S launch day, amongst other responses like "the one you're holding."
Two minutes on Google backs this up.
C'mon, people. It isn't that hard.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Apple has made a strategic mistake here, giving the Apple Marketing Department control over the validity and content of the results that Siri provides.
Depending on the way you asked the question, Siri already told that joke. Maybe they added a few more phrasings, but that joke has been in there for a while, possibly since day one.
It does, this is why I tend to be able to find stuff others cannot.
Use tools correctly and they work better.
Not yet anyway. If someone else comes out with a better equivalent to Siri, or Siri starts producing terrible results that aren't for gimmicky questions people will drop it like a rock.
Imagine if you could inject ads directly into Siri for example, queries would give preferential results based on the location you queried from and common terms were bid for (say optometrist, and the highest bidding optometrist within 10Km would get their result) that could, in the long run, seriously undermine the credibility of a project like Siri. Right now it's experimental, it can fail humourously and no one gets to fussed about it. But if there are competitors on the market, that could be a problem.
(shrug). Google and Bing always come-up with different results.
What concerns me more is that Apple deliberately made Siri less-useful to the owner. What happens if you ask, "What is the best computer?" Or "What is the best MP3 player?" Or "What is the best tablet for reading books?" Now I have to wonder if Apple will censor those answers too. I buy a computer, or laptop, or phone, to help ME out with attaining knowledge not to serve the corporate master who built the computer/laptop/phone.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
OK, here's an article describing with some more detail what happened.
If I ask for smartphone reviews, I expect smartphone reviews. It does bill itself as your big internet helper. If I wanted jokes when I asked for smartphone reviews, I'd download an app called "smartass jokes".
It's one thing to have jokes in there for when people ask blatantly daft things, like "will you marry me Siri", or "find me a restaurant on Mars". But when you ask a common question with a simple answer, you expect to get an answer.
What concerns me more is that Apple deliberately made Siri less-useful to the owner.
This is one of the situations where Apple really ought to be taking a page from Google. The problem in this case is that Siri is returning a nonsense answer as a result of Microsoft's astroturfing and marketing attempts to try to make Nokia not feel as lonely at the bottom of the market share charts.
The "right" way to fix that is to make your search algorithm less susceptible to slashvertizements and spam reviews. The stupid way is to change the single result someone pointed out to you and let the device continue telling people that snake oil cures cancer and plants crave Brawndo.
laptop, or phone, to help ME out with attaining knowledge not to serve the corporate master who built the computer/laptop/phone.
Then you shouldn't be buying Apple. It's well known their platform is all about lockdown and tying you into their ecosystem.
If you want an open platform, buy an open platform. Apple is not that. Hasn't been for decades.
I hate siri 1.0 because it removed the standard apple voice control that was in the 3GS and 4.0 that works when you dont have a internet connection. siri does not work when you have no net connection. so voice dialing or voice control of the music fails when out of service range.
another epic failure of cloud crap.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I just finished Googling for a "Klom Dark" meme I hate you.
blog
That is false. You can turn off Siri in the settings and go back to the old voice control from ios 4.x