Would that the iPhone's intelligent assistant were as smart as the latest TV ad suggests
Based on my experience with the iPhone 4S, Apple (AAPL) is doing something very un-Applelike in its TV ads for Siri -- over-promise and under-deliver.
Case in point: The last instruction the woman gives her voice-activated assistant in the TV ad that debuted Thursday night. "Remind me to do this again," she tells Siri on a beach in Santa Cruz at the end of what appears to have been a lovely computer-assisted cross-country road trip.
Your mileage may vary, but my Siri would have no clue what was meant by "this."
"I can't believe I bought my soul mate at Glendale Galleria."
Another triumph of product placement for Apple (AAPL). Catch it on YouTube before Time Warner (TWX) takes it down.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 29, 2012 7:01 AM ET
Who are the 1% who are sucking up half the world's cellular bandwidth?
Data: Arieso. Chart: PED
It's tempting to blame -- as many headline writers have -- Apple's (AAPL) newest iPhone and its voice-activated personal assistant for the fact that 3% of mobile users now consume 70% of the world's bandwidth, up from 40% in 2009.
After all, the iPhone 4S with Siri consumes nearly twice as much data as the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 6, 2012 7:16 AM ET
Would that Apple's intelligent assistant were as reliable as its Christmas TV ad suggests
Apple (AAPL) has been pushing Siri hard as the key selling point for the iPhone 4S, especially on TV with ads like the Santa spot it began airing this week. (It's also available on YouTube.)
But our experience is that between system outages, misunderstandings and the basic limitations of its knowledge base, Siri is considerably less reliable than MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 20, 2011 7:21 AM ET
The creator of the answer engine in Siri writes about his long relationship with Jobs
Wolfram. Photo: Creative Commons
There are a several novel anecdotes about Apple's (AAPL) late CEO in the piece British scientist Stephen Wolfram wrote for Saturday's The Guardian.
While at NeXT, Jobs took great interest in Wolfram's breakthrough algebra-solving computer program and even came up with a name for it: Mathematica
When Wolfram asked Jobs to blurb A New Kind MORE
What if Siri had a French accent -- and an attitude to match?
If Apple (AAPL) ever opened up a Siri app store, a line of personality modules -- like the haughty Parisian Robin Williams trotted out on The Ellen Show -- could be a real money-maker.
Via boxerconan at Apple Sanity.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 1, 2011 3:50 PM ET
Microsoft's claim that its voice command system is Siri's equal is put to the test
Click to view the video. Source: TechAU
You might think that Microsoft's (MSFT) Chief Research and Strategy Officer would have spent some time playing around with Apple's new intelligent personal assistant before making the claim -- as Craig Mundie did earlier this week -- that there's nothing to Siri but clever marketing and the usual mindless fascination MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 26, 2011 9:48 PM ET
The question isn't whether Siri is a search engine that can replace Google's search box. It's a different kind of search -- one that could be the future.
By Kevin Kelleher, contributor
FORTUNE -- It sounded pretty good until Eric Schmidt said it: Siri, the so-called personal assistant app on Apple's iPhone 4S, is the new face of search. Siri is threatening to sideline the tried-and-true search box that Google turned into MORE
Nov 9, 2011 11:27 AM ET
Bodes well for Friday's launch in 15 countries -- and maybe mainland China by December
The new Hong Kong Apple Store. Photo: Apple Inc.
Ticonderoga's Brian White, who has been keeping as close tabs on Apple's (AAPL) prospects in China as any Western analyst, reported Monday that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S ended almost as soon as they began in China last Friday.
According to his checks, pre-orders were sold out in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 7, 2011 10:24 AM ET
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* Google (GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt told the U.S. Senate antitrust committee that the iPhone 4S's voice assistant, Siri, poses a "competitive threat" to his company's business. Confessed Schmidt: "Apple's Siri is a significant development -- a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search." (Apple MORE
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