Apple's Siri is the Birth of Star Trek's Computer

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]tmshdw[/nom]Marcus (article author), well realized and well written.Can't wait for the android heads to copy this tech and proclaim theirs better (yet again).[/citation]
Android already has speech recognition.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]Maxor127[/nom]Actually Macs are the first computers that I know of that used voice recognition and text-to-speech built into the operating system. Certainly before anything on the PC. So you're not far off. I'd say they pioneered it. I used to be able to do most of the things Siri does with a 15 year old Mac.[/citation]
Speech recognition was something that started in the 50's, long before apple was even born. So no, they didn't pioneered it.

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]Vladislaus[/nom]Android already has speech recognition.[/citation]
Now don't go getting the iFans stirred up. The Andriod devices that they don't own (blasphemy!) don't seem to have speech recognition built into the UI they have never used. Whichever Apple product has a particular feature for the first time has it for the first time of any Apple product.

 

[danwat1234]

Dr. Crusher: "Computer, what is the nature of the universe?"


--They should have used a virtual Majel Barrett voice on the i-phone

 

[scuba dave]

[citation][nom]tmshdw[/nom]No, as usual Apple made it useable tech for the average person. Yet again. And now the real sheeple will follow also 'yet again' and scramble that theirs is better and, as you did, claim Apple didn't invent it. So transparent and stupid. GO APPLE !!!!![/citation]

Agreed. Voice Recognition to date has been horrible.. And even in the limited area's that it did work.. There really wasn't much in the way it was used to really do anything. And as for Android.. My room mate had the droid x, and I can't remember what his girl had.. But it was crap. Yeah, sometimes it would be absolutely spot on when he would try to "chat text" while driving, but it was so bad at times that he stopped trying to use it. So did she, and so did I when I had my droid. So yeah, Android has voice recogn..but it isn't near as stable or useful, as what this commerical shows. And in all honesty.. Apple doesn't exactly release things that aren't functional. They charge a premium for them however. And as they were the first to the plate with this level of product(IF it works as shown), then that is their business.

Don't like it? Don't buy it. Or stop whining on the forums about the success of others(>.>) invent something, become a billionaire and show us just how *smart* and better you can make this world... Or not, and keep hatin' and trollin'. Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I'd enjoy seeing the former.. but I suspect only the later will happen. Which is good.. Cuz a rich troll would be scary.)

 

[Chrys]

"Apple doesn't exactly release things that aren't functional"

You mean like antennas? Of course it's functional, but only under these specific circumstances.

 

[c4v3man]

Android's Voice Actions was first, and works just as well. There's no point in using it, as talking to your phone is distracting and annoying to others. But I'm sure Apple users will love the attention it brings them, and they'll think it's an apple first irregardless of the truth.

From any screen, within any app I can hold down the search button for 2 seconds, and say "navigate to sandy's electronics" or "send message to john smith message how about lunch at noon" and it works, with excellent reliability. All I have to do is select the location from the list that's sorted by distance, or press send on the text message/email that was pre-filled out for me. Nothing new, and nothing more than a whiz-bang feature that looks cool, but isn't that practical. I've had this ability for over a year I think, and I didn't need to buy a new phone to use it...

 

[halcyon]

If Siri really works well then great. I might use it one. However, according to many comments all the folks that have Android phones can already do this way better than Siri ever could. So, to all the Android folks that already have something better than Siri...is this tech really useful or just another gimmick?

 

[c4v3man]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]If Siri really works well then great. I might use it one. However, according to many comments all the folks that have Android phones can already do this way better than Siri ever could. So, to all the Android folks that already have something better than Siri...is this tech really useful or just another gimmick?[/citation]
I use it for navigation (voice guided turn by turn, I might add) since I'm in my car, and not bothering anyone. It's pretty much useless for everything else, even though it's already extremely accurate and works as well or better than you'd expect.

The stuff that excites me is the ability to set geofence options for tasks/to-do's but I'm almost positive that I've seen apps in the android market that can already do this. I do appreciate that Apple is integrating this into their core apps, and that is actually useful, assuming you can use it without using siri (which I would expect you can set geofence options without siri...).

Apple does polish and re-work (rarely invents) ideas into useful products, however siri in and of itself is of limited value, and should NOT be a selling feature to anyone that can see past the *magical* appearance of it.

 

[c4v3man]

One final comment... maybe you wouldn't have to ask siri if you have any appointments if you had the ability to display a calendar widget with a list of upcoming appointments... just saying.

 

[scuba dave]

[citation][nom]Chrys[/nom]"Apple doesn't exactly release things that aren't functional"You mean like antennas? Of course it's functional, but only under these specific circumstances.[/citation]

Antennas? I'm confused.. Are you referring to an antenna like the one on my current iP4 that has, literally(literally.) never caused me a single problem? ;P Not saying the design was perfect, lol, but it was *hardly* an earth-shattering oversight. It functioned. Maybe not perfectly, but I have never lost a call, or had no signal, because of how I was holding it.. And that's without a case, or etc. Then again, that's just my own personal experience with it.

 

[halcyon]

My feeling on the iPhone 4S is that it seems to be what the original iPhone 4 should have been. ...even though I've never had a problem with my iPhone 4. I see nothing great about the 4s, but perhaps when I can actually put my hands on one and experience the higher performance and new features I'll be less skeptical.

Yesterday was such a disappointment.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]If Siri really works well then great. I might use it one. However, according to many comments all the folks that have Android phones can already do this way better than Siri ever could. So, to all the Android folks that already have something better than Siri...is this tech really useful or just another gimmick?[/citation]

The Androids version for speech recognition is pretty good, and takes the same approach that IBM's Watson does, it listens to what you say and scans a database and chooses the words that are most likely what you mean.

The problem with it is if you speak fast it can be difficult as you don't articulate as well fast, it also has difficulties with technical jargon. Punctuation is also bad when using it for email/messages.

It's best use is with Goggle, as it'll show you a list of possible phrases that you might have meant and you can choose.

If Siri can make it work, great, but I have my doubts. The idea of starting and stopping programs through voice sounds dubious to me. It's already ridiculously easy to run a program and would seemingly be easier than trying to talk to it.

 

[Guest]

Jobs is dead...

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]Someguyonthenet[/nom]Jobs is dead...[/citation]

Just heard that. Even if you dislike Apple, you must admit he had talent.

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Magical, Apple just invented voice recognition....Many years after dictation software has been on PCs and phone, but ignore all thoseAPPLE INVENTED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/not[/citation]
Probably, no one could patent voice recognition - because it appeared in ST: TOS back in 1967 - just like no one could patent a video wrist watch since they appeared in Dick Tracy long ago.

 

[wiyosaya]

So, Marcus, have you tried this and does it work like the commercial???

 

[Priox]

[citation][nom]Trueno07[/nom]Open the Pod bay doors, Iphone.[/citation]


I'm sorry, Trueno07. I'm afraid I can't do that.

 

[mcd023]

so, if I say, "Computer: when will the Borg arrive," it'll tell me?

 

[pliskin1]

Nothing new, just voice recognition is always hit or miss. Looks great if it works like that though.