Siri DOESN'T suck: update inside

[wheresmybacon]

Below are my impressions of Siri after a few days, however my opinion changed drastically in a week. Please see the updated thread here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2200353.

Got my iPhone 4s Friday, activated it easily, was really loving the speed and camera and everything, and then I tried Siri...

After about 5 minutes of trying to get it to set an alarm ("wake me up at 7 am") and having it insist it couldn't understand me ("I'm sorry, I don't understand you"), I literally told it, loudly, "GO FUCK YOURSELF" to which it replied "be nice, now". True story. At that point it graduated from "I'm sorry, I don't understand" to "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble connecting to the network".

But that's not why it sucks. That it understands F-bombs is one of its more endearing qualities. Why it sucks is that it DOESN'T WORK WITHOUT CELL SERVICE, AKA "bars". TCP/IP connectivity will not suffice. Example: In our house, downstairs we have terrible cell service (ATT), but incredible wireless connectivity, and Siri almost never works. In my office (a data center) I have almost no cell service, but incredible wireless, and Siri doesn't work at all. I can stream internet radio and play games, but Siri will not work: "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble connecting to the network." That it can't use TCP/IP in place of spotty cell coverage is beyond retarded.

The thing about this technology is it's useless unless it's reliable. How hard is it to send a text? Set an alarm? It's not. So why argue with a machine or tell your phone something 3 times on the half chance it understands or can connect to the network, when you know you can do it yourself in 10 seconds or less?

If you have very good coverage, you'll probably be happy with Siri. If you're like me and unlucky enough to have bad coverage in your home and office, you won't be using Siri much.

UPDATE. I'm wrong about Siri not using WiFi. It does. After restricting cell data to WiFi, Siri works. It still doesn't understand me very well, but it's working. It looks like it's not too bright about failing over to WiFi in the presence of crappy too moderately-crappy 3G connectivity. That's my theory anyway. Seems like it will try 3G first if there's any connection at all. And it won't fail over if Siri fails, it just keeps trying 3G.

UPDATE 2: OK with some help from my AT friends I'm slowly ironing out some of Siri's idiosyncrasies (see thread for details). It certainly has potential, once the accuracy is there this could be very nice...

 

[runawayprisoner]

Have you tried resetting your network settings?

 

[Deeko]

That's interesting. I'm surprised it doesn't use wifi. I would think it would prefer wifi, especially for Verizon users where 3G is much slower.

 

[Oyeve]

The carriers make a shitload of money on data. Of course Siri doesn't work on wifi. Less moola for the carriers. It is sickening.

 

[cheezy321]

Really? It doesn't work on Wifi? That sucks if true... Can anyone confirm this?

 

[wheresmybacon]

Have you tried resetting your network settings?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. At work I frequently switch between one of many different wireless hot spots, so the connection is getting reset all the time.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Really? It doesn't work on Wifi? That sucks if true... Can anyone confirm this?

If I'm wrong, I'll be extremely happy to be wrong.

 

[pm]

Siri's servers are undergoing a major network bandwidth test right now as literally millions of phones turn on and immediately start using it. If you are having network issues, I would advise giving it time. I'm certain Apple is aware of the problem.

I am surprised that 3G data would work better than WiFi... the path back to Apple should be equivalent. I doubt AT&T and Verizon are hosting Siri servers, so the end of the pipe for a request over WiFi or 3G should be Apple...

To me, if Siri can't understand anything you say, that's a big problem. But if Siri network service is a bit flaky a few days after launch, that's not all that surprising.

 

[wheresmybacon]

It's not that the 3G network works better than WiFi for Siri. In my testing, Siri doesn't use the WiFi connection in any way.

 

[Red Storm]

It's not that the 3G network works better than WiFi for Siri. In my testing, Siri doesn't use the WiFi connection in any way.

That's pretty dumb if true.

If I had a 4S (and Siri), the one place I'd use Siri the most (aside from in the car) would be at home, where I have a wifi connection.

 

[Ns1]

The carriers make a shitload of money on data. Of course Sirius doesn't work on wifi. Less moola for the carriers. It is sickening.

not sure if srs

 

[goog40]

You don't need a connection to to your cell carrier to use Siri. AT&T didn't associate my SIM correctly, so I had no service for the first day, but Siri still worked fine on wifi.

 

[badb0y]

It works on WiFi...

 

[superccs]

Buy the next apple product maybe all your hopes and dreams will come true after the next $500 installment. lol

Let's play nice now, guys
-ViRGE

 

[pm]

It's not that the 3G network works better than WiFi for Siri. In my testing, Siri doesn't use the WiFi connection in any way.

You can turn off cell data and check that...
press Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data -> Off

 

[wheresmybacon]

You don't need a connection to to your cell carrier to use Siri. AT&T didn't associate my SIM correctly, so I had no service for the first day, but Siri still worked fine on wifi.

Well there's something wrong with my phone then. I've got around a dozen different WiFi spots I access throughout my day and Siri isn't working on any of them.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Update. If I turn off cell data Siri works. It just doesn't seem to be very good about failing over in the presence of inadequate 3G connectivity....

 

[Ns1]

Update. If I turn off cell data Siri works. It just doesn't seem to be very good about failing over in the presence of inadequate 3G connectivity....

maybe this applies to you?

Now, Siri does have a few hiccups. It relies on the network, so if you’re using something like Optimum’s Wi-Fi hotspots when you’re out and about, this can cause a little bit of an issue as you switch on and off of Wi-Fi access points since Siri won’t be able to connect to the server when you’re disconnecting. And the few times you’re on an EDGE or 1x network, Siri can take a while instead of coming back with a response almost instantly. There are also some times when Siri will mess up, but I have found that even if you don’t say a few words clearly enough, or Siri doesn’t detect them clearly enough, that most of the time the response will still turn out alright. When Siri misunderstands a word, you can also edit it with a simple tap to ensure an accurate response. Then of course there are the comical times Siri doesn’t get what you’re saying at all, but those luckily don’t happen too much.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Kind of. What's the source of the quote?

 

[Ns1]

Kind of. What's the source of the quote?

http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/17/apple-iphone-4s-review/

 

[wheresmybacon]

http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/17/apple-iphone-4s-review/

Cool. Thanks.

Turning off cell data has resolved my Siri problems. Fortunately I've got WiFi probably 95% of the time, so it's not a big deal for me to resort to this work-around.

 

[nauru]

Buy the next apple product maybe all your hopes and dreams will come true after the next $500 installment. lol

lol

 

[Aikouka]

It's not very helpful to state, "it doesn't understand me." Siri's "chat window" will display what it picked up from you... so what did it say that you said?

I just told Siri the exact same thing you said ("wake me up at 7 AM") and it worked fine. It seemed to take a little longer than normal, but interestingly enough, it kept saying things like "hmm" while waiting for a response.

EDIT:

One thing I found helpful... don't hold the phone in front of you and talk directly at it. For some reason, when someone tried this with my phone, it just wouldn't work for beans! The microphone is on the bottom of the phone, so I tried holding the microphone toward me, and it worked fine. When I tried your example a little bit ago, I held it up to my face to do it.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Like I said in the update, since I turned off 3G and let it use WLAN exclusively, most of my Siri problems are gone. Accuracy with regard to what I'm saying is all that's left, and hopefully over time that will remedy itself.

Specifically it's unable to tell the difference between the words "call" and "tell". So if I want to send a text message to someone, I have to do so in 2 phases:

"Send a message to X", and then dictate the message when it asks.

Right now if I say, "Tell X Blah blah blah", it calls them.

Siri is a neat toy, it's just not very accurate.

 

[Ns1]

Like I said in the update, since I turned off 3G and let it use WLAN exclusively, most of my Siri problems are gone. Accuracy with regard to what I'm saying is all that's left, and hopefully over time that will remedy itself.

Specifically it's unable to tell the difference between the words "call" and "tell". So if I want to send a text message to someone, I have to do so in 2 phases:

"Send a message to X", and then dictate the message when it asks.

Right now if I say, "Tell X Blah blah blah", it calls them.

Siri is a neat toy, it's just not very accurate.

"send message to X 'message' " = 1 command

ex)

Send message to GF, be home at 630

Siri responds accordingly (drafts text message to GF, reads it back to me, and then asks if I want to send)