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There's an Ike's Sandwiches like literally 30 feet from my office in San Jose, and I always like to ask Siri when it closes. To this day, I've probably tried on

by jd20 9y ago

There's an Ike's Sandwiches like literally 30 feet from my office in San Jose, and I always like to ask Siri when it closes. To this day, I've probably tried on a dozen occasions and it has never once gotten it right. I'm a native English speaker with no accent. I tried again just now, this is what I got: Me: "What time does Ike's sandwich close?" Siri heard: "What time does Eichs sandwich close" Siri responded: "Hmmm... I don't see any hours for Rick's Sandwich Shop on Elkins St, Boston" Things like this is why I've all but stop using Siri.

js2 9y ago
Siri has made me feel like an idiot so many times I don't even try any more. Fool me once... (I use it for reminders. That seems to work. Looking up anything is useless.)
- happertiger 9y ago
  We bought an amazon device to use as a kitchen timer. It sits right next to where everyone charges their iPhones. Nobody uses Siri. It’s sad. I want to love her, but I honestly can’t remember the last time she was useful, she only works with apples’ ecosystem (and I refuse to use maps it’s tried to kill me on multiple occasions), and I can’t honestly remember the last time I was impressed with her progress forward as a tech. If the sum of 20 years of voice technology is a glorified stopwatch, you got to wonder...
  - eridius 9y ago
    Using Siri as a timer is one of the more common things people do with Siri. Why would you buy a whole different device just for timers?
jbg_ 9y ago
OT but what do you mean by "English speaker with no accent"? Clearly every person has an accent, and every system that understands language must be able to understand the various accents that people have.
- SamBam 9y ago
  You know. They mean "an accent like everyone else had where I grew up." Obviously that's "no accent."
- atonse 9y ago
  In the US, people say "no accent" to mean what the rest of the world calls an American Accent (even though American Accents change with region, just like any country). It's a very US-centric way of looking at things, but means no harm. I've lived here in the US for 25 years and I notice the phrase every single time. :-)
- jd20 9y ago
  Right, you caught me :) what I really meant to say is American English speaker with no strong regional markers (i.e. Southern, New York). Maybe slightly Midwest, but I haven't been back in decades so it's pretty weak. More importantly, I was distinguishing because while Siri should be able to to understand various accents, it's struggled with that. When it launched, there were only two English variants (US and UK), so if you were a native Indian or Australian English speaker (for example) your experience would suffer. Now, Siri has support for 9 different English variants so they've clearly come a long way, but I remember it wasn't always the case.
eridius 9y ago
There is no such store as "Ike's Sandwiches". There's "Ike's Place", and there's "Ike's Love and Sandwiches". You might have better luck if you use it's actual name.
- jd20 9y ago
  That was part of my point though. Siri should be smart enough to understand my meaning (and Apple heavily marketed that aspect of it). If I put "Ike's Sandwiches" in Google (or even Apple Maps) they both know what I mean. Siri somehow thinks I'd be interested in a restaurant over a thousand miles away.

by jd20 9y ago

js2 9y ago

Siri has made me feel like an idiot so many times I don't even try any more. Fool me once... (I use it for reminders. That seems to work. Looking up anything is useless.)

happertiger 9y ago
We bought an amazon device to use as a kitchen timer. It sits right next to where everyone charges their iPhones. Nobody uses Siri. It’s sad. I want to love her, but I honestly can’t remember the last time she was useful, she only works with apples’ ecosystem (and I refuse to use maps it’s tried to kill me on multiple occasions), and I can’t honestly remember the last time I was impressed with her progress forward as a tech. If the sum of 20 years of voice technology is a glorified stopwatch, you got to wonder...
- eridius 9y ago
  Using Siri as a timer is one of the more common things people do with Siri. Why would you buy a whole different device just for timers?

jbg_ 9y ago

OT but what do you mean by "English speaker with no accent"? Clearly every person has an accent, and every system that understands language must be able to understand the various accents that people have.

SamBam 9y ago
You know. They mean "an accent like everyone else had where I grew up." Obviously that's "no accent."
atonse 9y ago
In the US, people say "no accent" to mean what the rest of the world calls an American Accent (even though American Accents change with region, just like any country). It's a very US-centric way of looking at things, but means no harm. I've lived here in the US for 25 years and I notice the phrase every single time. :-)
jd20 9y ago
Right, you caught me :) what I really meant to say is American English speaker with no strong regional markers (i.e. Southern, New York). Maybe slightly Midwest, but I haven't been back in decades so it's pretty weak. More importantly, I was distinguishing because while Siri should be able to to understand various accents, it's struggled with that. When it launched, there were only two English variants (US and UK), so if you were a native Indian or Australian English speaker (for example) your experience would suffer. Now, Siri has support for 9 different English variants so they've clearly come a long way, but I remember it wasn't always the case.

eridius 9y ago

There is no such store as "Ike's Sandwiches". There's "Ike's Place", and there's "Ike's Love and Sandwiches". You might have better luck if you use it's actual name.

jd20 9y ago
That was part of my point though. Siri should be smart enough to understand my meaning (and Apple heavily marketed that aspect of it). If I put "Ike's Sandwiches" in Google (or even Apple Maps) they both know what I mean. Siri somehow thinks I'd be interested in a restaurant over a thousand miles away.