4 ms·

Am I the only one who thinks Siri "just works" as it should? Sure it's far from perfect, but it almost never failed me to call or text someone, ask about weath

Am I the only one who thinks Siri "just works" as it should? Sure it's far from perfect, but it almost never failed me to call or text someone, ask about weather, take a note/reminder, switch the lights using my smart outlet, or to set an alarm (my personal highest use-case). Sure it could do more, but I don't thik it didn't "figure out the job".

amelius 5y ago
You are probably talking to Siri like you're talking to a computer. However, most people talk to Siri like they're talking to a human being.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Yes and no. As a computer engineer I'm probably biased about what it can and can't do technically, so I ask things that it can do. From a user perspective, I use a very natural language instead of robotic/feelingless commands and it just works anyway.
withinboredom 5y ago
I've asked what time it is in PST once. It told me the current time in my timezone, with the PST timezone qualifier.
- lelandfe 5y ago
  Wow, this is a great example of how crap Siri is. Let's do this – all of these work perfectly with Google Assistant: "Time in PST" gives me 3 links. The first 404's, the second has no clock but alerts "No locations currently on PST" (which is true, its PDT right now – but come on), and the 3rd has no clock but prompts me to install a "FREE iOS app." Fail, big time. "What time is it in PST" gets me a web snippet showing "PST is 8 hours behind UTC." Fail. "What's the current time in Pacific Standard Time" runs it through Wolfram, giving me a LOT of unrelated info but admittedly also a clock showing the correct time. Success... sort of. Wouldn't help while driving. "What's the current time in PST" gives me "Sorry, I can't help with that, but you can ask me the time for a specific city." Fail. "What's the current time in Los Angeles" correctly shows me a Siri prompt with the time. Success.
  - suction 5y ago
    I'd never think of asking it what the time in my particular city is. I reckon that's how "normies" think time works, and Apple has tuned Siri to their needs? As opposed to the needs of people who may have some knowledge about nerd things like time zones?
    - withinboredom 5y ago
      Sure, but conference calls usually come with a timezone and time, not a city (which isn’t exactly unique to a timezone)
      - eldaisfish 5y ago
        on most interfaces, timezones usually specify a region or a few cities as examples.
  - darkwater 5y ago
    It clearly means that you, as a normal user, shouldn't care about time zones. It's an implementation detail you should not be aware. What are you doing, asking about specific timezones?
lelandfe 5y ago
I got my parents a Homepod and they kind of hate Siri but also ruefully love it like one has to chuckle at the dog that ate your shoes. They're huge classical music nerds, and I've watched them, in vain, recite to Siri over and over and over the desired concerto, orchestra, etc – trying to find the right incantation to get their Homepod to play the music they want. Usually they just get fed up and play it with their phone. My dad likewise chuckles when Siri inevitably gets his spoken grocery list wrong. One of his favorite games is getting people in earshot to work with him to figure out the correct pronunciation of words for Siri to understand what they're saying. I think how people accept Siri as a tool is by finding the few things that she does perfectly and never doing anything but those few things. Ever. Anyway, here's a scattershot of some stuff I just tried that Siri fell on her face over (on iOS 15): * "Send a text to Katrina, Mom, and Dad that 'I don't need their help'" > Creates text to Katrina: "Mom and dad that I don't need her help" * "Show me photos I took last month" > Simply opens Photos * "Show me photos I took in Scotland" > Simply opens Photos * "What are the hours of the closest grocery store?" > shows assorted list of nearby stores, no hours shown * "What is 13 modulo 5?" > 13% = 0.13 [clearly the Calculator app doesn't support modulo operations but still: at least say that?] * "Which novels won the Hugo last year" > No response, link to Wikipedia for Hugo Awards and an article on "Novels that won both the hugo and nebula awards" * "What time is low tide today?" > no response, link to various tide times websites * "When is the next Jon Stewart episode coming out?" [an Apple TV property] > no response, shows list of websites talking about Jon Stewart
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  Some of my annoyances: * What’s the weather for tomorrow? > I can’t see the weather that far out but here’s the weather for the next ten days.” * “When will it stop raining?” > It looks like it’s raining right now.
  - can16358p 5y ago
    Even though I like Siri this reminded me of this one time I was driving with my Apple-hating friend with me. We were discussing whether it'd rain, I asked Siri, she said it doesn't look like it's gonna rain today. Literally 10 seconds later, it started to rain, giving my Apple-hating friend enough material.
suction 5y ago
Setting alarms and timers is the only thing where Siri works for me more than it doesn't. Asking it to play a certain song or band or anything more than a 3 word command will fail or result in long stalling with an eventual "sorry didn't get that" reply. This is on WiFi.
Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
Take a note? I wish. Often I'll think of something while out cycling that I want to remember later. So I try to tell Siri using my watch. Siri just tells me "Sorry, I can't help you with notes on Apple Watch". But it will let me send myself a message. So I do that instead. I'm not convinced iMessage was meant as a note-taking platform, but hey, maybe Apple have plans.

amelius 5y ago

You are probably talking to Siri like you're talking to a computer. However, most people talk to Siri like they're talking to a human being.

can16358p 5y ago
Yes and no. As a computer engineer I'm probably biased about what it can and can't do technically, so I ask things that it can do. From a user perspective, I use a very natural language instead of robotic/feelingless commands and it just works anyway.

withinboredom 5y ago

I've asked what time it is in PST once. It told me the current time in my timezone, with the PST timezone qualifier.

lelandfe 5y ago
Wow, this is a great example of how crap Siri is. Let's do this – all of these work perfectly with Google Assistant: "Time in PST" gives me 3 links. The first 404's, the second has no clock but alerts "No locations currently on PST" (which is true, its PDT right now – but come on), and the 3rd has no clock but prompts me to install a "FREE iOS app." Fail, big time. "What time is it in PST" gets me a web snippet showing "PST is 8 hours behind UTC." Fail. "What's the current time in Pacific Standard Time" runs it through Wolfram, giving me a LOT of unrelated info but admittedly also a clock showing the correct time. Success... sort of. Wouldn't help while driving. "What's the current time in PST" gives me "Sorry, I can't help with that, but you can ask me the time for a specific city." Fail. "What's the current time in Los Angeles" correctly shows me a Siri prompt with the time. Success.
- suction 5y ago
  I'd never think of asking it what the time in my particular city is. I reckon that's how "normies" think time works, and Apple has tuned Siri to their needs? As opposed to the needs of people who may have some knowledge about nerd things like time zones?
  - withinboredom 5y ago
    Sure, but conference calls usually come with a timezone and time, not a city (which isn’t exactly unique to a timezone)
    - eldaisfish 5y ago
      on most interfaces, timezones usually specify a region or a few cities as examples.
- darkwater 5y ago
  It clearly means that you, as a normal user, shouldn't care about time zones. It's an implementation detail you should not be aware. What are you doing, asking about specific timezones?

lelandfe 5y ago

I got my parents a Homepod and they kind of hate Siri but also ruefully love it like one has to chuckle at the dog that ate your shoes. They're huge classical music nerds, and I've watched them, in vain, recite to Siri over and over and over the desired concerto, orchestra, etc – trying to find the right incantation to get their Homepod to play the music they want. Usually they just get fed up and play it with their phone. My dad likewise chuckles when Siri inevitably gets his spoken grocery list wrong. One of his favorite games is getting people in earshot to work with him to figure out the correct pronunciation of words for Siri to understand what they're saying. I think how people accept Siri as a tool is by finding the few things that she does perfectly and never doing anything but those few things. Ever. Anyway, here's a scattershot of some stuff I just tried that Siri fell on her face over (on iOS 15): * "Send a text to Katrina, Mom, and Dad that 'I don't need their help'" > Creates text to Katrina: "Mom and dad that I don't need her help" * "Show me photos I took last month" > Simply opens Photos * "Show me photos I took in Scotland" > Simply opens Photos * "What are the hours of the closest grocery store?" > shows assorted list of nearby stores, no hours shown * "What is 13 modulo 5?" > 13% = 0.13 [clearly the Calculator app doesn't support modulo operations but still: at least say that?] * "Which novels won the Hugo last year" > No response, link to Wikipedia for Hugo Awards and an article on "Novels that won both the hugo and nebula awards" * "What time is low tide today?" > no response, link to various tide times websites * "When is the next Jon Stewart episode coming out?" [an Apple TV property] > no response, shows list of websites talking about Jon Stewart

twobitshifter 5y ago
Some of my annoyances: * What’s the weather for tomorrow? > I can’t see the weather that far out but here’s the weather for the next ten days.” * “When will it stop raining?” > It looks like it’s raining right now.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Even though I like Siri this reminded me of this one time I was driving with my Apple-hating friend with me. We were discussing whether it'd rain, I asked Siri, she said it doesn't look like it's gonna rain today. Literally 10 seconds later, it started to rain, giving my Apple-hating friend enough material.

suction 5y ago

Setting alarms and timers is the only thing where Siri works for me more than it doesn't. Asking it to play a certain song or band or anything more than a 3 word command will fail or result in long stalling with an eventual "sorry didn't get that" reply. This is on WiFi.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago

Take a note? I wish. Often I'll think of something while out cycling that I want to remember later. So I try to tell Siri using my watch. Siri just tells me "Sorry, I can't help you with notes on Apple Watch". But it will let me send myself a message. So I do that instead. I'm not convinced iMessage was meant as a note-taking platform, but hey, maybe Apple have plans.