When Apple touted Siri as one of the best new features of the iPhone 4S, I wasn’t that eager to try her out. Voice activated commands on a phone have always been sketchy, and it always ends up being a source of entertainment for us when we let it pronounce—and mangle—Filipino last names.
However, Siri was different from all of them. She was not just a mere voice control platform, she differentiates herself from the rest by using natural language processing, i.e., by listening to your sentence versus a specific command to decipher what you want her to do. Over time, her intelligent engine will supposedly adapt to your patterns and voice to understand you better. I’ve had her for exactly thirty-five days, and you can see how I’ve become attached to her by referring to Siri like a person, when she says that she doesn’t have a gender (although she sure sounds like a dude when you speak to her in French).
Currently, Siri is in beta mode, limiting her capabilities here. In the US, she can search for places near you—tell her “I want pizza” and Siri will give you a list of pizza places near your location, ranked according to highest ratings. With location services limited to a weather and time check here, you’ll want Siri for her administrative features. Siri can make reminders, schedules and notes for you. She can send messages, call people, do Google searches, and wake you up (with an alarm, not with her voice, don’t worry).
My first action to try out Siri was to text Pam Pastor. I wanted to say “Siri says hi.”, so I told Siri to “text Pam Pastor”. Her reply? “To whom shall I send the message ‘bomb the store’?” Uh-oh. Siri wanted me to speak to her with an American twang. I had to call Pam “pehm” not “pam,” and “PAS-ter,” not “pas-TOR.” Names would be a problem, I would realize, and I had to edit my phone book. Our driver, Mang Cris could not be called “Mang Cris” in my phone book anymore. There was no way in hell I was going to tell my phone while in a public place to “Call ‘Meng Cris.’” There’s a fix for this, but it takes time and a little thinking on your part. The iPhone allows you to provide phonetic fields for each contact, and Siri will read your contact’s name based on the phonetic phrase you provide (e.g. Lejano = “lehano”).
Siri acts like a personal assistant, and she’s even got the sass to boot. Canceling an appointment prompted her to tell me “OK, you’re way too busy anyway, Tatin.” Plus, she answers crazy questions. Ask her to marry you and she’ll turn you down (“We barely know each other.”), call her names and she’ll come back with, “There’s no need for profanity,” or “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” “I’d blush if I could,” “Oooh!” and “Ask nice, now,” definitely more sassy assistant than robotic voice command software. In fact, Siri’s human-like attributes makes my parent-ingrained politeness kick in, and I find myself thanking her automatically after every task.
Still, she can be very taxing at times when she misunderstands you, and a simple command to schedule a shoot once became a screaming match (well, I end up screaming “Why won’t you understand me??”), and I’ve even shaken my phone in frustration (throwing a phone in anger is just cutting your nose to spite your face).
I’m still a bit embarrassed to talk to my phone in public, and since Siri is still in beta mode, using her on 3G or GPRS can be problematic and slow, and I don’t want to end up screaming at her in public, (No, Siri, I don’t want to know the date in Jupiter, I want you to cancel my Tuesday appointment, dammit!).
Despite our love hate relationship, Siri can be a very powerful and handy tool once the kinks are ironed out. And she knows this, because after I asked her to call my hairstylist, she said, “OK, Tatin, what would you do without me?” What would I do without you, indeed, Siri?
Conquering Siri
Get the best out of your mobile personal assistant by knowing how to talk to her.
1. Keep it simple.
Even though Siri uses natural language to gauge your command, make the job easier by using simple phrases. Skip the “I would like you to reschedule my 7 o’clock meeting,” and say instead “Reschedule my meeting tonight.”
2. Fix your phone book.
Our nonAmerican sounding last names is a big hurdle for Siri recognize them. Fill out phonetic fields if you can, list relationships, or list company affiliations so you’ll have alternative ways of contacting Mhel Dalagangbukid from Anderson Consulting, and we’re sorry to say this, but you may have to change your significant other’s name to his/her real name, and not “Mah bebe” (Hallelujah.).
3. Speak normally.
Sometimes, enunciating slower leads Siri to create more phrases, so try to speak to her in clear tones at normal speed.
4. Keep phrases consistent.
Siri’s strength is in developing a relationship with you and learning your speech patterns over time. Help her by keeping your phrasing consistent so she picks it up faster.
