New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Siri Voice Recognition Arrives On the iPhone 4S

Tuesday October 4, 2011 11:36 am PDT by Jordan Golson

As one of the main features of the iPhone 4S, Apple today introduced Siri a personal assistant that can
answer questions and perform for tasks for users based on voice input.
Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it.

Apple covers a number of examples of Siri's flexibility on the feature page and describes them in its iPhone 4S press release:
Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” it understands you are looking for a weather forecast. Siri is also smart about using the personal information you allow it to access, for example, if you tell Siri “Remind me to call Mom when I get home” it can find “Mom” in your address book, or ask Siri “What’s the traffic like around here?” and it can figure out where “here” is based on your current location. Siri helps you make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more. You can also get answers, find facts and even perform complex calculations just by asking.
Siri is launching as a beta with support for English (US, UK, and Australia), French, and German. Additional languages and features will be added in the future.

[ 186 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
generationxwing
103 months ago

Agree, this was very disappointing..


How? How on Earth was any of this disappointing? The rumour mill comes up with the most impossible products every year, and every year what you dream of never happens. Every single year! My God, if you haven't learned by now there is no hope for you.
Rating: 36 Votes
Avatar
generationxwing
103 months ago

This is siriously underwhelming. They didn't even bother renaming it! What have they been doing all those months? The stock is plummeting and all I can say is: well deserved.


Well, this about sums it up correctly. If an Apple nerd hates it, it'll be a hit in the market.

People around here hated the iPod, hated the iPad and just about every other product Apple releases.
Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
jamesr19
103 months ago
this looks really good, shame it seems to be limited to the iPhone 4S hardware!!
Rating: 16 Votes
Avatar
jmgregory1
103 months ago
Yes, start by taking a hammer to any and all Apple hardware you now own - they purposely let everyone down by not introducing a new design iPhone with a bigger screen and super duper faster processor and 4G speed and and and.

Very odd that people have such strange expectations - if you want a bigger screen, either buy an android phone or try to get a job at Apple as a industrial designer or product manager and make the suggestion for a bigger screen.

I'm pretty sure Apple has looked at just about every aspect of every possible spec for a smart phone. They chose what they chose for reasons they don't necessarily need to explain to you or anyone for that matter.

You don't know and don't think big picture (not big screen) the way that Apple does. If all you care about is specs, please go get yourself any other manufacturers phone and enjoy you got the spec you wanted.

And for those people who say voice control is available already - it's not in the same integrated way just introduced by Apple.
Rating: 14 Votes
Avatar
AtariMac
103 months ago

No surprises this time...
...16 months wait for an antenna that works, no redesign & a crap gimmick you can only use when it's silent around you...
Goodbye crapple...i'm pretty disgusted & feeling let down, but not surprised at all...
Fanboys are so loyal and apple just p*ss on them every time because they know they can...


Your sense of entitlement is refreshing! I know Apple owed it to you to provide you with exactly what you imagined! I cannot believe they screwed you like this!

Dude, go get some fresh air. You may find it, um, refreshing.
Rating: 14 Votes
Avatar
milo
103 months ago

How is this different than the SIRI app I've had on my phone for well over a year?


The difference is that the version you have is much more limited, they had to make compromises due to not having enough processing power to run the full version that's on the 4S. There was an MR post about it a few days back, you can go back and read the details there.

So will Siri run on the iPad 2 since it has the same processor and memory?
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
campingsk8er
103 months ago
I honestly don't know why all you crybabies are complaining. The made an excellent phone even more excellent. Or are you just upset that Steve Jobs didn't announce it, or the fact that there wasn't one more thing. I'm glad there wasn't one more thing because then you would all say, Tim is a copy cat. It seems apple can never please any of you. Well I was pleased
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
iRumored
103 months ago
I am curious to see how 'snappy' this new device is going to be. The old iPhone 4 had a fraction of the hardware that other Android phones had and the iPhone absolutely destroyed them in comparison with how swiftly and smooth it opened apps/pages/flipping through pictures/etc.. And now with this updated speed, it looks awesome.

I personally am GLAD that it doesn't have 4G/LTE capabilities. I was scared to death that it was because the battery life would have seriously sucked. It's nice that they've made speed improvements with the same network, and honestly, where do you go besides a train/plane/car that DOESN'T have WiFi accessibility? Every one of my friends houses, every sports bar, practically everywhere has free WiFi now.

Even limited area WiFi is > than a 4G/LTE network.

As far as the camera goes, cool. That's all I have to say about that. They talked about the speed at which you could take consecutive pictures and I found it sort of pointless because different cameras you could download in the appstore (camera+) allowed you to take pictures way way faster than the original one.

New 64GB option is cool, but.. Eh.. It'd be nicer if they made the 32GB as standard to help 'justify' the 16 month wait and make the 64GB the $299 option.

The Siri Recognition looks great.. I eat my words when I say I disliked it when it was just speculation. Looks like it will eliminate the need to download vast amounts of apps to do the same things (that is, if they're ran independently and don't rely on each other) which means, cleaner iPhone.

After all, think about what you're asking for.. You wanted a new design with a bigger screen? What about the people who don't want that? It is inevitable that you can't make everyone happy. What it comes down to is this new phone justifiable or not? Then again, that comes down to personal opinion.

What would make you dislike it so much? Why would you feel cheated? What other phone can do what this one can? Shoot, I say that the iPhone 4 is still better than any new Android phone out and even knowingly COMING out. The 4S I am sure will obliterate it. I am not speaking as a "fanboy".. I don't currently own any Apple products; even though, they do interest me.

My question is this: What do other phones have that you want that the iPhone doesn't have? A bigger screen? Really? Not that I think there was anything wrong with the iPhone 4, I don't see the need for current iPhone 4 owners to upgrade really.. They'll be getting the new OS.

I still haven't picked through and seen if it indeed is a fact that the new Siri Recognition is only available to the 4S, if so.. That is my biggest head shaker. Because, I think it's not fair to use that as a means to promote sales by shafting the current iPhone 4 owners.. Just my thoughts..
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
Lukkee24
103 months ago
If Siri will work on the iPhone 4S, then I don't see why it shouldn't work on the iPad 2 :confused:.
Rating: 10 Votes
Avatar
Xian Zhu Xuande
103 months ago

For a hyped feature that is quite the disclaimer.

:(

What were you expecting? For Siri to reference Wolfram Alpha without an internet connection? Or for Siri to get up-to-date information on anything without access to some kind of internet connection? It seems pretty boilerplate to me, aside from the Beta reference. That's probably just Apple's way of saying, "Look, we're going to keep working hard to make this program even more enjoyable to use, so expect hiccups you encounter to be smoothed out with time."

That is EXACTLY why they do it genius. :rolleyes:

Usually when Apple leaves out a feature there is a good reason for it, and it takes a while for that to become apparent. People whined like children when backgrounds weren't available in older iOS devices until jailbreaking revealed that it resulted in poor animation (unless sacrifices were made). People still whined, though. Apple cares more about the experience.

I expect the jailbreaking community will enable Siri on older iOS devices, and then we'll see if this really is a marketing stunt. If it runs like silk on an iPhone 4 I'll be with everyone in crying foul.
Rating: 9 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]