While there may have been a fair amount of disappointment surrounding the lack of an all-new iPhone 5 at the recent unveiling of the iPhone 4S, there was one software upgrade that clearly stole the show. The built-in Siri voice-activated assistant easily took the cake for innovation at Apple’s iPhone event, with Apple claiming that you will be able talk to Siri in a normal voice and she will grant just about any request. The smart robot woman inside your new phone will be able to send emails and texts, bring up weather forecasts, google anything, get you directions, set alarms and reminders, and schedule meetings all with a tap of the home button and the sound of your voice.
The iPhone 4 has basic voice command technology and all we had seen of Siri until now was a very well-produced Apple video and a live demonstration at the iPhone event, which we all know was carefully planned and tested. Many have speculated that perhaps Siri won’t work as well in the real world as it did on the Apple stage, and that iPhone users won’t have much use for it anyway. With this new hands-on video with Siri from the UK’s Stuff magazine, we get a feel for how well the software performs in real life and just how helpful it could be in daily use. We’re very impressed by how well Siri interprets natural voices (even with strong accents) and performs almost every imaginable task. The beeping is a little annoying if you ask Siri to do this many things in a row, but hopefully that can be adjusted or turned off.
We’ll give you a full report of our Siri impressions when we get our hands on the iPhone 4S, but our hopes are pretty high for the new technology, especially with this new evidence in hand. It could be strange to see people telling their phones what to do all the time, but if we got used to Bluetooth phantom calls, we can probably get used to that. How would you use Siri in your daily life?
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