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Siri: iPhone 4S’ killer feature or utter failure?

When Apple introduced the iPhone 4S a couple of weeks back, we said it wasn’t a big of an upgrade as we wanted it to be (see: Why we’re disappointed there’s no iPhone 5). There were dissenting opinions, of course, stating that Siri — the Personal Assistant, is its killer feature.

I had my reservations with Siri and kept judgement until we’ve finally seen it first hand. Aside from that, there’s also the issue with the speed of our local networks.

So here’s a sample of that killer feature from Siri, c/o MB Tech News Editor Art Samaniego.

Looks like Siri will not work if you’re outside the US (Siri uses services like Places, Yelp and WolframAlpha). So if Siri is one of your biggest reasons to get the iPhone 4S, you might just be disappointed.

At least Apple gave it some sense of humor.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

53 Responses

  1. Avatar for philip philip says:

    beta pa kasi ung Siri. try checking the apple site.
    chill lang kayo

  2. Avatar for qwertio qwertio says:

    It is possible for Siri to be functional in the Philippines, if we direct it to use local search sites, like www.eyp.ph and juice.ph

    It is just the matter of redirecting the search sites, and possibly changing the search algorithm to match the new websites. And this might be possible once the iOS5 jailbreak comes out. But it might take a while to hack into Siri’s code, considering that it is a very advanced voice recognition artificial intelligence software. But there is always a way.

    • Avatar for Anime Anime says:

      You got a point, haven’t thought of that really, your idea of changing the sites that Siri used is a good one though I’m sure there’s an API for that in which Siri is using.Based from that I’m not sure though if local sites that you’ve mentioned support that. On that case they need a revamp and provide a way so both can communicate to each other.

      If you’re using Siri though to do common task which doesn’t require to connect to the internet then it’s still a killer feature.

  3. Avatar for daniel daniel says:

    haha this is a cool feature when u cant do anything… u want to talk .. then talk with ur phone hahaha.

  4. Avatar for Iyan Sommerset Iyan Sommerset says:

    Que siri, siri. Whatever will be, will be. :P

  5. Avatar for Nick Nick says:

    Just like how Windows Phone 7 Mango Bing doesn’t support Music Search and Local Scout in the country…

    The Philippines is never a priority.

  6. Avatar for Hater Hater says:

    F-u-c-k the iPhone4S! The iPhone is crap. Always have been… always will be!

  7. Avatar for Bryan Bryan says:

    Now kung wala kang makausap iphone na bilin mo. hehehe..

  8. Avatar for Edwin C Edwin C says:

    Eh, bobo pala iyan si Siri, ah. Sinubukan mo bang tanungin kung saan matatagpuan si P.Noy?

  9. Avatar for martin martin says:

    Siri’s being ported over to iPhone 4 as we speak anyway..

  10. Avatar for moonshine moonshine says:

    another borrowed feature from microsofts voice command and tell me.this feature has been in microsofts mobile operating systems since 2002.Yet im impressed how the company who developed siri improved the system (BTW,apple just fought over google in acquiring siri in 2010). This is whats great about apple.they’ll copy a feature and make it more intuitive,FUNCTIONAL and USABLE just like how they copied the mouse GUI from xerox and perfected the implementation in the first MAC COmputer. Too bad SIRI needs a data service in which most of us here in the philippines dont have.id rather stick with my windows phone and with my iP4 which is now running iOS5.upgrading to the iP4s(if you already have the iP4) i guess would be a not so practical and economical move,i must say. just my two cents

    • Avatar for Raphaa Raphaa says:

      Actually I think the first mobile phone with speech/voice recognition would be the Ericsson T18 introduced in 1999. I miss those old Ericssons with the antenna shaped like the end cap of a highlighter. Nostalgia :D

      I don’t want to sound like a Symbian fan boy or anything but if you do really want the voice commands/recognition without using a data connection you can get a cheap Symbian^1 or Symbian^3 phone. You can use it for voice dialing, initiate a new message or email to someone, opening some applications, ask it “what time is it?”, change the profile, read new or all messages or emails (weirdly when reading “LOL” it does say “laughing out loud” instead or “L.O.L.” or “LOL” funny).

      I still prefer Vlingo. It is more accurate and useful.

  11. Avatar for deuts deuts says:

    Maybe someday. It’ll be a matter of time.

    • Avatar for kappy kappy says:

      Sadly after about 8 years, no one really cares about siri anymore. Hahahaha wow really a lot has changed since this article was posted.

  12. Avatar for char char says:

    di maintindihan ni Siri ang Japanese accent nag “F” word pa haha!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RiU8GPlsZqE

  13. Avatar for Benchmark Benchmark says:

    By the way, ayus yung Post photo via Sir Art…..hehehe kulang na lang sabihin ni Siri, “I haven’t been in the Philippines, Art” or “SECRET!” heheheheh

  14. Avatar for RJ RJ says:

    Abe, Apple would not of course invest yet in the Philippines. The country is a small market. The US had 18M iOS users in 2010, compared to 100K of the PH. Thailand’s even larger than PH with 200K users.

    Siri would only be ‘practically’ available for US, Canadian, Australian, French and German markets. Japan and China perhaps.

    • Avatar for Jologs Jologs says:

      I agree. Filipino users like ourselves might see it as an utter failure since it doesn’t work for us. But considering that it will work for about 18M other users(I’m trusting your figures here RJ, he he he), then you can’t really say it’s a failure.

      I personally think that the title is an open invite to trolls from both the iSheeps and Fandroids sides to bash each other. Oh well…

  15. Avatar for Benchmark Benchmark says:

    for now siguro hinde pa ganun covered ang local places dito sa pinas….yet maybe some company will make their effort to update or have a link with this siri siri thingy…

    But then again, hinde naman din instant yung mga gagawin nila na paglalagay ng info ng local industries natin.

    Plus, in my opinion, only few people lang here sa Pinas who use voice control…kaya I think Siri will not be a real hit here sa pinas…

    …for now.

  16. Avatar for Mat Mat says:

    I tried the same question on Vlingo and got a list of malls. Siri is not as good as they claim it to be. That’s one reason they kept the Beta tag on just in case people notice.

    • Avatar for Chris Chris says:

      Dear Mat,

      Don’t be silly! They didn’t “keep” the beta tag. They called it was it is, a Beta product integrated into a neww platform. So what that you used so e other program and liked the results.

      A stand alone product being used by a few thousand and a similar product that is integrated into not only a sophisticated but brand spanking new OS is not the same thing. And when you consider the tens of millions of users testing this new toy to it’s limits, only a foo would complain about a beta status. GET A LIFE, MAT.

    • Avatar for Raphaa Raphaa says:

      Ooooo Apple Fanboy mad! (Okay disregard that…)

      FYI Vlingo had 3 Million users on Android as of August 2011 (http://blog.vlingo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/SuccessGraphicv3.png)

      It has multi-platform support for Symbian, Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, aaaand weirdly Windows Mobile (not Windows Phone 7). In my usage of Vlingo… I can do a web search, a text message, an email, a ‘note to self’ on either the calendar’s to-do or notepad, update my facebook status, “voice dial”, and open an application. Like Siri it does use a data connection for the voice recognition. It is not as sophisticated and as integrated into the OS as Siri but it is not bad… and it has been available since if i remember correctly, 2009. No I do not work for Vlingo.

      So please chill. Why are some people wound-up so tightly over this?

    • Avatar for Mat Mat says:

      @Chris

      I’m not sure what your point is. Siri is BETA, thats a fact and and you seem to agree. I dont think I see any complaining, as you call it, in my post.

    • Avatar for Chris Chris says:

      Matt,

      My point was that there are plenty of things that Siri won’t do from the word go. It is also not meant to be all things to all people. I’d just like to see more slack given to the product, since it is new and so closely tied to a new OS. vlingo is several years old and should be more capable. But give Siri some room to stretch out and see what Apple does with it. I’d hope you would agree that they are committed to this project.

    • Avatar for Mat Mat says:

      Siri may just be the best thing in the future, but we can only assume. Right now, its just not as ground breaking as Apple has made it to be. I agree that its something to keep an eye on.

  17. Avatar for Cliff Rosario Cliff Rosario says:

    Like how they said it in Engadget. An uppdate is in the works to make Siri more global come 2012..[lol] I guess majority of the world will be added to her maps not sure about the Philippines though.. so I’ll hold on to my iP4 and SGS2 for the moment..

    Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/15/siri-gets-lost-internationally-promises-to-do-better-next-year/

  18. Avatar for Neil Neil says:

    ^ No. Siri uses your physical location to your questions. But Siri will still do some things for you like settinga Reminder, sending an SMS or email, etc. Except for things like the one mentioned in the article.

  19. Avatar for Abe Olandres Abe Olandres says:

    @patrick – nope, because Siri needs local information. You can still tell it to do other things though.

  20. Avatar for patrick patrick says:

    Hypothetically, if one uses a VPN that directs to a US ip address, would Siri work here?

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