Category Archives: All Things Apple

I wanted to put down a few thoughts on Siri now that I’ve used for over a week.  By now you’ve no doubt heard about this voice recognition functionality that Apple has built into the iPhone 4S.  Let me start off by saying that Siri is no gimmick.  It’s not awkward voice commands that you need to memorize to try to do simply things like call a contact.  The other mobile phone vendors, like Microsoft and Google, have dismissed Siri as being unnecessary, but let me assure you, after seeing it, I’m sure that both those two companies are feverishly working to try to create their own version of Siri to replace their simplistic voice command systems on their respective platforms.

I wanted to high light two aspects of Siri that I used repeatedly all last week that drove home the value of this new interface.  The first is for setting reminders and calendar appointments.  Looking back at my reminders from last week I set ended up setting 37 reminders that were a mix of work and personal items.  Using Siri it is dead easy.

• “Remind me next Thursday that it’s parent teacher interviews at 7pm”
• “Remind me to pick up a new power cord when I’m near the Eaton’s Centre”
• “Remind me to mail thank you cards when I arrive home.”
• “Book a meeting for tomorrow morning at 9am to work on presentation.”
• “Remind me to email my presentation when I arrive at work.”
• “Remind me to pick up toast bread and juice when I leave work.”
• “Remind me everyday at 9pm to sign my daughter’s agenda book.”
• “Remind me to call [client name] when I arrive at the office”
• “Book a lunch meeting for this Friday with [name of person] for noon.”

The above is just a sampling of some of the reminders I set for myself.  As if by magic, these reminders were set flawlessly.  Correct dates and times.  Some set up as repeating items automatically.  Some set to trigger only depending on my location.  It is as simple to set as it is to tell someone to remind you.  It’s transformative.  Calendar appointments that take 3-5 steps normally are done in a single sentence.  Again, transformative.

The second is the ability to send text messages via voice.  At first I thought that this would be very useful in the car.  It is of course, as it means I don’t have to type while driving, which is unsafe and a legal no-no.  What has surprised me however is that it is also useful when you are simply running around doing things.

For example, I was walking to a lunch meeting last week and my friend texted me “Have a table” and I simply spoke while crossing the street and said “Tell [person's name] I am on my way”.  Siri then simply sent a text back to that person that said “I am on my way”.  It was flawless.  I didn’t have to slow down, glance down, finger type and send the text.  I simply spoke as though on the phone.  That scenario played itself out repeatedly last week with voice commands like:

• “Tell [person's name] Heading to meeting room A now.”
• “Tell my wife I am heading to the car now”
• “Tell my daughter I’m almost at the school.”
• “Tell [person's name] Running late. See you in five.”

It is these types of things, naturally spoken, that make Siri incredibly valuable.  As people begin to experience this value, they will start to use Siri for other natural language commands and searches.  It is the natural language search that has companies like Google and Microsoft terrified, and rightfully so.