Interesting article. Siri vs. Google search

[valorian]

I found this article interesting so I thought I would share it. The author compares his daughters iPhone 4S Siri to his Samsung Galaxy S II Google search using voice,

Siri humbled my Android

 

[Shocky]

Meh, Siri the feature nobody really wanted made popular by Apples marketing department.

 

[B2L]

I found this article interesting so I thought I would share it. The author compares his daughters iPhone 4S Siri to his Samsung Galaxy S II Google search using voice,

Siri humbled my Android

It definitely was a great read, but I wasn't all that surprised. I have conducted tests using my friends iPhone 4s, and my Nexus S using voice search and came up with similar results. The only better thing about Siri is it makes you think "Where the hell did it come up with these answers?" I have asked it simple questions, and it would say "I don't understand what blank is" or give me a completely wrong answer.

To iPhone users Siri is a revolutionary feature, it's like your own personal assistant. (An assistant I would hardly ever use, except for having a good laugh once in a while.) Because they have never had a feature like that before. To Android users the situation is completely different. Most of us have realized voice feature are pretty overrated, you may use them once or twice but that's it. (Unless you use it while driving, but that's usually the only time I see it as useful.) I would much rather type something out than spend the time asking my phone a question.

 

[Treknologist]

I hardly ever use voice commands on my TBolt. While it gets the work done, it just is to early for the tech to be really useful. I agree with B2L, iPhone users think this is the best thing since sliced bread because it is something new to their phone. Regardless, voice recognition has some way to go before it is practical. It'll be a while before we can speak to a device like Picard speaks to the Enterprise computer!

 

[bigbadwulff]

"It humbled my Android.....oh wait no it didn't". Kind of a goofy article.

 

[dan330]

true.. I have had vlingo on my android for ever.. loved it at first... but have not used it in months....

well.. if it was more able to meet my needs and integrate with the phone functions better.... it might become very useful...

better speakers for noisy environments.. and background filters to understand me...

and I hope Siri will help push/motivate the tech to the next level.

 

[lunatic59]

We have a few iPhone users here and my niece is a fan as well. They think siri is 'da bomb', even though I have been speaking commands to my phone for years. Heck, I had bluetooth voice dialing on my old WinMo 6.1 phone. It just goes to show that it's not what you sell, but how you sell it.

I use voice commands for three things regularly. Searching for names or places, which it gets right remarkably more times than not. Calling through my hands-free system in my car and making calendar appointments because it's easier for me to say "send text to calendar lunch with Bill on Tuesday at 12:30." then it is to fire up the calendar app, find the date and time and type all the info in. Even if the text gets some information wrong, it's easier to click and edit then it would have been from scratch.

 

[indybail]

I agree the technology is still immature but when it comes of age, watch out.

 

[John Redcorn]

Calling through my hands-free system in my car and making calendar appointments because it's easier for me to say "send text to calendar lunch with Bill on Tuesday at 12:30." then it is to fire up the calendar app, find the date and time and type all the info in. Even if the text gets some information wrong, it's easier to click and edit then it would have been from scratch.

Wait what? how do you do an appt? what's the "send text" part? I don't really use the voice commands at all but would for doing just this. I'm constantly creating appts to remind myself of something.

 

[lunatic59]

Wait what? how do you do an appt? what's the "send text" part? I don't really use the voice commands at all but would for doing just this. I'm constantly creating appts to remind myself of something.

shhhhh, don't tell anybody, but if you set up a contact called calendar and use 48368 for the mobile number, it will text right to your calendar and set the appointment for you. I do recall the first time i have to authenticate something, but once it's set up, it's damned convenient.

"send text to" is one of the commands for voice actions.

 

[B2L]

shhhhh, don't tell anybody, but if you set up a contact called calendar and use 48368 for the mobile number, it will text right to your calendar and set the appointment for you. I do recall the first time i have to authenticate something, but once it's set up, it's damned convenient.

"send text to" is one of the commands for voice actions.

Thanks! I had no idea you could do that. It might come in handy to setup appointments like that.

 

[kmf]

@lunatic59...I just set up Calendar 48368 in my contacts and, using Jeannie, I sent a text message appointment to my GMail calendar. Much faster than opening up the calendar app and typing in all the info. Really slick! Thanks!

 

[rui-no-onna]

To iPhone users Siri is a revolutionary feature, it's like your own personal assistant. (An assistant I would hardly ever use, except for having a good laugh once in a while.) Because they have never had a feature like that before. To Android users the situation is completely different. Most of us have realized voice feature are pretty overrated, you may use them once or twice but that's it. (Unless you use it while driving, but that's usually the only time I see it as useful.) I would much rather type something out than spend the time asking my phone a question.

Voice commands have been available to the iPhone since iOS 3. You didn't even need internet access if you're only using simple commands such as "Call John Smith" or "Play Beatles", etc. Siri's primary draw is that it tries to be more "human-like". I don't know of anyone actually using Siri as an assistant (unless it's to shout at it to vent frustration). Most I know just "talk" to Siri as a way to pass boredom.

As others, the only time I find voice actions/commands useful is when driving.

 

[UssjTrunks]

Most I know just "talk" to Siri as a way to pass boredom

 

[djscoe]

Is there any trick to having it recognize "Calendar" as the to: ? Everytime I try Send text to Calendar, it comes out:

Send text..

to:

message: To Calendar dinner with....

It obviously won't send a text because it keeps asking me for who it's going to. Thanks for your help.

 

[lunatic59]

Is there any trick to having it recognize "Calendar" as the to: ? Everytime I try Send text to Calendar, it comes out:

Send text..

to:

message: To Calendar dinner with....

It obviously won't send a text because it keeps asking me for who it's going to. Thanks for your help.

You must set up a Google contact named "calendar" and use the mobile number 48368.

 

[richphitzwell]

Thinking the same thing lol.

Anyways, rant mode engage.

Voice recog has been around for a few decades, so nothing special. Android had a leap into vr long before iphone, but i dont care about the who came first part. google doesnt advertise features and ill bet most people believe that siri something special and android lacks voice commands in general. android does have a number of assistance on the market but Ive never found a use beyond the simple microphone we already have. every accent or noise will affect voice rec.

I have tried every one of the commercials and have had great results using just our microphone. In any case there will always be a need to continue to improve on voice as it will never be perfect, for instance listen to a song on my phone will not bring up my music app but will bring up youtube and pandora.

As for the article, I tried the coffee shop and yup worked the first time. perhaps his daughter and I are more in tune with how to pronunciate words for voice rec. better than him.

 

[GreenBeans]

Siri is just for a laugh... I don't understand why people can't make calendar events by pressing a few times on the screen.

 

[djscoe]

You must set up a Google contact named "calendar" and use the mobile number 48368.

Ahh, I had set up a contact like that but it was a phone contact, not a Google contact. Thanks for your help, I'll just start again.

 

[krouget]

As with most of these articles, I've find many of the claims don't reflect my experience, so I decided to try it myself. I opened Voice Actions and dictated the following: "Navigate to Claire de Lune". My result is below and this was a one and only attempt (it got it right, as evidenced by the first choice on the list). Despite my being over 2,500 miles away on the opposite coast, it managed to find the location, accurately.

I didn't bother to ask my phone various trivia or best prices, because honestly, I just don't care. What's clear is that Siri is good at what it does, and so is Android. They both have their pros and cons, and I can pretty much trip either one up, if I was really making an attempting to do so.