Category: Cell Phone Talk
I'm getting an iPhone 4s soon. I've played with an iPhone 4 using voice over, but that phone does not have Siri.
I was looking for people's experiences with Siri. What can Siri do? How does it work? I assume she works with voice over right?
Hi,
Siri is simple to use: Just hold in the home button until you hear a quiet double beep, ask/tell it what you want, and wait for the result.
Note that you need an Internet connection to use Siri.
You can control most of your phone's functions, including turning on and off Voiceover. This can be really useful if you haven't enabled the facility to have Voiceover turn on and off when you triple click the home button.
Siri can read you your missed calls, other notifications, open apps or specific settings screens and play specific music tracks. It can also read and reply to your emails, but it can't delete. It also has good Twitter integration.
It can of course find Internet content, note that it now uses Bing by default for its searches though you can tell it to search Google if that's what you want. It can tell you where you are, what local businesses of the type you specify are near you, and it can fetch sports scores reasonably well though it's far from perfect in this regard. You can also try and ask it silly questions to see what it does, the modern day equivalent of using a dictionary to look up swear words.
While you can do much with Siri, it isn't as tightly integrated as Voiceover as it used to be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing: Previously Siri would repeat what it thought you said using Voiceover's text to speech, let you know it was thinking if for some reason it was taking a while to generate results, etc. The disadvantage of Siri using an independent voice is that you can't adjust the speech rate, but if you're in the US or Canada, you can take advantage of the quite good Siri voices. If you do want to review your conversation with Siri, you can use Voiceover gestures to do it.
Thank you very much. So the voice of Siri is different than the voice of Voice Over?
In the US and Canada it is, the voices are more natural sounding than the Voiceover voices.
I'll add she has more expression as well now. It isn't way different, but to a degree.
You can ask for the weather as well.
Oh, and I say she, but there is a male voice as well.
Ah I see. Thank you guys. I didn't know Voice Over had multiple options for the voice. Of course I was playing with a 4, but am getting a 4S. Not sure if there is much of a difference between the phones becides that the 4S has Siri, but I am of course no expert regarding the subject.
I use Siri to set the timer, remind me to do something before I leave, check to see if it's raining outside, so many things it's amazing. I actually like the way Siri is somewhat independent of VoiceOver now. Pretty nice, actually.
the 4S has a slitely faster processer and a little bit more ram, I am going to get the 5s and see if some of the issues I had with the 5 have been fixed.
The 5 and the 5S are the same as far as the OS goes? So, no the issues you had won't be fixed.
The thing is, some might, because for now each device is not exactly the same acting that runs 07.
I personally haven't noticed the power difference, but I don't play games and such.
Hello.
The VoiceOver voice will be the same on the 4S as it is on the 4. The only difference will be in Siri, assuming the 4S has the latest operating system installed. For a comprehensive list of Siri commands, check out This list
You'll also find several Siri related podcasts on this site.
I love Siri.I can ask it where the nearest Subway restaurant is and it'll tell me. And of course I love asking it silly questions to hear its answers
Ask her if she works for the NSA, she will say, "I never really thought about it."
Lol too funny, sort of the same answer we all give to stuff that gets challenged with new ideas for things we have taken for granted.
I've gotten hooked on saying good morning when I first pick up the phone. If just right she says good morning back, tells me the time and weather. Lol
Sometimes she just says good morning. I don't know how I got there, but once she's like "your wish is my command. So I asked her to make me a cup of coffee. She said she thought that might be above her abilities just now. Lol
Yes I keep saying her. Just got the male in 07, so I still think related to she. Lol
It is really pretty good depending on what you need.
I think the male voice is kinda creepy. lol
Did yall hear about this? A while back, if you asked Siri what her political aphiliation was, she would pull up Ron Paul's website. She won't do it any more though. I thought it was a joke but the first time I did it, it worked. When I tried to show someone else a couple of weeks later, after the whole thing went viral on youtube, she said, "I'm not allowed to divulge that information." lol She cracks me up.
That reminds me a bit of the fake pages you used to get 10 or so years ago if you searched on certain terms using Google and clicked 'I'm feeling lucky' instead of search. If you did that on 'French military victories', it brought up a page saying that there were no documents matching your search, and did you mean to search for 'French military defeats'. If you did it on 'weapons of mass destruction', it brought up a page saying that the weapons of mass destruction could not be found, and brought up various CIA-related things you could try. Shame they all got pulled.
I read an article just this morning about how Siri was Math challenged. Asking her specific questions using some numbers she can't figure.
3.75 minus 1.75. You have to ask her the right way. Lol
Made me think of this post.
The author called siri her, so I guess us that have used iPhones since 4S just feel siri's a she.
That's a tough break for a tranny, for those who want a male-gendered Siri. She's got that crisis where everyone is using the wrong pronoun. Lol not making fun of real people in those situations.
I remember an episode of Big Bang Theory where oneof the guys, Raaj if I remember right, got an IPhone 4S and started talking to Siri. The problem was that he apparently thought he was talking to a real woman, with whom he'd fallen madly in love by the end of the episode. LOL. I hadn't laughed so hard in I don't know how long.
I actually think serie some days acts like a dunts, my co-work ask her to call his wife, she kep saying "who do you want to call?". If was funny, made me glad I use google now over serie, so much better.
You know, he has to put his wife in the section on her profile so she knews he's calling his wife when he says that number.
Don't want her mixing your wife up with your girlfriends now. Lol
Odd, google now just does what you ask it and never comes back to question you unless it did not hear you.
google now is on IOS under google search for those who want to try it.
Siri has her flaws, but her and I are on the same page, long as I make my requests clear. Hahaha. On the whole, I use voiceover to do things the "long way," but to set reminders and timers and make calls, Siri is efficient. Also my 4s was having sound issues and I could only really use voiceover when I had headphones in, but I could use Siri anytime, and I got to know her functions quite well. Very useful. You just have to be clear. Also they've really improved her capabilities with the latest iOS update, in my opinion.
Like "Hey girl, schedule me that dinner date okay? 7 P.M Friday, now."
The way siri says certain things when you tell or ask it silly things just cracks me up.
Me too. LOL.
She says "brrr" a lot these days when I ask the temperature. Maybe she needs a sweater.
I was sitting in Spanish class yesterday, and my professor was saying something in Spanish. I don't know if i had hit the home button by accident, but out of the blue, siri goes, how about a websearch for whatever she thought i'd said.
Yeah, sometimes she offers to tell you about what you say, or give you examples.
I'm not explaining it right.
Made me laugh.
She speaks Spanish, you know? Lol
I was visiting my best friend a few years ago, before i had an i-phone, and i was playing around with siri. I had asked it a random question, and instead of answering my question it goes, how about a web search for listen button?
LOL.
Anyone else noticed that in iOS7.1 Siri and dictation both are a lot faster now? This is what I have found, anyway.
Yeah. If you hold down the home button as you talk, she won't interrupt you no mo either. Lol
The new OS has improved her manners, voice, and info giving. She's even got some smartass replies. hahaha
Thanks for the tip on holding down the button. She was getting a bit ahead of herself with all her interrupting of me. lol She sounds a little pissy though when she calls my husband for me. What's up with that? lol
Women! Smile.
Hey all!
Ask it who let the dogs out? If you want a silly question... lol haha!
I love the male voice in siri as well. I am not saying that the girl doesn't sound well, it's just the male voice sounds good too. He sounds like he's in his 30's lol.
Might have something to do with the listener? Smile.