Siri: Advantages and Disadvantages

Apple Inc. defines Siri as an intelligent personal assistant that allows the user to use their voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more (Apple Inc., 2012). Siri is still in beta and will continue to change as more people use it, listed below are some advantages and challenges. Please feel free to comment based on your own experiences using Siri.


Advantages

• User speaks naturally, memorized commands are not necessary
• Siri learns the user's preferences over time
• Part of the iPhone 4S operating system, and so can interact with applications on the phone without user intervention
• User doesn't need to point-and-click, just speak to Siri
• Siri uses natural language to speak back to the user, and even has a bit of a personality and humor

Current Challenges

• Doesn't understand many heavy accents, including Scottish
• Search function leans toward restaurant and locations, looking up other information sometimes defaults to restaurants and locations
• Search is based on the words used, if the word is not in the description then Siri cannot find it

Example of Siri from Youtube.com

References:

Apple Inc. (2012). Learn more about Siri. Retrieved Feb 19, 2012, from iPhone: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri-faq.html

OWELZIGEN. (2011, Nov 8). Siri Help Me Dump a Body. Retrieved Feb 28, 2012, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm221alCHL4