Getting a bit fed up with your Personal Voice Assistant? Does she (in US) / he (in UK) keep getting things wrong? Can't do most things, like open an app? Gets hamstrung because there's no internet connection?
Me too.
If you bought a shiny new iPhone 4S for its Siri voice assistant system, you're probably wondering why you did it. OK, Siri can - just about - get the weather forecast for you and - if you're very lucky - call or message a contact. In the States, Siri can use location services to tell you, say, where the nearest Starbucks is. But not in other countries.
Bit useless, really. Just like most phone voice activation systems.
Apple was at pains to point out that Siri is still in beta testing mode. So why did it include Siri in the iPhone 4S? Probably because you really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the iPhone 4 and 4S if Siri wasn't there.
But all is not lost.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple is now advertising for software engineers to work on the assistant that finds it hard to assist.
“We are looking for an engineer to join the team that implements the UI for Siri. You will primarily be responsible for implementing the conversation view and its many different actions. This includes defining a system that enables a dialog to appear intuitive, a task that involves many subtle UI behaviors in a dynamic, complex system. You will have several clients of your code, so the ability to formulate and support a clear API is needed”.That API thing could mean Apple is planning to allow non-Apple apps to use Siri.
Roll on the day. At the moment, Siri is at best ineffective and at worst downright useless.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
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