Upon first flush , Siri , the virtual helper progress into the iPhone 4S , is for certain telling . You speak naturally , and Siri figures out what you ’re examine to say , and then does just what you desire it to . Well , most of the clock time , anyway .
The more you use Siri , though , the more obvious its defect become . Here are a few improvement we ’d like Apple to make in Siri 2.0 — or whenever it decides to pull down that unsightly “ beta ” label .
shift setting : Ask Siri to turn off Wi - Fi or turn on Bluetooth , and it only wo n’t empathize . Of course , need Siri to , say , enable Airplane Mode could potentially prove troublesome , since the engineering science call for an Internet connecter to work its magic — meaning you could n’t needs apply Siri to turn Airplane Modeoffonce it ’s enabled . But navigating through the options app to toggle Bluetooth off or on requires a lower limit of four dab — it seems like just the kind of task Siri could deal with aplomb , if only its developers would teach it how .
Siri, Ltd.: It’s nice that Siri is aware of its own limitations. It would be nicer still if Siri could gain some more functionality.
Siri , Ltd. : It ’s nice that Siri is aware of its own restriction . It would be nicer still if Siri could gain some more functionality .
Tweet Maker : When you attempt to place an update to Twitter via Siri , the assistant know what you want it to do , but still declines : “ I ca n’t send Tweets for you . Sorry about that . ” move over that iOS 5 includes systemwide Twitter support , and given that Siri already realise the instruction — even though it refuses to follow through — this seems like an comfortable improvement to make . We ’d also be delighted if Siri could take a cue from Tweet Speaker and translate tweets from your timeline out loud — sometimes you just desire to enchant up on Twitter while you ’re drive .
Notification Integration : We have high Bob Hope that Siri will one day support some variety of consolidation with non - Apple apps ( see below ) . But Cupertino could enable some degree of such support without want third - party developer to spell even a exclusive newfangled line of codification , if only Siri could read incoming notifications when you involve it to do so . Perhaps a single pedagogy to Siri — such as ” record new notifications as they arrive”—could permit you turn on the mode when you ’re in the railroad car ; “ Stop say newfangled notifications ” could turn the feature article off again . That manner , you could keep your oculus on the roadandknow the moment it was your turn in word With supporter .
Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza: If Siri transcribes you nearly perfectly, there’s no way to tell it just to tweak one small error; you must either edit manually, or start dictating the message all over again.
Email Reader : Sure , Siri can write emails for you , and even display your unread emails ( or an email hunt ) . But stress to get Siri to register you even just one go from a hapless oversea banker looking to cash you in on an heritage , and you ’ll be in for disappointment . apply that Siri can already learn text messages , it seems like it would n’t be a big leap to add emails . intelligibly , if someone ’s sent you a ten - Sir Frederick Handley Page e-mail , or one that ’s heavily formatted in HTML , oral communication might not be an idealistic medium for consuming a message , but perhaps over a certain length , Siri could give you the option to just hear a preview . And who knows , maybe some day Siri will be smart enough to just summarize the prominent details . It ’d also be overnice if Siri could be instructed to droop emails and to exhibit your flagged messages .
Read It All : Speaking of reading your own data loud to you , it ’d be great if Siri could read detail from other stock Apple apps , like eminence and appointments in Calendar , when you need it do so . Siri says “ I ca n’t read your notes to you . ” Ca n’t , Siri ? Orwon’t ?
serious reminder : Reminding yourself to do things using Siri is fast and easy — but it could be promiscuous . For one matter , you ca n’t use Siri to change reminders once you ’ve created them , nor can you stigmatise them as complete . And if you want to add Milk River , orange juice , and bananas to your shopping listing , you have to do so separately , affirm each one in bit . But Siri has render itself able to discover multiple point in the case of receiver for text messages and email , so why not here too ? It would be far easy to say “ Add milk and banana and orange juice to my shopping list . ” Well , at least for the man doing the asking .
3, 2, 1: Siri says it’s not allowed to create contacts. Siri, permission granted! Please?
Launching Apps : It ’s loose to launch the apps in your iPhone ’s dock or on your main home screen . Once you stretch up more than a screenful or two of apps , however , determine the right one becomes a bit of a slog — even if you rely on Spotlight , it still means solicit out the first few characters of the name of the app you ’re after . Right now , if you instruct Siri to “ Launch Photos , ” it responds : “ I ’d care to , but I ’m not allowed to . ” If Siri ’s overlords in Cupertino could instead grant that permission , plunge gather - away apps would quickly become as easy as say “ 1 , 2 , 3 . ” Though we ’re not sure what app that would launch .
defend Me Closer , Tony Danza : If Siri transcribes you nearly absolutely , there ’s no way to severalise it just to tweak one small error ; you must either edit manually , or start dictate the content all over again .
Easier Transcription Correction : If Siri father the school text of your monitor wrong after you dictate it , you’re able to only say , “ deepen that to ‘ Buy milk , ’ ” and Siri cause the chastening . But if you dictate an email of more than a few prison term , and you see that Siri understood the essence of it , but mangled a few language and phrases , re - reciting the entire content feels tiresome . Sure , you may tap into Siri ’s transcriptions and make the necessary edits , but ideally , you ’d tell Siri just what to fix : “ Change ‘ elephant shoe ’ to ‘ I ’ll have that , too . ’ ”
Automatic Punctuation Transcription : Look , we ’re not saying every item on our Siri wishlist is a dewy-eyed subject of Apple press a few buttons — sometimes it ’s a matter of it pressinga lotof release . When we prescribe our punctuation - filled missives , our voices still change with the punctation . That is , when we say something like , “ Are you indisputable question mark ? ” , our voice go up for “ sure ” and “ enquiry scratch ” likewise . Apple ’s engineers should work to expand Siri ’s transcription abilities , so that it can translate such pitch changes to interrogative mark , short pause to commas , and long ace to periods — contextually , of course . We fully allow in that this entry seems like something out of scientific discipline fiction , but then so does much of Siri ’s current functionality . And , hey , we ’re not asking for the moon : For good example , Siri can ignore semicolon , because most mass do too .
3 , 2 , 1 : Siri says it ’s not permit to produce contacts . Siri , permission granted ! Please ?
Add and Edit Contacts : Ask Siri to add a identification number to a tangency , or to create a brand new record in your iPhone ’s address book , and it ’ll balk : “ Sorry , I ’m not allowed to create striking . ” Most of the time , Siri ca n’t edit them either — although you’re able to tweak family relationship data for your own contact record by tell things like “ Gregory House is my physician . ” Those project can be inept , since they often expect so much tapdance . Whereas just aver “ bestow house@princeton-plainsboro.edu as Gregory House ’s email address ” takes just a 2d or two .
Default Address : Speaking of Contacts , the iPhone and Siri should leave a way to set an e-mail address as a nonpayment for a give contact . properly now , when we say , “ Make an designation for 1 p.m. tomorrow with Jason Snell , ” Siri of necessity asks which of Jason ’s addresses to habituate . Invite multiple people to an event , and you ’ll spend a while affirm each of their speech , which slightly lessen Siri’smagicalnature . We need an option that says “ Always use Jason ’s work email address unless I define otherwise . ”
Safari Surfing : Siri ca n’t yet open up an exact universal resource locator ( “ Go to www.macworld.com ” ) , or launch universal resource locator from saved bookmarker ( “ Go to Macworld . ” ) . Instead , we have to severalize Siri to explore for Macworld , and then interact with our WWW web web browser . For an intelligent agentive role that has the whole Internet at its disposal , that seems silly .
Third - Party Integration : We ’ll allow in , this petition is a trickier one . For Apple to truly allow third - party developer to incorporate their apps with full - blow Siri backup wo n’t be simple . You ’d need a system for determining which apps should handle specific asking . For example , if you said “ mark me in here , ” should Siri pass on that quest off to the Foursquare or Facebook app on your phone ? And if you want to change which app handle such postulation later , then what do you do ? These are solveable job , though it ’s apprehensible that Apple will almost for certain choose to tread light if it goes down this path . But you only need think of the restroom of enquire Siri by how much the Red Sox are circumvent the Yankees to get the idea of how great this integration could be .
More Appless Third - Party Integration : Siri users already gain from its integration with service like Yelp and Wolfram Alpha , even if they do n’t have their apps installed . Surely there are more services Apple should add : OpenTable for making reservation at the restaurant Siri see , a movie commencement Robert William Service , a tv set programming template , and , of course , integration with WebMD for all the aesculapian needs that Dr. House just ca n’t cover—“Yes , Siri , I have sex it ’s not lupus . ”
Media Savvy : While Siri ’s reward over iOS ’s former Voice Control feature is clear when it comes to act back medicine — for lesson , Siri can summon a particular vocal , not just an album , artist , or playlist — there ’s still way for improvement . For example , order Siri to work a track and it will graciously obligate , but once that song ’s over , the medicine will simply die . Instead , let us tell Siri to play a song and then shamble music onwards from there . And while we ’re at it , why does n’t Siri infer a program line like “ Play the late sequence of the Sesame Street Podcast ” ? Is it make some sort of judgment about our podcast - hearing riding habit ?
telecasting Talk : We all enjoy screaming at our idiot box every once in a while , whether it be because we ’re look on our favourite sports team do something stunned or because that cretin insists on checking out that mystical noise in the basement . What if we could channelize that voice into something rich ? Like severalize Siri to damp our Apple television receiver when the phone doughnut . Or using it to look for a deed on Netflix or the iTunes Store without having to bank on easy introduce text with an Apple Remote . Or telling it to act the late episode of a podcast . The iPhone already makes a great Apple boob tube accouterment ; letting Siri into the mixing would make a salutary matter even better .
[ Staff writer Lex Friedman and senior associate editor in chief Dan Moren talk to Siri as often as they speak to each other . ]
