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Beeri: Siri's new best friend cracks open a cold one (video)
We already know that Siri can send texts, check the weather or find you a restaurant, but did you know she can also fetch you a beer. Well, sort of... with a little hacking. The folks at Redpepper dreamed up Beeri, an RC truck that cracks open a can of brew whenever it receives a tweet instructing it to "pour." Since you can text updates to Twitter (40404) and Siri can text, that means it's perfectly simple to tell Beeri it's Miller time. Whenever the Arduino embedded in the truck detects a mention with the word "pour," it drives forward, slamming a beer can into a puncture wall that drips into a funnel, filling a cup beneath the table top. It's a pretty ingenious system, and you can see it in action after the break. We just hope Beeri has a day job -- looking at all that head, it's clear she wouldn't last a day as a bartender.
Siri can pour you a beer, perfect for Friday Afternoon Club
I think I may have to make Siri my mistress, since she (well, it does have a female voice in the U.S.) can now pour a beer at my command. That's more than my wife of 32 years will do for me! The folks at redpepper, an ad agency in Nashville, Tennessee, had a little time on their hands, so they rigged up a way for a Siri command to open and pour a beer. It's a bit messy, and it doesn't look like the entire contents of the 12 ounce can make it into the glass, but it's certain fun to watch. The redpepper blog explains the entire process of setting up what they call "Beeri," including creating a special Twitter account, outfitting an R/C monster truck with an Arduino Uno with Wi-Fi Shield, and building a special beer opener. The entire process is more fun if you watch it in action. Enjoy, but remember to get a designated driver if Siri is too generous with the beers this afternoon. TUAW urges you to use "Beeri" responsibly.
I don't know what you mean: Correcting Siri's recognition mistakes
Here is another of a series of posts about Siri. Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. We're exploring how get the most from Siri, and sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers. Siri always gives you a second chance. You can always fix what you said or correct Siri's interpretation of your speech. Just tap the talk bubble that represents what you said. When you do, the bubble turns white and the system keyboard appears. This allows you to type directly into the bubble. You can edit your request directly or tap the microphone button on the keyboard to re-dictate your request. Tap Done to finish. Sometimes Siri's dictation processor will add a blue line under a word in the text you have spoken. When you tap that word, iOS presents alternative interpretations of your speech. Select the correction you'd like to use, or edit/dictate a replacement. You can also speak to correct text messages or mail contents that you have composed. The following examples let Siri know that you're not satisfied with what you've said. Notice how you can change the contents completely, add new material, and so forth. Change it to Let's get together soon. Add: Can't wait to see pictures of William exclamation point. No, send it to Megs. Cancel. Before you send a text on its way, you can have Siri read it back to you. Say "Read it to me" or "Read it back to me." When you are satisfied with your text or email message, you can say something like "Yes, send it" to start it on its way.
Blogging with your voice: Siri, Blogger, and post-by-SMS
As I mentioned on my earlier post, Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. One of the topics we're exploring is how to push Siri beyond its advertised limits. Take blogging, for example. Did you know that you could create blog posts entirely by voice? I'm not talking about basic dictation either. That's because Siri supports SMS messaging, and a little known feature of Google Blogger allows you to create blog posts directly from SMS text messages. [You can also use SMS to post to Tumblr and Posterous, although it's a bit more finicky. Services like ping.fm or HelloTXT may help if you plan to update several social networks right from Siri. –Ed.] Interested in giving it a spin? Send REGISTER to 256447. Blogger replies to your registration text by texting you a URL for your new blog and an optional claim code. This code can be used to associate your new access with an existing blog. It just as easy, however, to work with the automatically generated blog that is sent to you. To create a new post, just reply to the 256447 conversation. Dictate your new blog post to Siri and send it. Once you do, the text contents are instantly posted to the blog. If you want to start posts from scratch, just give that SMS number a memorable contact name in your address book (I used 'Geronimo Blogger' in the screenshot). You can visit the mobile blog I created this way over at Blogger and see the two posts I created using Siri. If you're on a limited SMS diet, posting by text message may prove too rich for your blood. There's still a Siri-capable workaround for that, but you must use an existing blogger account to create a Mail-to-Blogger address. You'll find a complete set of instructions at the Blogger help article on this subject. That write-up shows you how to use your account settings to establish your blogging email address, which consists of your user name and a secret word. You can then use Siri to send an email to that address whenever you want to post-by-voice. If you'd prefer not to use Blogger, there are plenty of other services that work with post-via-email. Tumblr, Posterous and Wordpress.com all support creating a custom address that you can use to post directly. Simply add the email to your address book with a distinctive yet pronounceable contact name ("Erica Tumblr" will work, but you might want to include a phonetic last name to help Siri suss out that it's pronounced 'tumbler'), then tell Siri "Send an email to Erica Tumblr." You can dictate your post and share it with the world.
First iPhone 4S TV commercial features Siri
The first iPhone 4S ad has aired on TV and very prominently features Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant exclusive to Apple's newest handset. The ad shows several people talking to their iPhones, asking questions, looking up directions, setting up reminders -- all in very natural language. Siri itself doesn't appear until near the end of the video, though, so people who've never heard of the feature before may find this commercial somewhat confusing at first. We've embedded a version of the commercial below (hat tip to Engadget) that someone filmed off their TV. The official ad hasn't shown up on Apple's site or its YouTube channel as of this writing, so we'll update this post later on when it does.
Siri, when will you run your first television ad?
...after the break. [Thanks everyone who sent this in]
How to type "comma" using Siri
Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that will help you get the most done with your Siri intelligent assistant. One of the questions that people keep asking us is "how do I spell out the word 'comma' or 'period'," in other words, how do you dictate the literal word instead of punctuation. Fortunately, there is a solution for this. It's not a clean solution or an easy one, but it can be done. To type out comma, for example, you dictate no caps on, no space on, C O M M A, no space off, no caps off. This tells Siri to start a forced lower-case mode without spaces. You then spell out the word in question (comma, here). At the end, you return to normal dictation mode by disabling that mode. Be aware that Siri looks for context. It can differentiate between "The Jurassic Period" and "The Jurassic." (see that period there?) during dictation, preferring the former because the word finishes a phrase. Like this tip? Have some more Siri power-user suggestions? Let us know. Join in the comments.
iPhone 101: Disable Siri with iPhone passcode to prevent unauthorized use
Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, it's making sure Siri doesn't let anyone use your locked iPhone. Almost immediately after the release of the iPhone 4S, TUAW started receiving emails from readers who noticed that even when they had a passcode set on the lock screen, someone could pick up their device and issue commands to Siri. This means that unauthorized persons can easily pick up the iPhone 4S, press and hold the Home button and converse with Siri. Fortunately, there's a way to disable Siri while using a lock screen passcode. The Sophos Naked Security blog noted that those unauthorized users can do everything from writing an email or sending a text message to maliciously changing calendar appointments. Blogger Graham Cluely notes that it's easy to disable Siri while there's a passcode in effect, and wonders why Apple didn't set the iPhone 4S up that way by default. To make sure Siri is deaf to commands when there's a passcode on the iPhone 4S, enter Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and slide the Siri option to Off. Now, when your friends try to make a prank call to your girlfriend using your iPhone 4S, they'll find that Siri is unwilling to be a participant in the prank.
Android's Andy Rubin is not a fan of Siri
Siri is the talk of the town now that the iPhone 4S is in the hands of over four million customers. There has been a deluge of articles about using Siri, funny phrases it says and even clever hacks that let third-party companies tap into the service. Apple and its fans may be excited by the voice recognition technology, but one of Google's executives is not overly impressed. Speaking in Hong Kong at the AsiaD conference, Google's Android chief, Andy Rubin, was sour on the utility of Siri. Rubin said, I don't believe that your phone should be an assistant. Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn't be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone. Rubin may not look favorably on Siri, but he does give Apple credit for waiting until the technology was mature before rolling it out on the iPhone 4S. He noted, In projecting the future, I think Apple did a good job of figuring out when the technology was ready to be consumer-grade. Though Rubin claims not to be fond of voice recognition on a mobile phone, he does oversee Android's development at Google and has allowed advanced voice recognition features to be built into this mobile OS.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me use punctuation with Siri
Dear Aunt TUAW, I've had an iPhone 4S since Friday and I love how Siri is making my life easier, and hands-free. However, what's troubling me is that when I use Siri to send or reply to my friend using SMS, I can't figure out how to add commas and periods. This makes the message looks odd, and Siri doesn't allow direct editing on the message either (at least I haven't found out). Is there a way to add punctuations while sending a message using Siri? Thanks! Your loving nephew, William Dear William, Just dictate the punctuation you want to use. For example, you might say: Message Aunt TUAW. Hey comma cap Auntie exclamation point. How are you doing question mark. I asterisk really asterisk love this whole punctuation thing full stop. Love comma William Hope this helps! Hugs, Auntie T.
Microsoft's Andy Lees: talking to your phone isn't super useful, NFC coming soon to Windows Phone
Microsoft's President of Windows Phone, Mr. Andy Lees, just wrapped up a diverse interview with Ina Fried at AsiaD, in which he took the chance to gloat on Nokia's behalf about the impending launch of its wide array of WP7-based smartphones. Moreover, he proudly responded to claims that WP7 sales have been suboptimal by clarifying that Windows Phone 7 sold more in its first 12 months on the market than did Android. Granted, the smartphone market was entirely more prepared for another entrant when Microsoft arrived, but we digress. He also held no punches when asked to opine on Andy Rubin's swings at Windows Phone from last night's interview, noting that "Android is very techy," and that it's a great OS for a certain population. He stated that Android hits you "with a grid of apps," instead of taking a "people approach," which WP7 presumably has. Of course, we all know how The Social went over... All jesting aside, he responded to Ina's questions surrounding hardware choices with this: "We wanted to stop problems with fragmentation, so we've locked a lot of things down. We want partners to add value, but not in a way that's chaotic. As an example, we do hardware acceleration of the browser -- no matter which WP device you choose, it all works in a consistent way. Some things in 2012 will extend that." Moving on to more competitive questions (surrounding Siri, mostly), he affirmed that users can indeed talk to their Windows Phone handsets, but that the kind of implementation seen in Siri isn't "super useful." He also -- oddly, we must say -- noted that WP7's voice implementations rely on Bing, which harnesses "the full power of the internet, rather than a certain subset." Last we checked, Siri and Wolfram Alpha were connected to the internet, but we get his point -- in theory, at least. He confirmed that speaking to one's phone was practical in places like motorcars, but he seemed to imply that barking commands to a phone in public wasn't something that Microsoft was inclined to ask its users to do. On a hardware-related note, Andy affirmed that NFC chipsets will indeed ship on WP7 devices within the next year, and while Microsoft's not interested in competing with Google and the like from a platform standpoint, it's more than happy to enable mobile payments via services that already exist. To quote: "Microsoft is providing technological building blocks so payments can be done on the phone -- we aren't competing with other people providing services. We'll have a platform approach." Finally, he also alluded to the inclusion of LTE as the infrastructure behind WP evolves, leaving us to wonder if it'll be Apple (or someone else entirely) as the final 4G holdout.
What is your favorite Siri command?
Siri, Apple's beta voice recognition assistant for iPhone 4S, has gotten a lot of press recently about its snark and humor, but that's not why a lot of us are growing to love this clever bot. For many of us at TUAW, Siri provides a really simple way to accomplish tasks on our iPhones. Here's a quick run-down of the favorite Siri features for those of us fortunate enough to have access to a new iPhone 4S. Erica Sadun: "Wake me up at 7:15 AM" Everybody has to wake up at some time in their lives, and Siri makes it so easy to set alarms. You don't have to decide until the last minute, and you don't have to set up complicated repeated schedules. You just tell Siri when you need to wake up tomorrow and the assistant handles the rest. It's so obvious and so simple, and Siri does it so well. Mike Rose: "Tell my wife I am on my way home." Not everything in life needs a phone call. A simple message gets the job done, especially when you have an inconsistent schedule. Letting Siri help your spouse know that you're on the way is an easy fix for marital harmony. Bonus: If the person you're trying to contact is an iMessage user, the ping will go out via Apple's free service; if not, it'll go as a conventional SMS alert. Steve Sande: "What's 1920 divided by three?" When I need to scale videos, I can just say something like "480*456/640" (480 times 456 divided by 640) and get my answer. Siri means I don't have to start typing everything into a calculator. Other favorite requests: Where is [name of friend]? Siri is savvy about the Find my Friends feature of iOS 5, so you can bypass a lot of tapping and scrolling by simply asking it where your buddy is hanging out -- see the screenshot above, where I tracked down Mike at work. Whether you're trying to meet for lunch or arrange a handoff for critical/secret documents, speed is key. Will it be cold tonight? The Siri query parser is smart enough to pick up on relative comparisons when it comes to weather, so if you ask about cold/hot, nice weather, or "do I need a sweater/jacket/umbrella?" it's got you covered. Note that I spent $15 on lunch. Right now, you can only use the "note in" syntax to add items to the default Notes application, and it would be even more powerful if you could link to Evernote or Simplenote; still, you can't beat the sheer convenience of getting those tiny tidbits of info recorded with a single tap & chat. (Notes will, of course, sync to your iCloud account.) Remind me to buy milk when I leave the office. Geofenced reminders are a great new iOS 5 feature, and Siri understands references to your location just fine. The result: an incredibly fast and easy way to set up location-based alerts that tell you what you need to remember, when you need to remember it. What are your favorite Siri features? Let us know in the comments.
Remember The Milk adds Siri support
Remember the Milk is an online task management system that lets you create and sync tasks with your mobile devices. If you have the iPhone 4 or earlier, Remember The Milk users can install an iOS app that'll sync their tasks for them. But if you have an iPhone 4S, you can use Siri to add tasks your RTM account. Apple has not released an official API so the developers at Remember The Milk have created a clever work around. They use CalDav to push your reminders to RTM. If you have the latest iPhone, you can point your browser to RTM's website and follow a few simple steps to setup this feature on your iPhone 4S. Once you have CalDav in place, iPhone 4S users can use Siri to create a reminder and it will be sent automatically to your RTM account. Check out the video below to see this work around in action.
Siri is the iPhone 4S' most enticing feature
I could have probably told you this without doing all of the research, but Loopt asked around anyway, and found out that Siri was the iPhone 4S' most exciting new feature for consumers. Sure, that camera is really impressive, and that processor will come in handy when running new games and apps. But 45% of those polled say Siri is the killer app for the new iPhone. And that makes sense -- not only is Siri flashy and new (and available only on the iPhone 4S, for now), but it's pretty much the marquee feature for the device according to Apple's marketing. And since that feature was only available on the iPhone 4S, then who, do you think, were the most frequent buyers of that new device? Turns out, according to Loopt's fairly informal data, that it was actually iPhone 4 owners. Personally, I usually go for a "leapfrog" system of hardware upgrades (and since I already have an iPhone 4, that leaves me out of this round), but that's probably not the case with most iPhone 4S buyers -- some people just need to have the latest and greatest, so according to this data, most day-one iPhone 4S buyers were standing in line with their iPhone 4s already. Interesting. This information is all based on "Loopt Qs," which are apparently social questionnaires put on by the mobile social network, so it seems like these answers are self-selected and probably not really representative of anyone but the folks who use Loopt. But nevertheless, the insight that Siri is driving iPhone 4S adoption seems legit enough.
Siri and the possibility of artificial intelligence
Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an AI. Technically, no, Siri's not a real artificial intelligence. When you ask "her" something and she comes back with a witty answer, your iPhone doesn't actually "understand" what you said in any meaningful way -- it's just identifying a set of words that you put together, and then outputting some data based on those words. Sometimes that's movie times or nearby store locations, and sometimes that's just a witty phrase that Apple engineers have programmed into the system. But of course, while programmers have been creating these "chatbots" for years, Siri has an advantage in that it runs on the cloud; Apple is constantly updating Siri's phrases and responses, which means that "her" answers will only get more appropriate over time. And while the system works as is, you have to imagine that Apple is collecting lots of information from it, including both what people are asking of Siri, and how they're asking for it. The more Apple learns about how to deal with that information, the better Siri will get at providing the right answer at the right time. That will make Siri "smarter" than ever. Until Apple hooks it up to an as-yet-uninvented thinking engine, it still won't "understand" your queries in the same way that a real human would -- or even in the way that a hyper-parallel quiz show competitor does. But for a lot of people, that doesn't much matter. As long as Siri responds correctly and helpfully, that's as good as many people need in terms of the payoff from artificial intelligence.
Siri, Google Translate act as travel companions for AllThingsD blogger
AllThingsD's Ina Fried was in Taipei over the weekend, and she took along both an iPhone 4S and an Android device with Google Translate onboard. What she found is that both of the devices and their accompanying software were very good travel companions. Google Translate (free) is also available for iOS devices, and it's an amazing piece of software. As Fried notes, she was able to ask an electronics dealer what the difference was between two models of Fuji cameras by speaking to the HTC Salsa running Google Translate. The response from the salesperson was a bit confusing -- "Outside" -- but Fried quickly noticed that he was referring to the fact that the cameras were identical except for the external case. Fried ran into one of the unfortunate issues of Siri right now, however, which is the inability to do local searches outside of the U.S. She was able to use the iPhone 4S as her primary camera on the trip and ask Siri to set an alarm for the next morning. After Siri set the alarm, Fried thanked Siri, "feeling like it was the right thing to do." Siri's response? "I live to serve."
Switched On: As Siri gets serious
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Nearly 15 years passed between Apple's first foray into handheld electronics -- the Newton MessagePad -- and the far more successful iPhone. But while phones have replaced PDAs for all intents and purposes, few if any have tried to be what Newton really aspired to -- an intelligent assistant that would seamlessly blend into your life. That has changed with Siri, the standout feature of iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S, which could aptly be described as a "personal digital assistant" if there weren't so much baggage tied to that term. Siri is far more than parlor entertainment or a simple leapfrogging the voice control support in Android and Windows Phone. At the other end of the potential spectrum, Siri may not be a new platform in itself (although at this point Apple has somewhat sandboxed the experience). In any case, though, Siri certainly paves the way for voice as an important component for a rich multi-input digital experience. It steps toward the life-management set of functionality that the bow-tied agent immortalized in Apple's 1987 Knowledge Navigator video could achieve.
Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me
Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post. Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happen once the product is out of beta and developers are given access to a Siri API. This is my way of letting some iOS developers know that I'd love to see Siri integration in their apps. Here we go: I'd love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: "Check me in here" I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: "Tweet @NikFinn that I'm sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger" I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the "original" Siri app did have OpenTable integration): "Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening" Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking "What time is 'Moneyball' playing near here?" and getting a choice of times, then saying "7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets" to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver. How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: "Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive." Once you see the specs, Siri asks "Would you like to buy this item?" Answer yes, and you've purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you'd like to look at other similar items. Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool. Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying "Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac" or "See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow," and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver. My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I'd love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say "Read me the first two items on my grocery list" and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with "OK, what are the next two items?" and so on. For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you're running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say "Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany" and have it respond with "Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?" could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not. Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say "Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars" and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you. I think that Siri has the ability to become the intelligent agent that the mid-90s MagicCap mobile operating system always wanted to be. While MagicCap's TeleScript agents suffered from the lack of cheap and ubiquitous Internet service as well as public acceptance of electronic commerce, those barriers are no longer a problem. Add Siri as a super-friendly interface, and the future is going to be very nice indeed. What are some of your ideas for "serious" integration of Siri into your daily life? Leave your comments below.
Siri gets lost internationally, promises to do better next year
The iPhone 4S' Siri integration may be a potential game changer, but she's not quite the world traveler some of us would like her to be. In fact, it seems she's as lost outside of US borders as any unprepared tourist. Looking for a pub in London? Better find a traditional map. Need to know the time of day in Canada? Siri admits she has no idea, go buy a watch. Business search (via Yelp), directions, and traffic data search all appear to be US-only features for now, and Wolfram Alpha only works in English-speaking countries. The automated assistant's international failings aren't too big of a surprise, however -- Apple's own Siri page outs the service as a beta, noting that some features may vary by area. Stuck with sub-par international support? Sit tight, it's coming: Apple's Siri FAQ states that additional language support (including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Spanish), maps and local search content are set to go international in 2012. Update: Wolfram Alpha works outside the US in English speaking countries, thanks to everyone in the comments for the clarification.
Siri ported to an iPhone 4, old phone learns a new trick (Update: Better performance!)
Apple's iPhone 4 may not have the fancy dual core CPU of its successor, but thanks to the efforts of developer Steven Troughton-Smith and the folks at 9to5 Mac, it may soon have Siri. The port of the sultry voice assistant was accomplished by using the 4S Siri and Springboard files, and some serious elbow grease, no doubt. As you can see in the video below, it's far from perfect, but it can recognize spoken commands without issue. Currently, the hack is missing an iPhone 4 GPU driver that keeps things running buttery smooth on the elder phone, and Cupertino won't authenticate Siri's commands coming from it either. So, it isn't quite ready for primetime, but it should only be a matter of time before all you iPhone 4 owners can tell Siri what to do, too. Update: And in the space of just a few hours, Mr. Troughton-Smith has already managed to improve performance of the app on the iPhone 4 significantly, although Apple's servers are still unreachable. Check out a newer YouTube video showing off some seriously smooth scrolling action after the break. [Thanks, Ramzi]
