It’s worked pretty much perfectly for me. Texting and tweeting and updating Facebook while I drive is pretty cool. Calendars are finally useful because you don’t have to fiddle around with them now, just tell it. Reminders (timed and geofenced) are great. The Wolfram Alpha tie-in works great for factual questions, although unfortunately it doesn’t read those to you.
Did you have to do something special to get it to work with Facebook? When I’ve tried it she says she can’t help me with Facebook. I don;t use it much yet, but I’m very impressed with the recognition software.
Anyone planning on checking out friday when it becomes available? From what I have heard, it runs in the background, continuously learning about your preferences, etc. More info here.
I’m currently awaiting an alpha invite.
In address book on the iPhone, bring up the friend’s name. Choose Edit, scroll way down, + Add Field, type in the phonetic pronunciation of the name.
You can also have fun with this field as Disheavel is now pronounced “Emperor” whenever Siri says my name now. You can also put the phonetic prononciation as a nickname in the Address book but this information is synced to your computer (and possibly transferred to others via vCard), but the “phonetic pronunciation” is iPhone available only.
Just use Facebook’s update via text message service. Same with Twitter. Works perfectly; just tell Siri “Send a message to Facebook and Twitter” or whichever you use.
Sweet, thanks.
As far as voice recognition goes, she is pretty good. There are limitations though and learning those limitations is a time-waster in the short run. In the long run, I think she will be useful.
Reminders are awesome. Who takes the time to tap out a reminder? No one - unless it’s really important. With Siri, adding a reminder is very quick and easy.
We also use it to play music though iTunes without having to fiddle with the tap interface. That works reasonably well.
The thing that makes me sad is Siri is not authorized to launch applications. I would love to be able to open apps by voice. I hate hunting for apps. If I could just say “Open Remote” I would be quite happy. I’m sure there is a security reason for this, but I’m still sad.
Stuff that didn’t work:
“Where can I go apple picking?”
Gave us listings of apple stores.
Sounds like that works perfectly as intended.
So far I’m disappointed:
It can’t answer:
-What is 15 L/100km in miles/gallon
-What is the German word for sugar
-What’s the score of the Texas St Louis baseball game righ now
All it does is comes back and offers me to do a web search for that…
The Google voice search gives me the results I want without that intermediate step. Voice recognition is pretty accurate.
Maybe I should just think of it as a voice interface for the phone, instead of a smart, voice driven answer app, but they sure played it up that way with all the “Do I need an umbrella” hype.
LIke the 4S though…
My co-worker just got a new phone and was showing it to me today. Siri had no problem understanding me, but my co-worker is from Columbia and Siri doesn’t understand her accent. Siri also has problems with another co-worker who has a pronounced Baltimore accent (welcome to Bawlamer hon).
For those debating between a 4 and a 4s, I have to ask: “WHY?!?”
An iPhone 4 sells on craigslist for about $250. An iPhone 4s sells on craigslist for $500 or more. Simple math tells me if you just want a 4, then buy a 4S, sell it, buy a 4, and end up with money in your pocket.
Worked perfectly for me. It told me that 100km is 62.14 miles and 15 litres is 3.963 gallons
You can just say “Search Google for…”
It is just a voice interface for the phone. 
Apparently I’ve had this on my phone for some time now. I just tested it.
When I said, “Call Mary Ann” it called Mary Ann (who was sitting right next to me).
When I said, “Do the dishes!” it played a song called “Touched” by Vast. 
When I said, “Go to lunch at 11:30” it called Mike [Lastname].
When I said, “Play the Beastie Boys” it played The Killers. Close, but not quite a cigar.
I would argue that your phone is trying to improve your taste in music.
So how much should these things cost, anyway? Someone upthread said $500. But Walmart’s website has the 4s for $188. Takes a two year plan but our contract is up at the end of this year, anyway.
I’m not a huge fan of Walmart but a $300 per unit price differential is not trivial.
It’s all about the contract. With contract it is $200.00.
The people willing to pay 500 bucks for a 4S are already under contract and can’t buy another subsidized phone at this time. If you aren’t under contract and are willing to settle for a 4, you can profit from the exchange. Essentially you are selling your subsidy.
For some time? How long have you had it?
The older iPhones all have some limited voice actions. It will call people in your address book and play stored music. That’s why all of Dogzilla’s actions resulted in a phone call or playing a song.
That’s not Siri.
That’s just “voice control” - it can do a few, useful things, but nothing compared to Siri.
That’s what I was trying to determine. I suspected it wasn’t Siri he had, but “for some time” could have meant “for two weeks”, I guess!