Chapter 4. Speech Recognition—and Siri
Before you make up your mind about Siri, the iPhone’s famous speech-recognition feature, just keep one thing in mind: Siri is not one but two features.
First, there’s dictation, where the phone types out everything you say. It’s really handy, and it’s much faster than typing on glass—but it’s not 100 percent accurate. Plenty of people get so frustrated that they just give up on it.
Second, there’s Siri the voice-controlled minion—and this part works fantastically. You can say, “Wake me up at 7:45,” or “What’s Chris’s work number?” or “How do I get to the airport?” or “What’s the weather going to be like in San Francisco this weekend?”
You can say, “Make a note to rent Titanic this weekend.” Or “How many days until Valentine’s Day?” Or “Play some Electric Light Orchestra.”
You can also ask questions about movies, sports, and restaurants. In each case, Siri thinks for a few seconds, displays a beautifully formatted response, and speaks in a calm voice.
In iOS 7, Siri is much better. She responds faster, her voice has been replaced with a more natural-sounding one (and you now have the option to hear a male voice), and she understands more requests. For example, you can now ask her to open the major Settings panels (“Open WiFi settings”) or make adjustments to the phone itself (“Turn up the brightness” or “Turn on Bluetooth”).
This chapter covers both personalities of Siri for the iPhone 4s and later, plus one more speech technology: the speak-to-dial ...