Just tell your iPhone what you want

EddieC 0 611 Views

What's Apple up to now? Yesterday it became public that the company had acquired Siri, whose sole purpose in life appears to be to make Siri, a free iPhone app that helps you find things and make plans. To watch Siri in action, it does look pretty useful. But why did Apple pay as much as $200 million for something that it could ?

Answer? One theory suggests that the technology might help Apple better compete with Google. Here's how it works, according to Siri. Let's say you want to find a romantic Italian restaurant near your office. You simply launch Siri and speak the words into your iPhone. It converts your speech to text and after you confirm, it finds restaurants and then searches for the word "romantic" in multiple reviews for those places. Siri can even make the reservation for you. If you decide you'd rather eat near home, just say "How about near my house?" The program will automatically reapply the previous search with the new location. According to what I've read, the software also lets you ask open questions, such as "What's to do around here today?" To that, it might suggest a movie, night club or local event. And of course, Siri also runs on iPad.

The Siri purchase is just the latest in a series of acquisitions for Apple, which reportedly has about a $40 billion cash reserve to play with. Rumors had been spreading for weeks that Apple was in talks to buy chipmaker Intrinsity for about $120 million, and it was confirmed on Tuesday. Apple's new iAd service is based on technology it acquired with Quattro Wireless earlier this year and the company will likely make iTunes libraries accessible from the web thanks to its purchase of Lala late last year. Apple is on a roll.

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raised the strategic question and supplied a useful first‑hand report. Below are concise, long‑term practical notes and troubleshooting points that complement those posts and remain helpful to readers who find this thread later.

Many mobile voice assistants rely on server‑side processing and live web lookups, so real‑world reliability often tracks network quality and ambient noise rather than the app code alone. Short, focused phrasing that includes the most important details (place type, landmark, time) tends to produce more accurate results than long, meandering sentences. For uncommon names or business spellings, routing requests through saved contacts or spelling the name aloud reduces ambiguity. Headsets or quieter environments noticeably improve recognition.

Common fixes when recognition or results look wrong: test the microphone with a voice‑memo app to rule out hardware; verify microphone and location permissions in system settings; switch between Wi‑Fi and cellular to check for network problems; restart the app or device to clear transient glitches; and try built‑in voice control (if present) to isolate app vs. hardware issues. Adjusting language/dialect settings can help non‑native speakers, and simplifying phrasing often yields better parsing than forcing literal translations.

Privacy and confirmation cautions: these assistants typically use contextual data (location, contacts) to improve answers, which increases convenience but also exposure. Restricting permissions reduces accuracy but limits data sharing. For booking or financial actions, rely on explicit confirmation screens and saved receipts rather than an oral acknowledgment alone. Accessibility note: voice assistants can be powerful aids for limited‑mobility users when paired with reliable contacts, clear phrasing, and confirmation steps.

Member Avatar for vladko
vladko 0 Newbie Poster

i try it, it's awesome, and for free))) i can't speak english pretty well, but even so it does understand me, and it looks like it knows everything u ask it about))

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