Siri has go to be the most frustrating piece of software ever!!!

[ernbrdn]

Let me start by saying I know that it's only beta. Having said that I also know that Siri seemed to work better 10 fold upon the launch of the iPhone 4s. Lately I've been pulling my hair out trying to use Siri to make my life a little easier. Sure it's a wonderful piece of software if you want to dictate, send a message (usually), read a text message or copy cute little commercials you see on tv. Where I'm seeing a major short coming is when trying to actually do something productive with the personal assistant.

Mainly the Reminders app. I'm getting older, and my memory is starting to go so I've decided now would be a good time to try and organize my life. Siri can do that for me right? That's what I thought until I actually attempted to put that theory into usage. I have my reminders set up into different lists or locations if you will so I can organize what needs to be done when I'm in a certain place. I can just pull up my reminders app and see all of my pending To Do's when for instance I'm at Work, or Home just a few examples. The problem seems to begin there, Siri doesn't really like you using the terms Work or Home unless your referring an address in your contact list.

For example, I want to be reminded to pull the "Thingamajig Report" every week while at work. I don't want to setup a location based reminder because I don't want to see this reminder every time I look at my lists, only when I'm work and want to see work related tasks. Well I tell Siri "Remind me every Monday to pull the thingamajig report on my work list. It seems like all Siri hears is Work and either wants to call or show me contact information. I have tried several different Syntax's that I have found on the net. Like making the reminder then asking her to move it to the Work list, same result she forgets about everything when she hears the word work.

I have to ask myself am I doing something wrong here? Or is Siri really just a glorified voice search? I've praised this innovation forever but now when trying to actually use it for something productive it makes me want to pull my hair out! I have to be doing something wrong, I see people add items to grocery lists and the like all the time. The examples are spread out all over the net, and at one time the Grocery list thing worked for me as well. As of late though Siri has just became like that Entry level Personal Assistant that you took a chance on and instead of making your life easier she has totally wrecked everything, to the point you would rather jot your own appointments down on a napkin and give her the boot.

If I'm doing something wrong please tell me, otherwise I'm stubborn and I will probably spend the next 3 hours trying to make this work instead fo just typing the reminder into the app myself. (I'm stubborn and OCD and a firm believer that things like this should "just work" especially when it's not like it's the most full featured software out there.)

 

[Sharma15]

Try saying "remind me every monday at (insert time here) about my report."

I have not had problems setting up reminders, but maybe you should read the "how to use" info. Hold down the home button for 2 seconds and tap the little "i' for information. Hope this helped!

 

[anon(4698833)]

Of all the things people typically complain about when it comes to Siri...reminders is pretty far down on the list honestly. I would suggest trying different instructions, or perhaps holding it closer to yourself when you speak to it. A problem my father ran into when he was playing with my iPhone was that he was taking entirely too long to speak to Siri once he held down the button or pushed the microphone icon...by the time he started speaking she (many times) started the response function and would only get part of his instruction or question. Not saying this is your issue, but it was something i observed.

I constantly use reminders on my 4S and have yet to find a situation where Siri was confused or anything consistent with what you described...im actually pretty surprised sometimes how accurate she is with setting up what i say when I'm in the middle of doing something else and trying to set a reminder, with all the him hawing and stuff yet she still gets the reminders dead on.

 

[samthelegoman1]

I use Siri when I want to laugh

 

[ModeratorOMD]

Well darn

 

[peterthomas]

[images] [images] [images] [images] [images]
Well darn

Are you some anti-Siri person or entity? I mean you just completely blew Siri off!

 

[ModeratorOMD]

Are you some anti-Siri person or entity? I mean you just completely blew Siri off!

Siri has already received universally negative reviews, and was also a commercial failure. You shouldn't have to make so many concessions to enjoy a product that seems like it could and should have turned out much better than it did.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Siri has already received universally negative reviews, and was also a commercial failure. You shouldn't have to make so many concessions to enjoy a product that seems like it could and should have turned out much better than it did.

I like Siri...so your "universally negative reviews" comment is invalidated.

Commercially, it has been a huge success, because the iPhone 4S has been a record breaking success.

 

[kch50428]

Are you some anti-Siri person or entity? I mean you just completely blew Siri off!

moto is a troll. We all need to quit feeding it with replies.

 

[ModeratorOMD]

I have to ask myself am I doing something wrong here? Or is Siri really just a glorified voice search? I've praised this innovation forever but now when trying to actually use it for something productive it makes me want to pull my hair out! I have to be doing something wrong, I see people add items to grocery lists and the like all the time. The examples are spread out all over the net, and at one time the Grocery list thing worked for me as well. As of late though Siri has just became like that Entry level Personal Assistant that you took a chance on and instead of making your life easier she has totally wrecked everything, to the point you would rather jot your own appointments down on a napkin and give her the boot.

You aren't the only one.

It's what happened to me too. In my experience, it performs the bare minimum of it's capabilities in a very marginal manner. I found a business card with an address and wanted to see where it was located on the Map. It could not do it. It was totally beyond it's capabilities. She didnt have any idea of what I was talking about. I asked several times in several ways- I typed it in.

You just have to say enough is enough. I was very embarrassed. As of late, Siri, compared to something like say, Google's S-voice, has a low approval rating by most tech media websites.

As you can see by some of the replies, you won't recieve much help on many forums because people will just tell you, "it's in beta," and many times they will ignore its inherent and obvious issues. Especially on Macrumors, which is another Apple centric site, they will go through great lengths to hide people's dissatisfaction with the project.

My advice would just be to disable it and forget about it. I wish you luck.

 

[Eileen89]

Siri works very well for me

Lastly, using a jailbroken app, I asked Siri to launch Safai and she did. For those who know how to ask things of Siri I think she works very well and can only get better in iOS 6.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk.

 

[ModeratorOMD]

I can do that, those are great examples of those 'marginally performed bare minimum capabilities' I was talking about earlier.

Sure it's a wonderful piece of software if you want to dictate, send a message (usually), read a text message or copy cute little commercials you see on tv. Where I'm seeing a major short coming is when trying to actually do something productive with the personal assistant.

? Certain songs on my iPod, it won't play, it can't. It's just not ready for that yet.
? It doesn't know that (when I ask for the time) it pulls up a city that I don't live in.

 

[Just_Me_D]

You aren't the only one.

It's what happened to me too. In my experience, it performs the bare minimum of it's capabilities in a very marginal manner. I found a business card with an address and wanted to see where it was located on the Map. It could not do it. It was totally beyond it's capabilities. She didnt have any idea of what I was talking about. I asked several times in several ways- I typed it in.

After reading your post, I grabbed my iPhone 4S and told Siri to find a specific address and it did. It also showed me the location on the map so therefore, it is NOT beyond Siri's capabilities. Is it possible that you are not speaking clearly enough?

You just have to say enough is enough. I was very embarrassed.

I don't understand. Are you saying you were embarrassed because Siri was unable to do what you asked or didn't understand what you asked and if so, were you showing off around friends or something? ... (snipped) ...

As you can see by some of the replies, you won't recieve much help on many forums because people will just tell you, "it's in beta," and many times they will ignore its inherent and obvious issues.

Motoleo, aren't you assuming that Siri is automatically to blame? You couldn't get it to find a specific address, but I could. Why is that? Is it possible that Siri didn't understand what you were asking and if so, should it know every human dialect and speech patterns or should you speak clearer? ... (snipped) ....

My advice would just be to disable it and forget about it. I wish you luck.

Just Me, D
(iPad)

 

[ModeratorOMD]

After reading your post, I grabbed my iPhone 4S and told Siri to find a specific address and it did. It also showed me the location on the map so therefore, it is NOT beyond Siri's capabilities. Is it possible that you are not speaking clearly enough?

I don't understand. Are you saying you were embarrassed because Siri was unable to do what you asked or didn't understand what you asked and if so, were you showing off around friends or something? ... (snipped) ...

Motoleo, aren't you assuming that Siri is automatically to blame? You couldn't get it to find a specific address, but I could. Why is that? Is it possible that Siri didn't understand what you were asking and if so, should it know every human dialect and speech patterns or should you speak clearer? ... (snipped) ....






Just Me, D
(iPad)

? Siri is notorious for its inability to not do what you tell it to. This is not an issue of not speaking clearly. I typed it in.

? No I was not showing it off, I know better than to do that. I was in a public place though, and I know people were thinking, What's wrong with that kid, shouldn't he just type it in?

Which, yes, if I would have just typed it in from the beginning I'd have saved 10 minutes.

? It can find established businesses like McDonald's and Burger King, but try something like Dermotology and Laser Center of Wisconsin...

Most things will just direct you to Google anyway, you might as well just bypass Siri go straight to who does it better.

 

[sherlock]

Siri can do a lot of things, well. I must admit that I have lost track of exactly what Siri will do on a stock device. Things like making calls, reading messages, playing music are all things I know it will do on a stock iPhone.

 

[sherlock]

... Is it possible that you are not speaking clearly enough? ... (snipped) ....

This is a problem for me. when Siri doesn't work I just repeat the request and speak slowly and clearly. Obviously she's hard of hearing.

 

[Just_Me_D]

? Siri is notorious for its inability to not do what you tell it to.

That depends on what you're asking it to do.

This is not an issue of not speaking clearly. I typed it in.

That depends, but to be fair, I did not ask Siri to find the exact same address that you asked.

? No I was not showing it off, I know better than to do that. I was in a public place though, and I know people were thinking, What's wrong with that kid, shouldn't he just type it in?

I asked if you were showing off because you stated that you were embarrassed and I was trying to understand why. I didn't get it at first. Anyway, I'm assuming you're a teenager being that you mentioned the word, "kid".

Which, yes, if I would have just typed it in, I'd have saved 10 minutes.

C'mon now. I refused to believe you spent 10 minutes trying to get Siri to find one address so I'll take it as a figure of speech.

It can find established businesses like McDonald's and Burger King, but try Dermotology and Laser Center of Wisconsin and it under performs.

Just Me, D
(iPad)

 

[Just_Me_D]

Siri can do a lot of things, well. I must admit that I have lost track of exactly what Siri will do on a stock device. Things like making calls, reading messages, playing music are all things I know it will do on a stock iPhone.

As I've stated on numerous occasions, Siri works well for my usage. It isn't a human being and like humans, it isn't perfect, but I'd rather have it than not.


Just Me, D
(iPad)

 

[ModeratorOMD]

What's so profound about the fact that it can't find a place like the dermatology and laser Center of Wisconsin, is that if you type it into Google, it can.

 

[sherlock]

What's so profound about the fact that it can't find a place like the dermatology and laser Center of Wisconsin, is that if you type it into Google, it can.

Have you considered getting an android device?