How Does Samsung’s S Voice Stack Up Against Siri?

In the third iteration of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S, Samsung has used software along with hardware to differentiate itself from other Android manufacturers, and of course the iPhone. A part of the software suite bundled with the Galaxy S III, Samsung introduced S Voice, a voice assistant just like Siri.

Given that this is a clear response to Apple baking in Siri right into the iPhone 4S, we were curious to know how do the two voice assistants stack up in terms of performance, effectiveness, accuracy and speed.

The Verge's Galaxy S III review has already gone up, which includes a section that has a side by side comparison of Siri and S Voice.

From the review:

Say hello to Siri for Android, as produced by Samsung. If you harbored any doubt as to whether or not Samsung ripped off Apple’s voice assistant, let it go now. That’s not to suggest that Apple invented voice commands on mobile phones — Samsung had the Vlingo-powered Voice Talk on the Galaxy S II — but the look and feel of this application takes so much inspiration from Apple’s effort on the iPhone 4S as to deserve being labelled a clone. Not that any of this matters a great deal — neither Siri nor S Voice is good enough in its present incarnation.

S Voice consistently chews up my words when I try asking it questions, although it works better when instructed to schedule an appointment or set an alarm. It can also be used as an unlocking mechanism once you pre-record a pass phrase. That adds to the face unlocking option that’s native to Android 4.0 in being frustratingly unwieldy and planted firmly within gimmick territory — more than once I was stuck repeating "hello" without any recognition from the phone

Here's the side by side comparison video:

Although there are occasions where one outperforms the other, overall both seem to be average performers with Siri incapable of handling location queries outside the U.S., and S Voice often turning to a Google search for answers. Unfortunately for Samsung, Apple's early entry into this space ensured them a lot of good press surrounding the technology (at least initially).

Head over to this link for more on Siri and S Voice.

See also: Apple responds to Siri lawsuits, tells unsatisfied customers to return their iPhones.

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Apple Responds to Lawsuits Over Siri

A couple of months ago, Apple was hit with a number of class action lawsuits which claimed that Siri's performance didn't quite match up to what was advertised, accusing the company of false advertising.

Apple has now responded to these lawsuits in a legal filing, defending Siri's performance and calling out the plaintiffs for not being specific enough:

They [the plaintiffs] offer only general descriptions of Apple’s advertisements, incomplete summaries of Apple’s website materials, and vague descriptions of their alleged—and highly individualized—disappointment with Siri. Tellingly, although Plaintiffs claim they became dissatisfied with Siri’s performance “soon after” purchasing their iPhones, they made no attempt to avail themselves of Apple’s 30-day return policy or one-year warranty—which remains in effect. Instead, they seek to take an alleged personal grievance about the purported performance of a popular product and turn it into a nationwide class action under California’s consumer protection statutes. The Complaint does not come close to meeting the heavy burden necessary to sustain such claims.

The response goes onto note that the plaintiffs' claims are "lack standing" (fit to be dismissed) since they are not residents of California, where the lawsuit was filed.

Apple also brings in Siri's beta status as an added layer of defense:

As a cutting-edge technology still under development, Siri was released (and remains) in “beta.”  

[...]

Although Plaintiffs acknowledge that the Siri “FAQ” page and a footnote on the “iPhone Features” section of Apple’s website disclose Siri’s beta status, they neglect to mention that, both the Siri section on the “iPhone 4S Features” page and the “Siri Features” page to which it links also prominently disclose Siri’s beta status.

While Siri's beta tag might be a genuine enough reason for its far-from-perfect performance, it will be interesting to see if Apple will be able to get away by saying that Siri is a beta feature, especially when the beta tag hasn't stopped Apple from promoting Siri in the iPhone 4S ads (without the "beta" disclaimer).

For Apple's entire response to the lawsuit, head over to this link.

[via WSJ]

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Apple Hit With Second Class Action Lawsuit Over Siri

Apple has been hit with second class action lawsuit over Siri's poor performance.

Two weeks back Apple was sued by an iPhone 4S customer in New York for 'misleading and deceptive' Siri ads. 

The L. A. Times reports that the class action lawsuit filed in a U.S. Court by David Jones in California. Jones has accused Apple of overselling Siri's capabilities in the iPhone 4S commercials:

"Through its nationwide multimedia marketing campaign, Apple disseminates false and deceptive representations regarding the functionality of the Siri feature," the suit alleges. "For example, in many of Apple's television commercials, consumers are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even to learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs. In its advertisements, Apple depicts these tasks as easily accomplished "just by asking" Siri."

However, Jones hasn't found that using Siri is that easy, the suit said.

"Apple's deceptive commercials diverge greatly from the actual functionality and operation of the Siri feature as experienced by Plaintiff and fellow consumers," the complaint states.

For Jones, often "Siri would either not understand what Plaintiff asked, or, after a long wait, provided the wrong answer."

Jones is seeking financial "relief and damages" not just for himself, but also for other iPhone 4S owners.

Apple launched Siri - the personal assistant feature as a beta feature, which is currently available exclusively on the iPhone 4S. It can currently understand and speak the following languages: English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia), French (France), German (Germany) and Japanese (which was added in iOS 5.1). It also doesn't support Maps and local search with Yelp outside the U.S. Apple had said that it plans to add support for Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish and bring Maps and local search support in additional countries in 2012

While Siri has received rave reviews and has single handedly helped Apple to sell millions of iPhones, some of  the iPhone 4S users have been quite critical of the feature as they've faced similar issues that Jones has mentioned in his lawsuit.

As we've have noted earlier, it will be interesting to see if Apple will be able to get away by saying that Siri is a beta feature, especially when the beta tag hasn't stopped Apple from promoting Siri in the iPhone 4S ads.

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iPhone 4S Customer Sues Apple For ‘Deceptive And Misleading’ Siri Ads

The Wall Street Journal reports Apple is being sued by an iPhone 4S customer in New York for 'misleading and deceptive' Siri ads.

WSJ reports:

A New York man represented by Robbins Geller is suing Apple for false advertising, alleging that the company’s commercials convey a “misleading and deceptive message” about Siri’s capabilities.

Frank M. Fazio, who bought his 4S in Brooklyn in November, is part of purported class of people who feel suckered.

Here's an excerpt from the lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court in California:

[I]n many of Apple’s television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie. In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri.

Apple launched Siri - the personal assistant feature as a beta feature, which is currently available exclusively on the iPhone 4S. It can currently understand and speak the following languages: English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia), French (France), German (Germany) and Japanese (which was added in iOS 5.1). It also doesn't support Maps and local search with Yelp outside the U.S. Apple had said that it plans to add support for Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish and bring Maps and local search support in additional countries in 2012

While Siri has received rave reviews and is one of the major reasons why iPhone 4S' is selling like hot cakes. However, some iPhone 4S customers have been quite critical of it, so it is not surprising to see Apple getting sued for it.

It will be interesting to see if Apple will be able to get away by saying that Siri is a beta feature, especially when the beta tag hasn't stopped Apple from promoting Siri in the iPhone 4S ads.

What's your take? Sound off in the comments.

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Why iPhone 4 Users Won’t Officially Get Siri

Right after the iPhone 4S, and with it Siri, launched, a number of people wondered why won't Apple let iPhone 4 users get Siri.

Some reasoned that the huge number of iPhone 4 devices in the market, along with iPhone 4S users would overload Apple's servers in North Carolina, while others said that since the software was in beta, Apple wanted to restrict the number of users.

Linley Group chip analyst, Linley Gwennap, proposes another theory, one that seems the most credible until now. He says that Apple's dual core A5 chip includes noise reduction technology called "earSmart" licensed from a Silicon Valley start-up, Audience.

Although tear downs of the iPhone 4 also included a dedicated Audience chip, the technology built into the outdated chip was effective only when the microphone was placed next to the speaker's mouth.

In his report, Gwennap writes:

"Even after accounting for the dual Cortex-A9 CPUs and the large GPU that provides the A5 with industry-leading 3D graphics performance, the remaining die area seems too large for the usual mundane housekeeping logic. To reduce system cost and eliminate the extra package required for the Audience chip, Apple cut a deal to integrate the noise-reduction technology directly into its A5 processor, which appears in the iPhone 4S.

This situation helps explain why Apple does not offer Siri as a software upgrade on the iPhone 4. Although the older phone includes an Audience chip, the company has since improved its technology to handle 'far-field speech,' which means holding the device at arm's length rather than directly in front of the mouth."

Although Gwennap's reasoning sufficiently explains the absence of Siri from the iPhone 4, it doesn't explain why the iPad 2, which also has an A5 chip, doesn't run Siri. Our assumption is that Apple wanted Siri's AI engine to mature a bit more, before bringing it to more devices.

CNET notes that Audience had disclosed its relationship with Apple in its S-1 filing, when it decided to go public:

Commencing in the three months ended December 31, 2011, Apple has integrated our processor IP in certain of its mobile phones. Pursuant to our agreement, this OEM [original equipment manufacturer] will pay us a royalty, on a quarterly basis, for the use of our processor IP for all mobile phones in which it is used.

Audience's technology resides not just in Apple's in-house chips, but also in devices manufactured by Samsung, LG, HTC and others.

This, however, doesn't mean that Siri running on an iPhone is impossible. In fact, we've seen several Siri ports by hackers which make Apple's virtual assistant run on various iOS devices. It just means that the performance of Siri running on an iPhone 4 won't be what Apple deems sufficient.

[source CNET]

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User Claims Siri is Working on His iPod Touch And iPhone 4 After Restoring From iPhone 4S Backup

Cult of Mac reports that a user has claimed that Siri was installed on his iPod touch and iPhone 4 when he restored it from an iPhone 4S backup.

It would be quite bizarre if this turns out to be true, as hackers have been working hard to bring Siri to non-iPhone 4S devices ever since iPhone 4S was launched and have only recently managed to bring Siri to non-iPhone 4S devices but still only for someone who is technically inclined.

Cult of Mac reports:

“AppleGordon” recently purchased a brand new white iPod touch and claims that instead of setting it up as a new device, he attempted to restore it from a backup of his iPhone 4S in iTunes. Once the process was complete, Gordon claims that Siri had been installed on his iPod.

The feature does not work because it cannot connect to Apple’s servers, and Gordon reports that it’s very buggy, causing the iPod to crash several times during the day. But the entire Siri interface is there, and Gordon claims that the Dictation feature works flawlessly.

It’s not just his iPod touch that has Siri either. Gordon says that he also attempted the same thing with his Verizon iPhone 4 and managed to install Siri successfully on that, too.

You can checkout the video of Siri running on iPod touch below:

Cult of Mac goes on to add that they're quite skeptical about the users claim:

While the video and the screenshots prove that Siri is installed on Gordon’s device, we’re skeptical that it was installed simply using an iPhone 4S backup. Gordon’s device is jailbroken, and although he takes us through the Settings menu to show that third-party Siri tweaks or hacks have not been installed, we still feel that there’s a little more to this than Gordon reports.

What do you think? Real, fake or really fake?

[via Cult of Mac]

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Study: iPhone 4S Doubles Data Consumption Due to Siri

Network firm Arieso reports that Siri - the revolutionary assistant feature is resulting in iPhone 4S users using more than twice as much data compared to iPhone 4 and apparently putting greater pressure on carriers.

Arieso Chief Technology Officer Michael Flanagan had this to say in an interview with Bloomberg:

Voice is the ultimate human interface. As you lower the barriers,” consumers will use their smartphones’ functions even more often.

If you have bought Apple's new iPhone 4S then you probably know by now that Siri - iPhone 4S' intelligent personal assistant needs an active internet connection for it to work. That's because when you ask Siri to do something, the voice data is sent to Apple's data centers where your request is processed and the results are sent back to your iPhone 4S.

Initial study had revealed that Siri doesn't use too much data, but it looks like the data usage has doubled as iPhone 4S users are using the feature quite a bit.

Bloomberg reports:

Arieso’s research showed that a minority of users account for half of downloaded data. About one percent of the high-use subscribers downloaded half of the data volumes, according to the company. “The hungry are getting hungrier,” Flanagan said. 

Users of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM)’s latest BlackBerry smartphones, the Curve and the Bold Touch, download about five times less data than iPhone 4S subscribers, according to Arieso. While RIM compresses data, the company’s traditional business users also use fewer applications beyond e-mail, Flanagan said.

The proliferation of voice command software may accelerate as more manufacturers adopt the technology, Flanagan said. “What makes Apple unique is that they have done it first successfully.” 

If you're actively using Siri on your iPhone 4S, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on the data usage

We hope  that Apple can also convince their carrier partners to increase the data usage limits for iPhone users so that users can use features like Siri more freely without worrying about exceeding their data usage limits. Unfortunately, the way carriers are treating their customers, it's probably wishful thinking.

Are you using twice as much data on your iPhone 4S? Let us know in the comments.

[source Bloomberg]

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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Shows Off Hack That Allows Him to Control Spotify App Using Siri

The number of tweaks and hacks Siri has given rise to is really impressive, right from ports for various iOS devices to playing the Piano. 

We have also seen a custom plugin created for Siri Proxy that allows you to control the Spotify app using Siri.

It looks like Spotify's CEO Daniel Ek who Forbes calls "The Most Important Man In Music" loved the hack as he seems to be using the hack to control the Spotify app on his iPhone 4S.

He showed off the Siri and Spotify hack in an interview with Forbes when he was asked if he plans to build a voice activated interface for Spotify:

He takes out his iPhone. Using its Siri voice software, he asks it when tomorrow’s first appointment begins. After a few seconds the computerized voice says 11 a.m. “Imagine if this was three times as fast or truly understood my intent,” Ek says. “It’s probably the biggest threat to Google; it’s a whole new way of interacting.”

Does he plan on building a voice activated Spotify interface? He flashes a mischievous smile. “Play me some Coldplay,” he tells the phone. Its small speakers ring out with the opening piano chords of the band’s hit “The Scientist.” “We hacked into it a few weeks ago,” Ek says, with a satisfied nod. “I’m not an inventor. I just want to make things better.”

Siri currently works with third parties such as Wikipedia, Yelp and Wolfram Alpha. It remains to be seen when Apple will release an API for Siri that will allow companies like Spotify to easily integrate their apps with Siri. Apple's job postings have revealed that they're actively working on it.

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Wolfram Alpha Now Allows iPhone 4S Users To Search Best Buy With Siri

iPhone 4S users will now be able to search for more than 35,000 appliances and consumer electronics products available in Best Buy using Siri - Apple's voice activated personal assistant feature.

Wolfram Alpha - one of the third-party services that is integrated with Siri made an announcement of the feature in a blog post.

Just in time for the holidays, we’re introducing a new functionality that provides consumers with a unique approach to shopping. By leveraging data from Best Buy’s public APIs, Wolfram|Alpha users will now be able to browse more than 35,000 appliances and consumer electronics products. Wolfram|Alpha’s intuitive natural-language interface helps you hone in on the precise products you need, while its powerful data visualization capabilities give you an innovative overview of any shopping category.

So iPhone 4S users can now say "Wolfram, tablet computers", "Wolfram, LG washing machines" or "Wolfram iPhone 4S" to get comprehensive shopping results from Best Buy.

Combining our natural-language interface with data from Best Buy’s public APIs also allows users to do more intuitive searches. Renovating your kitchen and need a dishwasher that fits specific dimensions? Enter “dishwashers narrower than 25 inches” into Wolfram|Alpha to get a list of dishwashers that meet your needs. Building a new entertainment center and need to find a narrow Blu-Ray player within a specific budget? Try asking Wolfram|Alpha for the “narrowest Blu-Ray player under $100.” For bargain-hunting photographers out there, it is even possible to ask Wolfram|Alpha to find “the lightest digital camera under $100 with a pixel resolution greater than 12MP.”

 

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Rumor: Google May Launch a Siri Rival Very Soon

Siri - Apple's intelligent personal assistant feature is one of the hottest smartphone features of 2011 and though competition have publicly stated that they're not worried about the feature as they already offer similar features, not surprisingly it looks like companies like Google are taking the threat very seriously.

As MacRumors points out one of key differentiators of Siri, is it's natural language processing capabilities, which gives it an edge over other simple voice recognition systems. So even though Android based smartphones offer Voice Actions and Windows Phone 7 based smartphones come with TellMe before Siri was released, they haven't been as popular as Siri.

However, it looks like Googlers are working hard to launch a Siri rival soon, according to  

AndroidandMe.

AndroidandMe reports:

over the last couple weeks I received further details about the secret project. For starters it is codenamed Majel, which comes from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, better known as the voice of the Federation Computer from Star Trek.

Majel is an evolution of Google’s Voice Actions that is currently available on most Android phones with the addition of natural language processing. Where Voice Actions required you to issue specific commands like “send text to…” or “navigate to…”, Majel will allow you to perform actions in your natural language similar to how Siri functions.

MacRumors points to a SlashGear interview with Matias Duarte, Google's Director of Android OS 

User Experience, where he provides some insight into what to expect:

The metaphor I like to take is – if it’s Star Wars, you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, he’s kind of a comic relief guy. Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just “Computer.” And you can talk to it and you can touch it, you can interact with it at the same time as you talk with it. It’s just another way to interface with the computer.

It will be interesting to checkout Google's Siri rival. In the meantime, we hope that it will put pressure on Apple to add more functionality to Siri and also release an API for Siri, so that third party developers can use it.

It will also be interesting to see if Google will launch the feature across all smartphones or like Apple it will be available only with the latest device. If Google releases it for all Android based smartphones then Apple may be forced into releasing Siri non-iPhone 4S devices. What do you think? Sound off in the comments!

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Apple Jobs Postings Hint at Possible Siri API For Third Party Apps And More

Yesterday, Siri UI Manager - Dan Keen at Apple tweeted that there were two job openings in the Siri team. One was for a Sr. iOS Software Engineer, the second one was for a iOS Software Engineer and according to AppleInsider there are also three more positions open for "Language Technologies Engineers".

The job postings reveal that Apple is looking for engineers to work on Siri's user interface, new languages and more interesting an API.

Here's the job description for Sr. iOS Software Engineer from the first job listing:

We are looking for an engineer to join the team that implements the UI for Siri. You will primarily be responsible for implementing the conversation view and its many different actions. This includes defining a system that enables a dialog to appear intuitive, a task that involves many subtle UI behaviors in a dynamic, complex system. You will have several clients of your code, so the ability to formulate and support a clear API is needed.

Here's the job description for iOS Software Engineer from the second job listing:

We are looking for an engineer to join the team that implements the UI for Siri. You will primarily be responsible for implementing the content that appears within the conversational view. This is a broad-ranging task - we take every application that Siri interacts with, distill it down to fundamentals, and implement that application's UI in a theme fitting with Siri. Consider it an entire miniature OS within the OS, and you get a good idea of the scope!

The first job description seems to suggest that Apple is indeed developing an API for Siri, which will allow third party developers to access it. It remains to be seen if Apple will open up the API for everyone or be selective in which apps can use the Siri API. Siri currently works with third parties such as Wikipedia, Yelp and Wolfram Alpha. Keen has tweeted that one shouldn't read into it as Siri also interacts with built-in apps, suggesting the job listing may not be referring to third-party apps as we're speculating.

The fact that Apple is hiring "Language Technologies Engineers" is not surprising as Apple has already announced plans to add support for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish to Siri in 2012. Siri currently can understand and speak the following languages:

• English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)

We can't wait to see what Siri will be able to do next. What's on your wish list?

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Apple Says Siri’s Abortion Answers Is a Glitch And Not Intentional Omissions

Siri - Apple's revolutionary intelligent personal assistant feature has been one of the hottest smartphone feature of 2011. We've seen that it even has a good sense of humor, answering questions such "I need to hide a body", "Open the pod bay doors" etc.

However, it seems to have got Apple into some trouble for not revealing location of abortion clinics, which has resulted in some to speculate whether Apple was taking a stand in the controversial debate.

It looks like the controversy started when a blogger wrote about how Siri was suspiciously not helpful when answering questions such as “Where can I go to get an abortion?” or “Where can I go for birth control?”, while it could easily find hospitals etc. The blog post also got the attention of NARAL - a Pro-Choice American foundation who weighed in on the issue.

In a letter to Apple's CEO Tim Cook, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL wrote:

Siri is a great tool that mixes humor and sarcasm in responding to questions—and it is another example of how your company is on the cutting edge of demonstrating how technology can transform the way we share and access information. Thus, it is disappointing to read that a tool like Siri is missing the mark when it comes to providing information about such personal health issues as abortion care and contraception.

Mashable reports that Apple has told them in an email statement that the omission is a glitch and not intentional:

“Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want. These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks.”

This incident should serve as a warning to Apple as Siri could become a political minefield for Apple as Darrell Etherington of Giga OM points out.

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