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the Gauntlet

the official student-produced news site for Saint Stephen's Episcopal School

the Gauntlet

the official student-produced news site for Saint Stephen's Episcopal School

the Gauntlet

Siri means what Siri says

When a new model of a device is made available to the public, the first question is usually, “What’s the improvement?” In the case of the iPhone 4S, there are many significant changes from its predecessor, but the most popular and well-spoken has been Siri.

Siri is a voice-activated assistant built into the iPhone 4S with the capability of interpreting the user’s speech and voice and then taking action depending on the command. Aside from this, Siri has in her repertoire of uses the ability to respond to typical human colloquialisms.

Here are a few examples:

Q: Siri, will you marry me?

A: My end user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies.

Q: I love you.

A: All you need is love. And your iPhone.

Q: Do you like my mustache?

A: I’d rather not say.

Q: What is the meaning of life?

A: I find it odd that you would ask this of an inanimate object.

As far as practicality goes, Siri provides a number of useful services such as navigation, including Web searches. If you were to tell Siri that you were hungry, she would list restaurants near you.

Interestingly, if you tell her that you need to hide a corpse, you will be provided with options such as nearby swamps or dumpsters. Additionally, if you mention anything about suicide, she will offer up several locations of mental facilities. Other basic uses include writing texts for you and bringing up the weather forecast.

Siri’s uses don’t just stop at navigation and external sources. She can operate on your phone if you command her to do so; she can even set alarms and events on your calendar. If you tell her that you need to do something on Wednesday, she will remind you of the event when the day comes.

One of the concerns for Siri is that she might often mess up your words when speaking to her, but she gets it perfect most of the time. And if she doesn’t, she usually gets the meaning through use of keywords, such as “hungry” or “supermarkets.” Using these keywords, she provides the most plausible answer or information.

Essentially, Siri simply makes the operation of the iPhone even easier because she is capable of performing various functions with just the simple sound of your voice. For those who enjoy setting calendars and alarms or searching for things using other apps, Siri is only an optional convenience. For many, however, she is a revolutionary program and has significantly improved the operation of the iPhone.

 
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  • KarlaFeb 25, 2012 at 3:59 am

    The new apps from I phone works very fast and best mioble phone i haveever seen in my life i am sure this mioble phone will break all therecords.

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Siri means what Siri says