Siri is the new Blackberry.

Google killer?

It takes a special kind of asshat to call Apple's customer support over Siri not working.

Is it bad if I dont know what Siri is?

I guess you're all just holding it wrong.

Good to know Siri goes down//

INeedAName: Is it bad if I dont know what Siri is?

Tom Cruise's kid.

It's still not up.
Apple is really screwing the pooch on this.
Why would anyone trust Apple's cloud stuff when they can't keep Siri up and running for 1 whole week at a time?

I knew that shiat was getting outsourced to an Indian call center.

Sorry, that was me. I asked Siri to divide by zero.

INeedAName: Is it bad if I dont know what Siri is?

Meh.

For future reference, it's Apple's "revolutionary" voice recognition system/built-in assistant for the iPhone 4S.

In general, it's beloved because: (and I'm just summarizing the various arguments I've seen and not supporting either side in this)
* OMG, Apple has voice recognition. (and it is pretty cool and is the first one out there with the "Apple polish")

and hated/reviled because:
* It's iPhone 4S only for no real reason.
* Various apps have done it before (and on phones other than the 4S) on iOS and Android.
* Android has had something similar with about 80-90% of the features and 10% of the polish built into the OS for the last 6 months to a year.

d3: Sorry, that was me. I asked Siri to divide by zero.

Is that like Googling Google?

I used to think that if civilization collapsed it wouldn't take us as long to rebuild because of the amassed knowledge mankind already has. Now I'm not sure. So much is being stored on mag media when the zombie apocalypse comes and the power grid goes down. Even if we have a generator, how much is locally stored vs on a server somewhere else that we can't get to.

We're screwed.

meyerkev: * OMG, Apple has voice recognition. (and it is pretty cool and is the first one out there with the "Apple polish")

Err, WP7 has polished voice recognition. Call Bob's Cell. Find a bank. Directions to Taco Bell. Works great, really

Don't Panic.

bhcompy: meyerkev: * OMG, Apple has voice recognition. (and it is pretty cool and is the first one out there with the "Apple polish")

Err, WP7 has polished voice recognition. Call Bob's Cell. Find a bank. Directions to Taco Bell. Works great, really

The impression I got was that all 3 major OS's had some reasonably comprehensive form of voice recognition, but Apple's was the "best" by a slim margin, which makes sense because it's the latest release.

/My Mango phone that I was using last summer was about on par with my Froyo Droid 2 Global at the same time. My grandparents's iPhone 4S's seem to be a little tiny bit better then my Droid, at least in my extremely limited experience.

bhcompy: meyerkev: * OMG, Apple has voice recognition. (and it is pretty cool and is the first one out there with the "Apple polish")

Err, WP7 has polished voice recognition. Call Bob's Cell. Find a bank. Directions to Taco Bell. Works great, really

Yeah, but it's only first when it's on Apple.

/My Palm Treo 650 DID 90% of what the original iPhone did a year before we ever saw it.

BizarreMan: d3: Sorry, that was me. I asked Siri to divide by zero.

Is that like Googling Google?

I used to think that if civilization collapsed it wouldn't take us as long to rebuild because of the amassed knowledge mankind already has. Now I'm not sure. So much is being stored on mag media when the zombie apocalypse comes and the power grid goes down. Even if we have a generator, how much is locally stored vs on a server somewhere else that we can't get to.

We're screwed.

Depends on the extent of the collapse. If you're looking at crawling back from stone-age levels to basic pre-industrial, yeah. A guy with a PhD in nuclear physics probably couldn't start a fire and roast something he hunted himself to save his life.*

Pre-industrial levels could be raised back to industrial without a lot of problems, I would think.

Industrial back to present-day levels? That would take a large amount of infrastructure replacement.

And of course, most of humanity the developed world would starve outright*.

*But a country boy can survive!

Without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?

Herr Flick's Revenge: It's still not up.
Apple is really screwing the pooch on this.
Why would anyone trust Apple's cloud stuff when they can't keep Siri up and running for 1 whole week at a time?

here's an idea....go to your browser (safari on your iPhone) and type in GOOGLE

/no need to thank me

I wonder why they are routing THAT much traffic through Apple's servers. Everyone read their EULA?

/Cuttlefish

SnarfVader: meatofmystery: Herr Flick's Revenge: It's still not up.
Apple is really screwing the pooch on this.
Why would anyone trust Apple's cloud stuff when they can't keep Siri up and running for 1 whole week at a time?

here's an idea....go to your browser (safari on your iPhone) and type in GOOGLE

/no need to thank me

You have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy.

The use of hands is still acceptable during a typical Apple users circle jerk.

/Voice recognition software is really the source of Apple users latest circle jerk???

//They're really going to cream their pants when they learn about animated GIFs.

Quoth CNN.com: "For much of Thursday -- five hours, according to CNN's partner site Fortune -- "

5/24 = much? I somehow missed how less than 1/5 of something was "much"...

angstycoder: Quoth CNN.com: "For much of Thursday -- five hours, according to CNN's partner site Fortune -- "

5/24 = much? I somehow missed how less than 1/5 of something was "much"...

angstycoder: Quoth CNN.com: "For much of Thursday -- five hours, according to CNN's partner site Fortune -- "

5/24 = much? I somehow missed how less than 1/5 of something was "much"...

uh, how is 5/24 less than 1/5? 5/25 would be exactly 1/5 making 5/24 MORE than 1/5.

Oh, and:


. . .would have been a better answer, FARK memes be damned.

Is this worse than any of the times Google has accidentally lost hundreds of thousands of Gmail accounts without a proper backup?

Apple never admits to any problem unless backed into a corner and can't easily
explain it away.


digistil: Is this worse than any of the times Google has accidentally lost hundreds of thousands of Gmail accounts without a proper backup?

That's why I use Gmail in pop mail only mode.

meyerkev: It's iPhone 4S only for no real reason.

came to say this. If siri is just "send data packet to apple, get data packet back, interpret results" when is someone going to hack into that and make it platform independent?

There is nothing special about siri as far as hardware goes and we know people reverse engineer software

THIS IS AN OUTAGE.

Atillathepun: angstycoder: Quoth CNN.com: "For much of Thursday -- five hours, according to CNN's partner site Fortune -- "

5/24 = much? I somehow missed how less than 1/5 of something was "much"...

uh, how is 5/24 less than 1/5? 5/25 would be exactly 1/5 making 5/24 MORE than 1/5.

Because math is hard.


Also, Siri went down Wednesday morning and didn't come back up until the evening
I think I saw that porn.

It takes a special kind of asshat to call Apple's customer support over Siri not working.

this is proof that Apple fans are pants-on-head retarded.

If Siri wasn't working, how did they call Apple?

Siri, why is there a dead Pakistani on the couch?

Wellandboy: Good to know Siri goes down//

*golf clap*

If siri goes down, it might just be time to get an iphone..

/hasn't seen star wars
//hasn't read/seen harry potter
///never launched itunes
////dammit, i think im one of those hipster thingies...
*BLAM*

The Angry Hand of God: It takes a special kind of asshat to call Apple's customer support over Siri not working.

While I agree completely, I'd like to make an observation. You've never worked in tech support.

I worked for a cable company (Cox in GA). We would have people call over the absolute stupidest fking issues, 90% of which was their own issue and nothing to do with us, yet scream at us that we were shiatty, our service was shiatty and they hated us (why they didn't leave is beyond me).

When you have millions of customers, and something like this happens, expcet your phones to start ringing.

/Apple, if it's a network issue, SAY IT'S A NETWORK ISSUE. Don't waste your customers time, or put blame elsewhere.

TiiiMMMaHHH: Wellandboy: Good to know Siri goes down//

*golf clap*

If siri goes down, it might just be time to get an iphone..

/hasn't seen star wars
//hasn't read/seen harry potter
///never launched itunes
////dammit, i think im one of those hipster thingies...
*BLAM*

Meh. As an iphone owner (and I do enjoy my device), I'd probably say skip it if you have so far. Itunes is a shiat program, and every aspect of it is designed to lock data on your device and force you to milk the Itunes store for anything.

Apple fans are retards (yes I'll generalize... most of them also know nothing about technology) because they're quick to attack the perceived flaws or short falls of any other competitors product offering, and when something bad happens they go on about how they are so glad they bought an Apple product.

Then when Apple products have issues there's silence, or at best gleeful acceptance. "Hey man this stuff happens, Apple is still #1"

suck it Apple. Slowly but surely the skin on the onion is peeling back, and you have just as much stink as any other company. Flawed software, service outages... you're becoming a regular Microsoft (which is a company that has actually done incredibly well on safety and security over the years)

I hope Siri goes down all the time, who the hell wants to talk to a computer anyways? We're not in the 24th century!

Apple: Network down, you can't use this one app today
Blackberry: Network down, no email or instant messages for you...for a few days. Then...another couple of days. LOOK WE'RE WORKING ON IT.

d3: Sorry, that was me. I asked Siri to divide by zero.


You arrogant ass! You've killed us!

I found this out yesterday. Was looking for a doughnut place while on the road. Know what I did? Typed my search in. In fact, didn't even have to type it - just dictate it.

This isn't a game-breaking thing - it's a little annoyance, but yes, it's a beta for a reason.

meyerkev: bhcompy: meyerkev: * OMG, Apple has voice recognition. (and it is pretty cool and is the first one out there with the "Apple polish")

Err, WP7 has polished voice recognition. Call Bob's Cell. Find a bank. Directions to Taco Bell. Works great, really

The impression I got was that all 3 major OS's had some reasonably comprehensive form of voice recognition, but Apple's was the "best" by a slim margin, which makes sense because it's the latest release.

/My Mango phone that I was using last summer was about on par with my Froyo Droid 2 Global at the same time. My grandparents's iPhone 4S's seem to be a little tiny bit better then my Droid, at least in my extremely limited experience.

Apple's big innovation (or rather, the company they bought) with Siri is the natural language recognition and the maintenance of context over the course of a conversation. You talk to it normally without necessarily having to remember specific commands and it Just Works, or something.

I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S II from an iPhone 3GS and haven't regretted the decision. I seem to be able to do 80%-90% on it that Siri does, I just have to remember specific commands. I always have to say "Navigate to " or "Navigate to Kroger on Atlanta Road" instead of just being able to say "I need groceries" and then pick from a list it presents, or something. I haven't really had a chance to play with Siri much, but the folks I know that have like it a lot. For someone like me who can install Gentoo Linux from memory, figuring out the voice commands on a phone isn't a big deal. I haven't had any trouble getting directions, finding lists of places ("Navigate to bars", "Navigate to grocery stores"), setting appointments, dictating text messages, etc. I've just had to talk like I'm talking to a computer rather than a secretary. And I don't get to play with the "personality" and easter egg bits, but that's hardly a reason alone to get a 4S.

Siri is still pretty cool though for anyone paying attention to human-computer interaction. Hopefully it being tied strictly to the 4S won't hinder its development and adoption across a wide range of things.