Everything you should know about Siri - voice-activated app for iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Overview

Siri is an intelligent personal assistant application you can find in iPhone 4S for voice commands recognition. Siri can distinguish your speeches and run the device as per the commands you give by voice. You can just tell your phone to type something to text your friend or search on the web. For this, you have to talk to the phone the way you speak to your friend. In fact, Siri was an independent voice recognition application before Apple’s acquisition of it in April 2010. Siri was then about to roll out voice recognition apps for BlackBerry and Android phones. But after taking over it, Apple cancelled all those projects and developed it exclusively for its iOS platform.

Siri app

Pricing and availability

Siri just comes bundled with iOS 5. The application will work only on iPhone 4S, new generation iPod touch and iPad 2. Even iPhone 4 with iOS 5 will not support the application.

What’s great

It understands natural speech: Unlike the traditional voice recognition apps, Siri understands the natural language from you. You can just speak the way you talk to your friend to an iPhone 4S. The device will record it and send as text messages and use as a search keywords.

An intelligent personal assistant: Siri woks on artificial intelligence technology. The application genuinely recognizes your speech, and helps you get gone the pertinent tasks. It is quite easy to handle Siri; you have to tell your iPhone what you want your phone to do.

It replies to you: Siri is not just to talk into. The app will also respond to you. You can get your new SMS and email read using the app through the headphone. Siri just starts to work when you hold down the Home button on your iPhone 4S asking you “What can I help you with?.”

You can manage calls: If you are engaged with some work, you won’t have to take your iPhone out of pocket every now and then. Using your headphone and Siri, you can manage all your calls, SMSs, and many other activities.

It helps you mange daily things: With Siri, you can do all your day to day jobs. It will remind you text your wife, call the dentist, and spot locations. For your queries, Siri brings you answer from sources like Yelp and WolframAlpha. Through the Location Services, the app will tell you where you live and where you are at a point of time.

What’s not so great

Siri does not run on all iOS 5 compatible devices as of now. It has a specific hardware requirement. Your device needs to run on A5 processor like iPhone 4S and iPad 2 to support Siri. It means users of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, an iPad original will not be able to enjoy the incredible voice recognition feature.

Things to watch out for

Siri is a splendid feature. Indeed, it is one of the reasons iPhone 4 and iOS 5 remain outstanding. Users of Siri will have an unbelievably effortless life. They can do everything on their iPhone with the advanced voice recognition feature. Of course, major Apple rivals like Google and Microsoft will advance with similar features to take on Siri.

Verdict

Since Apple’s acquisition of Siri in April 2010, there has been huge anticipation for the state-of-the-art voice recognition feature on iOS. It has now realized. Users of the service will be happy to see how Siri works. The feature will certainly change the way people use phones these days. Apart from providing all inputs through fingers, it is an opportunity to do many tasks through voice commands. Apple iPhone 4S users will be really enjoying Siri.

Word around the web

See how Apple’s official portal introduces Siri to customers,

Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. But Siri isn’t like traditional voice recognition software that requires you to remember keywords and speak specific commands.