4S Siri (vs. Original Siri Assistant vs. Vlingo)

Posted by JB 1 on November 2, 2011 06:14 pm 9

I am an iPhone 4 owner and I had been using the Siri Assistant app for about a year before Apple decided to integrate it into the 4S. It seems as though not many people know that Siri was already in existence before the 4S and that upsets me very much. As a loyal apple customer, I felt betrayed by the company when I wasn't able to use Siri anymore.

In this post, I'd like to criticize the "new" Siri on the 4S (which I am familiar with from friends who have it). I'm not sure what the hype is about. For the most part, 4S Siri is just Google Search combined with Wolfram Alpha. She can't even verbally tell you the weather. She can hardly tell you who Steve Jobs is (all you get is an impersonal fact sheet from Wolfram). The voice recognition is terrible; if you have to make two or three attempts to get her to do something for you, then you might as well do it yourself.

I'd now like to reminisce about the original Siri Assistant. It was everything I needed with a simpler, user friendly interface. She wasn't hyped up like she is now. It was just another awesome application. It's gotten to the point where I can't stand people who think 4S Siri is so amazing. She can hardly understand you, especially if you speak an imperfect form of English. She seems to have no native knowledge or information database and instead Googles about 85% of the things you ask about. She can't read your answers to you. I could go on and on.

Not to brag, but most people (outside of tech blog readers) had no idea that Siri was an ordinary app on the iPhone 4, and it upsets me because Apple took the app, hyped it up, and made minor, superficial improvements. She is an unintelligent robot. I've been forced to look for a replacement and I've found one: Vlingo. It has better voice recognition than the Siri software. Compare the other features all you want, but with these kinds of programs, the voice recognition is the key to all of it. Siri might be able to set reminders, but if those reminders remind me of the wrong things, it's not very useful, is it? I am happy with Vlingo now, mainly because Apple has not taken it away from me yet.

And those are my thoughts about 4S Siri. Please reply with your own thoughts and opinions.

rest in peace