AppleInsider Staff
Last week it was noted that asking Siri "What is the best smartphone ever?" would return results from WolframAlpha on Nokia's Windows Phone handset. The result was returned based on a total of just four user reviews, with an average score of 5 out of 5.
The key word in the query was "ever," because asking Siri for just the "best smartphone" would generate responses such as, "The one you're holding." But asking Siri for the "best smartphone ever" returned details on the Nokia Lumia 900.
As of Monday, asking Siri for the "best smartphone ever" now returns the same humorous results, including, "You're kidding, right?"
Siri remains a "beta" service, and it is advertised as such on Apple's official website. The voice-driven personal assistant software is currently only available on the iPhone 4S.
The unique personality of Siri is one of its defining features, an intentional design that Apple believes will help it create an emotional tie with customers. The development team behind Siri focused on keeping the software "friendly and humble — but also with an edge," a profile in The Wall Street Journal revealed last October.
Siri offers a number of humorous responses to users, such as providing a list of mines and swamps when asked where to "hide a body." And quoting the Stanley Kubrick movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the line "Open the pod bay doors" will generate the dialogue from the computer HAL 9000 in the movie: "I'm afraid I can't do that."
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew O'Hara
80 Comments
"Updated"? It has ALWAYS done this.
Ugh… this is nowhere near story-worthy. I think posts like this should be added in-line with the original story.
"Updated"? It has ALWAYS done this.
Ugh… this is nowhere near story-worthy. I think posts like this should be added in-line with the original story.
No, read the article - if you added ever to the question it would do the web search. They changed the back end to respond with the witty answer regardless of adding "ever" to the end or not. It mattered before.
Witty, maybe.
But doesn't this diminish the credibility of Siri?
No, read the article - if you added ever to the question it would do the web search. They changed the back end to respond with the witty answer regardless of adding "ever" to the end or not. It mattered before.
Seems wasteful to have to change that manually every time a new iPhone's released.
"Updated"? It has ALWAYS done this.
Ugh… this is nowhere near story-worthy. I think posts like this should be added in-line with the original story.
I was able to invoke the Nokia response previously. I am now unable to invoke the Nokia response.
Probably not story-worthy though.