Inventec allegedly tapped for Apple's rumored standalone Siri speaker product

I tried an Amazon Alexa device when I was out house hunting a couple weeks ago.  Note to home sellers: I could have ordered a bunch of stuff for you. The general idea behind these devices is pretty good.

I am sure Apple will make some sweet hardware, hopefully at a price that isn't so premium it doesn't make sense.  I do use Siri a bit on my phone, mostly to look up trivia, set cooking timers, and to schedule appointments.  I surely don't use all the capabilities but it's hard to know what the capabilities are.  Check that.  I asked Siri "What can Siri do?" and got a list of things I mostly don't want Siri to do.  There are a few more uses for Siri I ought to try.  Siri doesn't seem to work that intelligently.  I never use it on my Mac.  Is this the same Siri that will be on Apple's Alexa competitor?  I hope Apple will give us a simpler, more intelligent Siri with this device.  Otherwise, they need not bother.

I choose to believe that this new device will break the barrier of what current devices can do, with a lot more on-device processing of voice commands, and less dependence on internet and data centre communication. That will make it faster and more natural to use. And then Apple will bring that same breakthrough tech to the iPhone, iPad, the Watch and the Mac.

williamh said:

I tried an Amazon Alexa device when I was out house hunting a couple weeks ago.  Note to home sellers: I could have ordered a bunch of stuff for you. The general idea behind these devices is pretty good.

I am sure Apple will make some sweet hardware, hopefully at a price that isn't so premium it doesn't make sense.  I do use Siri a bit on my phone, mostly to look up trivia, set cooking timers, and to schedule appointments.  I surely don't use all the capabilities but it's hard to know what the capabilities are.  Check that.  I asked Siri "What can Siri do?" and got a list of things I mostly don't want Siri to do.  There are a few more uses for Siri I ought to try.  Siri doesn't seem to work that intelligently.  I never use it on my Mac.  Is this the same Siri that will be on Apple's Alexa competitor?  I hope Apple will give us a simpler, more intelligent Siri with this device.  Otherwise, they need not bother.

I'm sure Apple has been working on Siri and it will NOT be exactly as you see it today. Typically, Apple specifically modifies a piece of their technology to work specifically with a product its intended for. So, in the case of this speaker device, they'll engineer Siri to work directly with it. They did the same thing with Siri when it came to AppleTV. There were (and they're still adding) specific things you can ask Siri to do that you can't on other Apple devices. 

BTW...I too have yet to use Siri on the Mac and in fact I have it disabled. I simply don't see it as being useful and I was sick and tired of accidentally activating Siri all the damn time! 

williamh said:

I tried an Amazon Alexa device when I was out house hunting a couple weeks ago.  Note to home sellers: I could have ordered a bunch of stuff for you. The general idea behind these devices is pretty good.
...
I surely don't use all the capabilities but it's hard to know what the capabilities are.  Check that.  I asked Siri "What can Siri do?" and got a list of things I mostly don't want Siri to do.  There are a few more uses for Siri I ought to try.  Siri doesn't seem to work that intelligently.  I never use it on my Mac. 

My friends have an Echo and I'm not particularly impressed by it.  It sits in their kitchen and is basically useless outside of there.  Music sounds decent through it and it seems to "hear" fairly well.  But when they were demoing it for me it didn't work well.  It managed to give tomorrow's weather and the score of the previous day's game but when they asked it to play music it kept playing the wrong artist or incorrect genre.  And it got really confusing when they would both accidentally speak to it at the same time.  Currently, Alexa is less capable than Siri in a number of ways, like follow-up questions and more detailed answers.

If you have an iPhone you can also invoke Siri, not say anything and then get a continuously updating list of what Siri can do.

I have found some uses for Siri on the Mac.  I find it very convenient to say to Siri "Show me photos of (my daughter) from May 2015" and Photos opens and shows me my daughter's photos.  Super!  I'm mildly disappointed that Mac Siri cannot currently handle HomeKit requests, even though it is apparently aware that I'm making a HomeKit request and is aware that it can not follow through.

I'm also curious why in your experience Siri doesn't work intelligently.  I use Siri daily on my iPhone and Watch and for what I do it's great.  Here's a brief list of things I request: Play music by (artist)
Set a timer
What is the current temperature
Set the bathroom to 30%
What date is 60 days from (any day)
What is $199 plus 6.25% (sales tax, also good for tipping)
Turn on the stereo
Goodnight
Goodmoring
Give me directions/how long will it take to get to work

Again, these are things I use daily or quite frequently (the tax and tipping less so) and work every time.  Siri also works great on the follow-up questions (like, who is the President of the United States? How old is he? Does he have children?) but I do those types of things less frequently.

I'd like to know what it is you try to use Siri for that doesn't work to your satisfaction.

ihatescreennames said:

williamh said:

I tried an Amazon Alexa device when I was out house hunting a couple weeks ago.  Note to home sellers: I could have ordered a bunch of stuff for you. The general idea behind these devices is pretty good.
...
I surely don't use all the capabilities but it's hard to know what the capabilities are.  Check that.  I asked Siri "What can Siri do?" and got a list of things I mostly don't want Siri to do.  There are a few more uses for Siri I ought to try.  Siri doesn't seem to work that intelligently.  I never use it on my Mac. 

My friends have an Echo and I'm not particularly impressed by it.  It sits in their kitchen and is basically useless outside of there.  Music sounds decent through it and it seems to "hear" fairly well.  But when they were demoing it for me it didn't work well.  It managed to give tomorrow's weather and the score of the previous day's game but when they asked it to play music it kept playing the wrong artist or incorrect genre.  And it got really confusing when they would both accidentally speak to it at the same time.  Currently, Alexa is less capable than Siri in a number of ways, like follow-up questions and more detailed answers.

If you have an iPhone you can also invoke Siri, not say anything and then get a continuously updating list of what Siri can do.

I have found some uses for Siri on the Mac.  I find it very convenient to say to Siri "Show me photos of (my daughter) from May 2015" and Photos opens and shows me my daughter's photos.  Super!  I'm mildly disappointed that Mac Siri cannot currently handle HomeKit requests, even though it is apparently aware that I'm making a HomeKit request and is aware that it can not follow through.

I'm also curious why in your experience Siri doesn't work intelligently.  I use Siri daily on my iPhone and Watch and for what I do it's great.  Here's a brief list of things I request: Play music by (artist)
Set a timer
What is the current temperature
Set the bathroom to 30%
What date is 60 days from (any day)
What is $199 plus 6.25% (sales tax, also good for tipping)
Turn on the stereo
Goodnight
Goodmoring
Give me directions/how long will it take to get to work

Again, these are things I use daily or quite frequently (the tax and tipping less so) and work every time.  Siri also works great on the follow-up questions (like, who is the President of the United States? How old is he? Does he have children?) but I do those types of things less frequently.

I'd like to know what it is you try to use Siri for that doesn't work to your satisfaction.

It seems the things you asked Siri are mostly related to the iPhone.  I do not use Echo.  But I think Echo can answer more things unrelated to the device.