Wouldn’t it be great if you could ask your iPhone what time Avatar is playing this Saturday evening at your local theatre? Or, you might want to ask your iPhone to make a reservation for you at your favorite restaurant? Well folks, the future is here. Now you can do this plus more, with the new iPhone App Siri. Siri employs multiple background web services to provide you with everything you need to have a full voice and web experience on the iPhone.
Voice recognition is a key component to this app. Siri employs Nuance voice recognition software. You simply speak into your iPhone’s mic and it will pick up your voice, and in text form show you your voice command. Select the “Tap here when done button”, and then select the “That’s right! Go” button to proceed. It’s that simple. The only draw back I found was with a lot of background noise, it sometimes misinterpreted what I said. Not sure if this is an issue with the App or my iPhone. In the App Store it states that Siri is designed for the iPhone 3GS. I have the iPhone 3G. I’m not sure if the mic in the iPhone 3GS is better at picking up your voice in noisy areas, or not. I also tried to use my Bluetooth to speak the voice commands, and it did not pick up my voice. When Siri doesn’t recognize a command; it displays a cartoon of a person speaking directly into the iPhone’s mic.
Making restaurant reservations with Siri couldn’t be any simpler. Siri utilizes Open Table to check table availability of local restaurants, and then makes the reservation for you. Now that’s simplicity at its finest. Speak into the mic and say, “Reservations for two at the Salt Creek Grille in Valencia, CA at 6:00pm.” It then returns with a reservation time for the restaurant. From here you can modify your reservation, or select “Find a Table”. If in the event the restaurant doesn’t offer reservations, Siri will give you contact information and directions to the restaurant. One more thing before I forget, make sure you setup your Open Table account in the Settings. If you don’t have an Open Table account, you can set one up through Siri.
Siri is also great for checking out local events in your area. No longer do you have to look through the Calendar section of the newspaper; just ask Siri and have all the events right in the palm of your hand. You’ll get dates and times for the event you would like to attend. You can also purchase tickets for the event right through Siri. Your credit card information will need to be stored on Siri’s systems. This is all powered by eventful and StubHub!. For a complete list of partners click here, and for information on Personal Context Awareness click here.
I highly recommend Siri as a must have app for your iPhone. I know I’m going to be using Siri a lot. How about you? Download Siri from the Apps Store for free and try it out. I know you’ll be hooked just like me. I would love to hear what you think of Siri. So, drop a line in the comments section, or hit me up on twitter.
App Photo Provided By My iPhone
