Hey everyone, it?s Michael with Pocketnow.
This is the new iPad, running the Beta build of iOS 6, which includes support for Siri,
previously only available on the iPhone.
We?re gonna take it for a spin, see how useful Siri is on a tablet, and then we?re gonna
do a little ?talk-off?
between Siri and S-Voice on the Galaxy S III.
Let?s jump in!
Jaime?s going to do a full review of the iOS 6 beta in a separate video soon, so we?re
really only looking to answer one question: how useful is the new Siri -and voice control
in general- on a tablet?
It?s been popular as a novelty item on the iPhone, but Apple?s recent ad spending and
improvements to Siri make it clear that they?re not abandoning it anytime soon.
So let?s check it out.
Siri on the iPad is a lot like Siri on the iPhone.
On initial launch, you?re given a small dialog box containing examples of what you can say
to Siri.
(Insert: Screen Grab 1) After that first use, just a long-press on the home button will
suffice to call her up.
She?s been optimized for iPad, using only a little popover window, instead of the whole
screen.
Let?s try a little bit of classic functionality.
?Wake me up tomorrow at 7am.?
?Do I
need an umbrella??
?What are the colors
of the visible spectrum??
?What?s Facebook?s stock price??
Now, despite the Samuel L. Jackson commercials airing every three minutes, Siri doesn?t know
what gazpacho is ??How do I make gazpacho?
But she does know how to take a break pretty well.
?You can take the night off.?
So, Siri seems to do okay on the iPad with her classic functionality installed, but what
about some of the new features announced for her in iOS 6?
The new Siri has a lot built in: she can tell us sports scores, make us dinner reservations,
find us movies to watch, open apps, and Tweet for us.
Let?s give some of that a shot.?What was the score of the last Celtics game??
?When is the next Red Sox game??
?I want to find a restaurant with outdoor seating.?
?I want to reserve
a table?
?7pm?
Okay, obviously that?s not fully baked yet.
Let?s go back to something she likes doing.
?Where is Prometheus playing??
?I want to see a movie with Christian Bale.?
?Who directed The Dark Knight Rises??
That?s pretty cool.
?Who directed American Psycho??
Even cooler.
But don?t let Siri fool you - she?s still pretty limited.
Apple is only adding one category of new abilities at a time, so ...?Who wrote the book American
Psycho??
Okay ? That?s enough of that.
Let?s see if we can launch some apps.
(Spoiler alert: she?s really good at this) ?Open Facebook.
Open Twitter.
?Open Safari?
?Open Binary Maglock?
?Open settings?
Told you.
I haven?t gotten Siri to fail at opening an app even once.
Even with my weird array of geeky third-party apps.
Let?s do some social media.
?Tweet: I?m dying for some mozzarella sticks, period.
Any delivery volunteers, question mark??
?Send?
Let?s update Facebook.
?Update Facebook.?
?This status update won?t make any sense until this video comes out, period.?
That brings me to another useful feature: dictation.
Sometimes, it?s easier to talk than it is to type.
I?ve used dictation software to write quick notes or catalog long lists of items, but
what about emails?
As you can see, you still need to tell the software where to put your punctuation.
But even though it sounds awkward to the ear, the end result is pretty excellent!
So this is a Beta build of iOS6, as I mentioned, and Siri isn?t quite delivering perfect results
yet.
For example, Siri seems to try to hard to link your current request to your previous
one, and the results aren?t always great.
Here.
Let me tell Siri I want to see some theatre in Boston.
?I want to see theatre in Boston.?
Now, the results will be movie theatres, which, you know, hurts my little actor?s heart - I
was looking for legitimate theatre - but movies are what most people will be searching for.
I get it.
The problem comes when you drop a non-sequitur bomb on Siri.
Say I don?t want to go to either of those movie theaters; say I want to eat first.
Watch this.
?I?m hungry.?
See?
I get search results for a movie called ?I?m Hungry,? but not restaurant listings.
To get those, I have to leave Siri and then relaunch.
?I?m hungry?
So, she?s not perfect, but let?s see how she measures up against new-kid-on-the-block S
Voice on the Galaxy S III.
Now, both these devices are on WiFi, so let?s see how they do.
We?ll stick to stuff available in the first version of Siri, since we know S Voice won?t
be able to give us sports scores or anything like that.
?Open Camera?
?What is Facebook?s stock price??
?Who was the first man
on the moon??
?What?s the
weather like today??
So, over just about a day of use, I?ve found S Voice to be slower, prone to more bugs than
even the beta Siri.
Siri has plenty of bugs, but the additional usability she brings to the table counters
that.
So, will you use Siri now that it?s come to the iPad?
As usual, I can?t answer that question for you.
Some of you will use it every day, others will dismiss it as a novelty item.
For me, I tend to think: the more input methods, the better.
Sometimes I don?t want to shuffle through my recently-used apps list to find Netflix.
I just want to say, Siri, launch netflix.
And often, I prefer dictating my tweets and texts to typing them.
Will I use Siri on the iPad?
Absolutely.
And you can be sure I?ll be using it a lot more than I?m using Samsung?s S Voice currently.
We?ve got feature articles and videos on S Voice, Siri, iOS 6, pretty much everything
you can think of at Pocketnow.com.
Leave a comment there if you have something to say, give us a thumbs up here on YouTube
if you liked what you saw, and follow us on Twitter.
Pocketnowtweets for Pocketnow, and Captain2Phones for me.
We?ll see you next time.