As well as acquainting herself with many an iPhone 4S user over the past nine months, Siri has yielded much additional airtime as the stare of many a parody video. Whether it’s been in solving a domestic argument or testing the sensibilities of a rather irate Scotsman, Siri has starred in all manner of viral clips.
With Google Voice Search just arriving via Android Jelly Bean (4.1), many comparisons have been made between the two, with the capabilities of each having already been pitted against one another on numerous occasions. Google’s edition has come out on top most of the time, so when Annie Gaus from AppJudgment decided to test them out with some questions she’d been Googling over the past few weeks, the result was of little surprise.
Siri was outperformed, but still managed to make the battle entertaining by acting confused throughout. At one point, Siri confuses “scallion” with “stallion,” and even after Apple’s voice assistant has failed with that particular question, confirms later to Gauss that it could, if she wanted, show her a picture of a stallion.
It’s great stuff, but also indicates the shortcomings of Siri in a quite glaring fashion. iOS users will certainly be counting down the days to iOS 6, where Siri will be greatly improved and proper comparisons can be made between two relatively new services.
Although it initially garnered a fair amount of positive coverage, Siri hasn’t been as reliable and useful as Apple makes out in its advertisements. As an iPhone 4S user, I’ve found it deals with local issues (setting reminders, making calls, sending SMS and choosing songs from my library), but when I step things up a notch or two, it struggles, frequently offering web searches instead, as shown in the video.
Google’s Jelly Bean offering has shown strong promise, and although I wouldn’t necessarily agree that the market is pining for voice-based functionality, it will soon become the norm, so the likes of Google, Samsung, and Apple will continue updating and improving their assistants.
Siri won’t be lauded as the trump card of the next iPhone, but it, or rather, she, still has to earn her stripes among iDevice users, so let’s hope Apple’s voice system lives up to the billing at the second time of asking.
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