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I’m surprised Apple isn’t embarrassed about Siri

It was a serious design error to make the HomePod Minis a perfect size and shape for throwing.

"Sorry, I don't know that one" is the most painful interruption when I can't figure out how to finish my question because I forgot a word or a detail and feel pressured to formulate the question just perfectly so that it might give me a verbal answer instead of linking me to a random article on the web. Oof. Might be the top of my wishlist for it to better understand when I'm pausing to think about how to finish a question rather than pausing because I'm done asking my question or my request.

I have to tip my hat to you. There are only 2 creators (so far) that edit their audio like this. You and Mark Felton. Your voice is equalized such as to make it absolutely PUNCH through my audio system and really help my old man ears to hear, listen and understand your speech very clearly. As someone who visited one too many loud Grateful Dead shows - I thank you kindly.

The biggest annoyance compared to other digital assistants on smartphones, is Siri answering back with 'I found this, check it out...'. How about Siri just speak the answer back? Defeats the purpose of having hands free interaction. Alexa and Google (neither are perfect and in Alexa's case dangerous, as it always seems to want to give an answer, even if it doesn't understand), but they don't insist I read an article for myself.

My poor Siri thinks I have Tourettes syndrome, simply because of the strings of profanity I throw at her on a daily basis. Nothing to be proud of, but common Apple, fix it already! Help me to be a better human being! I really want to love Siri!

Siri should accept feedback on iOS products, especially maps. "Siri, that was a wrong turn." If people cuss, well, Siri is not human and has no feelings.

The only time I use Siri is when I'm doing 3 minutes eggs that tells you everything you need to know

Thanks- and agree! If I hear “I found this on the web” from Siri again I’ll scream!

Siri is the one item that Apple has botched from day one. It has to be the absolute worst "assistant" there is on the market. Siri makes Cortana look competent.

Hi Tom, I whole heartedly agree with you. I really hope this new feature is not hardware locked. I am a person with a severe visual impairment, I rely on my Apple tech a lot in my life each day, both at home and work. I can truly see how generative AI will be a huge benefit to those in the visually impaired community. Also, I really do appreciate your videos a great deal, and I love the new video essay format as well. Keep up the great work, it is most appreciated.

I liked this format for videos, and I think you do a great job with them. You already produce some of the best How To videos on various Apple products and features, so these essay videos are a great way for you to use your knowledge and talents to add another dimension to your KZfaq channel.

IMHO the best tech help provider out there. love ya !

This is a VERY well thought out video that seems like a likely path for Apple to take. When the next iPhone comes out, it will include a brand new AI based. "Siri". That will sell more phones, but it will likely piss off a huge number of loyal Apple iPhone owners. Thank you for this video. I hope it will become required listening for Apple management.

If you say to Siri, “Tell my wife I love her,” it will send your wife a message that says, “I love her.”

Here’s how much I use Siri: "Call Joe Jones”. That’s it.

The only thing I bother using Siri for is starting a timer.

I think this is by far the best video you have done. Which is amazing ,considering that your other videos are really, really good.

It’s shocking how far behind Apple is on Siri!

I disabled Siri years ago. Apple’s assumption is that everyone needs it, which they don’t.

Whilst I realise these are just your thoughts on what Apple will do this year, I was planning to upgrade my phone to iPhone 16 but if I am only going to get the best new features on the high end model I'll stick with what I have thank you. I don't need all the fancy camera stuff you get with the high end models. I would just like Siri to be better.

I find Siri cumbersome and unhelpful. Have not used it - lately. Curious enough is that when I “hail” Siri - it often does not respond…but will randomly “turn” on during conversations and become disruptive…

Since I've used Siri in the early days, it really feels like the voice assistant hasn't only aged, but actually regressed. Back before 2018, if I asked a question, Siri wouldn't interrupt me, she wouldn't cut me off, she wouldn't "ignore" me, she would honestly just work. Calendar assignment? Done. Call someone? Easily. Even searching, Siri would give basic answers from the web. It seems like Siri is just unable to do anything anymore for me.

Nice video! I'm actually a fan of Siri and have been using it since it was a 3rd party app. Siri is pretty good at doing what is within it's limited scope of capabilities and I use it many times a day. Yes, it would be great if it was more intuitive in the future. For me, it is a handy hands free helper when driving and around the house. It understands my Midwest U.S. speech patterns quite well and the latest version has far fewer false triggers. Thanks for this and your other videos, keep up the good work!

I’ve had Siri turned off for years, I gather it hasn’t got any better.

I ONLY use siri to make notes when I'm walking. THis is when I think of things to remember. The end.

I turned Siri off because she was interrupting my conversations and I told her " I'm not talking to you Siri".

Brilliant as usual. I agree about Siri not working as well as it could. My son, a Galaxy user, laughs at me as Apple is behind on a lot of things.

Double-tap on the watch is as frustrating siri. It NEVER works first time, occaisionally the second time but usually doesn’t work at all. And yes I make the movement as unambiguous as possible, make sure to raise my arm and turn my wrist so the watch is visible but it just doesn’t work. I use timers all the time so it would be very helpful but not if it’s so inconsistent. Anyone elase have this?

This was a very well done and very informative piece of information that was just put out by you. Very glad I found you and I am a relatively new subscriber and happily so

You nailed it!!! Well done you.

One recent “feature” that I can’t stand about Siri is that when I’ve asked Siri something and it’s showing me the results, the blue Siri bubble remains on screen listening to whatever I say next, which means I have to remain silent, and if I’m with friends I cannot talk to them about the results I’m seeing on my screen because Siri will think that I’m asking it a new question. And only way for me to get rid of the blue bubble is by clicking out of the results entirely. This is such a dumb idea. If I want to ask a follow-up question it won’t kill me to say “hey Siri” again

I enjoyed this format a lot. Looking forward to more! 👍

Siri has become rude, to the extent I avoid using it.

This is so spot on. Thank you for letting me know that I am not alone in giving up on Siri for most of my needs.

It is a good format. I would seriously enjoy more of it.

Thanks

All Siri options enabled and HomePods installed at home: Siri, play my Playlist. -> "I don't know who is speaking, who are you?". Siri, remind me to do XY every Sunday at 10am. -> "Sorry, I can't do that" Siri, do XY... -> "There is a problem with the connection, please try later". Would be better to say: "Please enable Multicasting and IGMP Snooping on your wireless router. In addition disable Airtime Fairness and lock HomePods to 5GHz Wifi Bands to make stable connection". This would have saved hours of research on Reddit.

You are the best at following Siri. Thank you SO much. I, too have an M2 iPad Pro, and I am very much hoping that Apple, if they must restrict Siri 2.0 will restrict it to the M series, iPad, or at least all devices with the neural engine. Apple fans have waited for an update to Siri for so long. I think it would be bad publicity to limit it any further down. Besides, Apple has been touting this Neural Engine for so long, let us see what it can do. I know for sure that I will not be buying a new iPad because I do not want the OLED display, due to its rumored risk of burn in. What I most want from Siri is that she is able to control all the things on my device. If this is on device, I don’t worry about any privacy, but I would like for her to be able to tell me how much money is in my Apple account, I would like her to be able to troubleshoot problems with the iPad and I would like (not Siri related,) for Apple, to encourage developers to allow their apps to be split screen. There’s no point in the split screen multitasking, if most of the apps do not support it. Also, I really hope that Apple does not depend too heavily on shortcut integration with Siri. The majority of people, I feel, unless they are techies, don’t know how to operate Shortcuts or just don’t take the time. Siri should be able to do everything without necessary shortcut integration, and it should be able to do everything that spotlight can do only by voice.

Watching the video on my Mac, and 40 seconds in Siri on my Mac interrupted you talking about the problems with Siri... nuff said! (Keep up the good work, btw.)

Proper Honest Tech is fast becoming one of my favourite/trusted tech channels - there's some behemouths out there of course, which makes it all the more impressive! Great content 😊

Love your back lighting in your studio.

Very insightful, thanks!

The problem is that when siri gets a massive upgrade, it stays like that for the past decade.. meanwhile, google and many other voice assistants are constantly getting updates.

I love ALL your videos, Tom, including your well-written video essays!

Siri's only use for me is to turn the lights in my room off or on when I'm about to sleep or I just woke up and to skip songs when I'm taking a shower.

Well thought out and presented video. I use Siri for the very limited use case it is actually capable of handling- set reminders, call or text contacts etc. I’ve never thought I should expect it to do more for me, but I agree with you , it should be able to accomplish much more.

Excellent commentary. Thanks.

let's face it if they don't back-port Siri 2.0 to as many users as possible then we're looking at a Windows Phone scenario lol

My boss’s name is very close to Siri phonetically. In every single business meeting…someone’s iphone is going off thinking we are talking to it. So annoying.

The thing that bugs me the most. You can say exactly the same thing on more than one occasion. The first works perfectly then on the second it gets it completely wrong. I set up a shortcut triggered by saying ‘Siri Bookmark’, worked fine for a year then randomly started thinking I said ‘call Mark’! So I had to change it! Why can’t it learn what was required? Then even if it slightly mishears, default to that rather than randomly calling someone!!

I enjoyed your video about Siri. I thought you were spot-on about the changes they need to make. I hope they change Siri soon.

When Siri can give the next line after Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp? which is Who put the ram In the rama lama ding dong? I will believe that Siri is intelligent.

I can't even ask what time is now.

I appreciate your new video format Tom. Always very well presented anyhow, and this format is even better. Thanks.

Nice Office 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Great video

very well written ep. to the point, answers questions, good insights.sub!

Wait it’s actually Siri’s fault and I’m not a tech illiterate dinosaur at the ripe age of 39? Wheh that’s a sign of relief

How do you target Siri on a certain product, i want to ask my phone, then the phone ,HomePod and mac all respond

This is actually a really interesting video, I switched to IOS last year for accessibility reasons (legally blind, zoom and TRS is way better on Apple) but I never wanted Siri to do more than set timers and hit play/pause. I can’t see a world where I’d want Siri combing through my emails and determining importance unless edge AI/on device was doing it and that security was verified by a third party. I also only use all voice and TRS features with headphones or an earpiece though so I’m probably in the minority. Just didn’t know other folks would actually want that.

Siri is a major pain and makes me want to throw my phone against the wall. The recent dumbing down of Siri is I used to be able to ask when a song is playing what year was it released. With 17, it just repeats the name of the song I'm listening to.

I came from years of Android and Google Assistant to Siri when I switched to iPhone 15 Pro Max, had I released how much of a joke Siri is I wouldn’t have changed. My whole house runs on Google voice commands and I haven’t been able to switch it Home/Siri because it’s so bad.

Yesterday my kids and I were rolling in laughter after we asked Siri “ How do you say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in Spanish?” Siri said “12,345,678,910 in Spanish is ‘doce mil trescientos cuarenta y cinco millones seiscientos setenta y ocho novecientos diez’”

Simply excellent, on point. I believe your format is dynamic and interesting, I will not change. Just my 2 cents.

My watch says things to me all the time without me asking her of anything.

It can't do even thing it could just a few months before. I have no idea why. I had problems with currency conversion... what else we need to say? I hope they don't invest in it because some new version is on the way. If it's not, I'm going with Samsung next year. Would be nice to see a video on how to use Google Assistance on an iPhone.

well articulated .......

Tom - agree with much of your criticisms of Siri though I do think the actual voice recognition aspect is improving. My main beef with it though is how poor it functions in a multi-device environment. I ask a question to Siri on my iPad and I see the response on my watch. Or worse, sitting in my lounge room I ask a question to my iPhone and in the distance hear the answer being given on the HomePods in the kitchen. So doesn’t seem like even basic tech issues are nailed down - and that coming from someone who worked for Apple as an engineer in the early 90s. Enjoy your show.

16:55 Siri does have some problems, I’m a blind user I have to deal with Siri voice and AI. I wish I could turn some functions on and off. There’s a lot of conflicts between voiceover and standard gestures. They sometimes conflict. There’s a lot of issues that need to be worked on, but overall is still a pretty good system. I surely hope the new AI has the ability to be turned off just like some things like rotors I don’t use rotors it confuses a blind person because it changes, but there is no avenue to turn these things off. If you turn off the gestures for these things, it conflicts with your normal gestures, Apple needs to clean up its real estate. They put functions and switches all over the map and a lot of times you have to go and figure out what is dominating the gesture and where it is and I wished they would organize things and get out of the dyslexic mapping of commands and the like enjoy your video. Thank you very much. 16:55

My first Mac was a late 2012 27", and still is!

When Siri first was a thing, it was really great, I thought it was just me thinking it really stinks now. 😢

A well constructed and balanced take on Siri. Thanks.

Siri Suck$ period. I have an IPadPro, I-Pad, I-watch, I-Phone, and I’m tired of the incompetence, period.

I have had iPhones since version 3 and still have my iMac 27" from 2013 plus a newer 24" for about a year; also Apple Watch. I rarely use Siri on any device. I don't think I have ever found it that useful. But I am not a "power user." I have used it with Apple Play in my car to perform a task while I am driving. I think your theories on possible future versions are fascinating. Excellent point on having the new AI on only the newest devices; that would make sense from Apple's perspective. I am not upgrading anything right now just to get the newest Siri. Too bad we can't ask Siri to send a text message to Tim Cook to let him know what we think! Cheers.

Definitely agree. I’ve had moments I’ve had to think about a response and it would just take what I said. Or I may use a filler word “like, um” and it may not properly interpret it. In the Podcast app, you can create “stations” or “playlists”. I tried having Siri play it and it never works, even if I say “in Podcast app”.

Love this video!

Very informative video but most Siri users have known this for a few years now. I ask Siri for something and the reply is "Here is what I have found on the internet." Just like back in the day when we had that blue E in the white box for an internet explorer and entered a search we got Wikipedia and what we were looking for. Today we get Google which offers pages and pages of ads about what we inquired about instead of what we actually were looking for. $$ has corrupted the internet environment. Siri needs a rebuild from the bottom up. Thanks for this video.

I really believe that Apple has been working behind the scenes and we will see a new Siri soon. But everything you have called out is spot on!

Let’s not forget about Alexa, she is more useful than Siri. I remember when Siri was useful.

I liked the video essay style and enjoyed the content. I experimented with pronouncing Siri like an American ‘Seeri’ and now it nearly always answers me 😂. It used to my ignore my dulcet Glaswegian tones😂

OMG, I thought it was just me. I've been asking the Siri group to stop messing with me by screaming at my iPhone. I am so embarrassed. And angry. But also better b/c you are an angel of great knowledge and I like your channel. From California to England, thank you.

👍 Clean, neat, informative and interesting. Only recently found your channel and your quality is high.

If Apple or anyone in the speech recognition field sees this: I have a speech impediment. Siri picks up NOTHING. About 50% of complete strangers can understand me when I talk to them face to face. 80 to 90% of people can learn to understand me nearly perfectly. So… my speech isn’t THAT bad. I have definitely come across others with as bad if not worse. I don’t know but I assume Siri needs a way to train it. It is also a problem that, for example, a USB microphone can not be used with the phone app. Etc. Apple prides itself on its accessibility but it seems like an utter failure to me.

Good video. I would also be interested in a video that explains how to do some convenient work arounds to overcome the shortcomings of Siri.

Really loved this video! I think they should implement more languages too. Living in a not-English-speaking country I never use siri because talking to my phone in another language would feel so weird and unnatural 😂

Siri is honestly so hated and it's warranted. Apple needs to fix Siri and make it the assistant that all of their users deserve. And I just bought the iPhone 15 Pro Max so I'll be gutted if Apple now restrict a much better Siri to only their newest phones...

8:48 LOL, that will be the day! I gave up on it years ago, every time I said the name of the city I live in, it would vector off into LaLa Land. It was effectively worse than useless as it was a bad distraction while driving.

Can I use google on iPhone as I have to around the houses.

One way to both monetize Siri AI and make it available on more devices would be to bundle it with Apple One, perhaps in the Premiere tier or as a separate add-on.

Siri is worst than all the other assistants since day one. It has nothing to do with new technologies.

Siri is sooo bad! (In German) I only use it to start timers or appointments. Every thing else you try is NOT working! I get disappointed every time I try to.

My Siri only does three things: 1. What’s the weather outside, 2. Turn on/off the lights, 3. Turn on/off the music. I can’t wait for 2.0

Siri is very primitive I stopped using her a while ago. I use Alexa and she makes Siri look like a three year old. Really surprised that Apple think she is even remotely adequate.

So glad you did this video. I agree, Siri is SO BAD. I'm not sure if it has gotten worse, or if after using AI tools for the past 18 months that I expect Siri to be much more sophisticated than it is.

Siri asking me to google things is just lame

Siri needs to go back to where only the person who it has been trained to recognize can ask it something, not everyone that calls out for it l

Apple is fully aware of how bad Siri is.. why else would they program responses from her when cussing up a storm.. like .. I won’t respond to that ..

Since Apple never bothered adapting Siri to my native language (European Portuguese) I never bothered using it. Hopefully, they’ll figure a way to make it truly useful and reliable to ALL users….

1%:54 Could they make it a pro subscription at $100 a month with all their base subs included and the AI will use them on your Apple siclon device only?