I’m not particularly sure what all the hype surrounding Siri is all about — the newest feature of the iPhone 4S. In a sense, I do understand how people want to feel like the rich guy (or gal) who owns a mansion, has a butler, and his own concierge. You ask a question, Siri answers (occasionally with a sense of humor). You command Siri to do something, Siri complies (even finding you an escort service).
However, this technology is not groundbreaking by any means and the majority of people who have owned a smartphone for longer than a year or two (albeit, that is a small minority of the population) already knows this has existed for a decade. Notably, Android users have a particularly good built-in voice recognition system that even personalizes its recognition to their voice. Plenty of free apps do that in the Android Market, too. My Motorola Atrix was preloaded with Vlingo that is not only a very good voice app but also optimized for hands-free automobile operation.
While some will gloat over Siri being the hottest new thing on their phone, Android users can be content with already having it on there. Or they can try Iris, an app modeled after Siri (and spelled backwards), which uses the Android’s existing voice input and text-to-speech capabilities with some online search APIs and a dash of humor. Also, it was made with 8 hours of work after Siri’s release.
Maybe I’m being too harsh but I expect Apple to have groundbreaking, finely perfected software for proven or newly established technologies. I think they may have put too many eggs in a basket that will be as socially popular as talking into a Bluetooth headset at the grocery store.
