Good thing I don't use Siri much anyway...

In the UK, Apple's Siri isn't very useful as there aren't any local data providers, and its voice recognition of the Brits isn't too good either - I stopped using it shortly after I got my iPhone 4S - I found it quicker and easier just to type stuff into Google.

Anyway, apparently Siri doesn't do the voice recognition locally on the device - it just heavily compresses it and sends it to Apple - that in itself surprises me as Siri seemed to work fine over a weak GPRS connection, without a hint of latency.

But the fact so much processing happens at Apple's end, this must mean they have access to my data for this to happen - I'm not comfortable with Apple having that kind of data available to them, so I guess no more Siri for me (not that I was really using it in the first place).

Interesting tidbit: when you disable Siri on the iPhone you get the old Voice Commands prompt instead, which (unlike Siri) works fine without an Internet connection, even for simple tasks.

Better link: http://applidium.com/en/news/cracking_siri/   

Maybe it can only understand good English (i.e. South) and not complete gibberish (i.e. North) or drunken mumbling (i.e. Further North)?   

You aren't comfortable with them having access to what you say within the context of a very limited voice assistant, but you are comfortable with them being able to track your location, read your e-mails, see which music you're listening to, and a whole bunch of other personal information? 

30 minutes ago, ManipUni wrote

*snip*

Maybe it can only understand good English (i.e. South) and not complete gibberish (i.e. North) or drunken mumbling (i.e. Further North)?   

*snip*

There's nothing quite like a bit of casual bigotry to start the day ...

Herbie

@ManipUni: Siri won't fare better with a Cockney than someone Cornish.

For the record, it is the Geordie accent that people find most clear. Britain is a small Island, you really want to get about more, there are academics everywhere, especially outside London.

4 hours ago, W3bbo wrote

 

But the fact so much processing happens at Apple's end, this must mean they have access to my data for this to happen - I'm not comfortable with Apple having that kind of data available to them, so I guess no more Siri for me (not that I was really using it in the first place).

In this day and age, that is quite a bizarre argument. But if you're not happy with Siri directing you, you could always take a taxi.

Voice recognition on WP7 is done via a cloud service as well, and I believe Android does the same thing (don't hold me to that, it's hear say). Just because a cloud service is used does not mean there's any invasion of privacy. First, there need not be any way to tie the data back to you. Second, there isn't a need to store the data (and in fact, I doubt they do beyond obtaining anonymous data to help "train" the speach recognition). You should read the TOS if you are concerned, but frankly I doubt there's any reason to be.

Only some voice recognition on WP7 is done on remote servers. Commands like 'phone such and suc'h, or 'text such and such' is done locally. When you however dictate a passage of text, or a search query then its sent off to the TellMe service.

1 hour ago, daSmirnov wrote

Only some voice recognition on WP7 is done on remote servers. Commands like 'phone such and suc'h, or 'text such and such' is done locally. When you however dictate a passage of text, or a search query then its sent off to the TellMe service.

Hmm, after I disabled Siri on my phone the Dictation button on the keyboard disappears. I thought that as the iPhone can recognise simple commands (Voice Control) without offloading it could do the rest too, and that's why Siri "needed" the 4S' dual-core processor.

All I know is, I was trying to say "give me Galaxy Tab" or "what is one divided by zero" and keeps failing to understand my English.