Apple Launches Comprehensive New Siri Website With Categories, Example Requests

Apple today launched a newly updated Siri website, which gives a comprehensive look at the voice assistant built into the company's iOS devices. The site opens with a quick overview of what Siri can do, and then provides users with a list of categories featuring Siri's different abilities: At a Glance, Staying in Touch, Getting Organized, Sports, Entertainment, Out and About, Getting Answers, and Tips and Tricks.

newsirisite1

Talk to Siri as you would to a friend and it can help you get things done -- like sending messages, placing calls, or making dinner reservations. You can ask Siri to show you the Orion constellation or to flip a coin. Siri works hands-free, so you can ask it to show you the best route home and what your ETA is while driving. And it's connected to the world, working with Wikipedia, Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Shazam, and other online services to get you even more answers. The more you use Siri, the more you'll realize how great it is. And just how much it can do for you.

Each category offers a look at the different commands that Siri can work with. "At a Glance" gives a quick rundown of a random assortment of questions that can be asked, like "When is the sunset in Paris?" and "What movies are playing today?" while other categories offer a more specific selection of available commands.

"Getting Organized," for example," includes commands specific to apps like Calendar and Reminders, such as "What does the rest of my day look like?" and "Remember to pick up dry cleaning next Friday." "Entertainment" includes commands like "Show me the trailer for Boyhood" and "Buy the latest season of Homeland."

Each of the pages offers a look at features many iOS users might not have known Siri was capable of, and they're organized in a compelling grid-like view that's easy to read and outfitted with pictures for visual appeal.

newsirisite2
Apple previously had a site that offered information on Siri, but it was just a single page that offered more of an overview of what Siri can do rather than something more specific that drilled down into actual commands. The new Siri site offers a much deeper look at Siri's abilities.

Today's Siri website revamp follows the release of iOS 8.3 that added new Siri languages and the ability to make voice calls over the speakerphone using Siri. Apple has also added new Siri features to several additional countries, making local search, directions, and more available in countries like Brazil, Denmark, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

iPhone SE 4 With Apple's Own 5G Modem 'Confirmed' to Launch in March

Tuesday November 19, 2024 12:12 pm PST by
Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley and his colleagues recently traveled to Asia to meet with various electronics manufacturers and suppliers. In a research note this week, outlining key takeaways from the trip, the analysts said they have "confirmed" that a fourth-generation iPhone SE with an Apple-designed 5G modem is slated to launch towards the end of the first quarter next year. In line with previo...
at t turbo indicator iphone 16 pro max v0 8hrh7w5f3w1e1

AT&T Turbo Indicator Showing Up in iPhone Status Bar for Subscribers

Wednesday November 20, 2024 3:42 am PST by
AT&T has begun displaying "Turbo" in the iPhone carrier label for customers subscribed to its premium network prioritization service, according to reports on Reddit. The new indicator seems to have started appearing after users updated to iOS 18.1.1, but that could be just coincidence. Image credit: Reddit user No_Highlight7476 The Turbo feature provides enhanced network performance through ...
General Black Friday Deals 24 Green Tinsel

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now: AirPods, iPads, and More

Friday November 22, 2024 5:28 am PST by
We're officially just one week away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this week is the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...
anker new xmas 1

Anker Kicks Off Massive Black Friday Sale With Up to 50% Off Sitewide, Free Gifts With Purchase, Mystery Boxes, and More

Thursday November 21, 2024 7:53 am PST by
Anker today kicked off its big Black Friday sale, which is set to run through December 9. This sale includes notable discounts on portable chargers, USB-C hubs, cables, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. There are a few bonus offers during this event as ...
Apple 2024 Black Friday Shopping Event feature

Apple Announces 2024 Black Friday Event, Offering Up to $200 Gift Card

Thursday November 21, 2024 5:10 am PST by
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 29 through Monday, December 2 in many countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and others. During the event, customers can get an Apple gift card with the purchase of an eligible product. In the U.S., for instance, Apple is including gift ...
apple card feature2

Apple Card 3% Daily Cash Back Now Available From Two More Apple Partners

Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:36 am PST by
Apple has partnered with select merchants to offer Apple Card users three percent Daily Cash back on their purchases, and two new companies were added to the partner list today. When purchasing goods and services from Booking.com and ChargePoint, Apple Card users will now get more cash back. Booking.com is a site for reserving flights, cars, cruises, and hotels, while ChargePoint sells...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Real Mock

Apple Releases iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 With Security Fixes

Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that debuted earlier in September. iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 come three weeks after the launch of iOS 18.1. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS 17.7.2 for...
15 inch m3 macbook air

Amazon Takes Up to $300 Off M3 MacBook Air With New All-Time Low Prices

Wednesday November 20, 2024 7:05 am PST by
Amazon today has knocked the price off of multiple M3 MacBook Air models, with as much as $300 off select computers. Prices start at $849.00 for the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air (16GB RAM/256GB), and also include multiple 15-inch models as well. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site ...

Top Rated Comments

dannyyankou Avatar
126 months ago
Image (http://puu.sh/h6wWF/1f90183a14.png)



:o
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kwikdeth Avatar
126 months ago
all i want is for Siri to accurately understand what Im saying to it. All this other stuff is pointless otherwise.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MentalFloss Avatar
126 months ago
I still have no idea why people keep calling Siri a "her". My Siri has a male voice, and fails the Turing test already at the second sentence of a conversation, so it's an "it" to me. I do use Siri a lot, and I do speak to it like a friend - a mentally handicapped friend, who is rarely able to remember my last sentence.

Something I posted before, and which is still true: Siri is useful to me only because I have figured out exactly the correct sequence of words required to do specific tasks. Everything slightly out of the ordinary is like playing the lottery with frustratingly bad odds. trying to actually rely on some level of context awareness is pointless, even though Apple heavily promoted that aspect of Siri when It was introduced.

I know how to pronounce album names to make Siri recognize them for example. Still, I have never ever managed to get Siri to play Peter Gabriel's album "So". Now with Siri's real-time voice recognition display, I can even see that it understands the word "so" perfectly well, but then it quickly changes it to "soul" to play Tower of Power's album "Souled Out" instead. Every time. Siri hates Peter Gabriel. Or it just can't imagine that someone would own an album called "So".

The funny part is that the voice control that the iPhone had before Siri worked significantly better for my music than Siri does, even though the voice control was purely client-based, while Siri is server-based. But perhaps that is a part of the problem, because a server does not have all the relevant information about what is on my phone.

Machine translation was actually my minor subject at the university in the 90's. I would have thought machine-based language recognition could have made some progress since then, but Siri can't even do some of the basic stuff that we discussed in class 20 years ago. Quite sad, actually. I rarely say "I can do this better", but in this case, I easily could. I know if I were in charge of that team, Siri would improve drastically very quickly. Yes, sounds like a case of severe over-confidence, but some stuff Siri does ist just mind-numbingly stupid.

And the same goes by the way for the pitifully bad Google and Bing Translate sites, which suffer from some similar basic problems like Siri. Someone with my background in language recognition could easily improve these significantly, but I have the impression that the teams working on Siri or Google Translate are purely software engineers with very little knowledge on how language actually works. Bizarre, but it's the only explanation for the bad results. Even more bizarre that Apple actually bought a company specializing in voice recognition to enable Siri. What a waste of money!

That would be like buying maps from a company specializing in mapping applications only to find out that the maps are wildly inaccurate. Oh... wait... Apple did that too! ;-)
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kwikdeth Avatar
126 months ago
Siri has gotten so much better at this. Still can't understand when I ask to play artist Volbeat though, that's probably going to take a long, long time.

i just think its inexcusable at this point that it continues to be a problem. my girlfriend has an HTC One a few weeks ago, i was playing with that phone's speech to text and google now and it was about 99.9% accurate. at one point I even held up both phones and asked them the same question. the HTC was 5 for 5 while my 5S was 1 for 5. it made me have a sad :(

----------

Seriously. Siri understands me like 99.999999999% of the time so I don't know what all ya'll must be doing...

you must be one of the rare ones. I dont know many people with iphones who *havent* complained about Siri mangling things at some point.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Daalseth Avatar
126 months ago
Talk to Siri as you would to a friend and it can help you get things done -- like sending messages, placing calls, or making dinner reservations.
OK but I don't normally go around ordering my friends to place my calls, make my reservations, or take dictation.

But maybe that's just me.

:D
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
quackers82 Avatar
126 months ago
Siri just needs connecting to IBM's watson , it would be amazing. Now who has a partnership with IBM.........
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)