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Speaking up for digital assistants
By Anick Jesdanun |
March 10, 2013, Sunday
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I never thought I'd be telling my phone what to do. But I often find myself talking to various digital assistants - Siri on the iPhone and Google Now on Android devices - to request driving directions, restaurant recommendations and answers to all sorts of nagging questions.
Until recently, I harbored a prejudice against this kind of voice technology. I've long been annoyed by automated phone systems that make you speak instructions rather than enter them with a touch-tone phone. They tend to hear me incorrectly and slow me down as I try to make a train reservation or check my credit card account. I also feel odd talking to my phone.
Even when smart phones started letting you search the web with voice commands, my instinct was to stick with typing, however awkward touch-screen keyboards became.
My attitude slowly changed. A turning point came on a 370-kilometer drive from Charleston, West Virginia, to visit friends outside Cleveland. I needed to pick up wine for my hosts and was pleased when Siri found a winery in Dover, Ohio. The shop was 80 kilometers from where I was, but relatively close to the highway I was on.
A traditional search might have located places that were closer in distance, but more out of the way. More importantly, I was able to perform that search while cruising on the highway. (Yeah, I know I shouldn't be doing that, but using voice commands beats typing while driving.)
Of course, neither Siri nor Google Now is flawless. During my trip, Siri responded to a request for directions to Marygate Drive with a list of movie theaters named Mary. Google Now tried to look up "Fort museum" rather than the Ford museum. As for that search for wine shops, one of Siri's recommendations was about 190 kilometers away in the wrong direction. It took a few tries to find choices closer to my route.
Another complaint: Both require Internet connections for the most part - even for tasks that don't involve looking up anything, such as setting the alarm on your phone. The exception is Google Now's ability to make phone calls anytime by saying "Call Tom" or another name on your contact list. But when you don't have a data connection, you're not likely to have voice service, either.
But if you don't need perfection, both Siri and Google Now are decent assistants, especially considering that typing on small touch-screen keyboards can be frustrating.
Siri is chattier - and feistier - than Google Now. She'll always respond with something, whereas Google Now often gives you no more than a list of websites, as if you'd just conducted a regular web search. Only occasionally does Google Now give you a spoken-aloud response.
Ask for the assistant's name on the iPhone, and she says, "My name is Siri, but you know that already." Google, being Google, responds with websites with "What is your name?" in them.
The digital assistants offered two very different responses when I asked: "Why is it too cold?" Google Now's list of websites starts with one on biking in cold weather. Siri speaks out the current temperature and shows me a graphic with forecast for the next several hours, while insisting, "I don't find that particularly cold."
I had the most fun asking both about the meaning of life. Predictably, Google Now returns links to a bunch of websites, plus an advertisement on top for the Mormon church. Siri is armed with more than a dozen witty responses. One is "42," a punch line from the novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Another time, she tells me it's chocolate.
Siri excels with restaurants, in part because of Apple's partnerships with the reviews site Yelp and restaurant-reservation service OpenTable. Ask for Italian restaurants, and Siri offers you several - with information on price range, average user ratings on Yelp and distance from your current location. Ask for GOOD Italian restaurants, and Siri sorts those restaurants by rating.
Ask for reservations, and Siri gives you a few choices with open spots, whether you're looking for something tomorrow night or this weekend. Just tap on one to complete the reservation through OpenTable.
Google Now sometimes gives me a link to OpenTable or information from Google-owned Zagat, but other requests simply lead to restaurants' websites and paid ads.
As for movies, both will give you showtimes and let you buy tickets, though for tickets iPhone users will need a free software update to iOS 6.1, which came out in January. And Siri can only buy tickets through Fandango, not MovieTickets or other rivals.
Siri is better at integrating with the phone's calendar and alarm clock. When I ask for an alarm for "tomorrow night at 7," Siri tells me she can't set anything more than a day ahead, while Google Now simply sets one.
I asked Siri whether I'm free on Monday. She said my calendar is clear, while Google Now gave me a website discussing "murder-free Monday." Google Now is smarter, though, in creating a calendar reminder for movie plans with Tony, as Siri stumbles trying to find a movie called "plans with Tony."
Both directly answered me when I asked when Memorial Day is. Siri added, "I hope you get the day off." Thanks for looking out for me, Siri.
Although Siri performs better in many situations, Google Now isn't bad if you have an Android device. Apple has had more time to refine its service, as Siri has been around for more than a year - and longer as a startup before Apple bought it. Google Now made its debut last summer in phones running the Jelly Bean version of Android, and it continually gets new capabilities.
It's easy to get caught up on mistakes they make interpreting our voices, but Siri and Google Now are enticing enough that I can't wait to see what they do in the months and years ahead.
Until recently, I harbored a prejudice against this kind of voice technology. I've long been annoyed by automated phone systems that make you speak instructions rather than enter them with a touch-tone phone. They tend to hear me incorrectly and slow me down as I try to make a train reservation or check my credit card account. I also feel odd talking to my phone.
Even when smart phones started letting you search the web with voice commands, my instinct was to stick with typing, however awkward touch-screen keyboards became.
My attitude slowly changed. A turning point came on a 370-kilometer drive from Charleston, West Virginia, to visit friends outside Cleveland. I needed to pick up wine for my hosts and was pleased when Siri found a winery in Dover, Ohio. The shop was 80 kilometers from where I was, but relatively close to the highway I was on.
A traditional search might have located places that were closer in distance, but more out of the way. More importantly, I was able to perform that search while cruising on the highway. (Yeah, I know I shouldn't be doing that, but using voice commands beats typing while driving.)
Of course, neither Siri nor Google Now is flawless. During my trip, Siri responded to a request for directions to Marygate Drive with a list of movie theaters named Mary. Google Now tried to look up "Fort museum" rather than the Ford museum. As for that search for wine shops, one of Siri's recommendations was about 190 kilometers away in the wrong direction. It took a few tries to find choices closer to my route.
Another complaint: Both require Internet connections for the most part - even for tasks that don't involve looking up anything, such as setting the alarm on your phone. The exception is Google Now's ability to make phone calls anytime by saying "Call Tom" or another name on your contact list. But when you don't have a data connection, you're not likely to have voice service, either.
But if you don't need perfection, both Siri and Google Now are decent assistants, especially considering that typing on small touch-screen keyboards can be frustrating.
Siri is chattier - and feistier - than Google Now. She'll always respond with something, whereas Google Now often gives you no more than a list of websites, as if you'd just conducted a regular web search. Only occasionally does Google Now give you a spoken-aloud response.
Ask for the assistant's name on the iPhone, and she says, "My name is Siri, but you know that already." Google, being Google, responds with websites with "What is your name?" in them.
The digital assistants offered two very different responses when I asked: "Why is it too cold?" Google Now's list of websites starts with one on biking in cold weather. Siri speaks out the current temperature and shows me a graphic with forecast for the next several hours, while insisting, "I don't find that particularly cold."
I had the most fun asking both about the meaning of life. Predictably, Google Now returns links to a bunch of websites, plus an advertisement on top for the Mormon church. Siri is armed with more than a dozen witty responses. One is "42," a punch line from the novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Another time, she tells me it's chocolate.
Siri excels with restaurants, in part because of Apple's partnerships with the reviews site Yelp and restaurant-reservation service OpenTable. Ask for Italian restaurants, and Siri offers you several - with information on price range, average user ratings on Yelp and distance from your current location. Ask for GOOD Italian restaurants, and Siri sorts those restaurants by rating.
Ask for reservations, and Siri gives you a few choices with open spots, whether you're looking for something tomorrow night or this weekend. Just tap on one to complete the reservation through OpenTable.
Google Now sometimes gives me a link to OpenTable or information from Google-owned Zagat, but other requests simply lead to restaurants' websites and paid ads.
As for movies, both will give you showtimes and let you buy tickets, though for tickets iPhone users will need a free software update to iOS 6.1, which came out in January. And Siri can only buy tickets through Fandango, not MovieTickets or other rivals.
Siri is better at integrating with the phone's calendar and alarm clock. When I ask for an alarm for "tomorrow night at 7," Siri tells me she can't set anything more than a day ahead, while Google Now simply sets one.
I asked Siri whether I'm free on Monday. She said my calendar is clear, while Google Now gave me a website discussing "murder-free Monday." Google Now is smarter, though, in creating a calendar reminder for movie plans with Tony, as Siri stumbles trying to find a movie called "plans with Tony."
Both directly answered me when I asked when Memorial Day is. Siri added, "I hope you get the day off." Thanks for looking out for me, Siri.
Although Siri performs better in many situations, Google Now isn't bad if you have an Android device. Apple has had more time to refine its service, as Siri has been around for more than a year - and longer as a startup before Apple bought it. Google Now made its debut last summer in phones running the Jelly Bean version of Android, and it continually gets new capabilities.
It's easy to get caught up on mistakes they make interpreting our voices, but Siri and Google Now are enticing enough that I can't wait to see what they do in the months and years ahead.
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