Marsh - Inside Siri The Fat-Free Guide to Apples Personal Digital Assistant

Table of Contents

Inside Siri

The Fat-Free guide to Apples Personal Assistant for iOS

First Edition

FatFreePublishing.com

Trademarks

Apple, iTunes, iOS, iPhone, iPod, iPad and Siri are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

All other trademarks used in this book are the property of their respective owners. Use of any trademark in this book does not constitute an affiliation with or endorsement from the trademark holder.

Disclaimer

All information in this book is presented on an "as-is" basis. No warranty or guarantee is provided and the author and/or publisher shall not be held liable for any loss or damage.

Revision History

First Edition (May 2015) - Initial release, covers iOS 5 through iOS 8

Compatibility

This e-book is designed for devices of all screen sizes. Optimal reading experiences can be found on PC/Mac, iPad, Kindle Fire, or any Android device. Certain e-ink devices may not work properly due to the use of color graphics used in the examples. Devices with small screens or large fonts may result in excessive text wrapping.

Copyright 2015 Nicholas Marsh - All rights reserved.

About Fat Free Publishing

Fat Free Publishing was created with the goal of simplifying technical topics into an easily digestible reading format. We don't write overpriced 600-page "bibles" or books for "dummies". We believe that most peoples needs fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and our titles specifically target that audience.

You will find that our books are simple, yet insightful. We achieve this by writing highly organized guides that avoid "bloat" and "fluff" such as excessive wordiness and obscure use cases. Each Fat Free Guide is designed to get you up to speed quickly, regardless of your knowledge of the topic.

About the Author (Nicholas Marsh)

I have over 15 years of IT experience in a wide array of technologies. Ive worked for companies large and small, implementing solutions to meet their ever-changing technology needs.

I write Fat Free Guides for fun. I hope you find my books helpful in expanding your technical knowledge. Please email me with questions or comments.

Thanks for reading,

Nick Marsh

Safety

Thousands of people are injured or killed each year due to distracted driving. We live in a hyper-connected world that is full of distractions. Every time you text while driving, youre putting yourself and others at risk.

Although Siri offers hands-free functionality, it can still be dangerous to operate an electronic device while driving. Recent studies have shown that even hands-free systems can reduce your ability to react while driving.

Technology can be addictive. Consider taking a break from the digital world while driving. Turn on the radio, turn off your phone, and try to stay alert and focused on driving safely.

Introduction

Since the digital revolution began in the 1960s, science fiction films have dazzled audiences with dreams of artificial intelligence (AI) and talking computers. The 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the first movies to captivate the general public with the concept of a computer that could talk and interact with humans. While the film had an influential cultural impact on the dreams/nightmares of AI, the reality of a talking computer at the time was merely a fantasy.

Nearly two-decades before artificial intelligence was sci-fi, it was an area of intense interest among scientists and researchers. In the early 1950s, breakthrough research lead to ideas that could give machines the ability to think. Unfortunately, progress was hampered by the limited computing power available at the time. Even in the actual year 2001, after several decades of amazing technological advancements, computing power had not quite reached the point where the fantasy of the 2001 movie could become a reality.

Never-the-less, work on artificial intelligence continued. Eventually, a perfect storm of computing power, speech synthesis, voice recognition, and software reasoning allowed for the commercial deployment of AI systems. Most peoples first experience with these systems, however, was quite frustrating. For example, around the year 2000, some large companies began to deploy AI systems to eliminate call centers. Many readers may recall the annoying experience of talking to these pseudo-intelligent automated attendants while recounting the struggles of characters in sci-fi films such as 2001 .

Luckily, human and computer interaction has improved since that time. In 2011, IBMs Watson AI supercomputer proved smart enough to win the TV game show Jeopardy. Watsons victory was a pivotal moment in the history of artificial intelligence. It proved that AI software could be used for purposes other than frustrating customers trying to pay their bill over the phone.

Meet Siri

Around the same time of the development of Watson, a group of researchers and entrepreneurs created a personal digital assistant app with artificial intelligence called Siri. While Siri isnt quite as robust as the Watson supercomputer, it can do some pretty amazing things and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Siri was a breakthrough application for the iPhone. After seeing the potential of Siri, Apple quietly bought the company and began working to incorporate its functionality into their products. Beginning with the iPhone 4S, Apple introduced Siri as a native feature of the iOS operating system.

By deeply integrating Siri with iOS, Apple has enabled Siri to become a powerful tool for productivity. Siri has only been available for a few years, but its already had a large impact on the direction of personal computing. Competitors such as Google and Microsoft have since developed their own digital assistants similar to Siri. The folks in Silicon valley now seem intent on transforming the way people interact with technology by using artificial intelligence in the form of a personal assistant (insert Microsoft Clippy joke here).

Old Habits Die Hard

Siris capabilities have continually improved with each new release of iOS. Despite this, Im often baffled by how rarely it is used. A quick poll of my friends, family, and co-workers shows that Siri isnt living up to its full potential.

One of the key problems with Siri adoption is the fact that there is no real documentation on how to use a voice controlled digital assistant. People are just expected to know how to make it work, and they are often frustrated when they try and fail. When we cant be bothered to learn how to do something better, we just keep doing it the hard way. Old habits are hard to break.

My goal in writing this book is to illustrate how easy it is to get productive with Siri and break those habits. If youre a forgetful person, Siri can help you stay on top of things. If youre a busy person, Siri can help you get stuff done faster. Whether youre new to Siri, or already using some of its features, after reading this guide you will be able to fully utilize all of the benefits that Siri offers.

Conventions Used In This Book

Settings > General > Siri
Denotes the location of a page in the iOS Settings app

Siri: Open Siri Settings
Used to indicate a Siri command (activated by holding the home button or via Hey Siri hands-free mode)

Siri Feature History

Apple has made improvements to Siri with each new release of iOS. The list below describes some of the key enhancements in each release to date.

iOS 5 Siri Features (2011)

iOS 5 marked the initial release of Siri for iOS in English, French, and German languages. The base feature set provides easy access to information such as news, weather, sports, and stocks. Siri can also be used to find directions, locate businesses, and set appointments.

Note: This is an over-simplification of the key features of Siri to illustrate how the program has advanced through the years.