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Conversations with Siri

Siri at your service?
I've finally made the jump to using a tablet.  An iPad, to be exact.  It took me awhile to appreciate the benefits of this form factor, particularly in relation to its price, but now I understand the value (to some degree - it's less valuable when one publishes quite a bit, particularly for work and particularly for doing a lot of typing and creating Microsoft Office documents, but I digress...).

My wife also got an iPad, more precisely a mini.  This suits her well, considering she likes smaller things (witness our dog).  My wife has taken longer than myself to embrace a tablet, due to the issue of publishing quite a bit, particularly for work and particularly for doing a lot of typing and creating Microsoft Office documents (but I digress...).  But little by little, she has started to adopt it as well.

The other night, we were sitting on the couch, and my wife made one of the latest steps towards tablet adoption, by holding down the home button and calling up Siri, the virtual assistant lurking within the latest version of iOS, the iPad operating system.  My wife thought it might help her send an email, which led to the following exchange:

  • My wife: what does this do (holding down the home button)?
  • Me: It answers your questions, if you want to find something
  • Siri: beep beep (prompting "What can I help I help you with?")
  • My wife: ok
  • My wife: Email Todd
  • Siri: I'm sorry, I did not get that.
  • My wife: Email Todd
  • Siri: I'm sorry, I did not get that.
  • My wife: You're worthless.
  • Siri: I understand.
  • My wife: I'm sorry. I feel bad.
  • Siri: It's all good
After the exchange, my wife decided to just tell me what she was going to write instead. Not quite the fully-functioning virtual assistant that was advertised, but random and entertaining (not to mention understanding and polite).  One day, conversations with Siri will be more productive (although perhaps still random and entertaining).
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