Get Siri-ous

Written by Larry Schneider
Thursday, 15 December 2011 01:00

Dear Larry,

I’m going to be upgrading my iPhone to the new 4S model because of this new “Siri” feature. Can you tell me what it can and cannot do? —P.S.

Dear P.S.,

Siri is the name of the “personal assistant” built into the new iPhone 4S. It’s capable of listening to you and taking appropriate action. Of course, it’s not able to do everything you ask of it, but it’s very good at what it can do.

You can activate Siri in one of two ways: By pressing and holding the home button on the iPhone or simply by bringing the iPhone up to your ear and speaking. This latter method will probably work best for most people, especially when out in public!

Siri is currently limited to working with apps that are built into the iPhone. It also can tap into the Internet (assuming you have a connection) to answer various questions that you put to it. Presumably, in the future, it might be expanded to work with third-party apps as well.

So here are examples of what you can ask of Siri:

Schedule a meeting with Jay on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

What am I doing this Tuesday?

Should I take an umbrella today?

Remind me to take an umbrella when I leave my house today.

Remind me to talk to Betsy when I arrive at the office today. (Siri can only be told where your home and office are located. It is hoped that, down the road, you’ll be able to tell it about other locations like the drugstore or the supermarket.)

Read me my text messages.

Reply to that message: I’ll see you then. (Currently, Siri can read and respond to texts, but not emails.)

What’s the traffic like up ahead?

Text my husband that I’m running 10 minutes late.

Text Sally. (Siri will ask you which Sally and what you want to say in your text. It will then read it back to you and ask if you’re ready to send it.)

Do I have any new mail?

Is it going to be cold in Queens today? ... What about Long Island? ... What about this weekend?

Set the timer to go off in 15 minutes.

Set an alarm for 6:30 in the morning.

Play the song “For Good.”

How do I get to 123 Main Street in Tuckahoe?

What’s the population of Germany?

How many cups are there in a quart?

How many home runs did Mickey Mantle hit?

I have a flat tire. (Siri will help you locate a towing company.)

I’m drunk. (Siri will give you the phone numbers of local taxis.)

Who are you, Siri?

And examples of what it can’t do:

Add John Smith to my address book.

Book me a table at Gabriele’s this Friday.

Remind me to buy aspirin at CVS today.

Speak with a male voice.

All things considered, Siri is pretty amazing. And it has a sense of humor that you’ll discover over time (try asking Siri to marry you or what it’s wearing, or to open the pod bay doors, or which phone is best, or if she knows HAL 9000). It doesn’t understand a lot of things, and noisy environments will cause problems. But it’s definitely a terrific view of what’s to come in the years ahead.

This is Larry Schneider, logging off.

Larry Schneider is the owner of Accent on Computers, a Greenwich-based consulting firm — now in its 12th year of business — that caters to individuals, businesses and professional offices. PC and Mac services include computer setup, training, troubleshooting, virus resolution, networking, Internet, database and programming. Call 203-625-7575, visit Accentoncomputers.com, or send e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

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