Using iPhone's Siri Voice Command - Brad Miser

Using iPhone’s ® Siri Voice Command Brad Miser 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

Using iPhone’s Siri Voice Command Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4950-5 ISBN-10: 0-7897-4950-5 First Printing: November 2011 EDITOR IN CHIEF Greg Wiegand ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Laura Norman DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Laura Norman MANAGING EDITOR Sandra Schroeder PROJECT EDITOR Mandie Frank PROOFREADER Leslie Joseph PUBLISHING COORDINATOR Cindy Teeters DESIGNER Anne Jones COMPOSITOR Bronkella Publishing Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Que Publishing cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Warning and Disclaimer Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an “as is” basis. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book.

Meet Siri In this digital Short, you will learn: • Configuring and Using Siri • Making Calls with Siri • Emailing with Siri • Texting with Siri • Using Siri to Manage Time • Finding Music with Siri There have been many “holy grails” in the development of computers and related technology. Things such as a truly intuitive interface, artificial intelligence, natural language search engines, and so on. One of these grails is voice recognition or a spoken interface, with the ultimate goal being a computer as featured on the show Star Trek to which the user simply speaks a command using normal language and the computer responds accordingly. There have been many attempts at these interfaces over the years, from voice commands on the desktop to voice-recognition dictation systems. Mostly, they’ve been marginally successful at best and laughable failures at worst. That’s because processing and interpreting spoken language is among the most difficult technical challenges there is; the incredible diversity in the way humans use language is mind- boggling. From local dialects to an individual’s pronunciation of words to speaking cadence, the hurdles to being able to artificially interact with the spoken word are incredible. It’s surprising therefore (to me at least), that the next practical evolution in voice recognition comes not in a supercomputer (no offense to IBM’s Watson intended), but in a very small, mobile device. This evolution is Apple’s Siri voice recognition system introduced on the iPhone 4S. Siri enables you to speak many different commands to which the device responds, interacting with you as needed to get more information about what you want to do. Additionally, Siri has the ability to take dictation anywhere you use the iPhone’s keyboard. To use Siri, you don’t need to change the way you speak; Siri is a natural language interface. For example, when you want to create a reminder, you simply say something like, “Remind me to walk the dog.” Siri responds with a request for specifics such as “When do you want to be reminded?” You respond with “Today at 5 PM.” Siri dutifully creates the reminder for you.

Siri works with many apps and in various contexts so you can speak to your iPhone in lots of different situations. Is Siri the holy grail of voice recognition technology? Has the Star Trek computer arrived? Note quite. But Siri is an amazing leap forward in that direction. Siri isn’t perfect by any means, but it does work incredibly well for many tasks. Siri even has a sense of humor. (If you want proof, ask Siri what the best phone is.) In this digital short, you’ll get an overview of the amazing Siri and will find information to help you start making the most of this incredible technology. Configuring and Using Siri To use Siri, you first need to configure it. Then, learn the basic pattern Siri follows when you use it; in most cases, Siri prompts you for what it needs and confirms what it thinks you’ve asked it to do so getting started is pretty simple. It’s Not All Good It wasn’t obvious to me at first, but your iPhone must be connected to the Internet for Siri to work. To see this for yourself, put the iPhone in Airplane mode and try to activate Siri; it will tell you that it can’t connect to the network. Sometimes, it displays a message telling you must be connected to the Internet for Siri to work, but sometimes it doesn’t. Since the “I can’t connect to the network” message appears to be the default when Siri is unable to accomplish something, it isn’t easy to tell that it’s not working because your iPhone isn’t on the Internetor because of some other reason. Configuring Siri Before you can speak to Siri, perform the following steps to configure it: 1. Tap Settings. 2. Tap General.

3. Tap Siri. 4. Tap the OFF slider to turn Siri ON. 5. Tap Enable Siri.

6. Tap Language. 7. Tap the language you want to use to speak to Siri. 8. Tap Siri.

9. Tap Voice Feedback. Siri provides you with audible confirmation when you speak to it. For example, when you tell it to create a reminder, Siri speaks the reminder it thinks you told it to create so you know what it is without having to look at the screen. 10. If you always want Siri’s voice feedback, tap Always or if you only want voice feedback when you are operating in handsfree mode, such as when you are using the iPhone’s earbuds or a Bluetooth headset, tap Handsfree Only. If you choose Handsfree Only, when you aren’t using a headset, you can see

Siri’s feedback on the screen, which is typically faster than the voice feedback. 11. Tap Siri. 12. Tap My Info. 13. Use the All Contacts screen to find and tap your information. Siri often uses your name when it speaks to you; this tells Siri what name to use when it addresses you. Siri also uses this for other information about you, such as your addresses.

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Using iPhone's Siri Voice Command - Brad Miser

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