Siri Secret Commands

You've probably already mastered how to treat Siri to get the information you want, rather than some absurd answers Apple’s intelligent assistant gives if it misunderstood your command. Below you’ll find some random useful tips on how to make it easier for Siri to precisely understand what you mean.

If you have created playlists and given them certain names, for example: ‘morning songs’ or ‘romantic’ or just anything, you can make Siri play it for you if your command sounds the following way: Play playlist + playlist name.

If you’re a busy person you probably get tones of e-mails daily. To easily sort and find e-mails by certain sender, ask Siri to: Find all email by and a contact name.

Did you know that Siri can tell you the name of that actor you know you’ve seen before but just can’t remember the name? Simply ask: Who was in the cast of and name the movie. One more thing about movies, if you’d like to get information about movie times and ticket purchasing in your area, your command should sound like this: [Movie Name] show times [zip code - optional]" – to get best results. However if you have set Google in Safari to use your current location, you don’t even need to specify an area code.

If you’ve set it up on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, or others that let you update via SMS, Siri will message your status right to it if you say: Message + specify social network+ status: what you’d like Siri to post.

To get Siri find sports scores efficiently, just say: Yahoo/Google/Bing (or whatever) + Team name+ score, for example: Google Chelsea score – and you’ll get the answer. In this way you’ll not only be shown the current score if the game is currently in progress, but it will show the team record, score of the last game, and upcoming game.

And now, check some of the crazy answers Siri usually gives to your stupid questions below.

Mercedes and SIRI… What connection may occur among them?

Here is very particular news in Apple daily life. Mercedes Benz has announced that its new A-Class range of cars will have a new system centered on the iPhone 4S and SIRI. Sounds amazing… This is the first time when a car manufacturer has incorporated SIRI into its vehicle entertainment system. 

The new system will be announced and demonstrated next month, at the Geneva Motor Show. It will be launched initially in Europe with the new Mercedes Benz A-class vehicle but it will also roll out in the autumn of 2012 for the B, C and E-Class cars.

The ability to control functions using the car’s built in microphone and noise cancelling technology would be a big success for SIRI’s understanding in the car. 

The Digital Drive Style application allows drivers to connect with Facebook and Twitter, read out status updates, control radio, etc. If not mention making appointments, sending text messages/emails and so on… The most amazing feature that users will use mostly is the ability to find your car in a crowded parking! Another feature includes getting real-time traffic data and point-of-interest searches through a new Garmin navigation system. 

How do you feel about the news? Probably this is the best way to link the two most needed accessories...

What’s New In iOS 5.1 – Pre GM Version Leaked

Since the respectively prompt announcement of iOS 5.0.1, subsequently exploited by means of the untethered Corona and Absinthe jailbreaks, the company has been remaining fairly noiseless, and it is up to you to define what will be the next move of Apple.

There have been numerous rumors about iOS 5.1 release date and improved features the update would bring, but actually after chewing quite a few beta versions to get things function correctly Apple has been seeding developers with, the company has maintained the silence since January 9th.

Sources claiming to have by some means obtained a pre Golden Master (final production stage) version of iOS 5.1 report several improvements and additions to the upcoming iOS update. With the images and the information below, we’re able to somewhat pre-define what Apple has in the pipeline. Since the respectively prompt announcement of iOS 5.0.1, subsequently exploited by means of the untethered Corona and Absinthe jailbreaks, the company has been remaining fairly noiseless, and it is up to you to define what will be the next move of Apple.

First of all it should be mentioned that the leak appears quite timely, as the rumored iPad 3 release date, March 7, makes this Pre-GM leak seem rather credible. 

However, our great expectations were quite discouraged when we learned that only two new minor findings have been discovered in the Pre-GM leak. The first alteration is about a camera icon on the lock screen, which only appears if you double-tap the home button in present iOS versions. iOS 5.1 suggest an ever-present camera icon, but instead of a button, it's a slider on a lock screen. When slided up, the camera icon seems to reveal the Camera app that allows you to take photos without fully unlocking the iPhone. Apparently, this option is more convenient than the current solution which in fact requires the Camera app to be launched.

The second finding concerns iPhone 4S users only. Siri, being highly criticized recently for the implications the voice assistant may cause, is rumored to speak … Japanese language!

May this be true or not, we now at least know what to hope for and what not.

Siri For Older iDevices Now Available

Installing Siri on unsupported devices without setting up proxy server is now available by using AssistantConnect4S! This yet one more Cydia tweak regarding Apple’s voice-recognition assistant software makes it possible to import Siri on your iDevice other than iPhone 4S.

There have been several Siri ports available for wielding jailbroken devices, but even the best one required a moderate amount of configuration in order to get things up and running satisfactorily. Not to create a gap between your expectations and what you perceive, it should be noted that nothing compares to real Siri, even not this latest tweak called AssistantConnect4S… However, it’s comparatively better when iPhone 4S users are allowed to send their authentication info to non-iPhone 4S devices quickly and simply via email…The recipients can then use Siri natively without having to rely on a proxy server to handle requests. In order to avoid blacklisting or detection, it’s recommended to only send the data to no more than 5 other devices. Once your device gets the authentication, you’re allowed to use Siri in full, and as wished-for!

Despite the fact that Apple began purging Siri use on proxy servers, and although the reliable Cydia developers supplied a fix almost as quickly as the action was discovered, it’s a fact that the company dislikes the unauthorized use a lot. Moreover, iPhone 4S has been declared to be the only one capable to run Siri, but that doesn't hinder many jailbroken device owners to set alarms and reminders, search for places to eat or send SMSes with the voice-recognition software!

However, AssistantConnect4S is not a panacea and has some requirements to be fully functional. You’ll first of all need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. Also note that when you use the tweak for the first time, you’ll need to open AssistantConnect4S and reboot your iPhone 4S. Once rebooted, open up AssistantConnect4S and activate Siri.

Below you’ll find a video tutorial spread over the internet recently, describing a step by step process on how to setup AssistantConnect4S on the iPhone 4S and AssistantConnect on non-iPhone 4S devices. Do not forget t come back and share your thoughts about this latest tweak!

Implications Siri May Cause – Be Aware

Siri has made life of millions a lot easier, and iPhones are now more convenient than ever with iOS5— but they also leave you open to everything from pranks to data loss you may not think of. Below you’ll find several examples on how Siri can drag you into extremely embarrassing or simply undesirable situations.

We all know that Siri is activated by holding down the Home button, but have you ever thought that it also deactivates the Passcode Lock? Although this brilliant personal assistant is restricted to delete contacts or search the web without the lock code being entered, Siri can still perform number of tasks such as calling your contacts or delete your alarms. What we want by this to say is that everyone passing by is enabled to get access to your contacts private data by just knowing the contact’s name, or moreover, just knowing the relationship status between you, by simply asking questions about your “boss”, “sister” or “mom” to get the data. One more hazardous thing is that anyone can prank you by telling Siri to call you some funny or rude name and may embarrass you when you expect it least.

To avoid appearing in such a situation, you can simply go to Settings> General> Passcode Lock and flip the Siri toggle to Off. But note that if you disable Siri’s passcode bypass, the speed and the ease of access to this unique feature will be decreased as you won’t be able to just hold a button and start talking to have Siri perform something for you, for instance when you’re driving. 

One more threat enclosed to Siri is that sharing iPhone 4S contacts also shares Siri relationships you have set. To be more concrete, this means that when you send a contact via your iPhone 4S built in sharing, you send not just a name and a phone number, but EVERYTHING in that contact, including the relationships set up by Siri. To be even more concrete, this means that you may share what you call your girlfriend or a rude nickname you called your boss while you were angry… You may call it a bug or just inattentiveness, but there is no solution to prevent this, but to either text or manually send your contacts. Let’s hope that Apple constrains card sharing to common fields in an upcoming iOS update. But till then, if you do care for privacy, you need to think twice before sharing an entire contact card to avoid future implications… 

Creative SIRI Advertisings

Take a look at the just released iPhone 4S ads. Both of them focus on SIRI, the virtual personal assistant of the phone.

The advertisings are entitled as ‘Road Trip’ and ‘Rock God.’

‘Road Trip’ shows that using SIRI is one of the good ways to learn the best route, to find the best barbecue, to find out where you are, to learn what the constellation Orion looks like or to learn how big the Grand Canyon is and etc… The ad shows how helpful SIRI is.

As for ‘Rock God,’ it is about a young man who plans a music carrier. Using SIRI he finds out where to by a guitar, how to play certain songs, etc. with SIRI’s help he sends messages to the ladies about when and where his band will be practicing. But most impressing is fin of the ad…

iPhone 4 Will Never Get SIRI

After releasing iPhone 4S, SIRI has become the loveliest feature of the phone. Frankly speaking, it makes the main difference between iPhone 4 and 4S but consumer purchasing decision has changed . In a word, iPhone 4 owners are jealous and that is obvious. That is why rumors were flying telling it is not necessary to have iPhone 4S to use SIRI ; the rumors were so serious, Apple responded to the issue officially, affirming SIRI works only on iPhone 4S.  But hackers have not terminated working  on the issue.

As for now, CNet’s new report suggests that the real reason for SIRI not coming to the older devices is the lack of special noise cancellation circuitry.  Circuitry that is apparently in evidence in the iPhone 4S’s A5 CPU. As the matter of the fact noise-reduction circuitry, licensed from a start-up called Audience, is included only in iPhone 4S, a chip analyst believes that fact resolves the phone mystery and explains why the iPhone 4 lacks the SIRI voice-control system. As the success of SIRI depends on its ability to make out what people are saying and if background noise is compromising the ability, things will not work well. Details about Apple partnership has been revealed by Audience in January. The partnership has been lucrative the company, though it did not name specific numbers.

Linley Group analyst said: "Even after accounting for the dual Cortex-A9 CPUs and the large GPU that provides the A5 with industry-leading 3D graphics performance, the remaining die area seems too large for the usual mundane housekeeping logic. To reduce system cost and eliminate the extra package required for the Audience chip, Apple cut a deal to integrate the noise-reduction technology directly into its A5 processor, which appears in the iPhone 4S."

Although the older devices include an Audience chip, technology of handle ‘far-field speech’ has been improved. iPhone 4-era technology was good when the phone was held near the speaker’s mouth, the improvement means exactly that – holding the device at arm’s length instead of directly in front of the face.

While people believe that ‘big bad Apple’ is ripping customer off rather than make SIRI available on the older devices, the company does not really make a sense of it. If the iPhone 4 could not reliably understand voice well enough to make the feature work properly, Apple surely would not offer it, therefore avoiding any potential quality issues further down the line (not to mention incomes ).

iPhone 4 is not surely the phone that may disappoint us. It may does not have SIRI, but do not miss the chance to use an amazing feature, which can be described as ‘alternative SIRI.’ 

One More SIRI Hacking

Hackers are continuing working on SIRI and they are discovering something new in it everyday. 

As for now, we meet with Lingual - a new jailbreak-only tweak, from Code Themed team, that allows translation from English to 30+ languages. The developers hope to include translation to English in a future update. We have not installed the tweak, but some people have reported that they have tested it and it works flawlessly, quickly pulling in results using Microsoft’s Bring Translate API as a backend. Its only limitation is that backend is not strong enough and sometimes fails to correctly translate phrases. But it is said that developers of Lingual cannot be held accountable for Bing’s shortcomings and they have done an important work in such a short period of time. This could prove a useful tool at your disposal.

To use the tweak say to SIRI: “translate [something] to [language]” or “what is [something] in [language]?” No icon will be added to your home screen and no settings are available for the tweak. Just install and talk to SIRI.

One More SIRI Trick

We are continuing to collect useful information about SIRI  and SIRI is continuing to surprise us. 

Today’s trick is about how to quickly access birthdays with SIRI.  Rhythm of life is tiring and routine that is why sometimes we forget very important things, e.g. birthdays.  But an amazing feature of your phone   is here to help you. You will not have to worry, fake a distraction, jump out the window, race to the car, etc. just because you forgot special someone’s special day. Just make sure you have the birthday recorder in your calendar in your iPhone4S , all the remaining will be done by SIRI. 

You just need to hold down the Home button until SIRI  pops up; then ask SIRI “When is […’s] birthday?” consider you can also ask your own birthday, e.g. “when is my birthday?” or ask the question with proper names. You can include even relationships, for example “When is my wife’s birthday?”, provided they have been added to the contact. After you ask the question wait for SIRI to answer.

Now you can be an inattentive as never before. Just do not forget to ask SIRI  the question permanently. 

Siri Helps Santa Get through a Busy Night

A new Christmas commercial by Apple, rolled out recently, shows Santa using iPhone 4S, particularly SIRI, for managing his 3.7 Billion appointments in a night! This video is a great example of how to effectively advertise your products, without even naming the brand or the model, or the feature name!

Now kids can really understand how Santa manages to get to know their houses and deliver the gifts to them so timely! With the help of iPhone 4S’s digital assistant, Siri, even the busiest person can successfully get through a busy day… Sorry, night!

Use Bluetooth without tapping anything

To use Bluetooth or other Settings with only your voice is not very difficult. Here is a tip given by a hack.

All you have to do is to create a contact and then in the Web site field put the code for the system preference. 

Example: Contact name is Bluetooth and the Web address is prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth

After this, activate Siri and say “Bluetooth.” the contact Card will open a clickable link right to the Bluetooth settings.

See other common settings: 

Sounds: prefs:root=Sounds

Brightness: prefs:root=Brightness

Airplane Mode: prefs:root=Airplane_Mode

Wallpapers: prefs:root=Wallpaper

With using the same procedure, you can create contacts to launch applications as well.

Hope you are not too lazy to turn the settings off manually… until hackers discover a way to turn them off with SIRI’s help.

Is not this useful for you? Enjoy with your phone and do not disturb your hands. 

via tipb.

SIRI Hacks

SIRI had to be an exclusive feature for only iPhone 4S but then some rumors have spread  that it is working quite well on the older devices as well. After this, Apple has announced  that voice assistant does not come to any other devices but iPhone 4S. This statement crushed the dreams of users of older devices and the situation calmed down but hackers have continued working on the issue.

As for now, SIRI has been made public only on iPhone4. With the help of a hack, called siri0ous, SIRI has been made in Cydia and it actually works. All you need is a Jalibroken iOS5 device that can be iPhone4, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (although some users have tipped out that it does not work on iPhone3GS). You also need an internet connection for the microphone to show up. Consider that the hack does not use Apple’s servers and it does not provide SIRI voice command features. It is Nuance-based dictation and the result is similar to SIRI. However Nuance Speech Recognition is not yet licensed officially.

See how does it work in video below and then if you decide to do this on you own, on your phone, that is very simple, add http://apt.if0rce.com to your list of Cydia sources, then search for “Siri0us” and download it.

We have not tested it yet ourselves, so we remove the responsibility on the consequenses, if you decide to try it out.

Could Siri help you to manage your money?

The Apple iPhone range has been at the forefront of smartphone technology since 2007 and the latest iteration brings with it a new way to enhance your day-to-day life in the form of personal assistant software with which you can hold a conversation.

That software is called Siri and it is available exclusively on the iPhone 4S, the fifth handset to emerge from Apple's labs.

Like its predecessors the iPhone 4S can help you manage your current accounts online, download finance apps and save you cash via voucher codes, but Siri makes money management easier than ever before.

One useful feature of Siri is called geo-fencing, which allows you to set alerts which activate when you go to leave a certain geographical area.

An example of how this might apply to money management is one that will be familiar to most people - bill payment.

You can ask Siri to set a geo-fenced reminder to tip you off about a bill that needs to be paid on a certain day before you leave home in the morning on your way to work.

If you inadvertently move away from your property before you pay the bill, the alert will be activated and you can transfer the funds and save yourself the hassle of having to cover the cost of any late fees.

Because Siri operates by simply listening to your voice and answering your questions, there are many other ways it can aid you with managing your money.

If you are trying to find a mortgage or work out whether a credit card deal is competitive but are feeling confused by all of the technical terms used in the wording of agreements or adverts, Siri can give you comprehensible definitions.

You can even ask Siri about the stock market, finding out whether companies in your portfolio are performing well at any given time.

Siri taps into the location capabilities of your iPhone 4S in more ways than one, letting you discover the whereabouts of local amenities and businesses whenever you need accurate information.

This is particularly convenient if you are out and about in an area you do not know particularly well and find yourself strapped for cash to pay for a taxi ride or bus fare.

You can request that Siri pulls up the location of the nearest ATMs and you can then follow directions on a map to get you to the machine by the easiest route to make a withdrawal from current accounts.

Because Siri is still a work in progress, Apple has not unlocked all of its potential yet, or indeed allowed other companies to tinker with the technology for third party applications.

This means that the future looks bright for iPhone 4S owners who get to grips with Siri, because the level of advice and information to which it has access could increase significantly.

You might be able to ask it about your current accounts or even get it to check up on your current credit score if it becomes integrated with relevant services.

SIRI for only iPhone 4S

Some rumors have been spread that SIRI is available not for only iPhone 4S, but it works quite well on iPhone4 and iTouch 4 as well. The author of the rumor is an iPhone hacker Steven Troughton-Smith, who has tweeted that he had successfully ported SIRI to the older devices. The users of old devices were extremely happy because SIRI is the most wanted function of the phone form the very first moment it was introduced.

Apple’s official respond to this issue crushed dreams. Company’s e-mail to Michael Steeber, the iOS developer, clearly said that Apple has no current plan to implement SIRI into any other device:

“Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: SIRI only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.”

The fact that there are Siri files on iPhone4, meaning that it may work for iPhone4 as well, however, doesn’t guarantee that intelligent voice assistant will come for iPhone 4.

Apple spent hundreds of millions of dollars for developing SIRI and after this did anyone really expect that Apple would support plans to offer it on older devices?! It’s more than obvious that if Siri rolls out suitable for older devices as well, the iPhone 4S sales will be cannibalized!

What Competitors Think of SIRI

Since iPhone 4S has been released, users are very happy because of its main function - SIRI. However, it does not seem that other industry players are glad too. Contrariwise, many of them see a reasonable competitive threat in it.

In September Google’s executive chairman appeared on Capitol Hill. Eric Schmidt frankly answered to all the questions about his company’s competitors. He said that Apple was not considered as a competitive threat until it released SIRI, which he called a “significant development.” He admits that SIRI is the biggest threat to Google’s control of search by now.

“Eric might be more right than he knows,” says Gary Morgenthaler, the first investor in SIRI in 2008, “A million blue links from Google is worth far less than one correct answer from Siri,” he adds.

In October Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google Andy Rubin said in an interview: “I don’t believe that your phone should be an assistant, your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.”

Microsoft's President of Windows Phone, Andy Lees says in an interview with Ina Fried that users can talk to their Windows Phone too, but implementations, which SIRI has, are not very useful.

It seems that the appearance of Siri has endangered Amazon as well.  Just like Apple, Amazon has opened app store, offered mp3 download store, streaming and cloud storage services recently. It also snapped up Yap, but quietly. Yap is a voice recognition software company which owned a good chunk of speech-recognition property since 2006. With this strategy Amazon has an opportunity to keep pace with Apple’s SIRI feature. The purchase has been revealed yesterday, although it was actually completed in September.

No matter what competitors say, think or do, the fact is that SIRI is an amazing function of the phone because the users are extremely satisfied. Gary Morgenthaler thinks that if people start using SIRI to bypass search that will be a huge threat to Google. The only problem can occur for SIRI is that it cannot make money with advertising.

IPhone 4S voice problems

Since iPhone4S has been released, the user opinion has divided into two - some of them are extremely happy but others have endless problems. The new trouble linked to the phone is about SIRI. People are complaining of being unable to access service at a time.

SIRI used to have trouble in accessing the network but it only lasted for minutes. Now the only answer it can give is: “I am sorry, I am having trouble connecting to the network.”  However, the problem has not occurred for every user, but it still is timely.

Beside SIRI trouble, the users cannot hear the person “on the other end of the wire” during some calls. But it can be fixed by plugging in a headset or pressing the mute button twice or by disabling SIRI.

Is it software bug or a hardware problem, is still obscure.

Is not it necessary to have iPhone 4S for using SIRI?

An iPhone hacker Steven Troughton-Smith has Tweeted that he had successfully ported SIRI to the iPhone 4G and iPod touch 4G. Steven Troughton-Smith is an indie developer living in Ireland. 

He has also shared a link below, in which it is clear how SIRI works on iPhone 4G.

The hack says: “Basically, I already had everything I needed to make it work. I had spent a lot of time mapping out in my head exactly how Siri works on the iPhone. All I needed was access to a jailbroken iPhone 4S to put my hunch to the test. It literally took no longer than 10 minutes to put all the pieces in place and perform our first test on my iPhone 4, and it was an instant success.”

SIRI on iPhone 4 can recognize spoken commands in both the standard SIRI view and the keyboard Dictation view. It also has the ability to speak back to the user.

Perhaps, the most important story is that there is no technical reason for Apple not to allow Siri to run on the iPhone 4 as well.  Why Apple is making Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive is still inexplicable. It still is not authenticating commands to its servers from iPhone 4 hardware.

10 secrets about SIRI

One of the most useful functions of SIRI is ‘commands,’ also known as ‘talking to your phone.” Most people know its main abilities but here are some secret capabilities of the feature.

Did you know that SIRI can:

• Understand many basic symbols, emoticons and punctuation marks, as long as you say them by the right name. Examples include “open parenthesis”, “close square bracket”, ” “frowned face”, “new paragraph”, “pound sign”, etc.

You should choose among and ask the SIRI [Punctuation/symbols/emoticons]

• Play not just a song, but a whole playlist for you.

The keywords are Play playlist [playlist name]

• Give you a short list of e-mails from the contact you ask for.

You should command the following words: Find all email by [contact]

• Show you all your appointments for today, tomorrow, or any date, you wish.

You should say: what’s on my calendar for [date]

• Search the competition for you, if Google is not your cup of tea.

Say the phrase: Search [Bing/Yahoo]

• Search for. Whether you want the latest scores, show times, etc., if you phrase it just right, SIRI can often find it for you.

You need to say: Search [Google/Bing/Yahoo] for [specialized information] [time] [place]

• Tell you the name of that actor you know you have seen before but just cannot remember.

To receive an answer, ask: Who was in the cast of [movie]?

• Delete all alarms, not just individual ones.

Just say: Delete all alarms

• Message your status right to it, if you have set it up on any social network that lets you update via SMS.

The keywords for Siri are: Message [Social network] [Status]

• Re-spring the Springboard. It is not a full reboot, but it is faster.

Use the word Restart.

How To Teach Siri to Tweet

Here are 8 easy steps that lead you to teach Siri on youriPhone 4S to tweet.

1. In your Mac or PC browser version of Twitter, you mustfirst enable Twitter text messaging (if you've already done this, you can skipto step 5). Do this by clicking on the drop-down list on the top right (next toyour twitter handle) and selecting Settings. Keep in mind that if you don'thave unlimited texting, this could get expensive.

2. Next, click the Mobile tab, third one from the left.

3. Enter your iPhone 4S mobile number with area code in thatfield labeled "Phone number," and then click Start.

4. You'll see this screen next, telling you it's waiting foryou to verify your phone. (I've blurred the phone number for privacy) Pick upyour iPhone 4S and move on to the next step.

5. Go to the Messages app on your iPhone 4S, and send a textto the number 40404 (or if you're not in the U.S., look up your twitter shortcode here), with your text message consistingof simply the word "go" without the quotes.

6. Go to your Contacts app on the iPhone 4S. Make a newcontact by tapping the + sign, and name it as if its first name is Twitter. Inthe phone number field, type 40404. It will look like 404-04, which is fine.

7. Now you can start Siri as you normally do (by eitherholding down the home button on the iPhone 4S for a couple of seconds or justputting the phone up to your ear). Say "Text Twitter, and then tell itwhatever you would like to tweet. Siri will read it back to you, and if it'scorrect, when she asks "ready to send it?, say yes. If Siri hasmisunderstood what you said, you can edit your tweet on the iPhone 4S screen byhand and then send it.

8. You can also have Siri read your tweets to you if youenable message notifications in the Twitter browser app. When you've finishedmaking your modifications, click Save. You're done!

via Mashable

Siri Tips for Your iPhone 4S

Here are one or two useful little tips that you may not be aware of that can make everyone’s use or Siri a little more fun. Apple’s latest innovation to come to the iPhone gives users their very own digital assistant, which really boils down to voice-activated commands. It is, of course, a little more interesting than that, and the way users can talk to their iPhones in real-world language is, at times, a sight to behold. So here are the tips:

Changing Siri’s Definitions

* While the whole point of Siri is being able to tell it what you want to do using the power of your voice, it doesn’t always get it 100% right. We’ve noticed a couple of occasions when the system has recognized what we’ve said for the most part, but got a couple of words wrong. Rather than starting all over again, we noticed that you can actually tap on what Siri thinks you said, and then edit it. Once edited, you can then resubmit it. We’re not sure if that will help Siri to learn in the long-term, but we sure hope it does.

Change What Siri Calls You

* How to change what Siri calls you- you may have noticed that sometimes Siri refers to you by name during some of your conversations. If, like me, you prefer to be called something other than your full first name, you can actually tell Siri to do just that. Simple activate Siri and say “Siri, call me x,” where x is obviously your new chosen name. Siri will then confirm, and you’re done.

Tell Siri About Your Family

* How to tell Siri about your family- if you spent all your pre-iPhone 4S time watching Apple’s Siri demo videos, the chances are you noticed various overly-attractive actors asking Siri to call or message people using names like ‘Mom’ or ‘my wife’ instead of actual names. Just tell Siri what your relationships are to people in your contacts list. For example: “Siri, my wife is x” will result in the software asking for confirmation that your wife is indeed this ‘x’ person we keep talking about. This works for other relations, too. Fathers, mothers, uncles, in-laws — pretty much anyone.

Hopefully these tips will prove useful, and do let us know in the comments if you’ve got anything else to share. It’s the early days of Siri, and we’re all learning together!