[UPDATE 4/28/10: The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple purchased Siri. I can't wait to see what Apple does with this great app.]
I still find myself in awe of the power of Dragon Dictation, the great (and free) app that I reviewed two months ago which quickly transcribes your voice into text. What would happen if you merged the power of the Dragon Dictation with a really smart personal assistant who, thanks to the iPhone's GPS, always knows where you are? The answer is an amazing new app called Siri. I cannot say enough about how impressive this app is, both because of what it offers right now and because of what it shows about the future of technology.
To use Siri, just start the app, press the "Say it!" button and ask a question. (Or you can set a preference for the app to listen to you as soon as you put the iPhone next to your face.) Siri then uses the same technology in Dragon Dictation — excellent technology — to translate your speech into text. The app then parses your text and presents you with interactive information specially formatted for the iPhone's screen.
For example, I asked the app "What is the best seafood restaurant in this city," a question that could spark fierce debates among locals here. Within a second or so, the app translated my speech, figured out that I was in New Orleans, determined that I was asking for recommended seafood restaurants in New Orleans, and came up with a list as rated on Gayot. And frankly, it did a mighty fine job. GW Fins is excellent for both local seafood and fresh seafood flown from around the world, Dante's Kitchen and the Red Fish Grill are great for New Orleans seafood, and Drago's charbroiled oysters are to die for. Within a few seconds I had very credible answers to the question, and with just a tap of the button I can reserve a table using Open Table from within the app itself, or I can call the restaurant, or tap any restaurant name for more information such as address and map, reviews, etc.
Here is an example of what you see when you tap on a restaurant result. The key information is presented in an easy to read format, and you can simply tap to get more information such as a map or to send info in an e-mail.
As another example, let's say that I am trying to determine what is playing at Tipitina's, a great music venue in New Orleans. I just ask the app, and I instantly get results.
I then asked Siri "what is going on this weekend." The app quickly gave me a list of live music, Mardi Gras parades, etc. You can ask Siri about restaurants, businesses, movies, events, the weather, flight status and booking, and a few other things, and for the categories where Siri has a good source of information, the answers it provides are generally excellent. You can even ask Siri to send you reminders in the future, which it will do by sending you an e-mail.
The results are not always perfect. I asked the app where to find the best burger in New Orleans. The top result was Port of Call, an answer that I agree with, as would most locals. But the second result was Burger King. Hmm. But the app is extremely fast, and the results are nicely organized on the screen. And if Siri needs more information to answer your question, it will just ask you. As you can see from the screen shots above, the app behaves as if you were having a text message conversation with the app. And over time, the app gets to know what you like and improves its results. Thus, even though the results are automated, because you talk to Siri using your normal voice and it responds to you in such a conversational way, you really do feel like you are talking with your own personal assistant.
In fact, it is difficult for me to show in simple screen shots how the interactive aspects of Siri work. So instead, take a look at this promotional video:
Siri is not the work of two guys in a garage. The technology has been in development for five years at SRI International, a nonprofit scientific research organization that has been around for 60 years and was originally called the Stanford Research Institute. These are the folks that helped Walt Disney develop Disneyland in the 1950s, built the first prototype of a computer mouse in the 1960s, were the 8th registered ".com" name in the 1980s, and did a whole bunch of other impressive stuff as you can see in this Wikipedia entry. According to tech journalist Harry McCracken, the app is the result of $150 million of research by SRI and DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Products Agency). Right now, Siri provides you with results by tapping into information sources including MovieTickets.com, TaxiMagic, Citysearch, Yelp, Yahoo Local, GAYOT.com, Rotten Tomatoes, NYTimes.com Flix Movie Reviews, BooRah, WeatherBug, AllMenus, LiveKick, Maponics, Flightstats, True Knowledge, Localeze, West World Media, and Eventful, but more sources will be added every month so this app will only get smarter. If you want to learn more, check out this great video that Robert Scoble posted yesterday interviewing the key developers.
Siri is so useful that I would definitely pay for it, but instead the app relies on referral fees. So when you pay for a movie or show ticket, a percentage goes back to Siri. The Siri folks say that they do not tailor the search results based on these fees, and add that if they do decide to allow sponsored results in the future, they will be very clearly marked, similar to how Google marks them at the top of its search results.
Right now, the developer says that the app requires the power of an iPhone 3GS, although the company is working on a version that will work on the iPhone 3G and I have heard reports that even the current version can run on a 3G. I strongly encourage you to download this app today, not only because you will find it immediately useful, but also because I believe that this is a preview of the future of mobile technology.
