Friday, December 09, 2011

Apple, Siri and Found Poems

I was reading today about the Siri app on iPhone 4s. Basically, you can ask your phone a question, or give it a task to do, and it will understand what you mean and respond. It recognises natural language instructions, and apparently does a rather good job of it.

Googling around for information about how it works, I found an official Apple list of some of the stock phrases that Siri can understand.

I feel there is a strange poetry in these questions and commands. They seem to say something about the always-connected lives we lead. So, with no editing from me, apart from deleting an "s" and shortening the titles, here are a few "poems" from Apple....

Friends
Where's Jason?
Where is my sister?
Is my wife at home?
Where are all my friends?
Who is here?
Who is near me?

Reading
Read my new message
Read it again
Reply that's great news
Tell him I'll be there in 10 minutes
Call her

Reminders
Remind me to call mom
Remind me to call my mom when I get home
Remember to take an umbrella
Remind me take my medicine at 6am tomorrow
Remind me to pick up flowers when I leave here

"Friends" is my favourite, I think.

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