Siri is one of the main selling points of the iPhone 4S, but can it really realise the promise of a true digital assistant making hands-free communication easier? Kotaku editor Mark is about to find out the hard way after he vows to communicate with his wife only using Siri and texting.
Dear Lifehacker, I really like using voice control features on my phone, but have to admit I feel like a weirdo talking to my phone when others are around. Got any suggestions or etiquette rules I’m supposed to obey or ways I can look less creepy while talking to my phone?
It’s hard to argue that there’s a better virtual assistant for the iPhone when you’ve got Siri, because Apple can create an app that is completely integrated with iOS. That said, if you don’t have Siri there are plenty of great options that may even be better some day. Here’s a look at why Siri’s great and plenty of other excellent alternatives as well.
iOS (Jailbroken): Since iOS 5 was jailbroken, we’ve seen a steady stream of Siri hacks. But if you’re looking for an all-in-one utility, AssistantExtensions is the best place to start.
Perhaps you’ve seen the the jailbreak hack that allows you to use Siri hands-free but haven’t wanted to jailbreak your device. Lucky for you, there’s a built-in feature that’ll let you use Siri without the need to press and hold the home button. To set it up, just follow these steps:
iOS (Jailbroken): One of the odd omissions in Siri is that you can’t tweet using it, even though Twitter is otherwise integrated into iOS. Sireet is jailbreak tweak that adds the ability to tweet natively from Siri to jailbroken devices.
iPhone (Jailbroken): Using Siri to control your phone is very handy, but having to activate the feature every time you want to issue a new command is annoying, especially when driving. There’s a way (albeit battery-intensive) to have Siri respond to voice commands all the time.
iOS (Jailbroken): Siri can do a lot of things, but one thing iPhone 4S users have been wanting since the phone was released is the ability to launch apps and toggle settings. SiriToggles adds this ability to jailbroken iPhones as a simple tweak.
Along with the news of an untethered jailbreak for older iDevices came the ability to install Siri on any jailbroken iDevice running iOS 5.0.1 thanks to a handy installer called Spire. Of course, installing Siri is the easy part. Getting it to work is another story entirely.
Out of the box Siri can do a few common things, but it struggles when you try to get too complicated with it. GigaOM offers up a few clever address book customisations to make Siri work more naturally.
