Before I begin I must confirm that I am serious admirer of all Apple products and did feel an overwhelming and unexplainable sadness when Steve Jobs passed away even though I did not know him, so I think you can consider me a real fan!
However this adoration of all things Apple has been siri…ously put to the test this week as I have acquired a new iPhone 4S. My iPhone 4 was working very well, syncing happily with my computer, storing all my info in some cloud somewhere which, if I was famous, someone somewhere else would be trying to hack into. However my contract was up and so it was worth the call to see if Vodafone would reduce the monthly charges and there followed a roller coast of frustration.
“Madame we can offer you an iPhone 4S, £5 per month off your contract, 300 extra talk-minutes a month and £250 for your old iPhone 4.”
Well you guessed it, I accepted, foolish not to, and since they were the same phones, apart from a few extra camera pixels and ‘SIRI’, then it would and should be a smooth changeover. Well I was so wrong. The man in the Vodafone shop failed, after 45 minutes of trying, to transfer my contacts from old to new phone so sent me packing saying I should just plug it into my iMac and then all these problems would be solved. How wrong he was as this procedure involved 68 minutes on the phone to an Apple adviser which finally ended with a senior technical adviser telling me he needed to ponder the problem over night. 5 emails later with lengthy instructions but still no joy. He finally asked me to delete the Siri and iCloud software from my phone i.e. back to basics which made me chuckle as these are the new additions to this phone but still no joy. Then the weekend came and I gave up the will to talk to my adviser again and so, after lots of fiddling and trying out, I, with no assistance from Apple,have now managed to transfer my contacts onto my phone and Apple have no idea how I did it.
However the Siri software is still a mystery. Nobody seems to really know why it is called Siri and whilst the adverts make it seem innovational and useful the reality is hilarious. One of its skills, in theory, is that you can get Siri to read your texts out loud which is does quite well but yesterday at 8.00 a.m. when he (it’s a man and this point is very relevant to my conclusions) asked me if I wanted to reply I answered, yes, and then dictated my very simple 3 word message to which he replied that unfortunately he was now busy and could not deal with my request so please ask him later. I ask you, what was he doing as I had given him no other chores and so I can either conclude that I am sharing him with someone else who takes automatic precedence over me or, he was having his breakfast and a. he cannot multi-task and b. no-one should ever ask a man to do anything until he has eaten!!
I have already had a software update as apparently Siri has had a problem with understanding the Australian accent however I am not so sure he is that hot on the English one as yesterday I asked him to call ‘Emma’ and he called ‘Vashaly Patel’ (a beautician in London), hardly a similar name, which explains why Vodafone were so quick to offer me 300 extra talk minutes a month as clearly Siri is going to be connecting me to some interesting and unrequested people and also confirms the opinion of most women, that men never listen.
Apart from all the above I do love my iPhone 4S but I would just prefer a lady to be my voice assistant and I may request a change or revert to doing it all myself which I always find I do whenever I ask a male member of my family to do anything for me!