Siri, the iPhone’s killer app

Like millions of others, I queued for the iPhone 4S last week (I don’t usually queue for new products on the day of release, but this time I was keen as my 2-year-old iPhone 3GS has been regularly crashing on me).

There are many improvements (especially if you’re upgrading from two generations back like me), but the thing everyone’s talking about is Siri, the speech recognition ‘personal assistant’ that’s built right into the operating system.

Here’s some of my thoughts on this new development in the user experience.

It’s better than you think it will be

When it was announced people were naturally sceptical about how well Siri would work. But what’s delighted users is that once you get to understand its limitations this thing works really well. The range of ways that you can ask questions and still be understood is impressive and the types of information it provides are genuinely useful.

For some things it makes much more sense to use voice commands

The more you use Siri the more you realise that this is the best way to do certain tasks. Much like the touch-screen interface that Apple introduced to smartphones and tablets, this feels like the user interface you’ve been waiting for all along. Mundane but essential tasks like setting an alarm, scheduling an appointment or texting a friend already seems an unnecessary hassle using anything but voice activation.

You learn together

As you discover the boundaries of what Siri can and can’t do, it starts to learn more about you. For example, I asked it yesterday to phone my mother. Siri asked me who my mother was. Now it knows, I can refer to my mother for relevant commands and it knows what I mean.

Likewise it learns to understand your voice patterns and will respond to contextual commands. This mutual learning process creates a bond between the user and the interface that makes it more personal.

It’s fun

Apple likes to delight its users and Siri is packed with personality. The UK version comes across as an English butler with a warm and often witty character.

Okay it’s the 21st century version of the pathetic fallacy, but the programmers of Siri have clearly put lots of effort into ensuring that you feel something for this technology – from its constant use of your first name to the witty replies to more personal questions (the Tumblr blog Shit That Siri Says lists some of the most amusing answers). It’s deft touches like this that help you to fall in love with it.

It’s disruptive

For some search-orientated tasks, Siri performs better than Google. Not because you can search with voice commands – you can already do that via the Google app on iPhone and a lot more besides on Android phones. Rather it’s because of the results themselves.

A Google search offers you a results page that often requires further action (which link do I click on?), of variable quality (web spam is increasing) and surrounded by ads. Compare this to Siri where some results are delivered straight into your operating system from Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia.

With Siri we can see the potential for a better search system than Google’s. Naturally Google could emulate this functionality themselves, but the point is not that it’s beyond their capabilities (they have much of the technology already) but that it disrupts their business model.

Om Malik makes this point really well in the latest episode of This Week in Tech. As long as Google’s business is based on delivering text-based advertising around web and mobile searches, it’s not in the company’s interests to build Siri-like functionality. It’s these kind of disruptions that change the landscape in technology.

The Apple iPad. Do you need one, or just really, really want one?

I admit I’m a bit of an Apple fanboy – I’ve used Mac computers for years, I have a MacBook, a classic iPod and an iPhone. Frankly, I don’t see myself using any other MP3 players, smartphones or computers any time soon.

I also love what Apple has done for user interaction on all their devices. Over the past ten years they’ve revolutionised the way we use computers, listen to music and access digital information on the move.

So since Apple announced the iPad, like many others, I’ve been thinking about whether I need one – or just really, really want one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need one. But not for the reasons you might think.

For example, it’s not because I think the iPad is going to save magazines and newspapers.

I’m a big fan of printed media – I grew up loving and later working with magazines and newspapers, and I’m convinced that they will continue to provide immense value for readers as we go on through the digital age. But the idea that the iPad represents a renaissance opportunity for ‘packaged’ media is misplaced. As exciting as the Wired Magazine iPad app looks (see video below), this is not the best use of digital media.

The best use of digital media is represented by the world wide web, on desktop and mobile devices, where packaged media is ‘atomised’, where I can search for the precise information I want, where I can link freely to pages across any number of brands and websites, where I can participate as both a consumer and contributor and community member through comments, ratings and other interactive features.

The future for media doesn’t lie in trying to re-pack what’s been unpacked. It lies in rearranging information in new and exciting ways.

No, here are the 3 reasons I really need an iPad.

1. Weight

I did my back in a couple of weeks ago. It was so serious I couldn’t move out of bed for a couple of days. While I’m not certain what caused it, it can’t have helped that I was lugging a heavy backpack to and from my workplace. The backpack contained:

• My laptop
• A couple of heavy text books
• Some writing pads and pens
• Power leads for my laptop and iPhone
• A couple of magazines I kept meaning to read but never got round to

With my back continuing to give me problems, reducing my daily carrying weight is becoming less a matter of convenience and more a matter of necessity. This must have been around 7-8 pounds of gear I’d been straining my back with. The iPad could conceivably fit all of this into one small package that weighs just 1.5 pounds (0.68kg).

2. Form factor

Since the iPad launched I’ve started thinking how I actually use my laptop on the go, and whether that keyboard is really necessary. I’ve discovered that it isn’t. When I’m travelling by train, I’m usually taking my computer along with me to carry my powerpoint presentations, check my email and look at the web. I hardly every write documents on the go. Okay I’ll write the odd email, but that should be easily possible with the iPad’s on-screen keyboard.

I’ve also started noticing more and more scenes like the one below – people struggling to use their laptops while waiting for trains, buses, etc. This is clearly not comfortable, and surely not necessary.

3. The user experience

For me it’s all about the user experience, and I’m a big fan of Apple’s user interface (UI) design. Having lived with and loved the iPhone for over a year now, I’m convinced the iPad is going to feel even better, with a bigger screen and more exciting native apps

According to Apple the best iPad applications will ‘downplay application UI so that the focus is on content; present content in beautiful, often realistic ways; and take full advantage of device capabilities to enable enhanced interaction.’ Sounds great to me.

So what do you think – are those good enough reasons to need an iPad? Or am I just persuading myself because I merely want one? Please leave me your thoughts in the comments below.

As well as setting up a new office (at the beautiful Grade II listed Wool Hall building in Bristol) I’ve been spending the first few weeks of January doing the new year thing – reviewing my systems, upgrading my blogging tools and prepping for the year ahead. If you’re still in this mode and need a checklist, check out ReadWriteWeb’s 8 Things Every Geek Needs To Do Before 2010.

High on my list was getting my blog optimised for mobile. During 2009 I noticed my own behaviour changed pretty radically. I got an iPhone 3GS in 2009 and I now find I access the web at least as much via mobile as I do via computer. The iPhone has a great browser, but my blogs were not optimised for web access.

This blog is built on the WordPress platform, so, I’m experimenting with one of the most popular mobile plugins, WordPress Mobile Pack. My initial thoughts are that this plugin works really well. It’s very easy to set up – just download from the plugin directory and drag the folder to your Plugins folder. You can then set the look via the Switcher and Theme settings in the back end of the blog.

Now when I view this blog on my iPhone 3GS, it looks like this:

I haven’t tried it on any other mobile operating systems yet, so please let me know if you’re accessing this site by mobile and what kind of experience you’re having.

The only problem I’m experiencing is that the site is still scoring badly on mobiReady. The authors of the plugin say that ‘All mark-up is valid XHTML-MP 1 and the site scores 5 on mobiReady…’ but I’m getting a score of 2 and a message that says ‘It will probably display very poorly on a mobile phone.’ I’m looking into this and will post in the comments when I find the solution. If any body has any ideas, please leave a message in the comments below.