Win an iPhone 4S – When whacky met Siri

A phone that can act as a mobile PA, dictating messages, helping you book restaurants and taxis, managing your diary and advising you when you’ll need a brolly before stepping out? It has to be the coolest sounding feature to grace any smartphone yet; Bond-film gadgetry made real. With such a multitude of possible uses, will Siri change the way we interact with our smartphones? Will we all soon be walking around barking orders into our shiny new 4S handsets?

Siri is the USP that Apple are flaunting to convince us to buy the iPhone 4S, and who wouldn’t be tempted in the face of such futuristic gadgetry? It’s exclusive to the iOS 5, the latest operating system for the iPhone, and supposedly can’t be used on previous iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices, although there are rumours of it being ported over soon. No other smartphone on the market can boast an integrated app with reliable voice to text and AI features like Siri, which is the biggest selling point of the new iPhone.

While it has got some incredibly smart natural voice recognition software, Siri also has some serious flaws, which are consistent with it being in Beta. In particular, it has limited use outside of the United States due to the websites Apple have teamed up with to provide information about local services. Many users outside the US have found Siri uttering multiple apologies because the services they have requested are only available in America, be it for booking restaurants and taxis, or finding the next viewing of a film in your area. It seems that Apple haven’t tried particularly hard when it comes to using their software on iPhones outside of the US. This seems a little odd – surely there are numerous information providers in Europe who would love to close a lucrative deal with Apple, so why the hold up? Apple assure us they are working on this, but at present it does tarnish Siri’s shine somewhat.

Where Siri does come into its own is when integrating with other apps on the iPhone. She is quite capable of interpreting ‘Doctor appointment at 3pm on Friday’ and putting it into your diary without obliging you to lift a finger (well, perhaps one at most). Even more useful is the ability to dictate a text. Stating ‘Ask my sister to bring some wine for dinner’ should result in Siri sending a text message to your sister (Siri is capable of learning your relationships with contacts), requesting that she stop past the off-licence and grab some Rioja. This integration of voice-to-text, coupled with artificial intelligence, does make for a pretty nifty feature, one that’s bound to come in handy, whether you’re driving to work or lying in the bath.

As the major selling feature of a £500 phone, is Siri worth it? That really depends on your patience and what you value in a phone. If you’re willing to accept that Siri is still in Beta, and that the Apple network wasn’t really ready for the massive influx of users, (which in all fairness they should have been expecting), then this gadget may be deemed worth it. If you prefer to wait however, then by the time the iPhone 5 arrives, Siri should be smart enough to do your bidding – no matter how nasal your twang, how slurred your speech and how odd the request you put to her. Siri’s a fast learner – give her a year, and she’ll be teaching you Esperanto while simultaneously dictating your dissertation.

If £500 is a little bit more than you are looking to spend right now then you can always attempt to win an iPhone 4S instead. UK mobile phone comparison website Best Mobile Contracts is offering its readers the chance to win a brand new unlocked iPhone 4S in their current giveaway. Simply head over to their site and answer one simple question. The competition closes on November 15th.

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