Michelle Steiner

<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/1...rtion-answers-
are-a-glitch/>

Apple said Wednesday that the apparent inability of Siri, the virtual
assistant in the iPhone 4S,Â*Â*to retrieve information about abortion
clinicsÂ*and women’s health services in some areas was not intentional or
deliberate.

The company attributed the problem to kinks in the product that were still
being ironed out. Siri is officially still a beta or test product.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

Barry Margolin

In article <michelle-FFFB2A.20165030112011@news.eternal-september.org>,
Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote:

> The company attributed the problem to kinks in the product that were still
> being ironed out. Siri is officially still a beta or test product.

Yet it's good enough to market in national commercials.

Remember the good old days when beta versions were restricted to a small
set of test customers? Apparently we're all beta testers now.

--
Barry Margolin
Arlington, MA

Davoud

Michelle Steiner:
> > The company attributed the problem to kinks in the product that were still
> > being ironed out. Siri is officially still a beta or test product.

Barry Margolin:
> Yet it's good enough to market in national commercials.

My experience with my iPhone 4 says that it is.

> Remember the good old days when beta versions were restricted to a small
> set of test customers? Apparently we're all beta testers now.

No, only those of us who took the time to learn what we were buying
when we voluntarily bought an iPhone 4S with Siri beta software on it.
I think it's a good thing to have a very large number of beta testers
for a complex application like Siri.

Do you know that the purpose of the clever little mobile apps that
Dragon gives away free is to collect millions of speech samples and use
them to improve its speech-recognition products. You say abusive, I say
ingenious. Before long speech recognition will have improved from the
present 99% accuracy rate. 100% is unattainable, but the accuracy will
be close enough to perfect as does not matter.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

Fred Moore

In article <301120112335047571%star@sky.net>, Davoud <star@sky.net>
wrote:

> Michelle Steiner:
> > > The company attributed the problem to kinks in the product that were
> > > still
> > > being ironed out. Siri is officially still a beta or test product.
>
> Barry Margolin:
> > Yet it's good enough to market in national commercials.
>
> My experience with my iPhone 4 says that it is.
>
> ...I think it's a good thing to have a very large number of beta testers
> for a complex application like Siri...

Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'. :\

Doug Anderson

Fred Moore <fmoore@gcfn.org> writes:

> In article <301120112335047571%star@sky.net>, Davoud <star@sky.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Michelle Steiner:
> > > > The company attributed the problem to kinks in the product that were
> > > > still
> > > > being ironed out. Siri is officially still a beta or test product.
> >
> > Barry Margolin:
> > > Yet it's good enough to market in national commercials.
> >
> > My experience with my iPhone 4 says that it is.
> >
> > ...I think it's a good thing to have a very large number of beta testers
> > for a complex application like Siri...
>
> Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
> testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'. :\

Indeed. How much did you, or anyone, pay for iOS 5? Apple is giving
it away for free, so whatever you paid, you got overcharged.

Michelle Steiner

In article <y3fwh4me2o.fsf@ethel.the.log>,
Doug Anderson <ethelthelogremovethis@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
> > testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'. :\
>
> Indeed. How much did you, or anyone, pay for iOS 5? Apple is giving
> it away for free, so whatever you paid, you got overcharged.

Um, Siri is available only on the iPhone 4S, and is the major selling point
(according to the commercials) of that phone.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

Barry Margolin

In article <michelle-E7BD28.10500501122011@news.eternal-september.org>,
Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote:

> In article <y3fwh4me2o.fsf@ethel.the.log>,
> Doug Anderson <ethelthelogremovethis@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
> > > testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'. :\
> >
> > Indeed. How much did you, or anyone, pay for iOS 5? Apple is giving
> > it away for free, so whatever you paid, you got overcharged.
>
> Um, Siri is available only on the iPhone 4S, and is the major selling point
> (according to the commercials) of that phone.

And can you get it WITHOUT Siri?

--
Barry Margolin
Arlington, MA

Davoud

Fred Moore:
> Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
> testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'. :\

If you say so, but 1) No one had to pay for the product. It was free.
2) It was public knowledge that Siri was beta software in IOS 5.

For me--for me, I emphasize--that doesn't allow much room for complaint
concerning paying for beta software or being forced to beta-test
software. At the very least someone who received IOS 5 free of charge
can simply not use Siri, in which case they can enjoy the righteous
satisfaction of not being forced to use software that they got free to
run on a device they weren't forced to buy.

For those who are willing to beta test for Apple, there have been few
complaints among those who are not looking for abortion clinics. In my
two weeks or so of owning an iPhone 4S I have found that I don't have
much use for Siri when I'm sitting in my home because I know my
surroundings pretty well. But when I'm 20 miles away I find it quite
handy.

Is there a scale for measuring the degree of ludicrousness of a
complaint?

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

JF Mezei

re: Siri being Beta.

I don't think that Siri's IOS software is at fault here. This is far
more likely the search engines that were given that abortion bias by
some employee and was not caught.

Alan Browne

On 2011-12-01 11:35 , Fred Moore wrote:
> In article<301120112335047571%star@sky.net>, Davoud<star@sky.net>

>> ...I think it's a good thing to have a very large number of beta testers
>> for a complex application like Siri...
>
> Perhaps, but making retail users pay for the product to become beta
> testers is officially known as 'The Microsoft Ploy'.

What officials? What official body?

The reality is that all software co's foist incomplete and partly buggy
s/w on their customers. Some are worse than others. All do it.

OTOH, requirements are often foggy (to varying degrees) for both
supplier and consumer. So the virtuous cycle of providing s/w and then
free updates is appropriate.

--
"I see!" said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.