Siri on Mac is Amazing!

[w4rm]

Just downloaded the GM on my 3rd computer an older MacBook Air.

I just thought Siri would be a gimmick. But I have to say Siri on the Mac works great!!

It feels right at home on the Mac platform.

And actually makes a lot of tasks a lot faster than using keyboard shortcuts / mouse. Searching is really fun and satisfying. It's definitely faster than iOS.

Saying things like Show me images of Dogs. Shows all the images in my library of dogs instantly.

It's really snappy even on this older machine a 2013 MacBook Air.

Can't wait to install the final release on my iMac!

What are you guys impressions?

 

[hsouris]

Does 'play [x] playlist' work for you guys? It works for me on iOS, but not on macOS.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Does 'play [x] playlist' work for you guys? It works for me on iOS, but not on macOS.

I usually just say "play [X] shuffled" on iOS, and it correctly picks my playlist of that name, even if it is called the same as an artist, so you could try that?

 

[fischersd]

Does 'play [x] playlist' work for you guys? It works for me on iOS, but not on macOS.

I've done the "Hey Siri Jarvis" tweak. You have to get "Hey Jarvis Play me summertime tunes playlist" timed just right.

Edit: Scratch that. It's REALLY hit and miss!!!

 

[leman]

I don't see any utility in it. On the phone, sure. But on a desktop OS, I can perform the operations much faster than trying to tell siri what to do. Especially searching.

 

[soulreaver99]

No homekit capabilities. lame

 

[fischersd]

No homekit capabilities. lame

I agree. That's something I always felt they should have done with the ATV4 - really deep integration with home kit - have it be your hub for home kit. With the Siri integration, it could have been pretty stellar. Then do integration with watch and iPhone via the cloud. Always have the capability to control your home from your wrist, iPhone or talking to Siri in your living room.

But, as with all things Apple....it will get better. (maybe just not at the pace we'd like).

 

[RumorzGuy]

As long as I waited for Apple to bring Siri to the desktop Mac -- and complained that it was taking too long for them to do so -- now that it is finally here, I am not very impressed . . . at least not yet.

Siri is rather deaf, very limited, and can be very frustrating to use.

For example, BBEdit is a well-known, long-used high-quality text editor on the Mac. However, Siri does not understand "Open BBEdit". I actually have to say "Open Bedit", as in bed-it. There may possibly be some politics involved here, because Rich Siegel no longer offers BBEdit in the App Store.

Next, I asked Siri to close Messages. Her response? She can't close apps. WHAT??? A basic function like closing apps is not possible?

Next, I asked Siri to close the Mail app, which she interpreted as "Clothes Mail app". She then asked me to whom I would like to send my message. What message, Siri? I asked you to close Mail app, not send a message.

Next, I asked Siri to empty the trash. She informed me that it is beyond her abilities at the moment.

Next, I asked Siri to launch Disk Utility, which she interpreted as "dish utility", but she did open it.

Next, I asked Siri to shut down Disk Utility, which she interpreted as "Shut down bitch utility", and then told me "There's no need for that."

She did get correct "What day is today?", "Open VLC", and "Get my email" . . . although with the last one, she showed me a list of several dozen emails which I had already read, and which were no longer in my in box.

I feel uncomfortable talking to a machine to begin with, but perhaps with time -- as with all things Apple -- Siri will get better.

 

[h9826790]

The responsiveness is good, that's the speed a voice controlling system should have.

However, no home kit make it pretty useless. The Mac has physical keyboard, lots of function keys / hot keys, a menu bar, a dock can place many apps.... Doesn't like iDevice, use keyboard is faster than Siri for most operation.

All I want from Siri is able to control my Hue via the Mac, because there is no quicker way to do it, but not avail yet

 

[biopig]

Can't even set a timer using siri on Mac.

 

[RumorzGuy]

My gosh . . . as I said, Siri is seriously lacking in the most basic functionality. I wanted to adjust "her" preferences, so I said "Open System Preferences". It took her three times to understand me, and then she finally responded "Sorry, I can't do that."

So I said "Empty the trash." She understood the second time around, and then responded with "I'm sorry, I can't do that for you."

My next order was "Create a new folder on the desktop", to which Siri responded "That's beyond my abilities at the moment."

Finally, I said "Launch the Terminal", and Siri showed me four movies that include the word "terminal". You fail yet again, Siri!

As I said in my previous post, I have been making requests for some very basic OS functions, and Siri is in large part failing miserably.

I don't know why so many others are raving about Siri on the desktop Mac, but IMHO, "she" is really half-baked.

If Apple mainly designed "her" to be responsive to requests regarding music and photos, "she" is really useless to me.

Ha! I just told "her" "Siri you are half-baked", to which she responded "You're certainly entitled to that opinion."

Indeed I am!

 

[fischersd]

Can't even set a timer using siri on Mac.

Because "timer" isn't part of Siri - it's an app. Siri enables applications, they're not bundled into it.
If Apple gave us a timer app for MacOS, it would work, but they haven't.

 

[elemenohme]

...

 

[nontroppo]

I don't see any utility in it. On the phone, sure. But on a desktop OS, I can perform the operations much faster than trying to tell siri what to do. Especially searching.

I'd argue the opposite is true IMO. I rarely use Siri on the phone (and rarely see anyone else using it in public too), but I can see great utility multitasking with voice on my desktop machine. The major issue as others have pointed out is how poor Siri is on the desktop at the moment. But I remember many moons ago Opera used to offer voice control for browsing and I actually found it a useful interface there, and dreamed of the time I could do that system wide. I would want something as powerful as Quicksilver ([object][verb][modifier]) but using voice that would allow me to do things without taking me out of my current application flow.

 

[fischersd]

I was surprised that there's no "Hey Siri" on the Mac. That would be far more useful than on my phone.

It does seem strangely limited, and obvious commands don't do what I'd expect, such as "quit Evernote" -- it just switches to Evernote. And trying to find things often results in a search of the iTunes store rather than my hard drive :/

But given that it hasn't even shipped yet, it's working pretty well!

Yep, you really would think it would work as well as what's on the iPhone. Your comment "given that is hasn't even shipped yet" - this IS the release candidate / GM. This is what Apple's planning on shipping to customers in a little over a week.

Oh...for "Hey Siri" (I did "Hey Jarvis" to avoid my other devices in earshot going off) - great tutorial here: http://www.macworld.com/article/309...ey-siri-to-your-mac-running-macos-sierra.html

 

[MacGizmo]

"Amazing," really? Sufficiently decent, maybe. Amazing, absolutely not.

 

[dogslobber]

Because "timer" isn't part of Siri - it's an app. Siri enables applications, they're not bundled into it.
If Apple gave us a timer app for MacOS, it would work, but they haven't.

No, this is the wrong interpretation. Siri is being sold as contextual analysis enabled so saying natural things should yield the expected result. Right now the natural ability of Siri is junk. A D grade compared to cortana.

 

[fischersd]

No, this is the wrong interpretation. Siri is being sold as contextual analysis enabled so saying natural things should yield the expected result. Right now the natural ability of Siri is junk. A D grade compared to cortana.

Ah. I see. So you're saying that timer IS built into Siri then?
In this circumstance, they did anticipate people trying to set a timer and enabled Siri to provide similar functionality by creating a scheduled event with an alert. (a suitable response, given there's no timer app for MacOS)

Siri on iOS is head and shoulders better than it is on MacOS at the moment. Not certain why it doesn't seem to have the same level of intelligence. Given that they've touted it as the stand-out feature, they really should have made sure it was more robust than iOS, not less.

 

[simonmet]

Reading this I'm disappointed but not at all surprised.

Apple just don't seem to want to blow us away anymore. They're great at iterative improvements of which there are likely many in Sierra (and Siri will no doubt improve over time based on user feedback) but I'm struggling to think when (and what) was the last major feature in OS X that really blew me away.

Spotlight certainly did even if it wasn't the first of its kind (I can't remember to be honest). To this day it changes how we find and organise our files.

 

[RumorzGuy]

Siri on iOS is head and shoulders better than it is on MacOS at the moment. Not certain why it doesn't seem to have the same level of intelligence. Given that they've touted it as the stand-out feature, they really should have made sure it was more robust than iOS, not less.

Indeed! I find this very disappointing, and a serious misstep by Apple. Apple's hyped up Siri campaign seriously raised our expectations for Siri on the desktop Mac . . . only to be met by this dismal failure, in my view.

 

[dogslobber]

Ah. I see. So you're saying that timer IS built into Siri then?
In this circumstance, they did anticipate people trying to set a timer and enabled Siri to provide similar functionality by creating a scheduled event with an alert. (a suitable response, given there's no timer app for MacOS)

In which case, it should have recommended a timer can be used from the Dashboard, and recommend that which to install from the Dashboard App Store. Yes?

Siri on the Mac should be designed to be USED on a Mac. It sounds like they transplanted the ios version to the Mac OS X which is a futile way to do it. Steve would have said No and told them to do it right in no uncertain terms.

 

[simonmet]

Even Apple probably forgot Dashboard still exists!

 

[Undecided]

In which case, it should have recommended a timer can be used from the Dashboard, and recommend that which to install from the Dashboard App Store. Yes?

No. It offered a solution - creating a reminder - that is workable, and compatible with Siri. Expecting Siri to make app recommendations presents a whole other set of problems, not the least of which is not knowing if those other apps are Siri-enabled.

 

[RumorzGuy]

Even Apple probably forgot Dashboard still exists!

I have never liked the Dashboard, and still don't. I think it is just plain ugly, just like their built in calculator design. It doesn't even match the color scheme of the rest of the OS, as bland as it is to begin with.

 

[fischersd]

In which case, it should have recommended a timer can be used from the Dashboard, and recommend that which to install from the Dashboard App Store. Yes?

Siri on the Mac should be designed to be USED on a Mac. It sounds like they transplanted the ios version to the Mac OS X which is a futile way to do it. Steve would have said No and told them to do it right in no uncertain terms.

No arguments how it should have been better designed, but in the example given, there isn't a readily available widget or app - and I somehow doubt the ones that you can find elsewhere have been coded to have Siri integration.