Apple gobbles Brit AI outfit VocalIQ Apple is reported to have snapped up UK artificial intelligence company VocalIQ, which had previously sneered at Cupertino's digital assistant Siri as being a mere "toy." The deal is the latest in a number of UK acquisitions this year, including media data startup Semetric in January and Camel Audio, a maker of virtual …
"Some ended being used only as toys, like Siri."
We did a few quick tests of Cortana, Google Now and Siri in the office. Try this one yourself: Book an appointment for "next sunday at eight o'clock".
Goog + Siri: sorry can't do scheduling more than 24 hours in the future. Cortana said it had done it, what it actually did we are not too sure but it wasn't an appointment at either 0800 or 2000 next Sunday.
Not one of them can manage more than the most basic scheduling. Not one of them even bothered asking which eight o'clock we meant either, although <24hr limitation precludes that. 24 hour clock format recognition was laughable. Try asking for an appointment at 1700 hours ("seventeen hundred hours").
maybe its a non-US English thing or google services on the target device are not up to date? I just tried this on my G3 running kitkat google now works exactly as you would expect "set an appointment for next Thursday at 8" does create a calendar entry for 10/8 though using 24hr format I find that it is completely unnecessary to add the -hundred hours, simply saying at 17 creates an entry at 5pm. I even tried "set an appointment Thursday after next at 8" and it does create a calendar entry for 10/15 at 8. hope this helps.
The only time I've used Siri to put something in my calendar is if I think of something laying in bed I have to do tomorrow, and don't want to light up the screen. I just don't trust voice commands (for anything) enough to do it all the time, because I'd feel I have to check that it really did it right anyway. It might work 99% of the time, but that one time it gets it wrong would probably be something important I don't want to miss!
This post has been deleted by its author
"Goog + Siri: sorry can't do scheduling more than 24 hours in the future. Cortana said it had done it, what it actually did we are not too sure but it wasn't an appointment at either 0800 or 2000 next Sunday."
Made me think that Cortana at least has absorbed the ethos of its parent corporation rather well.
"Even I can't parse that and I'm English!"
Same here and ahm Geordie!
MInd you, there's loads of different Geordie accents and pronunciations too, even from different parts of the same toon nivvor mind different toons and villages.
From here, go a little south and school becomes scewell and pool become poo-ell. A little West and toad in the hole becomes turd in the hurl!!! (a future post-pub neck filler? Nah, maybe not!)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
