Siri is Apple’s new personal assistant on the iPhone 4S. It’s artificial intelligence: fairly good understanding of natural human speech, plus context awareness.
And it’s pretty cool: I’ve used it to send texts, set reminders that activate when I leave or arrive from locations like home or work, and get data like how far away the moon is, or how much the US dollar is worth, or what the atomic weight of uranium is.
But I also want to use Siri for local search: finding a great place to eat, or a nice hotel, or traffic conditions, directions to Rogers Arena, or how far it is to Whistler, BC.
Unfortunately, Siri doesn’t know anything about Canada yet.
That means that Siri is much less useful in Canada than it could otherwise be.
I’m sure the situation is temporary … it will go away as soon as Apple signs up partners in Canada for local data. The more data available, the smarter Siri will get:
- restaurants
- hotels
- venues
- events
- hotels
- flights
- traffic
In short, all businesses and events. Eventually, perhaps, even local product data: availability, pricing, sales, etc.
Eventually, with partners, you should be able to order tickets to a game, book reservations at a restaurant, and set up a flight to Montreal … all via Siri. More on that in an earlier blog post. And it’s not all dreaming either: this is all part of the early vision behind Siri.
I just want it all, and I want it now. In Canada, too.