While traveling in the US, I finally had the opportunity to unleash the full power of Siri — and I realized just how much we’re missing out on the experience here in my home and native land.
Siri can do pretty much everything here that it can do in the US. But it can’t “look for places in Canada” at all. Still.
And that really sucks.
While in Seattle and San Francisco, I was able to find the nearest burger joints, coffee shops and similar spots simply by asking Siri where the nearest ones were. That doesn’t work up here, and now that I’ve had a taste of it…well, Siri isn’t as compelling to me now. Not because it isn’t revolutionary (because I think it is on the whole), but because it isn’t as revolutionary as it can be here.
I have no idea why this functionality doesn’t work here. It didn’t when Siri was an app that had no direct connection to Apple. Perhaps it’s privacy laws. Maybe it’s that we’re an afterthought in Canada and we haven’t been properly “mapped” yet. It very could be our own government and legislation that is keeping Siri’s ability to find locations for us here at bay.
I don’t know…but it needs to happen soon.
I’ve started to use Launch Center on my iPhone and its functionality has got me headed to it more than Siri as of late. I know that my iPhone understands a touch screen button when I press it; it doesn’t always understand what I’m saying when I say it. If Siri can’t do one of the key things I’d like it to be able to do — and know it can do elsewhere — then the amount of use it will get shrinks.
Yes, Siri is still in beta and it has been said that the feature I’m clamoring for will arrive in Canada some time this year, but the lack of location awareness here is a huge hole in the functionality and utility that Siri has to offer.
And that’s a “Siri-ous” flaw that needs attention.1
1Kind of like this flaw does.
Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
