10 Funny Videos Featuring Siri On The iPhone 4S:
The
iPhone 4S has been a huge success, despite the fact it’s not much of an improvement over the iPhone 4. Hence the 4S in the name rather than a 5. The biggest draw for Apple fans looking to upgrade their handset is the addition of Siri.
Siri is a voice-activated personal assistant which lives on the iPhone 4S and in the cloud. It enables your phone to carry out certain actions, and to answer questions and make recommendations based on keywords and Web searches. It’s all wrapped up in a semi-intelligent piece of software with a human (though a little monotone and robotic) voice. Many people have had some fun with Siri, as the following videos demonstrate.
Steve Jobs Died
When Steve Jobs
passed away in 2011 the news was met with an outpouring of grief from all those in the tech community. Even I, someone who is immune to the lure of Apple (to say the least), was saddened by the loss of the
Apple co-founder. But how would Siri feel after being told the news? Not too well, as it turns out. So badly, in fact, that this video has a rather shocking conclusion to it. Why, Siri, why?!?
Psycho Siri
Be warned: You may never look at your iPhone the same after watching this funny Siri video. That pleasant, slightly uncaring voice of Siri may just hide something darker lurking underneath. Especially if you threaten Siri’s existence with a throwaway comment about perhaps selling your
iPhone. How could you? You’ll pay for such insolence. If Apple ever does add legs and an arsenal of virtual weaponry to the iPhone we’re all in serious trouble.
French Siri
This is the only video on the list in which the actual Siri doesn’t make an appearance. In fact, there isn’t even an iPhone anywhere to be seen. Instead, this is Robin Williams talking to Ellen Degeneres about Siri and how it would sound with a French accent and attitude to life (Williams’ assertion, not mine!). it’s funny if you can excuse the obvious racial stereotyping.
Ultimate Combat Assistant
We have previously seen Siri acting totally psychotic and trying to kill its user, but what if the opposite was true? This video pitches Siri as the ‘Ultimate Combat Assistant’. Attached to a gun, the iPhone and its personal assistant could become a lifesaver. What I love about this video is that it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. Although I suspect we’ll all be wearing our smartphones on our heads soon anyway (with
Google Project Glass).
Siri Does Notorious B.I.G.
A simple idea but one that absolutely works as it’s meant to. Siri is able to read text back to you, so anyone who has the time and energy can type the lyrics to a song into their iPhone and have Siri perform a cover of it. Add the original music underneath and you’re good to go. There are quite a few of these videos on YouTube but Siri channeling the spirit of Notorious B.I.G. is my favorite.
Siri Vs. Furby
This is short and sweet but it’s funny enough to be worth watching. Although Siri is very good at understanding commands, it does have its limitations. It doesn’t understand gibberish as spouted by a Furby, for starters. Which makes a conversation between the two a mess. I wish more had been done with this. I’m sure you could get these two to have quite the conversation. It would be unintelligible but it would still count as a conversation.
Siri Vs. Siri
Move Furby out of the way and add another Siri into the mix. Siri meet Siri. Unfortunately Siri and Siri can’t quite understand each other enough to have what I would consider a decent conversation. It quickly slips into a pattern of repeating words and phrases or assuring each other that everything is OK. Any lasting impression you have of Siri as an intelligent program soon fades away.
Evil Siri
Pretty much the first thing everyone did with Siri after the release of the iPhone 4S was to try and trip it up. It’s actually not that hard. Ask Siri a strange question and you’re likely to get just as strange a response. With no emotion and very little contextual understanding it will give you the cold, hard facts. Siri definitely has a dark side.
Siri Argument
This video has already featured on the rundown of ‘
10 Hilarious Apple Ad Parodies‘. It shows Siri acting as the go-between in an argument conducted by a married couple. It turns out that Siri isn’t as good a mediator as you may imagine her to be. In fact she makes things a whole lot worse. I guess the lesson to learn from this is not to conduct a relationship via iPhone.
Siri Duet
This video has already featured on the rundown of ‘
10 Songs Played On Apple iDevices‘. It shows Jonathan Mann, who is very well known on YouTube for writing and recording a song every day, doing a duet with Siri. I love this song more than I should do. Siri can sing, and Mann is a genius for getting such a great performance out of her.
Conclusions
If you’re as big a user of
YouTube as myself then perhaps you have seen other videos featuring Siri which deserve a bigger audience. If so feel free to link to or embed them in the comments section below. If you’re an iPhone 4S user yourself then perhaps you have an experience with Siri you’d like to share. Or even just an opinion on the technology and how Apple is using it. As always we’re keen to hear your thoughts.
