As I mentioned recently, I’m running the first iOS 6 beta on a testing iPad and getting to know the new version of iOS, at least in its early beta stage.
One of the big new features in iOS 6 on iPad is the presence of Siri, the clever voice assistant. Siri is adding capabilities in iOS 6 too – one of them that Apple highlighted at the recent WWDC 2012 keynote event is her new sports knowledge. Apple showed off how she can tell you about all the latest scores and standings. Not surprisingly, Siri’s range of sports knowledge, at least for now, is quite limited and seems very US-centric.
I’m a huge football / soccer fan and I’m following the EURO 2012 tournament closely – so I thought I’d ask Siri about it. I asked her using a number of terms and found she’s clueless about the tournament.
I also tried asking about the French Open and the London Olympics – she had nothing at all to offer on the French Open and said she doesn’t know much about tennis. For the London Olympics her best was a link out to a Google search page for the Olympics schedule.
I think this is my favorite result so far though – when I asked about Wimbledon she offered this up:
Just in case you can’t read the text, she says:
OK, here’s a place matching ‘Wimbledon’; it’s a little ways from you.
That’s the right place of course – though I’m not sure what Siri considers to be more than a little ways away – since I’m in Texas and that’s in London, England. :)
Hopefully Siri’s knowledge of non-US sports will soon be expanded.
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I am really interested to see how Siri is on the iPad, especially with the sports. How good is she at looking up old sports stats? Like Mickey Mantle’s stats from his rookie year. I am thinking about getting a test device myself, just can’t justify it yet.
So far she doesn’t seem to have much ability to look back like that. Best she offered for Mickey Mantle stats was a web search via Google. I also tried “Yankees past season stats” and she had nothing.
Hey Patrick. Here is the list of leagues that Siri currently monitors for scores:
English Premier League
Italian Serie A
Dutch Eredivisie
French Ligue 1
Spanish La Liga
German Bundesliga
MLB
NCAA Football
NFL
NBA
NCAA Basketball
WNBA
NHL
Hopefully, Siri will get smart enough to go beyond leagues themselves to the tournaments that those teams play in. Also, it would be a big mistake to leave out events like the Olympics, even in the beta.
I cannot believe Siri is not responding to the UEFA EURO 2012 questions. This is not expected from Apple.
I think your headline is incredibly mis-leading. At the keynote Apple made it clear what sports would initially be covered. As the poster above has listed. It never said Siri would know about the Euro 2012. I find this kind of journalism disappointing to say the least.
It’s easy to be a negative Nancy. Now that you have written about what Siri doesn’t do so well, how about following up with an article on what Siri does do well. The folks at Apple work hard to deliver great new things, but no one can hit a home run every time at bat, not even Mickey Mantle or Apple.
I can’t believe that such retards like Patrick here are calling themselves Tech Professionals while can’t even read properly what the big uncle from Apple had wrote on that Giant Screen in the back. It clearly said that only the sports and it’s leagues are supported which James named again, so you could Take as much time as you need to read it again veeeeeery slowly. For me it’s a big improvement that Apple Supports more than just American Sports. But hey, you are the Professional.
I could do without the sports feature on my iPad. I hope it can be turned off.