Siri is not working AT ALL on new iphone 4s. Anyone else having trouble?

Sorry if you took offence at my 'assumption' - it wasn't intended at you directly but at the world in general!

I am also sorry that your Macs didn't work out the box - I must have been one lucky person - my IIci, Quadra 700, 8500 and original (non intel) dual G5 always worked fine, out of the box and years later. my Mac Book Pro and iMac, touch wood too.

And yes, having gone back to the link you posted, right at the very bottom of the page it does say it's in Beta. But here is my issue with this - and it just shows a move to 'sharp advertising' not something Apple has been known for since Gil Amelio was ousted.

It would be more appropriate, and common practice, if there is a claus to something to put an asterisk in the title headline, i.e. indicating there is something to read at the bottom of the page. Even, TV adverts have that.

So then, my critisism for Apple is - where is the direct support with work-a-rounds.

Your analogies of buying a house and car - OMG - are you kidding - cars cannot be released with anything in 'beta' - anything found not meeting design as advertised or required by law are immediately recalled.

Same thing goes for a house. I am not declaring the iPhone 4s a BUST - and of course we need to give Apple a chance to rectify - BUT the difference is, I don't see any support as yet and this IS a feature we have paid for - or is it free???? and if it is free why was the app removed from the Apps store and why not available on other iPhones?

I think you are missing the point - and my 'frustration' - if you are going to 'go-live' with something still in Beta (but kinda hide that) but make it a huge selling point to upgrade, then at least put in place a more appropropriate support process. That is all. I hope this is not going to be a change in Apple's philosophy moving forward i.e. releasing USPs to the market early when they are not ready - I am sure I am not the only person who has had their apple products work out of the box as advertised, in the past - This, in itself, has been one of the two (the other being ease of use) main USPs for Apple since the early days.

In the meantime - we will continue to rely on the many user communities for support - WHICH in itself could cause more issues for Apple. Just poor Release Management.

Dictation,

It say says so right on the Siri page, http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html

A BETA is not given to or tested by a small number, it just a test, as in Google, Google Mail which was in BETA to the general public for TWO years. You go here for iPhone support, these ae USER forums.

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/contact/

But you are missing the point. YOU DON"T PAY for those services. Apple are going down a dodgey path here.

And this is the problem with the whole IT 'industry'. Getting the public to do their UAT (which IS a BETA test - don't dilute the term). If you go back a few years, no one dared set out their products onto the market unless they had been properly test - an established 'best practice' that Microsoft chose to break citing that they didn't control the hardware that people chose to run their products on and as such were offer their customers the choice of providers of hardware and thus increase the competitive market - thus lowering the total cost of owning a PC. Which, I have also said, was a fair comment to make - if you want the cheapest piece of technology you have to accept these shortcomings.

But an Apple iPhone or any Apple product IS NOT freeware/shareware or an open systems platform, like say Unix or Java - those are quite ok to release to get the public to test for you. But for a paid for product it is unacceptable to not have a proper support structure in place or to hide away the details that it is a a beta.

You point out to it saying that at the bottom of the page on the iStore - my partner bought the phone on the strength of seeing the advert on TV (which had no disclaimers), went into the Apple store, exicitedly told them why she wanted the phone and they also, said nothing about it being still in Beta test. It is the only reason she upgraded from her old iPhone.

So, as the comment I made (probably, not in the right manner to Snagitseven) before, we must not let Apple fall into the same strategy as Microsoft or Google - they have different product USPs (namely price) otherwise Apple will lose it's status if every new phone is rushed to market and unproven - getting the paying customers to do 'free' testing for them.

Don't fall for this.

These "oh, it's just a beta" Apple apologists crack me up. And comparing a $2500+ investment to a free online email service is also laughable. Apple would never have released a product it considers insufficient for the masses and their calling Siri a beta was lame and a way to give apologists a reason to shout down people who complain about the service.

For the most part, Siri works. When it doesn't, it doesn't -- not because it is "in beta," but because it is technology and technology does not always work. Apple's first commercial on 4S was 100% Siri, and it didn't so much as mention the word "beta," even in 3-pt type. Companies do not do that for products they consider "beta." Apple has sold more than 4 million of these phones, and Siri was its key selling feature (and Cook's new, "oh, I forgot something..." instead of Steve's One More Thing). I'd venture to say that over 3.5 million of those buyers have never read a tech blog, gone to an Apple forum, or watched an Apple keynote, which means they know nothing about a key feature of a $2500 product being considered "beta." Because it isn't beta. Not really. It's merely new and early adopters are both enjoying the service and suffering from bumps along the way, just as it's always been.

Not an apology I just stated facts, the phone at most was $400, Siri has not always worked pefect on my phone but has always worked on my wifes phone. As for the rest, people need to get themsevles informed,and I supect most are not idots as you claim.

I didn't say my Macs didn't work out of the box, I said that they weren't "perfect". I'm sure you can recall the many OS glitches over the years (most of which were rectified in time by Apple).

As for the house/car comparison, I wasn't trying to use the term beta here - just to illustrate that complex things aren't always perfect when newly released and as consumers, we should cut product companies a little slack when first released and everything doesn't always go "perfectly" (that word again). It only becomes a serious issue when they don't correct them in a resonable amount of time.

As for your comment that you don't "see any support yet", how fast should Apple resond? The battery issue took all of a week or so to manifest itself publicly and after Apple did research, they announced an upcoming fix. The Siri outage has only been in the last few days. I think our outrage should be attenuated for at least a few more days to give them a chance to fix it, no? As for "work arounds", since the issue seems to be at their server end, it seems unlikely there's one for the iPhone itself. Until Apple figures out what needs to be done, we have to be patient and temper the derisive comments that many are writing.

I have no issue at all with the idea sharing as espoused on these forums (I've certainly done my share over the years). I just feel that there needs to be a modicum of reality vs. "the sky is falling" tenor of comments that SOME contributors are making. Reporting the experiences, asking questions and providing cogent, useful answers is a good thing. Getting all ****** off about it or being hateful to others is not so good.

You sound like an Apple employee to me. Yes, I'm sure you're not. Just making an observation.

As for the "cut Apple some slack" strategy, that has to work both ways. The company has been unwilling to communicate on this issue. And they certainly don't cut their customers any slack when it comes to their prices. And at any rate, customers are entitled to complain about products that do not meet their expectations, which were created by Apple's slick advertising, which presents Siri as working promptly and perfectly and never mentions "oh, by the way, sometimes service won't work at all, it's still beta, expect problems." So if anybody is to blame for unreaonable expectations, it's Apple.

I think a large part of the frustration stems from Apple's silence. People are searching for solutions and fixes, but Apple has not even acknowledged a problem or made any effort to appease their customers. Their attitude comes across as, "We've already got your money, so tough luck." And their silence also makes it difficult for people to know where to turn for legitimate advice on resolving this problem. So what they get are conflicting recommendations that may or may not work, which only adds to the frustration.

Siri has worked for me for the most part. But Apple's indifferent attitude to this issue and the battery drainage issue (until the backlash forced them to address it and even then their public statement was an indifferent half-assed response) is making me reconsider whether I want to remain an Apple customer in the future.

The fanboy apologists in this thread are really starting to p*ss me off. Apple released a flawed product. They basically hid the fact that Siri was "not ready for prime time" while running ads that present her as nothing less than amazing. They failed to acknowledge the issue making it sound like a network problem. They could just as easily have Siri respond that "I'm sorry. I am a beta product which means that you cannot expect me to work properly. You should have been told that when your purchased me. I hope to get better soon."

Should we not expect more from the "greatest and most valuable technology company on the planet"? We deserve an apology and a fix NOW, but Apple is just too cool or too incompetent for that, I guess. They are one of the few companies that can treat their customers like this with impunity. That won't last forever, Apple. I'm still in my 30 days and would like to ask again for a droid alternative recommendation.

'it seems like a server issue their end' true - the error message Siri gives is 'cannot connect to the server' but my question, right from the start is 'why is the Siri App designed to try an connect to anyone's server, mine or Apple's if all I want is for it to type in voice for my txt to autopopulate txt for me in a reminder OR txt message OR to voice command to call someone from my contact? My Nokia could do that without connecting to any server or network.

This is either a major design floor (not something left for Beta testing) OR there is another motive/reason why the iPhone feels the need to connect to anything. As per my other post about my iPhone sending oneway traffic when I am not using it. Even Apple engineers couldn't answer that one - even when Cellular data is turned off.

There are quite a few issues.

An advertised solution that worked for me:

Turn Siri Off.

Tunr iPhone Off, not Sleep, Off.

Turn iPhone On.

Turn Siri On.

Keep in mind that the server has gone down for a day previoulsy.

Good Luck

my question, right from the start is 'why is the Siri App designed to try an connect to anyone's server, mine or Apple's if all I want is for it to type in voice for my txt to autopopulate txt for me in a reminder OR txt message OR to voice command to call someone from my contact?

Because the interpretation of what you said is not done on your phone. It's done at Apple's data centre, which has access to the (presumably constantly learning) artifical intelligence model that turns what you say into something it can make sense of. This model would presumably not fit on your phone and/or require too much CPU power.

OK - that makes sense - but that then raises another question - shouldn't the adverts also say then that use of the feature requires airtime data usage? This may explain (somewhat, anyway) why my partner blew her 200Mb package inside 3 weeks) - with everything else being equal - all those attemps (when she first got her phone) of trying to find all those Easter Eggs in Siri! :-)

Exactly. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks "Beta" is a giant cop-out.

Ask Siri if she is still in Beta, and she'll tell you she can't answer that lol.

Why the **** do I need a network for speak to text? To make a phone call or add a reminder/note? Android phones don't need an alleged network for any of these tasks.

Apple needs to do away with Siri for in-phone tasks such as the ones I listed.

Guys I wonder how this arguing back and forth is helping getting our beloved Siri back working. I'm a SW eng and a beta release is supposed to be a full featured product that could still have some technical issues. So although it is expected that Siri will have some issues (think reliability), those should not render it inoperational.

BTW Siri was working on my iPhone out of the box, then two weeks ago it stopped working (nwk issue). Was down for a few days, then back on. Last Friday it stopped working again, and back to being just fine since this morning. If you ask me, it's extremely annoying and bordering on a non functional product. But if I'm an Apple rep, I would say its a rel issue that is being actively being worked. :)