why does siri only work if i have internet connection?

Because Siri requires the necessary hardware on both ends, not just the other side.

varjak paw wrote:

Siri requires processing power, for both the speech and natural-language recognition as well as doing some of the location lookup and processing, well in excess of what any phone can provide. Hence the need for an Internet connection, so your iPhone can connect to the servers Apple uses for doing this processing.

If that's the case then why can I play songs, start facetime and create genius playlists using voice control on my 3rd Gen iPod Touch with no internet, but I can't do any of the above without internet on my iPhone 4S?? There's more to this than processing power.

3rd gen iPod do not have Siri, don't get confused. You can do the same with 4S with voice command without internet but not with Siri.

ckuan wrote:

3rd gen iPod do not have Siri, don't get confused. You can do the same with 4S with voice command without internet but not with Siri.

I didn't say the iPod has Siri, I said it has Voice Control.

---> http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/voice-control.html

And my point, which ckuan seems to be missing, is that if a 3rd Gen iPod touch, with inferior processing power compared to an iPhone 4S is capable of completing voice commands without the internet, then the reason that Siri needs the internet to complete the same or similarly basic internal commands is not related to processing power (as was suggested by some on this forum).

I'm still interested to know why Siri does need the internet for basic functions which can obviously be completed without it (ie scheduling appointments as was suggested in the original post).

Anyone have any other answers?

veda28 wrote:

And my point, which ckuan seems to be missing, is that if a 3rd Gen iPod touch, with inferior processing power compared to an iPhone 4S is capable of completing voice commands without the internet, then the reason that Siri needs the internet to complete the same or similarly basic internal commands is not related to processing power (as was suggested by some on this forum).

If you think the Siri is essentially the same as as Voice Control, then I don't think you're the one who's missed something important.

The reason is because Siri also can pull up phone numbers of local business and places - which requires access to the internet so it can search for the information.

It's not a matter of "basic" -vs- "non-basic." It's a matter of how Siri is designed and what is required to use Siri.

It needs internet even for just asking math becuase it has a server. (guzzoni.apple.com) If it cant connect to the server, it will not work. The reason for this is becuase they want you to always pay for the cellular service. If you stop paying for the service, siri stops working. It will also make it difficult if some things need interent, when some dont. Hope this helps!

It also does all the math ect on the server. Nothing is done in the physical phone. Once the server has the answer, it sends it back to the iphone which does the command. I know this because I made a proxy that allows me to hack siri and give custom commands/ respnces. Its called siri proxy. I made a youtube video on youtube. Just go to www.youtube.com/jbaybayjbaybay and just look on my channel for a vid about siriproxy.

Why would Apple care whether you pay some cell provider for cellular service? They don't get any of the money.

Planned obsolescence my friends. If apple allows all the features on all the phones, there would never be a reason to upgrade.

That makes no sense whatsoever. The question is why does it require an internet connection, not which device it will work on.

drofdarb wrote:

Planned obsolescence my friends. If apple allows all the features on all the phones, there would never be a reason to upgrade.

Because, of course, technology never changes or improves, and nothing new is ever invented so Apple has to parcel out the features a few every year, right?

No I did not missed anything. You lack the skill to understand that Siri is not a command based interface with a simple verb -> object paradigm.

Here read the things involved to make Siri works.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/say-command-how-speech-recognition-w ill-change-the-world/19895?tag=content;siu-container

An iPhone is more than capable of recognizing my voice and understanding the content without the internet.

Obviously Siri will need an internet connection to find local business numbers or find the weather forcast etc but the debate here, is why does it need to be connected to perform completely internal tasks, like setting calender events or even just writing text?

Some people have proposed that the reason apple have elected to make this software require connectivity for all situations is in the design and architecture, someone mentioned object paradigm, someone else mentioned it may be an incentive to maintain a phone contract. These are all good points and the answer may well be a combination of them all.

I propose that it may also have something to do with data collection. Think about it, if Siri connects to the Apple server for every question that people around the world ask it, the second we ask it, how much would that information be worth to advertisers and corporations? The information could also be used to create better products in the future and to enslave the human race (probably not the last one though).

Anyway until Apple makes an official statement as to why they made this design choice we'll never know for sure.

I will say though, it is annoying when I just want to set a reminder and Siri doesn't work because the server is being overloaded by users or I'm in a network blackspot.