New TV spots highlight the power of iPhone 4S, Siri

Feb 10, 2012 08:39 GMT  ·  By

Apple has started airing two new TV spots to promote the iPhone 4S and its unique capability of assisting you whenever you need to shop, find places of interest, make reminders, or learn random stuff.

As its name implies, Road Trip shows what Siri can do for you when you’re traveling. For example, when you don’t know how to get somewhere, you can ask Siri and she’ll give you directions, plus try to offer the shortest route possible.

You can ask “where’s the best barbecue in Kansas City” or “how big is the Grand Canyon.”

One example also shows how you can use Siri to determine which gas station is closest to you, in case your car runs out of fuel and you need to walk there.

The Rock God spot is a tad cheesier and less realistic, but still makes a good point.

In this ad, a teenager uses Siri to find a place where he can buy the guitar he wants, text folks to invite them to his garage concert, and finally have the personal assistant call him a “Rock God.”

Siri is an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It understands context, and there’s no standard way of asking something. For example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” Siri understands you want the weather forecast.

The assistant is an exclusive feature on the iPhone 4S, which spawned a bit of backlash from the iPhone 4 user base, and even from the people who own an iPad, when the 4S came out in October 2011.

Hackers have since demonstrated that the hardware on the iPhone 4 and the two iPads Apple sells is powerful enough to handle Siri. The microphone on the iPads may not be good enough for the assistant to understand all queries, but the one found on the iPhone 4 has been deemed compatible.