The Siri hatchet job from WSJ

The Wall Street Journal did a complete hatchet job on Siri this week this week in an article entitled “‘I’m Not Sure I Understand’—How Apple’s Siri Lost Her Mojo”. I use Siri, and yes, I’ve had issues with the responses sometimes, but it’s not at all as bad as what this article implies. In fact, Siri has improved significantly over the past little while.

Siri has remained largely a feature of the iPhone, although it is also available on a handful of other Apple devices, including the Apple Watch.

Well, that’s divisive of Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. I use Siri on all of my devices.

Some former executives, close observers and even devoted customers say Apple’s innovative power appears to be waning, stymied by a lack of urgency and difficulty bringing ideas to fruition.

So people that left the company or were forced out, and I don’t even know what hell a “close observer” is.

Apple will enter the home-speaker market a distant third, at best.

Reporters like this scoffed at the iPhone and iPad too. How did that turn out for you?

In nearly six years under Chief Executive Tim Cook, Apple’s stock has soared but the company has not delivered a breakthrough product on par with the string of hits under late founder Steve Jobs, which included the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Ugh, I hate when people do this. Yes Steve released some amazing products, and Tim has and will continue to, as well. Name me one company that has released a product on par with the iPhone since it was released—there isn’t one. Most companies have one or two major releases in their history, Apple has had multiple. They will continue to work on new products and release innovative products, so don’t bring up Steve and think you’re making a major point because you’re not.

Another thing to consider is that Apple values its customers privacy. I appreciate that. While the article describes it as being “hamstrung”, I think Apple’s commitment to the privacy of its customers should be commended.

I had the chance to hear Apple’s HomePod this week and it was incredible. I’m not sure yet how Siri will work with HomePod, but I’ll add it to the products that I’ll use Siri on a lot. It also kicked the Amazon Echo’s ass in music playback quality.

Can Siri be better? Absolutely. Is it going to get better? Absolutely.

I’m not sure what the WSJ’s reason was for writing such an unbalanced piece of shit, but damn, this article sucked.