Thing 2 – Siri, I’m sorry, but you’re kind of stupid. Also, OMG emojis!

This time around, I’m checking out mobile thing # 2, mobile device tips. I’m new, although not unfamiliar, to smart phones. I finally purchased an iPhone 5C in December and have been playing with it ever since. I remember watching the commercials when Siri first became available on iPhones and thinking that it was unnecessary and creepy. When I bought my iPhone, I immediately turned Siri off.

Then, I recently watched the film, Her, and witnessed what the future of operating systems might look like. Keeping that in mind I followed some of the tips for iPhone related to Siri to see for myself. Siri didn't quite deliver. I found that it actually took me longer to do some actions via Siri than it would manually. I asked Siri to text a friend, but it took several tries for it to recognize the name. I tried to tell Siri who I was related to and how, but I kept having to go back and change relationship errors that Siri had made. It might take a little while to master the use of Siri, but I don't think I care enough to make the effort. I wonder what the future of Siri might look like. It would be cool, and a little creepy if the OS shown on Her became available in the new future.

I also looked at a few of the tips for my Nexus 7. I already knew most of them, but I am looking forward to exploring more apps. One thing I added to my phone was an emoji keyboard. Now I can embellish every text message with a silly little graphic. I had no idea there were so many to choose from! I expected to find the run of the mill collection of smiley faces, but no! there are graphics representing different holidays, foods, animals, hobbies, you name it. Luckily, what could (and probably is) become a huge time waster is manageable thanks to a feature that stores your most frequently used emojis on one page. I was also excited to add a french keyboard option which will allow me to accurately spell words when texting in french with a few friends who also know the language.