Last week, to honor the long-delayed release of the new Siri, I gave it 125 tests. I issued queries ranging from “What’s my driver’s license number?” to “What are people waiting on me for?” You should read the whole thing, but here’s the punch line: It’s so much better than you think.
Today, I’m offering a postscript to that “Pogue’s Posts” post.
Usually, you trigger Siri by saying, “Hey Siri,” or by holding in the side button of the phone as you talk. (On the Mac, you press command-Space.) But there’s also a Siri app (on iPhone, iPad, Mac) whose primary function is keeping a running log of your requests. Today, I thought maybe I’d share mine, so you can see what Siri is like in practice.
I’ve deliberately picked a hectic 24-hour period from last week so that you can see the potential. The takeaway is that I’ve largely stopped opening apps. When I need something, I hold in the side button, ask my question, get the answer, and put the phone away. Often, people who witness it can’t believe what they’ve just seen.
(Here’s how to get AI Siri. It requires OS 27, and you have to turn it on in Settings > Siri.)
OK, here we go:
Wednesday 7 pm
Once a month, I join four buddies for a Dudes’ Night Out for dinner.
One of the guys hadn’t brought his reading glasses, so I handed him mine so he could read the menu. He joked that it was like the three old ladies from Greek mythology who had only one working eyeball among them. We all cracked up. “Was it the Muses?” someone said. I was like, “No, no—it was the Furies, right?”
And so I asked Siri: “Who are the three old women who shared one eyeball?”
Reply: “In Greek mythology, the three old women who shared one eyeball are the Graeae. Their names were Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo.” OK!
Later on, I tried Siri’s new bill-splitting feature: You take a picture of the bill and say “Split the bill.” Then you tap who had what, and the phone totals everyone’s bills.
Wednesday 10 pm
Tomorrow, I’ll be flying to the Texas Tribune Festival, where I’m supposed to give a talk. I’m on the festival schedule page, deciding which other talks I want to attend. When I see one that looks good, I say, “Add this to my calendar.”
Siri asks for confirmation and then adds it to my calendar. It puts everything into the right places: the location winds up in the Location field, and the description and speaker names appear in the Notes box. Wow, man.
Thursday 9 am
I’m running around packing. As I’m wrapping a power cord, with no hands available and not a lot of time, I ask my watch: “Hey Siri—what time’s the flight again?”
Siri: “Delta Air Lines 2323 from New York to Austin is scheduled to depart at 11:15 AM.”
Thursday 11 am
My son Jeffrey is a college senior. After a summer job overseas, he’d shipped his stuff back home in a box. It finally arrived last week—10 days after he’d already returned to school!
So as I wait for the flight, I text him. Maybe, he suggests, I could bring the box to him on Parents’ Weekend.
Me: “When is Brown parents’ weekend?”
Siri: “Brown University’s Family Weekend is scheduled for October 23 to 25, 2026. Would you like me to add this to your calendar?”
And wait: Maybe I could make a stop to visit my older son Kell on the way!
Me: “How long is the drive from home to Providence if I stop in Middletown?”
Siri: “The drive to Middletown, Connecticut takes about 3 hours and 9 minutes. From Middletown to Providence, Rhode Island, it is about another 1 hour and 47 minutes. This makes the total driving time roughly 4 hours and 56 minutes, excluding the duration of your stop.”
Also: During this chat, I correct an iPhone dictation transcription error by voice. “Change ‘except’ to ‘accept.’” Siri changes the word like magic. (You can also just change your mind about what you’ve dictated. “Change ‘deep-fried onion rings’ to ‘garden salad.’”)
In the olden days, I would have had to correct the error by long-pressing my finger on the little Space bar, sliding it around precisely, deleting and retyping the word. Never again!
Thursday 2 pm, Texas Time
As my wife and I check into the hotel, the desk agent asks if I have an Omni Select Guest number. Oh god—do I?!
There are people in line behind me. I’m not about to make them wait while I wake the phone, open Notes, and fumble around doing a search.
So I just say: “What’s my Omni Hotels number?”
Siri: “Your Omni Hotels number is 28384885.”
Now we have to pick up our badges. I’ve got mine, but where do we pick up Nicki’s guest badge? Sigh.
Me: “Can you find the email about Nicki’s Texas Tribune registration?”
Siri: “I found an email from the Texas Tribune Festival Team regarding a companion ticket for your wife, Nicole Pogue.”
Thursday 2:30 pm
We sit down to watch an onstage interview with the editor of the Washington Post. Before it starts, I’m chatting with a young guy next to me. Our conversation turns to Apple. He mentions that he recently got to meet Tim Cook, and even got a selfie. He shows me.
Me, not to be outdone: “Bring up the photo of me with Tim Cook.”
Siri: “I couldn’t find any photos of you with Tim Cook in your library.” Really, Siri!? (OK, fine: Tim Cook is not a named person in my Photos collection. But still.)
I try another way: “Bring up photos of me at Apple Park.”
This time, Siri has no problem. We crack up at the meta-ness of this moment.
Thursday 4:15 pm
By the time the Post panel ends, it’s 5:15 pm in my head (New York time) and I’m starving. I run out of the building, desperate to get something into my stomach before the next panel.
Me: “Where’s the closest food of any kind?”
Siri: “The closest spot is Farmer’s Fridge, which is about 450 feet away.” A map appears. It’s literally around the corner!
I bolt through the 98-degree air and arrive—at the J.J. Pickle Federal Building. Siri was directing me to a Farmer’s Fridge vending machine, which is fine. But it’s inside a locked and secure government building, which is not fine.
I wind up running another block to the hotel.
Thursday 6:30 pm
Figuring out where to go to dinner.
Me: “What was the name of the barbecue restaurant we went to last time we were in Austin?”
Siri: “Based on your photos from Austin, the barbecue restaurant you went to Terry Black’s BBQ.”
Based on my photos!? That’s nuts. (Later, I found the shot.)
I’m telling Nicki about the guy who’ll be interviewing me in my session on Saturday. I mention that when he introduced himself by email, he’d cited a surprising bunch of things we have in common. We both grew up in Ohio, both became Mac nuts, both went into TV news.
“What did he do in TV?” Nicki asks.
Me: “Josh Rubin said he worked for CNN. What was his role?”
Siri: “In an email from September 11, 2026, Josh Rubin mentioned that he worked as a CNN political producer from 2005 to 2014.”
Thursday 8 pm
By now, the temperature has dropped by a good 15 degrees. It’s pleasant. We’ve chosen a lovely Mexican restaurant outside of town. The server is kind enough to take a photo of us as we wrap up our day in Austin. She uses my phone.
The shot looks great. “Can you send me that?” Nicki says.
Me: “Send this to Nicki.”
And off it goes.
The takeaway
As you can see by the Farmer’s Fridge food fail, the new Siri doesn’t always get it right. But overall, it’s an enormous leap in efficiency and precision. It’s a personal assistant, a second brain, a ChatGPT of your own life.
You just have to will yourself to use it. After 19 years of performing the unlock-phone/open-app/search routine, you’ll need some time to acclimate.
But once you’re used to it, you see the future. Suddenly, the screen isn’t really that important. Suddenly, you understand why Apple’s latest projects are said to be screenless: They’re glasses, earbuds, and smart speakers, for example.
Did you ever see the movie Her, in which Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with his AI assistant (voiced by Scarlett Johansson)? In the near future of that movie, everybody wears AI earbuds. People’s faces aren’t buried in their screens all day long. Eye contact is a thing again. Everyone has a little pocket screen for quick glances at a map or a photo, but they pull it out only rarely.
Thanks to the new AI Siri, that sci-fi world just got a hell of a lot more plausible.
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This has been another exciting episode of “Pogue’s Posts,” my weekly take on technology, interface design, and life. When you subscribe, it comes to you by email—free, ad-free, and unsubscribable at any time.
I wouldn’t blame Siri for the “Farmer’s Fridge food fail.” After all, you asked for “the nearest food of any kind,” not “the nearest currently accessible food of any kind”! So, like Obi-Wan, Siri was correct from a certain point of view.
Interesting but a mixed bag. I'd rather hear the wind in the trees around, dogs barking or let my mind wander as I walk, rather than have earbuds running my life. An exaggeration, I know, but not that much.