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"  Siri&amp;#039;s been earning quite a reputation. Ever since Apple debuted its voice-activated digital assistant in October 2011, critics have voiced their disappointment, with some posting snarky Youtube videos to lampoon her and a few going as far as filing class-action lawsuits alleging that Siri&amp;#039;s performance does not live up to advertising promises. But instead of griping that Siri doesn&amp;#039;t understand their needs or obey commands, some tinkerers have hunted down workarounds to bend Siri to their will or to create new uses of the assistant&amp;#039;s skill set. Here&amp;#039;s how you can hack Siri, without resorting to jailbreaking your iPhone. The Complaint: Siri won&amp;#039;t pull directions from Google Maps. The Solution: When Apple ditched Google&amp;#039;s map software in favor of its own, many users were frustrated by Apple Maps&amp;#039; less-than-accurate results. When Google finally offered a free standalone app for iPhone users, many rejoiced\u2014but soon realized that Siri still relied on Apple Maps when asked for directions. There is a way to get Siri to pull directions from the Google Maps app, but it takes an extra step. First, end your request for directions with the words &amp;quot;via transit,&amp;quot; as in &amp;quot;directions to Disneyland via transit.&amp;quot; Siri will then pull up a screen from the integrated map app but give you a list of all your other installed map apps as options, including Google Maps. Once inside Google Maps, tap the car icon to get driving directions. The Complaint: Siri misunderstands my words. The Solution: Presumably, Apple engineers are hard at work on upgrading Siri for future versions, expanding the assistant&amp;#039;s vocabulary or ability to understand your voice. But for now, you&amp;#039;ve got two options if you want Siri to start hearing you. The first is simple but not hands-free: You can edit the speech bubble where Siri records what it thought you said. At the top of the page, touch the portion in quotes. You&amp;#039;ve then got a cursor you can use to correct the mistakes and resubmit your request. You can also edit this speech bubble while you&amp;#039;re still talking if you&amp;#039;re pretty sure Siri&amp;#039;s just not going to get it on the first try. The second method involves taking some time to teach Siri. For often-used names that Siri constantly misunderstands, add phonetic pronunciations in your phone&amp;#039;s contacts. Open Contacts, then choose the name you want to fix. Go to Edit, and then scroll to the bottom and click Add New Field. There, you&amp;#039;ll see options to enter in a phonetic first name or a phonetic last name. Enter the name with a simple, English phonetic spelling. For instance, my favorite Cuban restaurant is called Versailles. Siri will help me order fried plantains only if I list the phonetic first name as &amp;quot;Vir Sigh.&amp;quot; The Complaint: Siri doesn&amp;#039;t play nice with social networks. The Solution: It will, but only after proper setup. Apple gives the assistant access to Facebook and Twitter for direct speech-to-text posts, many users still haven&amp;#039;t heard the news. Check that you&amp;#039;ve set up Facebook or Twitter in your phone&amp;#039;s settings (merely installing the mobile app is not enough). Once that&amp;#039;s done, all that&amp;#039;s required is the command &amp;quot;Post to Facebook&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Post to Twitter&amp;quot; followed by your status update. You can also say &amp;quot;Write on my Wall&amp;quot; followed by a Facebook message. If you have more than one Twitter account, Siri will automatically tweet from the most recently used account. Siri will also run apps. Say &amp;quot;Run Instagram,&amp;quot; and the app will pop right up. This wasn&amp;#039;t always the case. The Complaint: A thief can use personal information from Siri even if the iPhone is locked. The Solution: Yes, by default, Siri will work even if you haven&amp;#039;t entered the phone&amp;#039;s passcode. Siri won&amp;#039;t open apps if the phone is in a locked state, but it will access the address book and maps. However, you can put Siri on total lockdown. Go to Settings, then General, and finally Passcode Lock. Under Allow Access When Locked, you can switch Siri to Off. While you&amp;#039;re at it, why not switch off everything else under that category? You can make sure your highly sensitive Passbook is off-limits, as well as the Reply With Message function that lets you text someone while they&amp;#039;re calling your phone in lieu of answering the call. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/how-to/a8754/4-ways-to-mprove-your-relationship-with-siri-15239197/?click=pm_news>