Best Buy teaches Wolfram Alpha (and Siri) new tricks

When it comes to Siri innovation, it's not just about work at Apple's end. Today, Wolfram Alpha introduced new shopping features built around Best Buy's public APIs. You can now use Siri queries to browse upwards of 35 thousand appliance and home computer products.

You can say "Wolfram, tablet computers", "Wolfram, LG washing machines" or "Wolfram iPhone 4S" and Siri returns price information. For individual models, you'll also find product images, specs, and features.

Wolfram's official blog explains, "We've taken the strengths we've developed in math, science, and socioeconomic data and created something equally unique and useful for online shoppers."

Just a final warning: It's really hard to say "Wolfram, iPhone 4S" correctly. On the Wolfram end of things, I've found that it's useful to make a slight pause after saying Wolfram, and that pronouncing it as "wool-from" makes Siri happy. For the 4S? Good luck, mate.

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Source: http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2011/12/15/shopping-goes-geek-w…

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When it comes to Siri innovation, it's not just about work at Apple's end. Today, Wolfram Alpha introduced new shopping features built...

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mickblu

I can happily (?) that it works in Canada too! I agree, it took some effort to get Siri to recognize "Wolfram iPhone 4s" but it did after 3 or 4 attempts.

December 19 2011 at 3:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael

Wolfram is fast transforming from a "knowledge engine" into an increasingly polluted information garbage dump.

December 17 2011 at 6:31 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

CARLOS

why you just don't say "best buy" and the name of a product.

December 16 2011 at 10:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nick

If I could post a pic directly on here you would be seeing a screen shot right now of Siri successfully registering "Wolfram Alpha iPhone 4S" then displaying said information...on the first try...with a loud tv playing in the background...

Just saying ;-)

December 16 2011 at 3:58 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

luxivore

I never knew that there were so many ways to mis-understand the word 'wolfram'. Siri is next to useless. Even for making a note/reminder; by the time I've repeated it 3 times so the stupid program can understand it and get it right, I might as well have typed it in. Great idea but I'm not sure I really want alpha-ware on my phone thanks.

December 16 2011 at 1:37 AM Report abuse Permalink -3 rate up rate down Reply