>Siri, Google Now, or Cortana are on the verge of becoming something quite useful.

That one of those things that are going to be down to personal preference. Personally I don't see voice as a suitable interface for anything. I get that for some minor tasks voice is going to be fast, but for larger workflows voice isn't a fast input or feedback method. If you don't have a screen in front of you, you'll need to keep a mental image of your actions, which seems to just make things harder. If you do have a screen then I don't get why you wouldn't have a keyboard and mouse to.

Honestly I just don't want to talk to my computer (or phone), I don't see it as an efficient input device. I still haven't tried Windows 10, but when I do the first thing I will be looking for is a way to make Cortana disappear. It's creepy as hell and not how I want to use a computer. Mostly is seems like a technology we implement be science fiction says we should.

Arguably there's are cases where voice is better, simply because it really is the only option, car stereos and navigation for example. It's really the only safe option.

I can see it now, an open plan office, 100 developers with noise cancelling headphones on, yelling at their computers because they can't tell how loud they are.

In the movie Her, there were several office scenes and a subway? scene with Joaquin Phoenix talking in a low voice to his computer. You probably need a directional noise canceling microphone, but not headphones. In the last link that I gave, there is a recommended microphone that Tavis Rudd uses.

I was very excited for Siri-Apple Music integration but I switched back recently. Queries like these didn't work:

    * Play top songs from 2010
    * Play some indie rock music 
    * Play Rihanna's most popular song
    * Play this month's top songs

Aside poor voice recognition, even after it got the input right, outcome was terrible.

Siri is very good, but not good enough to fix pop music from the last decade.

Before mocking me pay attention that those are samples. Music I listen to has nothing to do with it. I'm not here to tell people what I'm listening to.

I'm sorry, I was not mocking you, nor your music tastes. I was just making fun of the idea that you can be understood by a piece of software, yet be unhappy with the results. (Especially when it comes to music)

Think about saying: Siri: Play the best song from Justin Bieber.

And maybe being a bit disappointed that it is not quite as awesome as, say, a Led Zeppelin song...

Voice recognition is good as long as you speak english without a strong accent, which is a bit limiting for non-native speakers.