At Apple’s annual WorldWide Developers Conference keynote today, CEO Tim Cook took the stage to detail the company’s plans for its upcoming hardware and software releases.
He opened the show by telling everyone that the company had some “really cool stuff” to show off, and he certainly kept his word.
Unfortunately, that cool stuff had nothing to do with the long-rumored iPhone 5.
Apple’s iOS is getting a makeover in iOS 6. The first thing Apple showed regarding the new mobile operating system was more advanced Siri virtual assistant features, including the snarky A.I.’s new ability to find sports scores online.
You can simply ask “Siri, what was the score of the Brewers game?” and she’ll find it for you.
Siri can also launch apps for you, assuming your library of games is too large to manual browse. Saying the name of a game or app will launch it, making the process perhaps slightly faster than clicking it yourself, though you’d have to be a real productivity nut to find this particular feature useful.
Believe it or not, iOS 6 includes a few new features for — gasp! — the phone application on the iPhone as well.
Now, when you receive a call and cannot take it you’ll be given the option to reply to the number that called you via text message, or even have your phone remind you later that you missed the call.
And for when the sun sets and you’re not longer on the clock, a new “Do not disturb” option lets you effectively silence any incoming messages or calls, but will still remind you of them when you awaken.
Despite all the new features, perhaps the biggest news from iOS 6 is that it will finally bring the virtual voice assistant Siri to Apple’s new tablet.
The newest version of the iPad (3rd generation) will have access to Siri voice commands when updated with iOS 6. Prior to this, the new iPad had voice dictation software, but no actual Siri functionality.
iOS 6 is being made available to developers right away, but won’t actually launch on consumer devices until later this year.
Leave a Reply