Thursday, February 25, 2016

Siri to OS X?

Ever since Apple introduced Siri voice control in the iPhone 4S, Mac users have been wondering: when's our turn? Well, that day might finally be near. Sources for 9to5Mac claim that Siri will be a "tentpole" feature of OS X 10.12, which is expected to show at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (usually in June) and release a few months later. Supposedly, it's almost as straightforward as what you see on iOS -- you only have to click a menu bar item or say "hey, Siri" to start issuing commands. It's not clear if there will be any Mac-specific features, but the tipsters warn that the interface could easily change between now and the introduction.

There's nothing to confirm the leak yet, so take it with a grain of salt. However, it's easy to see Apple making this move. Although the company beat Microsoft to the punch in the mobile voice command wars, Windows 10 shipped with a built-in voice assistant (Cortana) last July -- Apple has some ground to make up in the desktop space. If it does, though, it's good news for the industry as a whole. You won't have to be picky about your choice of platform if you want to control your computer from across the room.

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