Siri learns new tricks in iOS 6 and comes to the new iPad, will launch apps and tell you that LeBron is taller than Kobe
Apple's voice-controlled assistant Siri might be still in beta, but that's the best time to learn, and it has been taught new tricks for iOS 6. It can now launch apps, which has been a highly requested feature from day one, so you just need to say "Play Temple Run', and it will launch the game, for example.
It will also make the sports sections in the newspaper obsolete, as it can directly be asked "How did the Rangers do last night?", and will return the result and game stats. You can even ask it sports trivia, like who's taller from LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, and it will size those two up and return the answer. The same goes for movies and actors trivia, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes, like asking Siri to recommend movies with Scarlet Johansson.
Next up is the partnership with Open Table and Yelp for restaurant and meal recommendations that you can use Siri for, and you can also make reservations directly from the results.
One of the most interesting new features is called Eyes Free, which will basically be a button in your car - yes, Apple has partnered with a number of vehicle makers to introduce this in their cars over the next 12 months - and you will be able to command Siri without looking, like tweeting while driving, pretty cool. The brands include BMW, GM, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda.
To top it all off, Siri is arriving for the new iPad in its full bloom, and has learned a number of new languages, like German Italian, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese and... ahem, Canadian. Not kidding, Scott Forstall even said "eh".
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