“the primary question Apple had to answer at its annual developer conference this week was whether it could expand its worldview. Could it break free from the limiting perspective of individual devices?” Farhad Manjoo writes for The New York Times. “The answer: Yes, but slowly — and it’s hard to tell if Apple is thinking big enough.”
“Analysts and developers were expecting big improvements to Siri. Apple did show off a way for some apps to integrate with Siri and for Siri to perform a few new functions on Apple TV; Siri also found a new home on Macintosh computers. But the way Apple presented the changes, with each Siri advance positioned as a feature of one of Apple’s devices, left unclear what Apple’s ultimate aims were for the voice assistant,” Manjoo writes. “Siri is still hopelessly tied to each Apple device. Siri on your iPhone doesn’t really know anything about Siri on your Mac or Apple TV. On each device, Siri has different capabilities: On your iPhone it can call an Uber, if you have the Uber app installed, but Siri on your Mac can’t. Siri on your Apple TV can search YouTube for clips of Stephen Curry, but Siri on your iPhone can’t.”
“For now, this isn’t a big problem — you will learn what Siri can do on each device and adjust your queries accordingly. But that’s a curious thing to have to do” Manjoo writes. “If Siri is an intelligent assistant, why does she need to be tied to apps you have installed on your device? Why can’t she call Uber from the cloud, regardless of which device you happen to be using?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good questions. Why isn’t there “Continuity for Siri?” Do you know and/or remember what you can ask Siri on your iPhone vs. your Apple TV?
Because privacy. Siri could cross the divide between devices, but since iCloud is not fully encrypted, it it the weak link. I’ll bet there will Continuity for Siri deep learning once the encryption is fully in place.
We’re talking about the iCloud that Apple rents from Amazon and Google, right? Do you honestly believe that these fine partners are above datamining your stuff? iCloud is never going to be secure because all encryption can be hacked.
The iCloud user agreement is clear: What you put in the iCloud is not guaranteed to be private, secure, or retrievable. It’s long past time that people wake up and realize how fragile the goddamn cloud is. NEVER rely on it for anything important.
Great, creepy points about Amazon and Google datamining.
But NOT all encryption can be hacked, if it is performed correctly and safely. In this case, however, count on your data being visible to everyone.
One trick I use is to backup to the cloud an password protected, encrypted sparse bundle disk image I made in Apple’s Disk Utility. No one is getting into that data but me. I don’t even write down the password.
Good idea to have cross-device Siri.
But howabout Siri leap way outside the box and know what’s going on in the aether of time and space? That’s why I propose that every Apple device have installed a pink quartz crystal soldered directly to a dedicated Siri CPU. That way we can ask questions like:
‘Hey Siri! Tell me my fortune.’
‘Hey Siri! Before he died, where did Grandpa hide his box of gold and diamonds?’
‘Hey Siri! Should I send $40,000 to that prince in Nigeria?’
‘Hey Siri! What’s today’s lottery number?’
And so forth. That would shut up all the Siri critics! And how!
“Siri is still hopelessly tied to each Apple device. Siri on your iPhone doesn’t really know anything about Siri on your Mac or Apple TV. On each device, Siri has different capabilities: On your iPhone it can call an Uber, if you have the Uber app installed, but Siri on your Mac can’t. Siri on your Apple TV can search YouTube for clips of Stephen Curry, but Siri on your iPhone can’t.”
I don’t believe we know whether or not Siri will have Continuity. I expect there will be some. I also expect as iOS “merges” with macOS or the mythical hybrid appears in which we can run iOS apps on the Mac, you will be able to order your Uber on your Mac. Since developers have access to Siri on the Mac now, all sorts of apps could appear leveraging siri on the Mac. It would take Uber what, a day to create an uber plugin for Siri?
Some continuity makes sense in the different environments, some does not and to me it is actually preferable that Siri have a sense of Context as well as Continuity.
I’m almost certain that Siri on the Mac will allow making phone calls in the same way that Siri on the iPad does. On the iPad you just say “Hey Siri, Call yada yada” and she reaches out to your phone and does so. And you have your conversation through the iPad. I love that part of continuity. You’ll be able to do the same on the Mac.
I already answer most of my calls on my Mac now.
The important thing to remember here is that Apple has recognized that they aren’t going to do all of this and have opened it up to developers. That’s going to speed up development in these services.
I don’t think it has anything to do with privacy at all. Siri already has access to your calendar, your email, and your messages. It will have that on iOS and macOS and watchOS but does it really need that on AppleTV? Maybe, so Apple could address that.
If Apple comes out with a home Siri unit, it will have all the same capabilities as the iOS and Mac. And probably others.
I’m curious how continuity using your mac to call someone accesses contacts on Family accounts.. Does it search all connected iPhones in the Family?