“Apple has popularized some revolutions in how we use personal computers in its time: the graphical interface, the mouse, and the touch screen, for example,” Tom Simonite writes for MIT Technology Review.
“Tuesday could see the company add to that list of milestones in man-machine interaction by letting users control a computer by having a conversation with it,” Simonite writes. “Apple’s new boss, Tim Cook, will take the stage at the company’s California headquarters to announce the latest updates to the company’s products. Apple’s invite to the event says only ‘Let’s Talk iPhone,’ but the Internet rumor mill has decided that Cook will announce two things: a fifth model of the iPhone; and a voice-activated ‘Assistant’ for iPhone and iPad devices, based on an impressive app called Siri that was bought by Apple last year.”
Simonite writes, “Making it simple to set up calendar invites or find a nearby movie just by conversing with your iPhone or iPad would break new ground. It’s also the kind of achievable revolution that Apple is known for… If it does arrive on Tuesday, it will likely condense a boatload of technology into one simple thing: a computer interface you converse with. If done well, that could see Apple once again shift what it means to use a computer… Questions remain in my mind, though, about the limits Apple will have placed on Assistant to have it live up to the company’s own high standards. Creating a voice-based interface is easy, but creating one that, in Steve Jobs’s words, “just works” is not.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
