Let’s Talk iPhone: iOS 5 Siri Assistant Officially Unveiled

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As expected Apple announced today a new significant iOS upgrade, the Assistant feature that should offer iPhone 4S users an even-better, voice control based, smartphone experience. And it looks like Apple is calling this baby Siri instead of Assistant, which makes plenty of sense since the technology used to develop it has been developed by Siri, a company Cupertino purchased a while ago.

What will the Siri assistant be able to for you? Phil Shiller talked about it on stage during the “Let’s talk iPhone” event explaining that the app will be able to really understand you and answer questions like (when asking about weather only):

• What is the weather like today?
• Do I need an umbrella today?
• What’s the upcoming forecast?
• Is the weather going to get worse today?
• Will it rain in Cupertino?

That’s certainly impressive stuff as it seems the Siri assistant is a more than average app, one that can understand various questions and commands and deliver proper responses.

How does it work? Just hold down the Home button and start asking questions or input commands. Siri will react to your voice and deliver proper responses when:

• talking about the weather,
• telling the time in a different time zone,
• setting up an alarm,
• offering NASDAQ quotes,
• booking restaurant reservations,
• providing directions,
• read and reply to SMS messages,
• check and schedule calendar appointments,
• setup reminders,
• search the web for information,
• offer words definitions,
• convert foreign currency,
• answer various other simple questions.

When asked who Siri is it will provide a simple answer: “I am a humble personal assistant.”

Dictation is another important feature of the iPhone 4S. You can use it to write up fast emails, and messages, and it’s going to be available to iPhone 4S users, just as expected.

Siri and Dictation will work with natural, conversational language, over either 3G or Wi-Fi and it will support three languages at first, English (US, UK and Australia), French and German.