If you ask any one of my fellow editors who also follow any of my social media accounts, you’d learn that I have been spewing out a number of anti-Apple statuses and tweets over the past few weeks. The iPhone 5 is, in my opinion, a flop, and iOS 6 is essentially the same iOS that was released more than five years ago.
However, there is one addition to the iPad’s version iOS 6 that I think is a very revolutionary move – even if it doesn’t seem like it at first. That addition is Siri.
Historically, Siri has taken over the entire screen of the device using it, meaning that you couldn’t continue doing whatever it was that you were doing with your iDevice before Siri took over. That’s not the case on the iPad’s version of Siri. In fact, you can do most of what you were already doing while simultaneously using Siri – in other words, true multitasking.
I have never thought that any mobile operating system’s multitasking was real multitasking. I could switch from app to app, of course, but I couldn’t view two apps at the same time, which meant that looking something up from a magazine from iBooks would force me to close that app, open up Safari, search what I was looking for, and finally get back to reading.
Siri, to be frank, doesn’t truly help iOS’ lackluster multitasking. You still can’t scroll through the app you’re using when she comes up, but you can view it – which is why I think it’s so revolutionary.
Because now, you can look stuff up while you read about it, you can set alarms and other things while reading about them, too – you can do so much more now that Siri is just a popup versus a completely separate app. For instance, in the picture above, I didn’t feel like searching Pride of Detroit for the Lions v. Titans score, so I just asked Siri while I read a headline about Stafford’s millionth injury. After she told me the disappointing score, I simply tapped on the article and went into reading about his injured hamstring.
Compared to how iOS 5 utilized Siri, this is truly revolutionary. Granted, it may not match the level of multitasking we’re used to on traditional desktop operating systems – and Siri is still far away from being a search engine and hand replacement – but in my opinion, this is the first step towards that for mobile systems.
If you’ve used Siri on your iPad, what are your thoughts on it?
That’s neat. Ni need to have it take up the whole screen.
If you want true multitasking in a phone then try a Nokia n900 maemo device.
Get one quick off eBay because they’re the only real hacker’s phone.
it’s good to know that siri on the ipad is after all a very useful feature.
is the siri totally dependent on the internet or can it be used offline?
“The iPhone 5 is, in my opinion, a flop”……..Sorry it didn’t meet your standards. “managing editor” title is pretty funny.
I have never use Siri or S voice, it’s just not useful to me.
Siri as a pop-up? Brilliant! Why wasn’t this implemented sooner?
I wonder if they already patented a pop up voice assistant. Haha.
Doesnt Google Now do the same thing by showing you a notification? Not only for scores but weather, traffic, bus stops around you, etc, etc…
Presumably, whilst Siri is searching for your info your other app is frozen. In which case this isn’t multi-tasking. It is good that you don’t get chucked out of the app, but if you can’t continue to use it whilst Siri is doing something else for you then this isn’t revolutionary. Watching a video whilst browsing the internet or making a phone call whilst downloading software and accessing the internet is multi-tasking. This you can do on some Android phones. When Apple can do the same, then iOS will have caught up with Android. What has been described is making the best of a bad situation.
I have mucked around with Siri on my iPad, didn’t even think about the multi-tasking aspect. Granted, on phones or even 7″ tabs, I just don’t see there being enough screen real estate to accomplish true multi-tasking, but 10″ and larger tabs do have enough to have at least two windows side by side, or perhaps a cascade function.
Now that you mention it, with the Microsoft Surface and Windows 8 out soon, that will likely be one of its greatest strengths.