Report: Apple testing Siri voice control in iOS 5

By gbrzone, 26 July, 2011, No Comment

Apple could be working toward integrating their just-purchased, voice-controlled virtual assistant into the next version of their mobile OS.

If you were when Apple’s aquisition of Siri last April would start to pay dividends, it would seem that the answer will be found on the iPhone 5.

Information from a “reliable” source has revealed that an “Assistant” feature is currently being tested on the iPhone 5, 9to5Mac reports.

Since the feature has not shown up on beta builds of iOS 5 for the iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, it seems likely that such a feature would be an iPhone 5 exclusive – much like Apple did with Voice Control on the 3GS.

On the downside, since the service just recently went into beta testing, it might not be ready in time for the launch of the iPhone 5, which is expected to arrive this September.

Either way, if you’ve been using the free Siri Assistant app, chances are you already have access to all of the main features. 9to5Mac believes that the core functionalty of the virtual assisitant will remain the same (reminders, voice-activated queries, voice-activated tweets and the like), but will be fully integrated into iOS.

However, I’ve been dreaming of the day Apple finally adds voice recognition throughout iOS – like Google has with Android only it doesn’t suck most of the time. I’m thinking more like Dragon Dictation level accuracy. Hopefully the integration of Siri will be a move in that direction.

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