Siri

Not many real-world assistants will help you find a movie to watch anymore, or look up who is in it and how well it's rated for you, not even Siri on iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. With iOS 6, however, Siri is not only opening on the iPad, but its becoming a veritable movie buff to boot.

As any good personal virtual assistant should, Siri on iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S has always been okay at finding you places to eat and drink. Now, with iOS 6, Siri is hitting the iPad, and adding even more restaurant savvy to its repertoire, including all the information you need to pick a place, and even the ability to reserve you a table.

We've talked about iOS 6 and it's unusual focus at length already, but it's been in bits and pieces, scattered across a range of articles, and tangential to other points. I think it's valuable to collect it all together, though. Unlike any full point release before it, iOS 6 is more about Apple, their platform, and its future, than it is present user attraction. And it's worth collecting that, exploring why it is, and looking at what it means for iOS users.

Siri, as introduced in iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S, is an able if not particularly well-rounded personal assistant. With iOS 6, however, Siri is expanding to the iPad, and adding sports to its repertoire. Now, in addition to keeping you in contact, on time, on course, and on schedule, Siri will also serve you up the latest scores.

Nuance has just announced Nina, a new virtual customer service assistant SDK (software developers kit) for iOS and Android. Nuance, which is widely believed to power Apple's Siri voice recognition, is aiming the SDK at iPhone and iPad developers who want to quickly and easily add voice assistance to their App Store apps. And while Siri understands what you're saying and the context in which you're saying it,Nuance claims Nina uses voice biometrics to understand just who exactly is doing the talking.

Apple has begun airing a new iPhone 4S commercial, again focusing on celebrities using Siri and this time featuring director Marty Scorsese having a busy day. The ad continues the campaign begun with Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschenel, and a double dose of John Malkovich and highlights:

Siri is the name of Apple's virtual assistant with a personality straight out of Pixar. You ask Siri questions or ask Siri do to thing for you using your voice, just like you would ask a real assistant, and Siri will get to working helping you stay in touch, on time, and informed. There's even a related service called Dictation that lets you enter text almost everywhere with just your voice. Siri and Dictation are online services, so you need to be connected to the internet to use it.

Siri is still in beta, and is limited in the number of devices languages and locations it supports. Also, Siri is currently limited to the iPhone 4S, though Dictation also works on the new iPad and soon, the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion. Apple has announced, however, that Siri will be coming to the new iPad, along with several more languages, locations, and features with iOS 6.

We'll expand this guide to include all of that, and more, when it becomes available this fall. But here's what you can do right now:

Siri makes for a great personal assistant during the work day for performing tasks like solving mathematical equations and can also be used for entertainment purposes during down time by helping you find things on the Internet. Instead of manually entering Safari or another alternate browser, ask Siri to search the web. If you need the do some math quickly, forget your calculator app and just have Siri use Wolfram Alpha to figure it out for you.

Since Siri is meant to be your personal assistant, it only makes sense to have her schedule and manage your meetings and events. Asking Siri to create an event only takes a few seconds and is much faster than hand entering them. Whether you need her to schedule a meeting, tell you what's on the agenda for today, or move an existing meeting to another time or date, she'll help keep you on task.