Voice control is the way of the future, or at least that’s what Apple (AAPL) wants people to believe. With the launch of Siri on last year’s iPhone 4S, Apple opened up a new world of using a natural language user interface to the masses. Today, Siri is on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad, and it will land on the new iPod touch, too. And with Apple’s rumored HDTV supposedly coming with a Siri-like interface, it seems fitting that the Cupertino-based company is also toying with the idea of a personal assistant on Mac computers.
PatentlyApple dug up a patent that suggests Apple might be working on adding Siri to OS X. According to the patent abstract: “The electronic device may process voice commands locally or voice commands processing may be performed remotely. For example, the electronic device may transmit one or more recorded voice commands and associated contextual information to computing equipment such as a desktop computer.”
The patent also adds “A media playback application on a computer such as the iTunes program of Apple Inc. may take an appropriate action in response to an uploaded voice command and associated contextual data. As an example, the media playback application may present a user with recommended songs for purchase. The songs that are recommended may be songs that are similar to the song that was playing on the electronic device when the user captured the audio clip voice command ‘find more like this.'”
In recent years, iTunes has become somewhat of a bloated mess with each major update adding new features. The redesigned iTunes 11 will clean the app up a little, but if Apple were to add Siri’s practical search capabilities to the app, it would be able to significantly simplify content discovery and media controls.
