Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

The iPhone 5’s Assistant application might steal its thunder

By

voice controlTomorrow we’re going to hear a lot of new things about the state of the iPhone. All sorts of projections have been made and speculation has hit a fever pitch. But one thing we’ve already heard quite a bit about is deservedly getting some renewed praise before the iPhone 5 launch, the Assistant.

When Apple first began talking about its iOS 5 upgrade, one of the features we all keyed into was a built-in application called Assistant. Assistant will supposedly bring fully-integrated, native voice control to the iPhone 5 thanks to Apple’s acquisition of Siri.

Recommended Videos

IPhone owners might think the current state of voice control is adequate, but according to Siri’s co-founder Norman Winarsky, the lengths Assistant will take this to are staggering. In an interview with 9to5Mac, Winarsky says the launch of Assistant is a “world-changing event.”

Related

He prefaces this by saying he has “no knowledge of what Apple plans to do with the Siri purchase,” but that it is very clear the company plans to introduce the first real step toward commercially available Artificial Intelligence with Assistant. “This is real A.I. with real market use,” he says.

Winarsky says this is the beginning of “another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.”

Steve Jobs certainly thought so. He scooped Siri up for more than $200 million a few years back after it had barely been on the market. When the company first launched, Robert Scoble touted is as the “best example of what the Web will be,” and from the sounds of what it is capable of we’re inclined to agree.

Assistant will make it possible not only to interact with your iPhone more efficiently, but with outside apps as well. Siri amassed an impressive list of APIs that Assistant will assumedly have access to, meaning you can request information from a variety of popular apps which the built-in service will be able to find for you. An example of Assistant’s capabilities: You could request Assistant find you the nearest Thai restaurant, and then ask it to make you a reservation. It hooks into the OpenTable API and books the table for you at your requested time.

Now if Apple has made Assistant a priority (and given the hype, we’re hoping it has), we’d assume it’s adding to the list of 40 or so application APIs Siri originally had access to. Maybe this has something to do with the deep Facebook integration that’s rumored to hit the iPhone 5—you’d be able to ask Assistant to access things your Facebook friends are sharing and recommending for your scheduling purposes.

If this is the case, and the scope of its capabilities are as wide as we believe, than Assistant could easily steal a little spotlight from the iPhone 5 itself.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Molly McHugh
Molly McHugh
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
I lost my iPhone on a dream vacation — and it wasn’t a nightmare
Photo of Spain.

Our trip to Spain and Morocco, which my wife, Julie, had meticulously planned for 15 months, started off rather inauspiciously on June 25. After arriving in Chicago from Portland, Oregon, we learned that our connecting flight to Newark, New Jersey, had been canceled due to weather concerns. As we waited in line for two-and-a-half hours to talk to a United Airlines agent, we were told via text by a customer service rep that we might be stuck in the Windy City for two days.

A 30-year Spanish teacher, Julie was on the verge of fulfilling a lifelong dream of visiting Spain. Now, several activities were in danger of being erased from her bucket list as her worst fears about the trip were being realized. When we finally made it to the service desk, our hope was all but snuffed out. We explained the situation to the agent, who spent several minutes looking at his computer wordlessly. He eventually looked up and said: "I can you get out on a flight tonight."

Read more
How to fast charge your iPhone
iPhone 12 Mini with charger

While they may not be some of the longest-lasting smartphones on the market, modern iPhones boast more than respectable battery life that should be able to get you through an entire day's use without breaking too much of a sweat. Of course, that assumes a lot of things — including a battery that's still relatively new and in good health, plus a usage pattern that doesn't include all-day streaming or gaming.

If you fall into either (or both) of these categories, then overnight charging isn't going to cut it, and you'll want to get your battery topped up again as quickly as you can so you can get back on the road. Thankfully, every iPhone released in the past six years supports much faster charging, but the downside is that with very few exceptions, Apple has never supplied you with the right adapter to get the best possible charging speeds from your iPhone.

Read more
These are the only 2 reasons I’m excited for the iPhone 15 Pro
The App Library on the iPhone 14 Pro.

It’s peak summer right now, though fall is just around the corner with back-to-school season on the horizon. With that also comes Apple’s annual iPhone event.

This year, we are definitely expecting the iPhone 15 lineup, as well as Apple Watch Series 9, and maybe a new Apple Watch Ultra. The rumors for the iPhone 15 series have been going strong for months, though there has also been a lot of back-and-forth too, mostly relating to the iPhone 15 Pro models.

Read more