Some of us have suspected for a while that Apple was developing something to compete with the Amazon Echo line of products. New details to add fuel to the fires of speculation came out recently, and now we’re thinking that Cupertino’s Siri speaker might look remarkably similar to the Mac Pro.
There Will Always Be Leaks
As secretive as Apple is, there are almost always leaks. This time, though, we actually have a name to the leaker – a certain Sonny Dickson. Mr. Dickson shared details with Mashable’s Jen Ryall, who posted much of the information via Twitter.
More claims from @SonnyDickson on Apple’s Alexa competitor:
– Think Mac Pro style.
– Same style UE boom mesh.
– Possible release WWDC.
2/2— Jen Ryall (@jennijenni) April 28, 2017
This isn’t the first time Mr. Dickson has unveiled Apple’s secrets. The young man from Ocean Grove, Australia seems to have great connections, and was the first to release photographs of the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPad mini 2, and the fifth-generation iPad. He was also the first person to reveal detailed images of the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5S. In 2015, he unearthed and divulged quite a bit of information about the Force Touch feature on the iPhone 6S. All that to say, the kid’s leaks seem to be legitimate.
What to Expect from the Siri Speaker
Mr. Dickson told Ms. Ryall that Cupertino is currently putting the finishing touches on the design of its Amazon Echo competitor. Expected to be marketed as a Siri and AirPlay device, the project is codenamed “B238” and will supposedly borrow design cues from the Mac Pro. Internally, the speaker is said to feature Beats speaker technology.
Mr. Dickson says the B238 is a round, “fat” device with a concave top where you will locate the physical controls. Speaker mesh similar to that used in the UE Boom will cover the round body of the device. Mr. Dickson says we should “think Mac Pro style” when imagining what the Siri speaker will look like.
The device would allow you to use Siri without your iPhone or iPad, and I expect it would allow quite a few of the HomeKit features that currently depend upon a fourth-generation Apple TV or newer iPad.
Coming Sooner Than You Might Expect
Mr. Dickson even revealed when the new Siri speaker is expected to debut. He informed Ms. Ryall of a possible release during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, slated to take place from June 5 to June 9 this year. We’ll certainly be waiting.
Isn’t it fascinating that the shape shown above has something in common with something center stage in the about-to-be-opened Apple Park?
When Siri becomes more useful—by an order of magnitude—a bigger speaker might be useful for the future iPad type device hanging in the kitchen advising how much spice to add to the recipe (when asked), advising on weather, calendar events, news,and so on, while timing what’s in the oven.
I like it. I’d buy one.
First, I don’t remember them ever saying such a thing, and second what digital assistant has access to my bank account because everything else you mentioned Siri would have access to.
So back to my standard beef when discussions lead to HomeKit bashing.
1) 95% of homes don’t have existing IOT hardware.
2) 90% of the major IOT things are homekit or have a homekit equivalent.
3) Many, (i’d even argue most) homekit devices are more secure because security is a design focus but also, they don’t have an unencrypted foot print. Most IOT devices rely on an external site to allow access, but if you configure as HomeKit, you never make a connection to those sites. You only control locally or through the VPN tunnel created between your device and your 4th gen AppleTV. My Hunter Fan’s are an excellent example. The app wanted me to register with their website for remote access but because homekit handles that for me, I never set this up and my fan’s don’t communicate with that site and are thus not available to attack through that vector.
Bottomline, Echo or Siri…… Siri All the way!
Very dubious.
First Apple has made a great fuss about how much better having your AI with you is than having one over there in the other room. True they have suddenly reversed direction in the past, but this is one area I think they’re right.
Second, Siri will need to get a LOT, like a power of ten, better before this would be useful. I don’t need a dedicated speaker in the room that I can ask “Who wrote the song ‘Muskrat Love”. I would like a device I could say ‘I don’t know what to do this weekend’ and it would look at my activity history, and what’s going on locally, my bank balance, and the weather, and suggest something. If Siri was to the point where I could converse with it, not just ask specific questions, then I’d use it a lot more. On my phone and, maybe even on a speaker or in the car, or wherever.