The iPad will get Siri in iOS 6, according to CNET:
Citing “trusted sources,” Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac says the voice assistant will land on the tablet this fall with nearly all the features currently found on the iPhone 4S, short of making phone calls.
“Music playback, iMessaging, Calendar managing, Reminders, Weather, Maps integration, E-mailing, Notes, Contacts searching, Safari integration, Wolfram-Alpha searching, and more are all present,” the report claims.
Not so fast. Siri requires an internet connection to be useful. For the iPhone, Siri makes sense because, in theory, an iPhone always has an internet connection available – preferably wifi if it’s an option, but a cellular connection if not – 4G, 3G, EDGE. iPads aren’t like that. Many iPads are only wifi-capable. Of those that have cellular data capabilities, many of them don’t have data plans in any given month.
How do you think an old person who doesn’t know a lot about computers would feel if he took his wifi iPad to a public place and then tried to use it to ask Siri for directions, but Siri told him to fuck off because she couldn’t access the maps information online?
Siri on an iPad would have to address the reality that many iPads are not connected to the internet much of the time. By including Siri on iPads in iOS 6, Apple would be sending the message that you shouldn’t buy a wifi iPad, or a cellular data iPad without a data plan. But then, why make wifi-only iPads available at all?
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