It's apparent that you don't see the value in having such a feature, and as such YOU never have to use it. But there are people with more active imaginations that see the potential in it. For instance, my iMac is in my bedroom and it doubles as my "entertainment center". It would be very nice if I could tell it a multitude of commands to control media playback from my bed at night.
Furthermore, having a second form of input would allow users to become truly "multi-tasking". While you're typing away on something, you could simply ask Siri to look something up for you without needing to break away from what you're typing. It's like having an assistant to do mundane tasks without you needing to drop focus on what you're doing.
Imagination works both ways. People that don't want Hey Siri on Mac don't want something that powerful always on and listening. They imagine Siri could be hacked or programmed by Apple to spy on us on behalf of the government or other evil agent. I think it should be off by default but there should be an ON switch for Hey Siri. Nevertheless, people will still be creeped out by the option even if it's not on for them.
Can it be always on? This would make a big difference I think and make it more of an echo competitor. I have an Echo Dot sat next to my Mac which I use for music. The reason I use it is because I don't have to be at the desk to activate it. Siri on my iMac could only replace this if were always on.
I would think they wouldn't allow "Hey Siri" functionality on a computer that may have an iPhone sitting right next to it. Your phone doesn't know your query is directed at the Mac.
On the other hand, with the new unlocking feature, they've shown the computer can recognize a nearby phone, so maybe they could turn off an "always listening" mode of Siri on the Mac if it knows your phone is close enough to hear your voice.
Given the end goal of seamless integration between all your devices, I would think something like this is likely, potentially with the option of selecting device priority. Also I wonder if we'll see an updated Apple Keyboard with a Siri button?
Does this mean the next mini will get a built in microphone? At the moment I won't be able to use Siri on my late 2012 mini!
I just wish Siri could do something as basic as opening applications. Something like, "Hey Siri, open Word." I still use keyboard commands using Quickkeys to open a number of applications. You would think OSX would have the capability to create shortcuts for opening applications. But I haven't found a way to do even that. Shouldn't Automator be able to do so? I never use it because it seems to require an extensive learning curve.
I just wish Siri could do something as basic as opening applications. Something like, "Hey Siri, open Word." I still use keyboard commands using Quickkeys to open a number of applications. You would think OSX would have the capability to create shortcuts for opening applications. But I haven't found a way to do even that. Shouldn't Automator be able to do so? I never use it because it seems to require an extensive learning curve.
MacOS has it's own built in quick shortcut: Alt-space, type "wo". I would never launch application from anywhere else including Siri even if she was capable of that. The quick shortcut alt-space to launch spotlight is the easiest and quickest way to launch any apps.
Comments
Imagination works both ways. People that don't want Hey Siri on Mac don't want something that powerful always on and listening. They imagine Siri could be hacked or programmed by Apple to spy on us on behalf of the government or other evil agent. I think it should be off by default but there should be an ON switch for Hey Siri. Nevertheless, people will still be creeped out by the option even if it's not on for them.