- Siri mac os sierra how to#
- Siri mac os sierra update#
- Siri mac os sierra windows 10#
- Siri mac os sierra software#
- Siri mac os sierra windows#
And things become frankly infuriating when Siri understands that you want to dictate a message to Andrew, say, and begins transcribing the message with the words "Hi Andrea"! After the fifth attempt you may just type the message, which defeats the point. The trouble is if you're asking Siri to read emails from Jon and it looks for John, you won't get far. How often does someone introduce themselves to you and when you repeat their name back they say something quite different? Anyway, names are a voice-activated assistant's nightmare.īest laptop 2021: Top general and premium notebooks for working from home and more
Siri mac os sierra software#
Still, this is early software and it'll certainly improve. Asking how much storage space was simple but "How old is this Mac?" foxed Siri into saying "Interesting question" which wasn't so helpful. This kind of multi-tasking is properly time-saving. That means if you are typing a document and need that system info, one mouse click to the dock and you can instruct Siri to find that system information while you continue to work on that document. You can easily do more than one thing at at time with Siri.
Siri mac os sierra how to#
Sure, you know how to find this on your iPhone but checking on the Mac might take more clicks. Unless you regularly refer to it, there is a good chance you might not know how fast your Mac's processor is or how much iCloud storage you have left, for instance. Though you can click the button again and say "Play music from Simon and Garfunkel", say. But it then closes the Siri window, so you can't also ask it to play a music track. If you ask Siri to launch iTunes, it can do that. You can then follow up with a request to change or cancel it, if you wish. Of course you can also do things like launching apps or setting calendar meetings easily, just like on the iPhone.Īsk Siri what your next appointment is and it'll show you. This is one of the most useful benefits of Siri, that it can search the hard drive quickly, and it has really speeded up our work flow while we've been using it. It's good at locating individual files whether they're documents or notes (or others) if you know the title or when they were created or modified. "Show me the documents folder" and "Show me emails I received yesterday" or even "Find me files with Giraffes in the title" work well and can save some searching. One of the differences between the iPad and the Mac is file management so it's good that Siri can be used for finding files and opening them on the Mac. Cortana is always ready to respond, too, mind. Let's not get picky here and point out that it's not great to end a sentence with a preposition. No surprise here: a Siri window appears with that familiar beep, the microphone is listening and text reads: "What can I help you with?". You lazy thing.įor now, you wake Siri up by clicking on the elegant Siri icon in the Dock, or the one at the top right of the menu bar or using a keyboard shortcut: Command + Spacebar and hold. The benefit, of course, is that if you're sitting on the other side of the room you can control the laptop without getting up.
Siri mac os sierra windows#
Note that on Windows PCs there's an option for voice activation by saying "Hey Cortana". This might be Apple's way of stopping all your other Apple devices on your desk springing to your assistance. This is a shame, so let's hope such a feature will be activated in the future. To wake your personal assistant you can't just say "Hey Siri" as you can with the iPhone and iPad. Many Mac users will be familiar with using the Dictation program currently on the Mac, so if you're a Dictation user, Siri may be for you. Listening to Radio 4 at the same time, or some other voice-based station, leads to chaos. Talking to your laptop doesn't suit every situation - a crowded office is probably right out. First things first, Siri feels like a confident and powerful program that mostly worked well. And Google users on phone and tablet especially are familiar with searching using their voice.
Siri mac os sierra windows 10#
Of course, Windows users will point out that its voice assistant, Cortana, has been on laptop and desktop computers with Windows 10 for a while now. Is this a lame attempt to add voice commands that we'll use once and then forget about? Or is it the beginning of the world where we address our computers as comfortably as Jean-Luc Picard did in Star Trek? Siri is not alone This is what it's been like, for the last two weeks, living with Siri. One stands head and shoulders above the others though: the voice recognition-powered personal assistant Siri, familiar to users of the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, is now coming to the Mac.Īhead of the public beta of Sierra, available now from, Pocket-lint was given special extended access to the first version of the new software.
Siri mac os sierra update#
(Pocket-lint) - The upcoming update for Apple's computers (it's called Sierra and OS X is now called macOS, do keep up) has already announced lots of new features.