As bluetooth speakers have become more and more popular in the past couple years, iPod docks have become less and less prominent. Apple might be considering ushering in a new generation of home docks, however, only this time their main purpose would be to control Siri and not music.
Apple’s newly patented product is a “smart dock for activating a voice recognition mode of a portable electronic device.” Essentially, it will be a box that sits in your house that is always listening to you. As creepy as that sounds, the Siri Dock will ambiently listen to you as it awaits a predetermined term like “Okay, Siri” or something similar.
The purpose of this product is so that users can use Siri in their house at anytime without having to pull out their phone. Just start speaking to your Siri dock at anytime and it will automatically start listening in on your words as it awaits your command. Imagine being in your bed and you want to know what the weather’s like, but you can’t be bothered to move over and look out your window. Simply say “Siri, what will the weather be like today?” and Apple’s dock will seamlessly hear your question and answer it for you.
The dock would also include some other features with it like a clock and a radio. It would likely use your phone or tablet to actually power a lot of the technology, using the dock mainly as a communications tool with your primary iOS device.
A product like this sounds like it could be fairly cool, however, if you can only speak to the Siri dock while being in the same room as it, that doesn’t sound like it would be all that useful. If Apple made the product in a way where you could set up various cheap Siri docks/zones around your house so that you have complete Siri coverage wherever you are, then it could be really interesting.
