Systems Report: Apple’s fresh Siri just works. Why can’t Copilot?

The report highlights that it is always on time. So it is again with Apple’s revamp of Siri, and its integration into MacOS. Apple’s secret is that, like the Queen of England, it is never early, and never late.

As part of the ongoing story, in fact, the fresh Siri has none of the agentic AI capabilities a la OpenClaw that dominate today’s headlines. Nothing Apple showed in its opening WWDC keynote felt particularly groundbreaking.

The report highlights that it’s something that Windows has tried to do, flinched away from, and still doesn’t quite accomplish. Instead, Apple simply showed AI capabilities working across its various operating systems and applications, almost entirely in the service of productivity.

According to the latest update, (I think Microsoft’s in-person Windows Insider showcase was just as worthwhile.). “Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people, all of us, that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of programs engineering, rather sanctimoniously told the camera in Apple’s pre-recorded video.

In a fresh development, apple wasn’t deliberately late to AI—it was simply late. Indeed, if Apple had been on the cutting edge, it wouldn’t be partnering with Google Gemini for its AI services. But for better or worse, Apple simply understands that you don’t need to be first into the market. Remember how the iPod completely upended the pre-existing digital MP3 early adopter space? All Apple needs to do is to provide a better, holistic, superior experience, and people respond. C’mon.

According to the latest update, and from what I saw today, Apple is at it again.

Industry observers note that spotlight used to perform search queries, unearthing relevant information across a variety of applications. Now Siri is a part of that, too, adding additional context. Take the simplest entry point: Apple’s Spotlight application.

In a fresh development, windows Run can quickly arrival applications. Command Palette, part of the optional PowerToys suite of utilities, is a nifty way to find files. Yet neither has any particular intelligence attached to them. Yes, Windows has an answer to that… in various pieces scattered around Windows.

In a fresh development, however, the Copilot app within Windows ( Win + C) can’t natively search your files. If you open File Explorer and right-click a file or files, one of the massive number of options you’ll see is to “Ask Copilot” about the contents of the file—just one, from what I can see.

The report highlights that the Windows Copilot application can’t access your files. Windows Search and now File Explorer actually can search your files, and intelligently so, thanks to the same semantic search that Apple uses, where you can type “a photo of a man holding two laptops” and receive the right answer. But you just sort have to know that Microsoft added that capability a couple of months ago. So, to put it another way: Command Palette can’t really search files intelligently.

In a fresh development, copilot Vision can as well… or did, before Microsoft made it easier to turn off the capability in a recent patch. Again, with Microsoft, it’s just never simple! Siri can understand what’s on your screen.

In a fresh development, if Microsoft had a viable smartphone ecosystem, it too could show off nifty little tricks like snapping a photo of a lunch receipt and figuring out who ate each entree. Microsoft also relies on you to add your Android phone to Windows via Phone Link, rather than simply absorbing it into the ecosystem as Apple does.

The report highlights that i think most shoppers would open up multiple Web tabs and ask an AI to perform the same comparison, which Microsoft Edge can now do. What I really liked was the analysis Siri performed across several files, analyzing which would be the better solution.

The report highlights that that’s something that consumers seem to like about ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and others: the ability to make sense and provide assistance to solve problems with a lot of moving parts. But Apple’s demonstration showed how such comparisons could be performed locally, with an emphasis on privacy and local intelligence.

In a fresh development, time and again, Apple showed how Siri could hunt down and discover the proper result to even a vague request, digging through messages and email. And Microsoft can do that! One of Apple’s great strengths is its ability to frame the problem.

According to the latest update, recall might have worked, but Microsoft fumbled the ball by not locking down the stored screenshots, which already had the smell of spyware from the beginning. But instead of poring through stored messages, Microsoft’s Windows Recall used screenshots instead.

In a fresh development, in the Windows global stage, however, people start grabbing torches and pitchforks. In Apple’s ecosystem, slurping up that data is perceived as a positive.

In a fresh development, but when Microsoft takes a user’s request for additional context and debuts Copilot, it’s seen as an intrusion. Apple has one Siri; Microsoft has…many. In Apple’s global stage, integrating Siri, which acknowledges a request and provides results, is seen as a good thing.

Industry observers note that the Windows global stage erupts when the operating system or Copilot flags a fresh capability or offers to help. But the fresh Siri, backed by Apple Intelligence, goes to show what Windows can and should look like—if Microsoft could ever pull it off. Still, for all of the snark that Apple deserved for being late to the AI party, you have to give it credit for leaning heavily on what small, local, private AI models can do.

The report highlights that he has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Highly adopted Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room. Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology.