Apple, in an attempt to expand Siri's reach, has also made deals with automakers to integrate a Siri button in their cars. "Eyes Free," as it's called, should be featured by most car manufacturers in some model cars beginning in 2013.

How does the Siri feature work in real life? Not as well as when it was first announced. Far too often, it takes two attempts to get a proper answer, because the first time, the question is inexplicably translated into gibberish. For instance, "Siri, call my Dad" once gave me this reply: "Sorry, Mike, I do not understand, 'Give me a spoon for salad.'" Asking the question again resulted in the proper translation and result, but mistranslations, mid-sentence cut-offs and incidents like this are an un-Apple-like experience that will . Things need to improve further, if this technology is to be considered more than a novelty, and I say that as someone who uses Siri at least a dozen times a day.

Maps was one of the major features announced at WWDC and it's a big one: Since the arrival of the iPhone five years ago, Apple has relied on Google for the back-end data that powered the Maps app. But legal and political strife between the two companies created a rift. The result? As of iOS 6, ; Apple instead now uses resources acquired in its deal with Open Street and from alliances with other companies like Yelp and OpenTable.

How well does it work? For starters, Maps is vector-based, so area graphics and text stay sharp, focused and clean, especially in the default Standard mode. Using the Hybrid or Satellite mode -- either can be toggled on by tapping the page curl on the lower right -- takes a little longer to load, but text remains crisp. Unlike earlier iterations of Maps, the new version supports more than just zooming in/out and panning; now you can zoom with a pinch, and twisting your fingers rotates the map. If you take two fingers and push up/slide down, the displayed map shifts perspective.