The Apple Studio Display has a neat feature for old Macs

The Apple Studio Display's built-in A13 Bionic chip allows older Mac computers and MacBook laptops to use the 'Hey Siri' voice command, even if they don't support the feature. 

As reported by MacRumors, the 27-inch display allows the Siri voice command to run on several devices that predate its introduction to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air back in 2018, though this doesn't extend to the entire back catalog of Mac computers and laptops.

Although it was released alongside the Mac Studio desktop computer, the Studio Display can also be used with the following compatible Mac products on macOS Monterey 12.3 or later:

• Mac Studio
• 14-inch MacBook Pro introduced in 2021
• 16-inch MacBook Pro introduced in 2019 or later
• 13-inch MacBook Pro introduced in 2016 or later
• 15-inch MacBook Pro introduced in 2016 or later
• MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
• iMac introduced in 2017 or later
• iMac Pro
• Mac mini introduced in 2018 or later
• Mac Pro introduced in 2019

As you can see from the list, this means that devices released as far back as 2016 will now be able to use the voice-controlled Apple AI assistant. And, as the Studio Display  runs on iOS 15.4, it's likely that we'll see additional features included in the future.

There's nothing confirmed just yet and given the Studio Display has just been released it's unlikely we will see any big features for some time – however, there's always a chance that Apple will surprise us at WWDC 2022.

Analysis: Is your Studio Display listening to your conversations?

While voice-controlled AI assistants like Siri can be very useful, there will be some users with understandable security concerns around being listened to in the home.

Thing is, Siri doesn't really listen to you 24/7, at least not in any way that matters. The trigger phrase 'hey Siri' is required for the AI voice assistant to communicate back and start recording, so although Siri is listening out for its trigger phrase, it doesn’t remember anything you say before it’s activated by its voice command.

Still, AI voice assistants and smart speakers have plenty of advantages, and Siri is no different. You can quickly translate different languages, set alarms or timers, and a host of other tasks completely hands-free, which makes them a useful accessibility feature within our homes and offices.

It's likely you'll be able to switch this feature off entirely if you won't be using Siri at all (though we no longer have a Studio Display unit to check this for ourselves). On Mac, this is done by heading into System Preferences within the Apple Menu. From here, simply select Siri. and uncheck the checkbox beside “Enable Ask Siri”.

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