There’s a lot of talk about Siri, but does multi-player action speak louder than words?

I’ve spent much of the last week looking at Apple’s new iPhone 4S and the Siri voice interaction system (to the point where I forgot to file for Hydrapinion last Friday, sorry about that).

Siri is an amazing technological achievement but I think it will be a sleeper. There’s still work to be done – especially outside the US – and I’m not convinced it’s worth breaking a two-year contract on an iPhone 4 to upgrade to the iPhone 4S just for Siri. For now I’m actually more interested in the new Party Play features available to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 – both of which are blessed with the powerful A5 processor.

Firemint’s Real Racing 2 shows off Party Play’s potential, letting four iGadgets drivers race side-by-side on your television via an Apple TV. As a fan of Mario Kart on Nintendo’s Wii, I must say I’m keen to see how Party Play develops. Seeing Party Play is also perhaps the first time I’ve caught myself seriously considering whether it’s worth upgrading my old iPad 1 to an iPad 2 for the A5 processor.

Once I’ve eventually got a house full of gadgets packing the A5 processor, it will be much harder to justify spending serious money on the next generation Wii and its expensive games. In my house playing the Wii is a social family event – I won’t let Mr Almost 8 sit there on his own and play games for hours. As Apple’s iOS5 platform moves further down the multi-player path, the Apple TV may well usurp the Wii’s place in my lounge room.