With iOS 6, your personal virtual assistant, Siri can now help you find restaurants and even book tables. You will need the OpenTable app from the App Store to complete your reservations, but Siri do a lot of the heavy lifting, including finding places and times, and showing you Yelp-powered reviews and pictures.

• How to search for different types of restaurants with Siri
• How to get reviews for restaurants with Siri
• How to get pricing, hours, and learn more about restaurants with Siri
• How to make restaurant reservations with Siri
• How to get directions to a restaurant with Siri

How to download Yelp and OpenTable

To get the most out of Siri's new restaurant assistant services, you need to download a couple of extra apps from the App Store. Yelp allows you to see more restaurant reviews, and access reviews from more places. OpenTable lets you complete reservations and book your spot at restaurants. Both are free.

• Free - Yelp - Download now
• Free - OpenTable - Download now

Once they're installed, you're ready to go.

How to search for different types of restaurants with Siri

No matter what kind of cuisine you're in the mood for, if there's a restaurant in the area that serves it, Siri can help you find it. Whether you're planning a trip and aren't sure what restaurants are in the area of your destination city or simply want to find new places to dine in your home area, just ask Siri.

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri "Find Asian restaurants near me." or "Find Italian restaurants in San Francisco, CA."

3. Wait for Siri to bring up the restaurant widget.

4. Tap on the name of any restaurant in the list to get more information on it.

Unfortunately, Siri isn't great at recognizing restaurants with other-language names. For example, if Siri is set to English, it has trouble with restaurant names that are Italian, French, Greek, etc. Which, depending on where you live, can be a lot of restaurants. This means you're usually better of simply asking Siri simply to search for restaurants nearby or in a specific area, and then tapping on the one you want.

How to get restaurant reviews with Siri

If you already have an idea where you want to go, but want to see what others have thought about it first, Siri can bring you all the reviews you need, straight from Yelp.

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri to "Show reviews for Oriental Pearl in Michigan City, IN." or "Find restaurant reviews for Big Bowl."

3. Siri will sometimes find more than one match. Tap the name of the restaurant you want. If there's only one match, you may see a map come up with reviews above it. Tap on the Reviews part.

4. You will be taken to the Yelp! app to view reviews.

How to get pricing, hours, and learn more about restaurants with Siri

Once you know where you're going, you might still want to know things like operating hours, price range, or even contact information. All you have to do is ask.

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri to "Show me information on Red Lobster in Michigan City, IN." or "Find information on Maxine's Restaurant."

3. Wait for Siri to bring up a list of restaurants.
4. Tap on the restaurant you want to learn more about.
5. Wait for Siri to present you with the restaurant information card.

You can tap on the picture stack at the top left to see Yelp photos of the restaurant. Next to the picture stack is the price range in dollar signs ($ for cheap, $$$$$ for expensive). Tapping the phone number will call the restaurant (if you're on an iPhone). Tapping the website address will take you to Safari and show you the site (if it's not stuck in 2005-era Flash). Tapping the map will take you to the restaurant location in the Maps app.

How to make restaurant reservations with Siri

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. If you know the restaurant name, you can say "Make a reservation at Bentwood Tavern." or "I need reservations at Quince at 8:30."

3. Siri will then ask you for the time you'd like to make a reservation if you haven't already told her.

4. Siri will then show you the availability and let you change or make edits to the reservation. Once you're done, just tap the Make Reservation button.

5. OpenTable will launch and ask you to confirm or modify your reservation. That's it. You're done!

How to get directions to a restaurant with Siri

If you already know the name of the restaurant you'd like to go to but aren't sure how to get there, Siri can use Maps to help you find it.

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Ask Siri something like "Get directions to Olive Garden in Chicago, IL." or "Give me directions to the Chinese restaurant that's closest to me."

3. Siri will find what you're looking for and instantly launch you into the default Maps app and route you to the restaurant of your choice.

There's a story going around about Amazon closing someone's account and wiping her Kindle of all its content, without offering any specific information or recourse. It's a single-sourced story, and Amazon's side hasn't and may not be heard, but it serves as a powerful cautionary tale for users of any DRM (digital rights management) wrapped online content provider, including Apple's iTunes. Martin Bekkelund writes about alleged the incident, which he says happened to his friend Linn, on [bekkeland.net]:(http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/):

As a long-term writer about technology, DRM, privacy and user rights, this Amazon example shows the very worst of DRM. If the retailer, in this case Amazon, thinks you're a crook, they will throw you out and take away everything that you bought. And if you disagree, you're totally outlawed. Not only is your account closed, all your books that you paid for are gone. With DRM, you don't buy and own books, you merely rent them for as long as the retailer finds it convenient.

And the same, of course, applies to your TV shows, movies, and other content. With iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match, all of our purchased apps, movies, TV shows, books, etc. all live in iCloud, and we need to log in with our Apple ID to re-download them to our iPhones and iPads, or stream them to our Apple TVs. iTunes will even authorize a device to playback local copies of the DRM content. While music, which went DRM-free in 2008, podcasts, and a very few other content types can be easily copied and backed up and played anywhere and with anything compatible, most of what iTunes "sells" cannot be. Same for Amazon. Same for any online provider.

You don't own your content, the company that controls the DRM does, and it's only at their sufferance that you can play it.

And it's not just digital content either. Right now my pricy 7.1 speaker system is sitting dead and my receiver unplugged because it's decided all my fully legitimate signals aren't HDCP (high definition copy protection) compliant so refuses to play them. I was recently given the Avengers BluRay and I couldn't watch it because my offline BluRay player claimed it's encryption keys were outdated.

We're charged full price for content, but we no longer enjoy any actual ownership rights. We're licensees, at the mercy of faulty chips and servers that go down and services that go out of business (PlaysForSure turned out to be anything but), and an entertainment industry that's more concerned with treating us all as potential thieves that need to be guarded against rather than customers that deserve to be delighted.

We don't know the specifics of this case, but that our accounts can be closed and our access to the content we paid for, terminated, should be a cause for huge concern, and something we should never forget.

If the emails contained in the email below are accurate, shame on Amazon. As someone who buys Kindle books (okay, Kindle comic books) it does give me pause about continuing to do business with them. But like I said above, what's the alternative?

Maybe none of the established players. And maybe that leaves the door open for something new and next?

We've updated the official iMore app to take advantage of the new iPhone 5 and iPod touch 4-inch, 16:9 display, and it's just gone live on the App Store. Now you can get even more of everything you love about iMore, right in the app. That's more news, more reviews, more how-tos, more podcasts, more contests, and more... more.

Because we're a bunch of geeks, we've also added support for David Barnard and Justin Youens' phenomenal Launch Center Pro, so now not only can you launch the iMore from the Home screen, you can launch it from Launch Center Pro as well.

We've also added the ability to copy links to the clipboard for easier and more flexible sharing. Huge thanks, as always, to Tammy Coron, Seth Clifford and the team at Nickelfish for all the work they put in.

This is an interim update. We've been listening to all of your feedback and we're working hard on an big update to bring you a lot of the features you've been requesting, so stay tuned. And in the meantime, go grab your tallboy iMore app and get ready for all our iPad and Mac event coverage coming your way tomorrow!

Free - Download now

If you've been waiting for the iPhone 5 to hit the exploded t-shirt series, your wait is over. Tee Trilogy has now brought their trademark style to Apple's newest device, and the Exploded iPhone 5 t-shirt is available in both asphalt (dark gray) and silver (light gray) for your geeky pleasure.

Shirts are 100 percent cotton American Apparel style 2001 with a soft-hand screenprint.

SHIRTS WILL SHIP on MONDAY OCTOBER 29

Note the shipping date above and if the iPhone 5, or any of the their other exploded shirts appeal to you, get your orders in accordingly.

Source: Exploded iPhone 5 t-shirt

Rene Ritchie and Guy English talk Cingleton Deux, the challenges of scaling Apple, software, and expectations, Tweetbot for Mac and the value of software, pantsing the quarterback, The Magazine, and the iPad mini and iBooks. This is the iMore show.

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
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Show notes

• Cingleton Deux
• iMore Cingleton coverage
• Tweetbot for Mac
• Tweetbot for Mac interview
• Three Things That Should Trouble Apple
• The Magazine

Guests

• Guy English (@gte) of Kicking Bear

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com or just leave us a comment below.

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

Apple has reportedly started testing iOS 6.0.1 with carrier partners and the update could launch as early as next week as part of the iPad mini release. iOS 6.0.1 is said to contain bug fixes for various issues found in the original iOS 6 release, such as keyboard rendering glitches, the camera flash failing to go off, and a number other issues, from smaller annoyances to security problems. Jonathan S. Geller of the newly redesigned BGR reports:

In addition, the new software will improve Wi-Fi support, fix cellular data not working in some cases, add a consolidated cellular data switch for iTunes Match, fix a bug that allowed access to Passbook pass details from the lock screen, and also finally fix the bug that caused Exchange meetings to be unexpectedly cancelled for the entire calendar invite group.

Geller also says that Apple has only begun testing iOS 6.1 internally. It is not yet known when that update will be available, but it could be months before its public release. In previous years, the first minor update to the new iOS release came less than a month after launch. The first major post-release update, x.1, usually releases between two and three months after the initial release, though last year, iOS 5.1 did not appear until almost five months after iOS 5 was released.

If Geller is correct, and his carrier sources have provided accurate iOS update information in the past, it seems that iOS users will get at least a few fixes sooner rather than later.

Source: BGR

Samsung Display has announced that they will be ending their display contract with Apple and will no longer supply LCD panels starting next year. Lower margins on Apple devices are said to be a primary reason for the split. Apple has long used Samsung displays for their iOS devices, and in the first part of this year, Samsung Display shipped 15 million LCDs to Apple, their single largest supplier of displays. However, they shipped less than 3 million displays to Apple in the last quarter, and are reportedly not providing any panels for the iPad mini. Additionally, Samsung Display may be making room for other, higher-margin partners, as the Korea Times reports:

According to multiple sources contacted by The Korea Times, Samsung Electronics' handset division and Amazon are increasing their orders for displays used in tablets, which is a sufficient substitute for possible losses from cutting the relationship with the iPad maker.

This comes as Apple has moved to decrease their reliance on Samsung as a parts supplier. TSMC supposedly has the contract for the manufacture of quad-core A-series processors starting late next year. LG Display and Japan's Sharp, already Apple's partners, will undoubtedly see their display orders from Apple increase. Both companies, along with Japan Display, currently provide the in-cell touch panels for the iPhone 5, and are undoubtedly making panels for the iPad mini. Given the severe decrease in orders for the last part of the year, it seems that Apple has already been moving away from Samsung displays for some time, and Apple's other partners should have little trouble stepping in. As relations between Apple and Samsung deteriorate, other companies move in to fill the gaps, and given the profit they stand to make on Apple's contracts, they are perfectly happy to do so.

Source: The Korea Times

The Mobile Nations podcast returns with Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry.com, Phil Nickinson of Android Central, Daniel Rubino of WPCentral, Rene Ritchie of iMore, and special guest Marcus Adolfsson, CEO of Mobile Nations!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations". Want to subscribe to any or all of our shows? Head on over to our podcast page.

Back in May, iMore learned Apple would be going ahead with a 7-inch iPad and targeting an October release. Now Apple has gone and announced an October 23, 2012 event, and while we won't know the exact agenda until Apple executives take the California Theater stage, it's widely expected that the iPad mini will be star of the show. But it won't be the whole show. Whether Apple runs the October iPad/Mac event like the September iPhone/iPod event, as essentially two separate events glued together, or whether they run them as a single event like the WWDC Keynote that flows from one topic to another, rumors persist of a focus on iBooks, of an updated iPad 3, of new Macs, and perhaps of more.

Figuring out which are red herrings and which are real leaks, which are actual products and which are just products of the imagination is an interesting exercise. Apple doesn't pre-announce, but they also don't just throw things at walls to see what will stick. They're secretive but focused, surprising but sane. Based on their past behavior, we can try and predict their future behavior. And based on their past events, we can make some educated guesses about this week's event.

Apple update

As usual, it's likely Apple's CEO Tim Cook will take the stage first, welcome everyone, and the proceed to give a quick overview of how Apple is doing. Apple Retail, iPhone 5 sales, Mac sales, App Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore, and everything else we usually see at the beginning of an Apple event. And again, unlike most other companies, we won't get bullshit percentages of specific markets or inventory stuffed into channels. We'll get numbers, big ones, and lots of them.

iPad mini

There is a segment of the market for which the current 9.7-inch iPad is too expensive, to heavy, or for one or both of those reasons doesn't make it the reading-centric experience they're looking for. An iPad mini -- or iPad air -- that costs less, is substantially lighter, and is launched in conjunction with an expanded and improved iBooks initiative, addresses that market segment.

It could well be the next big (little) thing, and Apple's next hundred million seller. And it could kick Amazon's Kindle teeth in. Here's the deal:

• iPad mini preview redux

iPad 3 mark II

Back in August iMore reported that Apple was planning to update the iPad 3 to the new Lightning connector as well. In addition, new chipsets also sounded like their were on the agenda, including an iPhone 5-style cellular radio for international LTE. Although not at all a direct parallel, think of it like the Verizon iPhone 4 and its improved antenna -- a mid-cycle update to add additional markets, that just happens to improve a few things along the way.

• Regarding the iPad 3 mark II
• iPad 3 mark II pricing reportedly leaked, same configurations as before

iBooks

If Apple really intends to use the iPad mini to clear the tablet skies of Amazon and their budget-ilk, than it needs to address books. Apple is so far ahead of any other online content provider in almost every area, it's almost laughable (if those of us outside the U.S. weren't so busy crying...), but books are a different matter. Apple's iBooks have always been technically ahead of Amazon's Kindle books in terms of capabilities, but Amazon is closing that gap. The gap Apple has to close is catalog.

It doesn't matter how good looking your books are if the ones people want to read aren't in your catalog. If Apple can equal Amazon's catalog, only then can their technology really eclipse Amazon's offering.

(And hey, can we get a Mac version already?)

Macs

The Retina Mac revolution began with the 15-inch at WWDC. Where it goes next has been the question ever since. 21- and 27-inch iMacs (and Thunderbolt displays) probably aren't imminent. Making panels that big and that dense sounds cost prohibitive at this point. Driving that panel is also beyond the throughput of current generation ThunderBolt connectors. Too. Many. Pixels.

Likewise, the MacBook Air line lacks the discreet GPU needed to run Retina, and lacks enough space in the unibody for batteries to power it. That leaves the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple could add a GPU to the 13-inch, and the panel size is smaller than the 15-inch, so it's both doable and affordable. And it looks like that's exactly what Apple has done -- the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

The Mac mini will likely see updates to the latest Intel chipsets, along with USB 3.

That just leaves the iMac. It won't be Retina, it will also get updates to the latest chips and USB 3. The big question is whether it will get the same, new laminated panel the new MacBook Pros enjoy. That wouldn't make it denser, but it would make it better looking.

• New details on new Macs rumored for Oct. 23 Apple event

iTunes 11

Apple showed off iTunes 11 for the first time at the iPhone 5 event back in September, but won't be releasing it until October. That leaves the potential for additional features to be shown off. And that's a mixed bag. People still use desktops and Apple still needs a single hub it can easily port to Windows, but iTunes is the past.

Regardless of what we get this Tuesday, it might just be the beginning of that end.

iOS 6.x

Time was Apple released new versions of iOS in the summer alongside the new iPhone, and updated them to iOS x.1 alongside thew new iPod touch. But now iPhone's are released in the fall, and this year the iPod touch with it, so could there still be an iOS 6.1 before year's end?

We've heard rumors of additional iOS 6 functionality, things that didn't make it into the first release. AirPlay direct, and other direct device-to-device data transfer features are one. Expanded background downloads and other activity is another.

We've all seen the iPad before. We've all seen iOS 6 before. Apple makes their money on hardware, but their soul is in software. If there's something else to either the device or the event, if there's something else on the roadmap this year, we'll know it when and if Apple SVP of iOS, Scott Forstall, takes the stage.

Join us for our coverage on Tuesday.

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Apple has started to prepare the California Theatre in San Jose ahead of its special event tomorrow. Apple sent out invites last week for what is widely thought to be the official announcement of the iPad mini. The guys from Techie Buzz managed to capture a few pictures of the graphics which are being used for the event.

The media event is scheduled to start on Tuesday October 23 at 10:00 am PT. The only clue on the invitation are the words, "We've got a little more to show you". It is widely expected that the event will reveal the rumored iPad mini as well as an updated iPad 3 with Lightning cable and international LTE, a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro as well as new iMacs and Mac minis. We may also see the final version of iTunes 11 although it is unclear if it will be released at the same time.

What do you make of the posters used in the decoration of the theatre?

Source: Techie Buzz

Every week, the editors at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include a zombie game, some awesome music, a simple, distraction free writing app, and an app for creating graphs and charts.

Zombie Toss - Simon Sage

I guess I just didn't get enough undead from The Walking Dead. Zombie Toss is a Fruit Ninja-style slicing game with a perverse twist. A demented chef is collecting zombie meat for his own culinary experimentations, and you're the one harvesting. Throughout gameplay, you earn keys to unlock new levels, cash to upgrade your butchering implements, and gold teeth to purchase premium new items. You have to be careful to not let too many airborne zombies hit the ground, or they'll gnaw through your armor and infect you.

While the gameplay itself lacks some of the smoothness of Fruit Ninja, the art style and premise are both enough to keep me interested, especially with Hallowe'en right around the corner.

• $0.99 - Download now

Epilogue - Rene Ritchie

Man goes to conference halfway across the world. Man meets girl. Man falls in love. Man has to leave. Man has a very bad day. It's the kind of story and the kind of pain only music can truly express, and it's exactly what's expressed in Epilogue, the debut single/demo from Airplane Mode. Full disclosure, Airplane Mode is Dave Wiskus. I know Dave Wiskus. He's been on Iterate a few times and I've been on Unprofessional. Dave's a crackerjack -- now freelance -- designer. I like Dave.

I had no idea he could flipping perform, much less like this. I hope he won't mind me saying I'm proud of him, and more than a little inspired by his putting his music out there. And I hope he keeps doing it. We could all stand to put ourselves out there a little more, and risk doing things just a little farther beyond ourselves.

Epilogue is free. Read the story first.

• Free - Download now

Byword - Joseph Keller

Byword provides a simple, clean interface in which to write, and is my go-to writing app. Both the Mac and iOS versions of the app support syncing through both iCloud and Dropbox, and take advantage of iCloud folders. Both versions of Byword include support for both plain text and rich text, as well as fantastic Markdown support, including intelligent syntax highlighting and a Markdown preview. The iOS version keeps a toolbar above the keyboard that can display the word count of the current document, various punctuation shortcuts, or navigation and Markdown tools, such as inserting a link or image. There are limited options in Byword, with support for four fonts on the iOS version, but these limitations allow for distraction-free writing environment and get rid of anything that does not aid in just committing ideas to a document. The iOS version of the app is universal, has been updated for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, and is currently on sale.

• $2.99 - Download Now

OmniGraphSketcher - Leanna Lofte

One of my duties as a math instructor is to write exams. For many classes, that involves charts and graphs that I insist must look great. The best solution I've found for non-equation graphs is OmniGraphSketcher by The Omni Group. OmniGraphSketcher makes creating graphs and charts super easy to create whether you have specific data or just trying to explain a concept. You can create lines and data points, draw curves, and shade in important areas as easily as though you were using a basic drawing program. When you're done, you can share it as a PDF or PNG to then use as you please.

I have found use for OmniGraphSketcher as a math instructor, but other people will also find it useful, particularly business people who need to present information in a graphical, easy to interpret way.

• $14.99 - Download Now

Guest pick: True Patriot - Guy English

Many years ago I used to work at Infinity Comics and Second Edition with a guy called J Torres. Awesome guy. Got me into all sorts of good comic stuff. I recently found him again on Twitter and he's gotten together a bunch of comic book writers and artists and an Indiegogo project called True Patriots. It's a comic purely about Canadian superheroes because, of course, patriotism is about being Canadian. He's an awesome guy. It's going to be an awesome book. If you like what I have to say, you're going to love this. It's the trifecta.

• Varies - Support now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!