Apple is working on Siri Dictation for the iPad, iOS 5.1 beta reveals

9to5Mac has reported a couple of hours ago that has discovered something potentially major: Siri Dictation references inside the iOS 5.1 beta 3 released today. Sonny Dickson (9to5Mac’s tipster) was looking through the iOS 5.1 beta 3 settings application on the iPad and discovered a new section in the keyboard menu called “About Privacy and Dictation.” When he opened it, as shown above, the iPad provides the user with the standard legal literature and feature information for Siri Dictation.

Dictation is not actually functional on the iPad 2 running iOS 5.1 beta 3, so perhaps this will be an iOS 5.1 launch feature for the iPad, or it may be an iPad 3-exclusive feature; a similar process to the iPhone 4S exclusively gaining Siri and Siri Dictation support in iOS 5.0.  We’re also hearing this link/document is also appearing on retina iPod touches as well.

As for the iPhone 4S, Apple doesn’t provide a specific menu related to “Dictation and Privacy” in the keyboard settings panel. However, this new ipad menu may be simply carried over code from the iPhone 4S. This also may mean that the iPad’s Siri support could be limited to Siri Dictation, but that is pure speculation. There are lots of speculations claiming Apple was internally prototyping a version of the full Siri experience for the iPad.