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Google brought its Google Assistant to iOS this week, finally giving iPhone fans a taste of the best virtual assistant on the planet. But those on Android are in for so much more, with major improvements on the way, including impressive Google Lens integration.

The changes make it harder than ever for Siri to catch up. Despite the improvements Apple made with iOS 10, it still feels like Siri is well behind its rivals. Is that gap now too big, or can Apple catch up? Will Siri ever be as good as the Google Assistant?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we wage war over virtual assistants.

This week, on The CultCast: new MacBook Pros at WWDC? Insiders say yes! We’ll tell you all we know. Plus: why future Macs might get much faster CPUs; Apple makes a big move to bring manufacturing back to the US; and we’ll wrap up with 5 weird and whacky facts about the new Apple Park campus.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off any hosting plan.

Google Assistant is ready to do battle with Siri on its home turf.

iPhone users can now get their hands on the dedicated Google Assistant app for iOS, but don’t expect it to offer everything you get on Android.

Google is planning to bring its fancy new Assistant to iOS, according to a new report.

The virtual assistant will be available inside a standalone app, and a “trusted source” claims it will arrive soon.

Apple could unveil its new smart speaker powered by Siri at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, according to new claims.

Earlier this week, we heard the company is currently in the process of finalizing the design of its first standalone Siri device, which is expected to take on the Amazon Echo. Now we have an idea what it might look like and when it could be revealed.

Snap Inc apparently wants in on the hottest new trend among tech companies: TV shows.

Following the lead of Amazon and Twitter, Snapchat reportedly plans to start showing vertical short films in its app. Only instead of doing all the work on its own, the company is inking deals with some of the biggest names in media.

Apple Watch gets a lot of stick for being a “me-too” product, and people who don’t see the need for a smartwatch assume the business is a bust. There’s this crazy perception that Apple Watch is just not selling — but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Apple Watch, alongside other Apple wearables, is now raking in billions of dollars every year. The business is huge. So huge, in fact, that it would be a Fortune 500 company all by itself, outselling supposed smash hits like Microsoft’s Surface tablets and the Amazon Echo.

Here’s why Apple Watch isn’t the flop you think it is.

The battle for video streaming supremacy is already turning allies into rivals.

After making some of its best shows available on Amazon Prime since 2014, HBO revealed today that it does not plan to renew its licensing pact with Amazon once it expires next year.

Like it or not, our houses are getting smarter. If you’re sharp and interested in coding, you’ll want to learn to develop for Alexa, the digital assistant popping up in homes around the world due to the amazing success of the Amazon Echo.

Echo and Alexa are the opening shots of the smart home revolution, and with this bundle of comprehensive coding lessons you can get positioned to make your mark. Right now, you can get access to the whole thing for just $19 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Google Maps, Amazon and eBay have all quietly dropped support for Apple Watch in their recent app updates.

So far, no reasons have been given for the decision, although Google noted that despite removing, “Apple Watch support from our latest iOS release [we] expect to support it again in the future.”

iOS 11 will deliver a new Music app with a focus on original videos, according to Jimmy Iovine. The Apple Music chief says the service could add many as 10 original video series by the end of this year, including Carpool Karaoke and will.i.am’s Planet of the Apps, while Apple is also in talks to secure content from J.J. Abrams and R. Kelly.

Apple’s biggest competition in the music streaming business may be preparing to become a hardware rival, too.

Jobs listings posted by Spotify indicate the company is planning to make a hardware play. Spotify says it’s working on a “category defining product,” but based on what the company compares it to, Apple might not have much to worry about.

Apple might have popularized virtual assistants, but Siri has fallen behind in recent years as rivals like the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and even Microsoft Cortana pull ahead with greater capabilities and unique features.

One area in which Siri is lacking is in standalone devices like smart speakers, such as Google Home and Amazon Echo. Isn’t it about time Apple caught up with a smart speaker of its own powered by Siri?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we throw punches over a Siri speaker.

While President Donald Trump gets busy gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, many of America’s largest companies plan to fight climate change without his help, including Apple.

During the reign of Tim Cook, Apple has made renewable energy and going green one of its top priorities. According to a new report, that won’t change now that there’s a new administration in the White House.

You can now ask Alexa to do your shopping, fetch information, and control your smart devices without a fancy Amazon speaker.

Starting today, the virtual assistant is being integrated into the Amazon shopping app for iPhone in the U.S., with support for thousands of skills. It can find products and track orders, play music and movies on Amazon Prime, and lots more.

Apple, Amazon, Cisco, and Microsoft are supporting Google in a new fight against the FBI.

The technology giants filed an amicus brief in Pennsylvania this week after a court ruled that Google must hand over emails in response to an FBI search warrant.

Game streaming platform Twitch today unveiled its new desktop app for Windows and Mac.

It will offer all the features you expect from the service, including voice and video calling, and you’ll be able to get your hands on the beta later this month.

If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, you’ll know it’s a hard and incredibly time-consuming process. It’s not much easier for virtual assistants like Siri.

Here are the mind-blowing steps Apple goes through to teach Siri new languages and dialects that help it stay one step ahead of the competition.

Amazon Alexa’s incredible skill-set continues to expand, with medical advice the latest addition to the list.

Thanks to a partnership between Amazon and WebMD, Alexa speakers can now answer basic health-related queries that could save you a trip to the doctor’s office.

Amazon’s next Alexa product won’t just be able to listen to you. It can watch your every move.

Leaked images of a new home security camera created by Amazon hit the internet today, giving us our first glimpse of what the company’s Dropcam competitor will look like.

Apple and dozens of other top tech companies filed a Supreme Court brief today in support of a transgender boy’s fight for equality.

In the case, Gavin Grimm, a transgender student from Virginia, is suing the Gloucester County School Board for creating a bathroom policy he says discriminates against transgender students by separating them from their peers.

Are you having a hard time backing up files to iCloud or listening to songs on Apple Music? You’re not alone.

It appears that Apple’s iCloud services are currently impacted by a major Amazon web services outage that has crippled the internet on the East Coast. It’s unclear what is causing the problem but Apple says only 0.04 percent of users are effected by “slower than normal performance.”

Here are all the Apple services that are down:

Apple plans to deepen its roots in Microsoft’s backyard by expanding operations at its Seattle center that specializes in AI and machine learning technology.

Details about the new Seattle hub were shared by Apple in a recent interview that also announced the iPhone-maker has created a $1 million endowed professorship in artificial intelligence at the University of Washington.

Apple’s five year reign as the world’s most valuable brand has come to an end. For now.

Even though the iPhone-maker reported historic revenues and profits during its Q1 2017 earnings call yesterday, Google has supplanted Apple in the latest brand rankings.

Apple has settled a possible antitrust lawsuit to the satisfaction of European Commission regulators and German Federal Cartel Office, after scrapping an exclusivity deal with the Amazon-owned Audible.

The investigation dates back to November 2015, following complaints from the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.