Evan Killham - page 14

Siri has become an accessory to even more bullcrap from the Internet as pranksters have found another way to trick Apple’s digital assistant into contacting emergency services. And it’s only slightly less dumb than you think.

The prank claims that “something funny” will happen if you say “112” to your iPhone. North American users probably don’t know that 112 is the European equivalent to the 911 emergency number, and Siri will respond to the request by placing a call to your local switchboard.

Snohomish County, Washington’s Sheriff has taken to Twitter to put an end to the madness.

If you like the look of the high-end Apple Watch Edition, but the $10,000+ price point makes your heart and wallet hurt, a Swiss company might have a nice alternative for you.

Golden Dreams of Geneva specializes in classing up iPhones, cases, and bags, and it’s turned its monocle-rimmed gaze to Apple’s new smartwatch. The company can take a standard version of the wearable and make it fancy at a fraction of the cost of its more precious sibling.

In a few years, “Sorry, I don’t have any cash on me” may no longer be a good enough excuse to give that chronically money-strapped friend when they come around asking to borrow a few bucks.

That’s because a newly released Apple patent suggests that the iPhone maker may be getting into the person-to-person payment game in future versions of its hardware.

We’ve had a couple days to check out Apple Music, Apple’s song-streaming platform that launched Tuesday. It comes loaded with 30 million songs that you can listen to on demand with a quick search or a request to Siri.

But all that choice and tech power may come at a price, as some users are reporting that the new Music app is killing their iPhone’s battery life.

Apple has no shortage of products and gadgets to show off lately. The company recently released the Apple Watch, its music streaming platform came out this week, and we’re closing in on the reveal of the next iPhone.

But late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has a line on another daring product from Apple, and he revealed it in a bit on his show on Tuesday. It involves customers just giving Apple money for no real reason.

You can check out the full gag in the video below.

Apple Music is the latest way to stream a ridiculous number of tunes on demand. And with all that variety, you’re going to get some cursing in there. It’s just how a lot of musicians work.

But if you don’t want to hear all of those bleepables and swears, it’s a pretty quick fix to keep it from showing up in your stream. Here’s how to do it.

This week, Apple lost its appeal on the antitrust case that the federal government and several state attorneys general filed on it concerning price fixing on ebooks. And now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for the company to pay up.

The green states in the map below were listed as plaintiffs on the class-action lawsuit, which means that if you live in one of them and have bought anything from iBooks, you may be entitled to a cut of the settlement.

Taylor Swift fans aren’t the only ones with reasons to celebrate Apple Music.

Apple’s new streaming service boasts over 30 million songs. That’s according to the company, anyway; we definitely haven’t counted them. And even though it’s only a day old, it’s looking like it could have a chance to cut into the business of rival streamers like Spotify. And part of how it’s doing that is by landing content for its library that the other people don’t have.

Here are five albums Apple Music can brag about. Other than 1989, we mean. Because everyone knows 1989 is on there.

Hyundai has good news for Apple Watch owners who also drive late-model Sonatas: You can now use your wearable to control parts of your car.

The auto manufacturer has rolled out an update to its Blue Link app, which already creates an interface with an iPhone, to expand the connected-car functionality to Apple’s new smartwatch.

Apple Music, the new song-streaming platform that started rolling out yesterday, is currently free for everyone while the company shows off how cool its new product is. After the three-month trial period that we’re all enjoying, however, using the full set of features will cost you.

But for people in developing countries, the burn won’t be nearly as bad.

We literally just posted about the iTunes version required to run Apple Music not being available yet, but it looks like it’s currently available as part of a system update in the Mac App Store.

Hey, thanks a lot, Apple.

If you’ve been playing around with Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad today, you might have wondered at some point what it’s like to listen to on your desktop computer.

You’ll have to keep wondering, though, because the iTunes update you need to listen to Apple Music isn’t out yet.

Apple Music launched today, and so far people seem pretty happy with the new platform. But that isn’t to say that we haven’t found a few complaints to pick out.

We don’t like the new app icon, for one. And some of us are having trouble finding the music we own mixed in with all the streaming stuff. But probably the biggest issue we — and a reader or two — have had concerns the taste-selection screen when you first set up Apple Music.

Here are some of the important bubbles we couldn’t find when we first opened the new app.

Design firm Cambridge Industrial Design herd that dairy farmers might want to track their cows’ moo-vements, so they went ahead and developed some udderly clever smart collars to help keep an eye on the beasts.

That’s right: Even cattle are starting to horn in on the wearables scene.

Parents looking to keep their creative kids busy this summer might want to look into Apple Camp, a free, three-day workshop at select Apple retail stores.

As in previous years, sessions will occur throughout July and August and will guide campers ages 8 to 12 through one of two cool projects.

You can call it customer loyalty, brand stickiness, or whatever other terms the cool marketing kids are using these days, but it all means the same thing in this case: Apple is doing a better job than Samsung of retaining customers and winning over new ones.

This is according to a report from RBC Capital Markets, which polled Apple and Samsung customers about their current and future purchases.

One of the main complaints Apple Watch naysayers have is that the advertised 18-hour battery life of the wearable is kind of crappy. An expensive, upcoming accessory aims to address that issue, but we’re not sure that the look appeals to us much.

The new band is called the Reserve Strap, and while it definitely sounds useful, its price and appearance leave our pointers well clear of the pre-order button.

Apple is gearing up to introduce its smarthome platform HomeKit alongside the launch of iOS 9 this fall. It will let users control smart devices like lights, door locks, and thermostats from their phones. You’ll also be able to issue voice commands to digital assistant Siri, and the company has updated the list of things you can say to get things done around your house.

But when we looked at the list of commands, we noticed that Apple is making some strange assumptions about how people might be using the new automation features. Here are some of the examples Apple gives and why they have us scratching our heads.

As Apple fans in seven countries line up today to grab their new Apple Watches as the new wearable becomes available, we’re looking ahead to see which other nations will be sporting the smartwatches by the end of the year.

We don’t have dates for all of them just yet, but Apple has confirmed that they’re on the way.

Apple has been working on the Apple Watch’s heart-rate monitor ever since the wearable launched in April. First, it was taking your pulse every 10 minutes. Then, it was doing it every 10 minutes unless you were moving around because the company said that a resting heart rate is a better health indicator than a “doing whatever” heart rate.

And that’s correct, but a newly released patent hints at some future improvements for the function that could also spare you some wrist pain and warn you about stress.

Your Apple Watch band contains some cutting-edge fabrication technology that could extend into other fashion accessories, according to a patent filing released today.

The patent describes an ingenious method for molding “woven fibers” into any desired shape and securing them without stitching.

Siri is a handy virtual assistant. It’ll fetch information for you, send texts, and even tell you a joke if you ask it repeatedly (Siri is a little shy at first). But did you know that it can also narrate e-books?

If you can’t get enough of that lovely robot voice, here’s how to make your favorite literature come to synthetic life.

Steve Wozniak, one of Apple’s co-founders, does not yet own the company’s recently released smartwatch.

“They haven’t shipped it yet,” he said in a recent interview that also covers his thoughts on artificial intelligence, driverless cars, and Segways.

Tesla Motors is the smartest company in the world, according to MIT Tech Review’s latest survey of the brainiest corporations. Apple, which was not on last year’s list returns at number 16, beating out other firms like ride-sharing company Uber and smartbulb-maker Philips. MIT cites the newly released Apple Watch and touchless payment method Apple Pay as its reasons for inclusion, saying that these two products “set the pace for competitors.”

You can see the full list of smartiespants in the table below.

Merchants in the United Kingdom are preparing their shops and wares for the launch of Apple Pay this fall, but they have some extra work to do if they want to make the big sales.

Apple Pay U.K. will come with a £20 per transaction limit unless shop owners have the latest gear on their counters.