Apple pulled back the curtain on some of the most complicated features of its HomePod smart speaker this morning with a new blog post that details the machine learning tech that goes into its ‘Hey Siri’ detection.

One of the biggest challenges with making a smart speaker is not only figuring out what to listen for but also what sounds to discard in the process. Apple’s engineers have come up with a number of interesting methods to make Siri work even when you’re blasting tunes our of the HomePod’s speakers.

The Recording Academy is trying something unusual with this year’s Grammy Awards: nominations for some of the categories will be announced via Apple Music.

If you’re very eager to find out which artists are  up for Grammies this year, you can get up early Friday morning and tune in via your iPhone, Mac, or iPad.

Apple continues to put more of its smartwatches on the wrists of customers thanks largely these days to a reduced price on its Series 3 model.

Apple sold more than 4 million Apple Watches in the third quarter, a 54 percent increase in year-over-year growth.

Fortnite’s seventh season is just a few days away and fans are ready for another round of big changes to Battle Royale.

We’re all hoping for a snowy map makeover for the holidays, and Epic Games has all but confirmed we’ll get it with its first season seven teaser.

Samsung has been caught tweeting from an iPhone … again.

The South Korean company used an Apple device to publish a message promoting the Galaxy Note 9’s edge-to-edge display. The monumental gaffe led to the temporary but complete deactivation of the Samsung Mobile Nigeria account.

Anyone hoping for a 5G iPhone in 2019 is going to be sorely disappointed, a new report claims. That’s because Apple is supposedly holding off plans to launch a handset on the ultra-fast 5G network until 2020 at the earliest.

That likely means that rivals like Samsung will be able to win more customers, short term, by rushing to beat Apple to the punch. However, for anyone who has followed Apple for a while, this move is no surprise.

Steve Jobs was renowned for being hands-on when it came to overseeing Apple’s iconic ad campaigns. But if you really want an Apple ad that had Jobs’ writing all over it, you need to start scouring your personal savings.

That’s because a handwritten document describing the spec of the Apple-1 — Apple’s first ever computer — is coming up for auction this month. In it, Jobs’ describes the computer’s printed circuit board, which was being sold for $75, as a “real deal.”

Some adopters of the 2018 MacBook Air are reporting poor camera quality during FaceTime calls.

Apple’s newest ultraportable has a 720p camera above its display, which should provide HD video capture. However, for a small few, its performance seems a lot worse than that.

A trial date has been announced for the long-brewing Qualcomm vs. Apple lawsuit. According to a new report, it will take place on April 15, 2019.

While Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf recently suggested that the two companies are “on the doorstep of a resolution,” Apple’s attorney insists that this is not the case. “There have been unfortunate articles lately that the parties are close to a settlement, and that is not true,” attorney William Isaacson said. “There haven’t been talks in months.”

President Trump says that the U.S. and China have come to an agreement to hit pause on the escalating trade war between the two countries.

Trump’s comments follow on from the G-20 summit in Argentina, in which he met with Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China. The 90-day delay on tariffs will cause a sigh of relief for executives at Apple, since the iPhone was recently threatened with additional tariffs.

Apple is literally giving away free units of its iPhone XR handsets.

Okay, so that’s not quite as bad as it sounds, but it’s the free gift which met attendees of the latest edition of the Ellen Show. In an Oprah-like stunt, host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Julia Roberts announced to the crowd that they were all being given a freebie iPhone.

Upgraded AirPods are on the way in early 2019, with a total redesign scheduled for 2020. At least, that’s according to reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a new note to clients.

Kuo claims that the big improvement for next year’s AirPods will be the addition of wireless charging support. This is most likely the wireless charging case that Apple first announced back in September 2017, alongside its still MIA AirPower charging mat.

This week we check on our parcel deliveries by asking Siri, we shine a light on meditative iOS gaming, and reinvent the phone call with Flash.

For many Mac users, there’s a distinct line between local and cloud storage. But we rely on both to get our work done and keep our data secure and tidy. So why shouldn’t both be accessible straight from the desktop?

Apple is a company with a social conscience, and it’s using its high profile to bring attention to the fight against HIV/AIDS.  As part of this, Apple logos at its retail locations around the word went red to observe World AIDS Day.

But that’s just the start. From today through Dec. 7, checking out with Apple Pay in the Apple Store will donate $1 to fighting this epidemic.

The new iPad Pro packs enough power to challenge the Mac. It also costs enough to cause some serious contemplation for anybody worried about pocketbook pain.

We tackle the subject from several sides in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Get your free issue on iTunes now. Or keep reading for the week’s best Apple news, reviews and how-tos.

Knowing which apps to get can be pretty overwhelming, and the good ones can be expensive. Luckily, the subscription model that makes content easier and more affordable now extends to apps.

Apple today made an anti-spam application developed by the Indian government available on that country’s version of its App Store. The software is designed to help prevent an avalanche of commercial phone calls and texts, but Apple had previously expressed concerns that it revealed too much information about users to the government.

The version of TRAI DND – Do Not Disturb just approved appears to deal with Apple’s concerns.

Apple puts the iPhone’s low-light shooting capabilities on full display in a new “Shot on iPhone” ad that gives viewers a glimpse inside Japan’s decotora truck craze.

The incredible new video follows Kazuya Sekino, creator of Lady Misaki, a decorated truck with hundreds of LED lights. Apple’s trippy two-minute ad showcases the art of Japan’s many decotora trucks. It also highlights all the good things they do for the community.

Get ready to go for a ride!

My friend Tyler is a world traveler. Tyler has a favorite game he likes to play on his iPhone. When he’s in a busy area like an airport, he likes to AirDrop a picture of his naked ass next to a waterfall to unspecting iPhone users.

The photo is fairly harmless and usually draws some laughs. But the next time Tyler flies through New York City, his favorite game could earn him some jailtime thanks to a newly proposed law that would make it illegal to send sexually explicit images to anyone that doesn’t want to received them (which is pretty much everyone).

Safari for iOS has a great feature: Quick Website Search. This lets you search the contents of a single website, using that site’s own built-in search. The clever part is that you don’t have to visit the site and tap into its search bar. Once Safari learns how to search that site, you can search it right from Safari’s own search bar.

Google and Samsung have smartphones many critics say are as good or better than the latest iPhones.

But making a device to rival Apple’s isn’t the hard part. Getting iPhone users to switch is.

Google acknowledges this in a series of video ads launched this week to convince brand loyalists to switch to its newest and well-reviewed flagship, the Pixel 3.

Every version of Pokémon is about players using pocket monsters to battle other trainers. Well, every version except Pokémon Go, which conspicuously lacks the capability to let you go head-to-head with another player.

Game developer Niantic promised this feature would arrive before the end of the year. The company suggested today that the wait is almost over.

Smart watches are currently the most popular form of wearable, but ear-worn devices are expected to replace them in the coming years. The changeover will take place as AirPods and similar products gain additional features that people now get from Apple Watch and iPhone.

In less than five years, so-called “hearables” could outsell every other type of  wearable by a wide margin.

Fortnite’s account merging tool has been delayed until 2019, Epic Games confirmed today.

The feature, which will allow players to combine two accounts into one, was supposed to arrive in November. It has been held back as a result of “ongoing technical concerns.”