Siri on HomePod is acceptable for quickly playing an album or a playlist, or even for adding a track to the existing up-next queue. But what if you want to switch the order of some songs in that queue, or delete tracks? Or maybe just use your iPhone to skip tracks, or control the volume of your HomePod without having to talk to the damn thing all the time?
Today we shall find out how.
The 2018 World Cup will be loaded with one-name football stars: Ronaldo, Messi, Isco, Neymar and, new to the lineup, Siri.
Apple’s voice-directed digital assistant will keep tabs on the World Cup schedule, scores and stats across all devices thanks to updates to sports support for users in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Israel, Saudi Arabia and host Russia. Sports support now comes to Siri users in 35 countries.
Apple has issued an updated watchOS 5 beta for Apple Watch.
The new build comes just one week after the first was seeded to developers during WWDC. Apple was forced to pull it shortly after its release following reports that it had bricked some Apple Watch Series 2 units.
Apple fans that have been complaining for years that Siri is dumb might be a little creeped out by how much better the digital assistant is in iOS 12.
With the new Siri suggestions Apple introduced this week, your iPhone will now be able to prompt you about events you haven’t even told it about. One developer posted his experience of Siri learning about a lunch just through iMessage.
Prepare to be impressed:
With so much to digest during Apple’s big WWDC keynote on Monday, it was easy to miss some of the finer details.
You might be aware of every new feature coming to iOS 12 this fall. You might have memorized the changes to macOS, too. But did you know that more than 20 million people are now building apps for Apple devices, or that 10 billion Siri requests are processed every month?
Here are some fascinating numbers you probably missed during WWDC.
In the battle of digital voice assistants, people often mock Siri for lagging behind competing products from Amazon and Google. During Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, glossed over those failings, calling Siri the “world’s most-used digital assistant.”
What he neglected to mention was the increasing frustration of Siri users expecting more from a voice assistant. From simple requests returning inaccurate results to the inability to performthat he compound actions, Siri was in desperate need of attention going into WWDC. But will the Siri upgrades in iOS 12 do the trick?
iOS 12 is shaping up to be one biggest software updates Apple’s ever released and it’s so stuffed with major and minor new additions there wasn’t time to go over a lot of them at the WWDC 2018 keynote.
We’ve been combing through the first iOS 12 beta looking for all the new goodies and have found some underrated new features that will totally change how you use your iPhone and iPad this fall.
These are the little iOS 12 features you need to know:
Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote lasted nearly 130 minutes and was jam-packed with new software goodies for developers and regular old Apple fanboys.
But if you were hoping to see some shiny new hardware unveiled at today’s event, you were in for some big disappointments. Apple is doubling down on its software game. And even though they didn’t have any new physical toys to show off, Tim Cook and company still managed to pull out some big surprises.
Stereo-pairing has been one of the most anticipated HomePod features and now that it has finally arrived, it was definitely worth the wait.
HomePod owners can now pair two or more speakers together to create rich stereo soundscapes in their house for an audio experience that’s unlike any other. CultCast producer Erfon Elijah went ears-on with the new feature and says his finely tuned ears were tingling with delight from the sounds HomePod can blast out. The 360-degree sound is so enveloping that it’s hard to tell where it’s even coming from.
Listen to the difference:
Apple will introduce a Beats-branded $250 HomePod smart speaker at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, predicts Apple analyst Gene Munster.
Munster’s other predictions for the big Apple developer event include new HomePod capabilities, additional Siri abilities, extra Core ML extensions, and more.
Adding a smartphone-controlled sprinkler system to your house just became insanely affordable feature thanks to a little black box made by the folks at Elgato.
The Eve Aqua aims to turn dumb water faucets into smart water systems by adding Apple’s HomeKit technology to the scene. Watering your lawn is as about to become just a Siri command away.
WWDC is right around the corner, which means we’re about to get our very first look at Apple’s next major update to iOS.
We’re expecting big things from iOS 12, including a whole host of improvements that will make our devices more stable, and plenty of welcome bug fixes. Apple will surely surprise us with some nice new features, too.
Here’s our lengthy wish list for this update, which includes a Home screen overhaul, a more powerful FaceTime, better multitasking, and more!
The iPhone dominates smartphone sales charts. The iPad is so ubiquitous that, for many, its name is a catch-all term for any tablet. The Mac is the most desirable computer out there. But the HomePod? Not so much.
According to figures released this week, Apple’s smart speaker made up just a tiny 6 percent share of all smart speaker shipments for the first quarter of 2018. What is Apple doing wrong? And what could it do to turn things around? Here are five suggestions for HomePod improvements we’d like to see.
With iOS 11, Apple introduced a “Do Not Disturb” feature that texts callers to let them know you’re driving or otherwise engaged if they try and phone when you’re busy. But a future version of the technology could perform a more useful feat by texting context-specific responses to the person calling.
In a patent application published today, Apple describes how your iPhone could analyze available information — ranging from fitness tracking apps to your calendar and location information — to figure out the most useful response to a message.
It looks like Siri suffered a bit of a hangover from WWDC 2017. Monday’s reports of a Siri makeover to be unveiled at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference look like nothing but old news.
The cheeky nuggets, which came straight from Siri when asked about the upcoming event, appear to be leftover responses designed to create buzz about last year’s WWDC.
The Apple website has today been updated to highlight the accessibility features of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. The change is in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a yearly event that promotes digital access and inclusion for those with different disabilities.
On the Mac, you have long been able to tap on any word or phrase to look up a dictionary definition. Just click on the word using a three-finger tap on your trackpad, and the dictionary panel appears. But have you tried this recently? Today, in this simple popover panel, you can get full access to not just dictionary definitions, but news, Siri Knowledge, movie details, App Store listings, and lots more depending on what you’re looking up.
Let’s take a look.
Suppose you’re listening to some music, then glance over an realize your iPhone has loaded a porn site all on its own. That’s the nightmare scenario researchers say is possible after they proved voice commands can be concealed in songs.
It’s also possible to get Siri to recognize commands given at frequencies outside the range of human hearing.
Google just took the wraps off its big software lineup for 2018. If Apple executives were watching, there’s a lot they should be worried about.
Artificial intelligence has always been one of Google’s strengths over Apple. But in 2018, the search company is going all out, putting AI in everything. Pretty much every app the company has is getting some new machine-learning tricks in the next few weeks that make certain iOS features look ancient.
Check out the biggest announcements from this morning’s Google I/O keynote.
Apple is about to let Siri control your AirPlay speakers.
As part of the latest beta for iOS 11.4, Apple has added the ability to use AirPlay commands through Siri, allowing users to use Siri on their iPhone to play something on their HomePod.
Siri may be a friendly (if slightly dim) neighborhood smart assistant, but not everything about Apple’s A.I. voice is entirely G-rated.
Over the weekend, Reddit went Siri mad after one user noted that it was possible to get Siri to spout our the word “mother*@$^%r” in response to a seemingly innocuous question. Check below for the video evidence.
Apple’s is slowly invading the home turf of some of its biggest rivals in Seattle.
The iPhone-maker has reportedly secured more office space in one of the biggest skyscrapers in Seattle, where Amazon, Microsft and Facebook all fight for top tech talent.
Having your iPhone respond to “Hey Siri” seems like such a simple thing, but it’s actually quite complicated. Recognizing this code phrase, and the person who said it, is critical for Apple speech-recognition system.
A post in Apple’s Machine Learning Journal just published today describes many of the challenges developers overcame to make this work.
HomePod sales have fallen well below expectations, according to one of the best Apple analysts in the game.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors today that Apple is considering making a low-cost version of the HomePod in order to give disappointing sales a boost.
The grand unveiling of iOS 12 is less than two months away and if it’s anything like this concept, the iPhone X might be set to go to an all new level.
In this superb new iOS 12 concept by the folks at iUpdateOS, the iPhone X borrows one of the Apple Watch’s best features for an always-on display. Dark Mode also makes an appearance, along with group Facetime calls and a whole lot more.
Check it out: