Siri - page 22

This week on The CultCast: Learn Instagram tips, tricks and techniques to take beautiful iPhone photos and build a massive following. Plus: The crazy exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 saga ends with a strange twist; rumors point to Macs with radically new e-ink keyboards; and an honest look at Siri versus the AI competition.

This episode is supported by CultCloth, the best way to keep your iPhone 7, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean. Check them out at CultCloth.co and for a limited time save 20 percent with code JetBlack.

The ability to activate Siri by saying “Hey Siri” is an incredibly useful feature on iOS. Want to do it on macOS Sierra? Too bad you can’t.

Or, rather, you can’t through the usual Siri system preferences. However, if you’re really intent on being able to start up Siri without hitting a single key or mouse click, it’s possible to do it using Sierra’s Accessibility options. Here’s how.

Siri may have celebrated five years since its iPhone 4s debut this week, but Apple didn’t rush to acquire Viv, the follow-up AI assistant created by Siri’s makers.

Instead, Samsung snapped up Viv for an undisclosed amount.

After decades of showing us the best ways to interact with computers, Apple is lagging on the UI of the future — voice controls powered by smart, conversational AI.

Google, on the other hand, is placing artificial intelligence, in the form of Google Assistant, at the center of its new Pixel smartphones and Google Home smart speaker.

Cupertino’s mastery of the user interface is legendary: Macs, iPods and iPhones made the GUI, the mouse, the scroll wheel and multitouch mainstream. But Apple needs to get into the AI conversation if it’s serious about securing a place in our gabby future.

Apple has taken big strides to make Siri even greater in recent years, like bringing it to Apple TV and macOS, and opening it up to third-party developers. In that time, Apple’s virtual assistant has also gotten more accurate and more reliable.

But some might say third-party alternatives — particularly those from Google — are still a step ahead, with greater features and more flexibility. So, is Apple doing enough to make Siri just as stellar as Google Now and the new Google Assistant?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we go head-to-head over virtual assistants.

iPhone 7 users can finally enjoy uninterrupted audio through the Lightning port, now that Apple has released an iOS 10 update full of bug fixes.

iOS 10.0.2 was made available to all iPhone and iPad owners today, fixing issues with audio, photos and app extensions.

Apple plans to take on the Amazon Echo with a standalone Siri device, according to a new report.

The project is said to have begun two years ago, but has only now entered the prototype testing phase. Much like the Amazon Echo, this device would be able to look up information and control smart home appliances using voice recognition — but possibly include facial recognition tech, too.

Apple has bought another machine learning startup as part of its effort to boost its AI prowesses for features like intelligent search and Siri.

The company that was acquired this time is India/US-based Tuplejump. The startup’s old website has already been taken down, but it appears that it specialized in big-data technologies for businesses.

Today marks the release of Apple’s big software update, macOS Sierra. This huge update comes on the heels of the recent launch of iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10.

macOS Sierra hosts some great new features including Siri support, a universal clipboard, auto unlock via Apple Watch, better file synching with iCloud and tons more. Fittingly, Cult of Mac has all the tricks and tips you need to get the most out of Apple’s new operating system including a few video tutorials for good measure. Mac owners can download the free update today!

What’s your favorite macOS Sierra feature?

Powering your home with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant is now a lot cheaper, as the company has officially unveiled an updated version of the Echo Dot speaker.

Apple’s iOS 10 update for iPhones and iPads is the biggest software refresh the iPhone-maker has launched in years, adding a host of major and minor new features that completely change the iOS experience.

I’ve been using beta versions of iOS 10 on my iPhone 6s and iPad Pro since June. While some of the high-profile additions to Messages, Photos, Apple Music and Apple News aren’t totally mind-blowing, the smaller tweaks make all the difference. With iOS 10, using Apple’s devices is easier, faster and far more enjoyable than ever.

This is the big iOS update you’ve been waiting for, but not for all the reasons Apple thinks.

The iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch are getting all the attention today with the public releases of iOS 10 and watchOS 3, but the Apple TV also just got a ton of new features thanks to the official release of tvOS 10.

Apple Watch owners just got a big update today in the form of watchOS 3 that completely changes the way you use Apple’s wearable.

The huge new update comes after months of beta testing by developers and public testers, adding new features like a Breathe app, the ability to unlock your Mac, a new Dock for apps, faster performance and more.

Up until now, Siri’s remained a tool for accessing services rather than helping us navigate our Apple devices. That changes with macOS Sierra, which lets us use Apple’s helpful AI assistant to locate files using spoken commands.

Here’s how you can use the feature to your advantage if you’re running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released on September 20.

Through innovations like “Hey Siri” on iOS, and the ability to pin Siri search results to your Mac’s Notification Center, Apple has been working to make its virtual assistant more useful than ever. One more such application is the ability to use Siri to multitask on macOS Sierra.

Here’s how to take advantage of this feature when running the latest Mac operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

Apple, Amazon and Google are all in a battle to create the next great breakthrough with microphones in order to make their digital assistants more powerful.

While machine learning and artificial intelligence are getting all the hype lately, few industry analysts say microphone technology will play just as key a role in taking Siri and Alexa to a new level.

Siri’s arrival on macOS Sierra opens up some great new features and possibilities. One of our favorites? The ability to “pin” Siri results inside Notification Center — making it easier to keep track of whatever game times, trending topics or important documents Apple’s virtual assistant helps you to find.

Here’s how to use the feature when running Apple’s next-gen macOS, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

Getting iPhone bugs fixed is apparently super-easy if you’re a world-famous diva.

Barbra Streisand says she recently had a huge bone to pick with Apple over the way Siri pronounces her last name. So the singer did what only Barbra Streisand could do: She dialed Tim Cook’s personal phone number.

The Mac debut of Siri on macOS Sierra opens up a ton of intriguing new use-cases in terms of functionality. One of the most useful? The ability to use Apple’s virtual assistant to search for photos either on the web or your own computer — and then drag them into directly into apps.

Here’s how to use the feature when running Apple’s next-gen macOS, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

When Chris Maury tried helping an elderly blind woman use voice commands on an iPad, she thanked him but said, “I just wish Siri could read me the news.”

Maury understood her frustration. He, too, was losing his vision and could foresee a struggle to remain productive using the visual interfaces common on all computing devices.

Amazon and Microsoft could get some big competition in their own backyard from Apple soon, based on a new real estate rumor that claims the Silicon Valley titan is eyeing a huge office expansion in Seattle.

Details on exactly where Apple is planning to plant its flag in Seattle aren’t clear yet, but the company’s new offices will reportedly be “huge” with several hundred thousand square feet of space.

Apple has opened up Siri to third-party developers, which means we’ll soon be able to do a bunch of things — like ordering pizza or sending money — simply by speaking to Apple’s intelligent assistant.

It’s a big change, and another step toward a friction-free future in which we will talk to our devices instead of poking at them with our fingers.

In this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talk with Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels of ArcTouch, a mobile development company that works with big media companies like ABC, NBC and CBS. As they’ve explored the Siri API, they’ve gained insight into what we can expect when iOS 10 and macOS Sierra get released to the public this fall.

Apple’s latest acquisition could play a big role in the iPhone maker’s future artificial intelligence products.

Turi, a Seattle-based startup specializing in machine learning and AI, was reportedly acquired by Apple for around $200 million. The startup creates software that gives developers the ability to add AI capabilities that scale automatically, which could certainly be an attractive addition to Apple’s platforms.

Public beta testers can download the third public beta of macOS Sierra starting today, one day after Apple seeded the 4th developer beta.

The new macOS Sierra update includes a number of new additions, including the new set of over 100 emoji that promote gender diversity and disarm the pistol emoji by changing it into a squirt gun.

Apple has made the third public beta of iOS 10 available to members of its testing program this morning, just one day after the company seeded iOS 10 beta 4 to developers.

While the new beta build doesn’t contain any huge changes like in the previous releases, Apple did make a couple of tweaks, including the addition of over 100 new emoji characters that promote gender diversity, new keyboard sounds, a Control Center splash page and much more.