Siri - page 24

SPOILER! The last season of Games of Thrones didn’t go too well for Jon Snow, but the internet is seemingly not giving up hope that one of the show’s most popular characters survived an (attempted?) assassination at the hands of the Night’s Watch.

Well, apparently Siri is among the conspiracy theorists not convinced by Snow’s death: With the show’s Season 6 premiere mere days away, Apple’s AI assistant has a few thoughts on whether we’ve seen the last of The Bastard of Winterfell.

Check out the responses below.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Just one day after reports came out of a Siri exploit that left iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users’ photos and contacts accessible without a passcode, Apple has adjusted its digital assistant’s behavior to close the hole.

Just in time for Apple’s new multiyear deal with Major League Baseball, Siri can answer whatever baseball questions you have, thanks to newly implemented knowledge covering 29 baseball leagues. Apple’s AI helper also now boasts a deep understanding of hardball history, based on stats dating back to the start of baseball records.

We’ve all noticed Apple’s latest operating system nomenclature, with each new release a device-centric OS, like iOS, tvOS, or watchOS.

Why not macOS, then?

A bit of source code in the current stable release of OS X (10.11.4) seems to point to that very thing.

Alison Brie and that guy who got his arm chopped off in Game of Thrones are bringing their talents to Apple TV in a funny new ad called “The Kiss” that highlights Siri remote features.

Apple premiered the ad today, which puts the two as actors on a dramatic war movie set. Using Apple TV, Brie is intensely studying a kissing scene the two are trying to recreate. Just when it appears Nikolaj Coster-Waldau can’t take another second of over analyzing everything from the angle of their heads to how much tongue the kiss should contain, he comes up with a brilliant idea to loosen up the mood using Apple TV.

Check it out:

Talking to your iPhone is commonplace these days, but getting Siri on your MacBook or iMac might seem like something out of a near-future like the one shown in Her by Spike Jones.

Siri on the desktop might not be as far out as it seems, though, if a new partnership between speech recognition company Sensory and Intel works out.

A new iPhone 6s ad subjects the lovable Cookie Monster to his worst fate imaginable: having to wait for a pan of his favorite treats to bake.

It’s a cute spot that’s meant to show off Siri’s hands-free mode, which lets users activate the digital assistant by saying “Hey, Siri” at any time. But it throws the hapless Muppet into an existential crisis.

Check it out below.

Apple’s sent out the invite to its March 21 event, and it’s making everyone crazy. The message contains a single image (one version of which is pictured above) and a message: “Let us loop you in.”

The Internet has been trying to figure out what it all means since it went out.

And some of its guesses are … well, we’ll just say “interesting.” But others might be on to something.

The Internet has exploded recently over reports claiming that evildoers can trick Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, into giving them access to your iPhone without entering your passcode. But our own testing confirms that these claims aren’t just exaggerated; they’re hilariously mistaken and wrong.

Posts warn against the “terrifying new way” that teh haxxorz can get into all of your secret data, but the people reporting on and testing the supposed methods are really just taking a really long path to unlocking their own phones normally.

Anyone who’s been wringing their hands in anticipation of the day we’ll each have a physical, robotic assistant to schedule our days and keep us company should be careful what they wish for because the future is here, and it is creepy.

“Nadine” comes from scientists at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, and its face looks very similar to its creator’s, Professor Nadia Thalmann. But its terrifying, pruny hands come from somewhere else, like the nightmares we had when we were eight and watched director David Cronenberg’s version of The Fly even though our parents specifically told us not to.

You can see Nadine in action in the video below.

The Amazon Echo has quickly become one of our favorite gadgets thanks to its accompanying digital assistant Alexa that makes it easy to do everything from ordering new laundry detergent to checking the news. Today the service is getting even better with two new gadgets that essentially split the Echo into two parts: Tap and Dot.

Amazon divvied up what the original Echo did by creating the Echo Dot ($89) that can hear your commands from anywhere in the room, it just doesn’t have great speakers like the original, while the Amazon Tap boasts great speakers for only $129, but you have to push a button on the top of the device to give it commands.

If you’re hoping to get your hands on an Echo Dot you’ll need to own an Alexa device (the original Echo, or a Kindle Fire tablet). However, anyone can pre-order the Amazon Tap right now.

Here’s a teaser:

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show thinks the government is going about this privacy battle with Apple all wrong. Instead of going through court orders and CEO Tim Cook, why not just ask Siri?

In a clip from last night’s show, a government agent takes the digital assistant to a black site to shake it down for the info investigators want. And if asking doesn’t work, it might be time for a bit of torture “enhanced interrogation.”

See how Siri holds up in the full clip below.

This week on The CultCast: With the FBI-versus-Apple privacy battle heating up, some lawyers say Tim Cook could land in jail; why Siri in the next version of OS X may point to redesigned MacBooks; and, just how much would you pay for a box of Steve Jobs’ old crap? Plus we pitch you our favorite tech and apps in an all-new Faves ‘N Raves!

Wonder what Siri for Mac will be like? To find out, you’ll have to wait for OS X 10.12, code named Fiji, to land later this year. But here’s the next best thing: a concept video that makes us want Siri on the Mac right this second.

Siri spread from the iPhone to the Apple Watch and Apple TV in 2015, but this may finally be the year Apple’s virtual assistant lands on Mac.

Apple is planning to make Siri this year’s big OS X feature, according to a new report that claims Siri integration into OS X 10.12 will be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

It just got a little easier to search for Disney content on the Apple TV, now that Disney properties such as the Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Disney XD, and Watch ABC are  searchable through the Apple TV’s universal search API.

Your next MacBook will get more than just a speed bump, with Intel’s powerful new Skylake chips bringing intense performance (and maybe better battery life) to the new laptops we’ll all be drooling over soon.

Find out exactly how these new processors will make new MacBooks rock, plus what you need to know about iOS’ brick-inducing “Error 53,” how to make Siri work even harder for you on your Apple TV, and which are the best ergonomic accessories for your Mac in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Here are the week’s top stories.

Misunderstandings and repeated requests are among the hurdles that everyone who uses Siri — or any digital assistant, for that matter — have to deal with to run things with their voice, but some groups have it even harder than others.

If I want to make the smartbulb in my bedroom lamp turn white, for example, Siri always interprets “Make the Bedroom white” as “Make the Bedroom light,” and I can’t even imagine why I would be saying that. I can say, “Make the Bedroom green” or any other color, and it will work. But in order to get that direct-sunlight jam happening, I have to be more specific, like, “Make the bedroom light white.” And that’s not the worst problem to have with miraculous future-tech, but it is kind of hard to say.

But it could be worse; I could belong to one of the groups that have difficulty having even the most basic of interactions with Siri. And their problems don’t stem the program’s occasional deafness but rather its inherent incompatibility with how they speak.

We’re talking about Texans, y’all.

Use the power of your voice to watch TV. That’s not something out of Star Trek, but the promise of Siri on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Beyond basic commands to find your favorite TV shows and movies, you might not know how much Siri can actually do for you. But using Siri Apple TV voice commands will unlock loads of helpful features, including reading onscreen labels, getting more in-depth info about whatever you’re watching, navigating various screens, and even playing music on demand.

And it’s bound to get better yet, as the new tvOS beta is bringing Siri dictation to search fields and the App Store.

Here’s how to get the most out of Siri on your Apple TV.

Apple is finally correcting an issue with Siri that it has known about since at least 2011.

The problem has appeared when users ask the virtual assistant to show nearby facilities that offer abortion services. For years, the results have directed people toward adoption centers, which is kind of the opposite of what they were looking for.

Apple says it’s made improvements to the search algorithm since it first identified the problem, but some users are still getting the undesired suggestions.

If you’ve got a quick bit of math to figure out on the go, why bother tapping into the Calculator app, which you’ve probably got stuffed in some sort of folder on your third page or so?

Even though we’ve been using Spotlight on the Mac for years now to figure out quick mathematical facts, it’s also included in the iOS version of Spotlight, making doing quick bits of math super easy.

Here’s how to use it.

Siri’s latest trick has it setting the tempo for the Internet’s beatboxing magic.

Apple’s digital assistant may not be the best beatboxer on its own, but it can provide the backdrop for some more talented people. And those people have found a way to get Siri to lay it down so that they can spit hot fire and record it for our entertainment.

All it takes is a little math.

Okay, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen Siri do: multiply one trillion to the tenth power to lay down a hypnotic background beat for a bunch of cool kids to rap to.

The Apple Watch is designed with the Digital Crown in the same place as where traditional watches have their own crown to set the time. It’s a design choice that helps us think of this new tiny computer on our wrist as something comfortable and familiar.

But there’s no reason the Digital Crown should remain on the right, as it defaults to if you’re wearing your Apple Watch on your left wrist.

In fact, flipping it around can make things on your Apple Watch even better. Check it out.

We think Siri’s been holding out on us. It turns out that Apple’s digital assistant has been quietly working on a skill that we only recently discovered.

It’s not very useful, but it should give you a smile: A simple request will make Siri beatbox for you.