Nothing, the audio brand from OnePlus founder Carl Pei, just updated its Ear 1 true wireless earbuds to include Siri voice support. That makes the inexpensive earbuds a little more competitive with competitors like AirPods and AirPods Pro. After all, the Ear 1 buds already have a lot of premium features.
You know you can turn on a HomeKit accessory by talking to Siri, but are you aware you can order devices to turn on or off at some point in the future just as easily?
Here’s how to set impromptu schedules for your HomeKit accessories with Siri commands — and why you might want to.
Fitness tracker company Garmin showed a new version of its Venu 2 Plus GPS smartwatch at CES 2022 — and this one let’s you talk to Apple’s voice-activated assistant, Siri. If you’re into that sort of thing.
Or, if you’re among the many folks who seem to prefer other helpers on their devices, you could talk to Google Assistant or Samsung’s Bixby. Previous Garmin smartwatches didn’t allow that. Plus the Venu 2 Plus works with both iOS and Android devices, Garmin said.
Taking Apple products and patents for inspiration, A UK-based vehicle-leasing company called Vanarama has offered a detailed look at what it thinks the first Apple Car could look like. You can explore the 3D concept render inside and out.
Smart home technology provider Zigma launched its Smart Aerio 300 Wi-Fi Air Purifier. The company said the device can analyze air in a home or office in three minutes and clean air in spaces up to 1,580 square feet in an hour.
Apple Music is now more affordable for those who agree not to use buttons. A new “Voice Plan,” unveiled Monday during Apple’s big “Unleashed” event, lets you access the entire Apple Music catalog using only your voice for just $4.99 a month.
That’s half the price of a regular Apple Music subscription — and it might just be ideal for HomePod users.
As announced at Apple’s WWDC conference earlier this year, Siri voice support has come to the Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control — the first hardware not made by Apple to get it, with many others to follow. Ecobee said a new software update bringing the change rolls out over the coming weeks.
Siri is widely considered the dumbest of the smart assistants (although I would argue that Samsung’s Bixby easily takes that crown) and it just got a little dumber. Apple has removed a whole bunch of useful Siri features that iPhone users — particularly those with vision impairment — relied on.
Siri can no longer play your voicemail messages, check your call history, send an email, and more. “Sorry, I can’t help with that” is the response that greets iPhone users who attempt to use the features that were available before iOS 15 made its public debut almost two weeks ago.
Apple’s original HomePod, the big smart speaker that predated the HomePod mini, lasted less than three years on the market. It never became a hit for the Cupertino tech giant. But a new design concept from a Swiss outfit imagines it coming back in two new forms.
Apple quietly introduced a new app to the App Store earlier this month. It’s called Siri Speech Study. It allows participants — by invitation from Apple — to opt in and share voice requests and other data to help improve the voice-activated digital assistant’s performance.
It’s easy to set alarms or timers on a HomePod smart speaker with Siri voice commands, but HomePod Software Version 14.7 adds the ability to make manual changes to of these with an iPhone or iPad. No Siri required.
Here’s how.
Smart home technology isn’t a massive focus of Apple’s. But the European Commission is nonetheless concerned that Apple could be one of the companies potentially able to engage in anticompetitive behavior in this area due to its outsized influence on the tech industry.
In preliminary investigation results published Wednesday, the EC raises concerns about the potential of “gatekeepers emerging” in this sector. The inquiry into Internet of Things (IoT) devices was launched in July 2020. It’s based on feedback from more than 200 different companies. Along with Apple, Amazon and Google are both mentioned as big players.
Some new features really stood out when Apple revealed the next versions of all its operating systems during Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Users of iPhone, Mac and iPad, and Apple Watch, too, can look forward to welcome improvements this fall.
We picked out the best of these to make sure they don’t get overlooked.
Siri will soon be able to handle many of your questions and requests offline. When Apple’s next-generation software updates roll out this fall, on-device speech recognition will negate the need for a data connection.
Apple is also opening Siri up to third parties, paving the way for its virtual assistant to be integrated into all manner of smart devices in the future.
Apple is bringing big privacy-focused changes to its Mail app and other parts of its ecosystem, the company said Monday.
“At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior VP of software engineering. “We don’t think you should have to make a tradeoff between great features and privacy. We believe you deserve both.”
This home automation post is brought to you by SwitchBot.
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Now, with SwitchBot products, you can control many of your ordinary, old-fashioned appliances and use them with home-automation systems like Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
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SwitchBot makes about a dozen products. Today we’ll focus on two, the SwitchBot Bot smart switch and the SwitchBot Hub Mini smart remote. They can be used separately or together.
Apple’s Siri voice control system was named after a real woman in Norway. This isn’t her story.
Instead, it’s the story of Siri Hafso, an ordinary Apple fan who’s very tired of people making jokes about her name. And she asked Apple CEO Tim Cook if he can make it up to her.
iOS 14.5 lets you answer or reject incoming calls with your voice on iPhone — without the need to say “Hey Siri.” In this tutorial, we’ll cover which headphones are compatible and how to get the feature set up.
Last week, Siri leaked the date and time of the upcoming Apple event. And this wasn’t the first time Apple’s own virtual assistant told the world about an upcoming event before the official announcement.
So step back Jon Prosser. Stand aside Mark Gurman. Siri is now the most accurate Apple leaker.
Siri may have just revealed the date for Apple’s rumored April event. According the voice assistant, Apple’s next event will take place one week from now on April 20.
This is likely to be the event at which Apple debuts its next-gen iPad Pro, the eagerly anticipated AirTags item trackers and a new iPad mini.
Microsoft has acquired Nuance Communications, the speech recognition AI company which helped* power Siri.
Microsoft snapped up Nuance for a massive $16 billion ($19.7 billion, inclusive of Nuance’s net debt). That’s the most it has spent on a company since buying LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016.
Most folks refer to Siri as “she,” but that’s not always true. The original British English Siri, for example, was male-only up until iOS 7.1 added a female version. And in the latest iOS 14.5 beta, a female Siri is not the default option.
No matter what, you don’t have to stick with your local version of Apple’s comically bad voice assistant. U.S. English speakers, for example, can currently choose from American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish and South African accents for Siri, and also pick male or female versions — with more voices coming soon.
So, if you’re a U.S. native who views the U.K. Standard English accent as quaint, cute, respectful, sexy or reproachful, it’s easy to set your iPhone or iPad to sound like a Brit or whatever you want. And your choice of Siri accent will follow you on all Apple devices logged into with your Apple ID. (In addition to iPhone and iPad, Siri works with just about everything now: Mac, AirPods, iPod, Apple Watch, CarPlay, HomePod and Apple TV.)
Let’s see how to change Siri’s accent.
After almost a decade of using a female voice by default, Siri users will be given a choice of voices for the virtual assistant when they set up Apple devices. The virtual assistant will also come with two new English-language voices.
These changes debuted in iOS 14.5 beta 6 and the iPads equivalent, which Apple seeded to developers Wednesday.
Apple reportedly bought more companies developing artificial intelligence technology over the past five years than anyone else. A prime goal is to make the Siri voice assistant smarter, according to GlobalData, the market-research firm that compiled a list of AI-related acquisitions by many companies.
Wikipedia reportedly asked the tech companies that use its free encyclopedia to start chipping in on the cost. That includes Apple, who built Wikipedia into macOS and iOS.