Siri - page 7

Apple is seemingly looking to step up its work in speech translation, showing one more way that Cupertino is looking to incorporate cutting-edge approaches to artificial intelligence into what it does.

In a recent paper, published to the pre-print server arXiv, two Apple research scientists describe the challenges in the field, carrying out a fundamental survey of the problems with current speech translation.

No, they don’t have a magical solution. But the fact that Apple gave them such a task suggests the company takes seriously the need to hone its tools in this area.

Between a pandemic sweeping the world and the ramped-up rhetoric of a U.S. election year, 2020 has felt pretty apocalyptic thus far. It seems that Siri agrees, too — at least, based on the AI assistant’s response to the question, “How long until 2020 ends?”

Siri’s answer varies depending on when you ask the question. But one thing’s consistent: The doomsday clock only has a few hours left on it. Fortunately, there’s a logical explanation.

With all the iOS 14 leaks dropping ahead of WWDC 2020 we already have a pretty solid idea which new features will make the cut, but concept designer Stijn van Oosterwijk has a couple dozen other ideas that would make iOS 14 the biggest iPhone update ever.

Oosterwijk’s new iOS 14 concept video is jammed with new features. The video starts with a new incoming call screen and keeps pouring on other goodies. There’s lock screen widgets, a completely new Tools app, a translate app, an AR experience within the Maps app and so much more.

How many new features can you count?

A brilliant new iOS 14 concept shows how useful it would be to have multiple docks at the bottom of the iPhone’s Home screen.

The multiple-dock UI, published by designer Alessandro Chiarlitti over the weekend, would basically let you toggle between different widgets at the bottom of the screen. That would give you quick access to music controls and other apps without opening them.

Check it out in action:

Spotify’s newest update on iOS, out Thursday, lets users control their music using Siri on Apple Watch. Simply add “on Spotify” to the end of your voice commands to play your favorites artists, albums, playlists, and more.

Apple is jumping into the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with a new website and app that allow visitors to screen themselves for COVID-19 symptoms.

The company partnered with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control for the new site and app, found at Apple.com/covid19 and on the App Store. The goal is to give people resources so they can stay informed on steps they can take to protect their health during the coronavirus outbreak.

Apple enhanced its Siri voice assistant Saturday with a step-by-step query instructing users on determining if they have been exposed to COVID-19, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. 

The instructions are based on specific instructions from the U.S. Public Health Service, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thanks to unprecedented early leaks, some of the biggest new features planned for iOS 14 have already been spoiled. Apple is supposedly making some huge changes to the Home screen, iMessages, HomeKit, Apple Pencil and much more in its next-gen mobile operating system.

The recent wave of leaks proved so overwhelming that we rounded them all up in one place. We will keep updating the list as we inch closer to this summer’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple traditionally previews all of its upcoming platform updates.

It’s hard to imagine not hearing that voice. So smart, so reassuring, so — Siri.

That familiar iOS voice isn’t going anywhere, but a report claims Apple is working on a “software framework” to give developers custom voice synthesizers.

iOS 14 will ship with a brand-new Home screen layout that allows users to arrange icons in a list, according to a new report. The view is expected to be customizable and will incorporate Siri Suggestions for making your most frequently used apps easier to access.

It could be the biggest change to the Home screen since the first version of iOS debuted with the original iPhone in 2007.

Bose is rolling out a big firmware update for a bunch of SoundTouch speakers that adds AirPlay 2 support. You can install it via the free SoundTouch app for iPhone and iPad.

AirPlay 2 lets you stream audio from your Apple devices, and enables multi-room audio playback with other compatible speakers.

When I was a kid, we communicated in class by writing notes on pieces of paper, and passing them to other kids. It was called “passing notes,” and is now probably taught in schools as an artisanal pastime, along with “going outside” and conkers. In 2020, kids use insane workarounds to avoid actual writing.

Today we’ll see how to “pass notes” using nothing but two $700 iPhones and two $160 pairs of AirPods.

You know when you reply to a message on your Apple Watch, and it’s such a pain to write it out a letter at a time or to dictate your reply (only to have Siri mishear you)? The alternative is to use one of Apple Watch’s canned responses. Unfortunately, they all sound like your account got hacked, or that you don’t care about the sender enough to come up with a proper reply.

However, you can customize those replies to make them much more useful. And with one clever trick, you can make Apple Watch smart replies sound just like you really wrote them.

If you have a pair of AirPods Pro, then you know all about noise cancellation. That’s kind of the whole point of Apple’s top-tier AirPods, from the noise-sealing silicone tips to the software Ear Tip Fit Test. You probably also know that you can deactivate noise cancellation, and even quick-switch modes by squeezing the shaft of one of the earbuds.

But what if you never want to disable the excellent active noise cancellation on your AirPods Pro? Maybe you keep accidentally deactivating the feature (like I do). Today we’ll see how to switch off the shaft-squeezing shortcuts — and how to access them from your iPhone’s lock screen instead.

As of iOS 13, you can have your iPhone read out incoming iMessages through your AirPods. And this — along with their awesome sound and noise-canceling abilities — is my favorite feature of the AirPods Pro. On paper, it’s a small feature in a long list. But in everyday use, Announce Messages with Siri makes a huge difference in how I use my iPhone.

By now, you already know how to customize the regular stuff on your AirPods and AirPods Pro. You just find them in the list of connected Bluetooth gadgets, and tap the i button to see a list of handy settings. But what about deeper-level customization? Like most things in iOS, there’s an extra set of advanced AirPods Pro settings inside the Accessibility settings. You even change double-squeeze speed of the AirPods Pro stems if you want to slow things down.

Let’s take a look.

Even if you’re a die-hard Apple fan, there’s still plenty you most likely don’t know about the company’s most popular product. And, whether you want to wow your Apple-loving in-laws over the holidays or just feel the need to fill your brain with some iPhone facts, we’ve got you covered.

Here are 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPhone.

Thanks to Amazon’s Echo devices, Alexa is probably the AI assistant most likely to come up in a conversation. But Siri is still the most popular virtual assistant of them all.

According to a new report by Futuresource Consulting, Siri currently leads the virtual assistant pack with a 35% global marketshare. Google Assistant follows behind with 9% of the marketshare, while Alexa makes up just 4% of AI assistants.

Apple is teaming up with Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance to create a new open and royalty-free standard for smart home devices.

Project “Connected Home over IP” aims to increase compatibility among smart home gadgets and make development easier for device manufacturers. It should also simplify smart technology for consumers.

The great thing about having Siri built into your Apple Watch is that it’s always there when you need it. The bad thing about it is that it’s there when you don’t need it, too.

BBC Weather meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker recently ran into an embarrassing mishap on live TV when describing snow in the US Midwest. At that point, Siri kicked in to correct him, saying there was actually no snow forecast.

Apple failed to kill a bug in the Mail app for macOS for months despite its potential to expose private details in emails that the user thought was encrypted.

Security researcher Bob Gendler first discovered the flaw in July and notified Apple of it. Despite releasing four updates for macOS since that time, the privacy flaw still hasn’t been fixed. Apple says it’s working to resolve the issue soon though.

Siri is in trouble again — or, at least, Siri’s Spanish-speaking cousin. According to a new report, the Spanish language version of Siri has been criticized for describing long-standing Bolivian president Evo Morales as a “dictator.”

Morales recently won a controversial fourth presidential term in Bolivia. However, thousands of citizens have marched across the country decrying voter fraud. It seems that Spanish language Siri was spiritually among them.

Stressed? On edge? Struggling to block out the annoying construction work down the street? Or do you just hate silence, and the way it reminds you that your life is tick-ticking away? Then you need some room-filling ambient sounds.

How about a nice, relaxing rainstorm to help you fall asleep? Or some white noise to fill the space left by your grownup children when they left you behind to start their own lives? If you have a HomePod running iOS 13.2 or later, your smart speaker stands ready to help blank out the soul-bleeding silence of your empty life. You just need to ask.

You don’t need to dig into the Settings app every time you want to change the noise canceling settings of your AirPods Pro. There are two other ways to toggle setting which are much, much faster. Let’s check them out.

Your AirPods Pro controls are cleverly incorporated in the earbuds’ stems. The stems are touch-sensitive, and various squeezes or strokes will play or pause music, adjust the volume, answer phone calls, launch Siri, change noise cancellation settings and more.

Here’s how AirPods Pro controls work, and how to customize their settings.