cortana

Siri activated by ‘a city’ or ‘OK, Jerry’ reveals study of false wake words

By

Siri Lights
Accidental wake words affects all the major smart assistants.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

“Hey Siri” can be inadvertently activated by other wake words including “A city,” “Hey Jerry,” and more, reveal researchers from Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Bochum Max Planck Institute.

Siri’s far from the only voice assistant with a weakness when it comes to false triggers, however. The study compiled a list of over 1,000 words that can accidentally activate different A.I. assistants.

Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant

By

Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Siri is found on a whole lot of devices.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

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.

Google Home tops Siri and HomePod in smart speaker test

By

HomePod market share
The new HomePod could offer a neat new feature.
Photo: Apple

Apple may have been late to the smart speaker game but its HomePod is showing signs it could one day outperform them all.

But only if Apple gives Siri the power.

In Loup Ventures annual smart speaker comparisons, Google Assistant understood all 800 questions and answered nearly 88 percent of them correctly. In its first Loup Ventures test, the HomePod with Siri at the helm misunderstood just three questions and managed to answer correctly nearly 75 percent of its queries.

IQ test of virtual assistants shows Siri’s smarts are on the rise

By

Siri Alexa in voice report
So selfless, that Siri.
Photo: Apple

If Siri seems to be of greater service to you lately, an annual IQ test comparing virtual assistants shows its definitely getting smarter.

Loup Ventures annually peppers the various digital assistants with five categories of questions and when it comes to accuracy and comprehension of a user’s question, Google Assistant remains the best. Siri, however, is right behind Google while Amazon’s Alex and Cortana lags behind in that order.

HomePod may sound great, but Siri still sucks

By

HomePod Close Up
HomePod sounds great, but right now it doesn't have some of the AI tricks of its rivals.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has been pretty outspoken about marketing HomePod as a high-end speaker that just happens to have Siri, as opposed to a smart speaker built around its AI assistant, like the Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

A new study published by Loup Ventures suggests one reason why: Because Siri is seriously lagging behind its rivals in terms of its functionality and ability to answer questions.

Microsoft Cortana comes to iPad

By

Cortana iPad
Cortana could be reading your emails soon.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Microsoft Cortana is now available on iPad. The smart assistant comes with all the features you’ve been enjoying on iPhone since July, combined with an interface that’s optimized for massive iPad screens. It also promises a much faster experience.

Microsoft is bringing its Edge browser to iPhone

By

Microsoft Edge for iPhone
Get the latest version of Edge today.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft is bringing its Edge web browser to iPhone.

Windows users will feel right at home with its design, which looks as close as possible to that of Edge on the desktop. They will also enjoy the ability to send websites to their desktop when they want to view them on a larger screen.

Amazon Echo Show brings video to smart-speaker party

By

echotouchscreen
Could this be Amazon's new Echo speaker?
Photo: AFTVnews

Update: Amazon unveiled its new touchscreen Echo Show device Tuesday. In addition to smart-speaker functionality, the Amazon Echo Show brings video calls, video flash briefings, YouTube, karaoke-style music lyrics, security camera integration and more. Available for preorder now, the device will ship June 28 for $229.99.

Amazon could debut its new touchscreen Echo smart speaker as early as today, claims a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The latest in a line of popular Amazon Echo voice-activated speakers, the new device is likely to add a 7-inch display and a built-in camera. It will function like the existing Echo, but with the addition of touchscreen-based features.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

The lengthy process Apple uses to teach Siri new languages

By

Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, you’ll know it’s a hard and incredibly time-consuming process. It’s not much easier for virtual assistants like Siri.

Here are the mind-blowing steps Apple goes through to teach Siri new languages and dialects that help it stay one step ahead of the competition.

Microsoft Cortana will open up to third-party devs

By

Cortana was named after a character from Halo 4
The battle to establish a dominant AI assistant is ramping up.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft has just announced new Software Developer Kits (SDKs) for its Cortana virtual assistant, allowing developers to create new Cortana skills, as well as to integrate it into smart devices.

Check out the video below for a look at some of the skills Microsoft’s Cortana can offer when incorporated into a smart device.

GE’s new Alexa lamp shines light on internet of things

By

GE's prototype adds Amazon's voice-activated assistant Alexa to a tabletop LED lamp.
GE's prototype adds Amazon's voice-activated assistant Alexa to a tabletop LED lamp.
Photo: GE

We’ve heard for years that the internet of things™ would imbue everything in our lives with the power of the web, all accessible by voice. If you’ve been waiting for something that isn’t a computer or smartphone or smart home hub to ask for driving directions or movie times, here’s your dream device at last: It’s a lamp that gets its smarts from Alexa.

Microphone technology is Siri’s next big hurdle

By

Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Siri needs better microphones.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

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 sequel beats the heck out of Apple’s AI assistant

By

Viv
Viv is going to blow you away!
Photo: Viv

Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, creators of the artificial intelligence technology that brought Siri to the iPhone, today showcased a new virtual assistant that’s even more amazing.

Viv, which has been secretly in development for the past four years, is a much more open platform that works closely with a whole bunch of different services to be even more powerful than its predecessor, and to take AI to a whole new level.

Siri might suffocate the southern drawl

By

Siri Texas
King of the Hill's inscrutable Texan, Boomhauer, may not get a whole lot of use out of Siri.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

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.

Bing’s redesigned iPhone app focuses on instant answers

By

bing-iphone-app-redesign - 2
Bing's new app is both pretty and powerful.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft released a completely revamped Bing app for iPhone today with a redesigned home page and a much larger emphasis on instant answers to search queries. Finding what you’re looking for now takes much less time.  It’s possible that this release is a stepping stone to the iOS debut of Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Google Now.

Siri’s first voice doesn’t think much of his replacement

By

Siri, go die in a fire, ok?
Siri's original U.K. male voice is putting his successor on blast.
Photo: Cult of Mac

We’re used to having virtual assistants like Cortana diss Siri, but it’s not every day you hear one Siri voice insult another.

Now Siri’s original U.K. male voice — actor Jon Briggs, who also performed on the U.K. version of the Weakest Link — is hitting out at his replacement, calling the new British male Siri “a little insipid if I’m honest.”

Siri vs. Google Now: Who wins the AI cat fight?

By

Fight!
Fight!

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Every mobile platform now ships with its very own virtual assistant, and while they all offer a similar set of basic features, Google Now and Siri are way ahead of their rivals. Google Now knows what you want and when you want it, but Siri has sass and personality, and is about to get a whole lot better with the help of Proactive.

If you were to pit the two against each other in a virtual ring, which one would come out wearing the belt? Join us as we find out in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac!