Android fans who have been waiting for Apple to bring its popular iMessage platform to Android won’t be getting blue chat bubbles anytime soon, according to Apple executives at WWDC.
Despite pre-WWDC rumors that Apple planned to push iMessage across the Android divide, the company revealed this week that it has some pretty good reasons to keep it as an exclusive iOS feature.
Along with macOS, iOS and watchOS Apple recently unveiled the latest system update to their Apple TV operating system: tvOS 10.
tvOS 10 brings some great new additions along with a new iOS remote app. To see the new Apple TV and remote app updates in action, check out the video below.
Most Apple fans don’t start drooling at the mention of speech-recognition APIs, Xcode thread sanitizers, Metal tessellation or Pixar USD model support. However, if you’re a developer, those can be huge game-changers that mean you can make your apps better than ever.
While Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2016 keynote revealed loads of fresh features coming in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra — including some amazing stuff that should delight iPhone, iPad and Mac owners when the final versions launch this fall — developers watching Monday’s event saw tons of seemingly minor updates that will let them make apps better than ever.
To find out what the little updates could mean for typical users, Cult of Mac asked some of this year’s Apple Design Award winners what WWDC additions they’re most excited about.
Here’s what they told us.
The first macOS beta was released this week, so of course I downloaded it straight away on my Mac to bring you all a quick hands on video.
Although this is still the first beta, and many functions still don’t work as intended, it gives us our first glimpse at Apple’s next-gen desktop OS in action. Check out the macOS Sierra hands on video below.
With absolutely no new hardware to show off, Apple focused on software — the glue that binds together its increasingly powerful and interconnected platforms — during the Worldwide Developers Conference kick-off event Monday.
“Our North Star has always been about improving people’s lives by creating great products that change the world,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, addressing thousands of developers in San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. “Today for the very first time, we are going to talk to you about four Apple platforms. Each of these platforms is category-defining and world-changing.”
Apple’s big iOS 10 update for iPhones and iPads won’t be available to the public until later this fall, but the company has already started hyping its launch with a new teaser video.
iOS 10 packs 10 big additions that change everything from the lock screen’s UI, Siri, and how you’ll interact with friends in Messages. We’re still diving into all the new features in the first developer beta. In the meantime, you can get your first glimpse of iOS 10 below:
Big changes are coming to Siri, Apple’s intelligent voice-activated assistant. For the first time, Siri will be available on the Mac and will be opened to third-party developers on iOS.
While Siri was one of the first voice-controlled AI assistants on the market, it’s fallen behind competitors like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Now, largely because it was a closed system that worked only in Apple’s apps. Opening it to developers makes it much more functional, and presents a more serious challenge to upstarts like Viv that promise to help with a wide range of services and tasks.
The next generation of tvOS for Apple TV will be more powerful than ever thanks to some huge new updates Apple unveiled today at the company’s WWDC keynote.
Apple VP Eddy Cue showed off new features for Apple’s set-top box that make Siri more powerful than ever while also giving developers new tools to create better tvOS app experiences.
Nerds rejoice. WWDC is finally here!
Apple’s annual developer conference is set to get underway in just a few hours. The company is expected to unveil the future of iOS, OS X, Apple Watch, Siri and much more in what is expected to be one of the most action-packed keynotes we’ve seen in years.
Cult of Mac will be liveblogging all the action of today’s events right here and we won’t stop until every last morsel of info has been dished out by Tim Cook and the rest of Apple’s team. If you’re not sure what to expect from today’s keynote, take a look at this quick refresher — “Everything to expect from Apple’s jam-packed WWDC 2016 keynote” — and then join us for our WWDC liveblog below. The keynote starts Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific.
We’re all stoked for our first previews of iOS 10 and macOS from WWDC, but according to sources familiar with Apple’s plans, it’s going to be Siri that steals the show.
The virtual assistant is expected to make the leap to the Mac for the first time, and could also open up to third-party apps and services — allowing users to check in for flights, book Uber rides, and do more using only their voice.
Apple’s keynote to kick off this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference is going to be huge. So huge, in fact, that Apple already revealed some stuff early because Tim Cook and his Cupertino cronies won’t have time to cover everything during the jam-packed, two-hour event.
While WWDC might seem like a bit of a snoozefest for Apple fans who don’t know anything about Xcode and Swift, the 2016 edition of the annual developer conference should bring lots of new stuff even normals can get hyped about. The WWDC keynote will give us a peek inside the ever-evolving Apple ecosystem — and thus our clearest picture of the future of all Apple products.
This year, all of Apple’s platforms are set to get major updates, as are some of the company’s most popular services, like Siri and Apple Music. Here’s what to watch for during Apple’s keynote, which will kick off WWDC 2016 next Monday morning in San Francisco.
Apple’s big keynote for WWDC is just a few days away, but if you want some hints about what the company will unveil, just ask Siri.
Apple’s digital assistant won’t spill the beans on iOS 10 or macOS, however asking her questions like “What will happen at WWDC?” currently cause Siri to unleash some hilarious responses that are straight out of Game of Thrones.
Take a look at some of these funny answers:
Whether it’s saving the life of a man trapped beneath a truck or calling 911 after a mom suffered a fainting spell, Siri has proven to be a real life-saver on a few occasions.
The latest such example comes out of Cairns, Australia, when a mother used her iPhone 6s’ “Hey Siri” feature to call an ambulance after her one-year-old daughter stopped breathing.
Apple has begun inviting members of the press to its WWDC 2016 keynote on June 13.
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. PT in the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco, and it should deliver our first sneak peeks at iOS 10 and Apple’s next major upgrades for watchOS, tvOS, and OS X.
Amazon Alexa, the powerful virtual assistant found inside the retail giant’s Echo speaker, is now available in your browser. It can answer your questions and even control your smart devices, and all you need is an Amazon account and a microphone.
Details of Apple’s upcoming Amazon Echo competitor are starting to surface, and it sounds like it could be both Apple’s most futuristic and creepiest product yet.
The iPhone-maker is considering adding a camera to its Echo rival, according to a new report that claims the device will be able to tell who is using it just by looking at you.
Apple is planning to open Siri up to third-party developers and it appears that Apple TV could be the biggest benefactor from the expanded platform.
In order to better compete with Amazon’s Echo devices, Apple reportedly plans to update the Apple TV with more Siri features that will hopefully turn the device into the hub of everything.
The next evolution of Siri could feature a new Apple product designed to directly compete with Amazon’s successful Echo device.
Apple is reportedly planning to make a rival to the Amazon Echo, but the in order to compete with the device’s incredible array of features and services, Apple plans to open up Siri to third-party apps.
At its I/O conference in California this week, Google gave us a preview of the new Google Assistant that’s coming later this year. It’s like Siri, only it’s vastly more intelligent. It does everything you want a digital assistant to do and more.
And just like a lot of Google services, Assistant will be available on iOS — not only in the official Google app, but also inside the new Allo messenger. It will be competing with Apple’s AI in its own backyard, and the Cupertino company should be worried about that.
But can Siri catch up, or have Apple’s rivals now too far ahead in artificial intelligence? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over digital assistants.
Apple’s digital assistant Siri is expected to finally arrive on Macs later this year with the next OS X update, and now it appears that we already know what the new icons will be.
Screenshots of the upcoming Siri for Mac features were leaked online today, revealing the multi-colored wave icon that will soon rest on your dock, along with a new menu bar icon for Siri.
This is what Siri will look like on the Mac:
But is it art? There’s a whole new way of looking at these works, in the form Steve P Jobs himself–or at least his likeness.
Learn all about these odd yet interesting portraits of the late Apple co-founder, including tattoos, technology-art, and the bubble wrap portrait you see above, as you browse this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Inside this deliciously digital magazine-style app, you’ll find out more about possibilities for the new Apple Watch OS, how to retrain Siri to make better sense of your verbalizations, inside the weird world of iPod collectors, and all the reviews and how-tos you need to stay up to date on tech through an Apple lens.
Here are this week’s top stories.
We could all use a personal assistant who’s there to make life that little bit easier, and thanks to Cola, the world’s first smart messaging OS, we can all have one.
Cola is designed to take care of all the small but important things you have to do throughout your day, like arranging meetings and managing to-do lists. And for the first time, it’s opening up to third-party services to become even more powerful.
Have you ever noticed that Siri understands you less and less as the months go by? The digital assistant works great when you first set it up on a shiny new iPhone, but over time, it has a habit of becoming annoyingly inaccurate.
In this week’s Quick Tips video, I’m going to show you how to retrain Siri. By improving its recognition of your voice, you can make it work just as well as it once did.
Check the video out below.
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 has been gradually getting better since its debut in 2011, but some of its original creators are set to introduce its successor, Viv, next week — and, by all accounts, Siri better watch her back!
Having operated in stealth mode for more than a year, Viv’s arrival hopes to represent a significant step forward in artificial intelligence as AI assistants take on more of an active role in running our lives.
Apple’s next acquisition? It would be great to think so.
