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.
Let’s face it: Siri is a pretty astounding bit of technology, but even its creators aren’t going to argue any time soon that it’s quite on the level of HAL 9000, the murderous artificial intelligence seen in Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As the below hilarious reimagining of one of the film’s most iconic scenes makes abundantly clear. Check it out:
Apple is going hard on Earth Day. Company stores changed their Apple logos green. The App Store has a week-long green app promotion. And today the company has released not one, but two ads.
The second Earth Day video from Apple features Siri and Liam hanging out talking about kale smoothies until Apple’s digital assistant meets its demise.
Watch the new ad below:
Since there is still much to learn about the upcoming iOS 10 debut presumably at WWDC this year, Federico Vittici of MacStories and concept designer Sam Beckett took it upon themselves to bring their dreams to life. They worked together to design an incredible concept video that fulfills Vittici’s wishes for the next version of iOS. The video is nothing short of stunning and their implementation of his (completely reasonable) feature requests will have you absolutely drooling.
A long running lawsuit between Apple and Dynamic Advances and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has finally come to an end, and it wasn’t cheap for Apple.
The Dallas-based Dynamic Advances sued Apple for allegedly infringing on a 2007 patent. The patent in question was exclusively licenced to the firm by Rensselaer, but Apple violated it with certain voice features used in Siri.
Update: Apple has confirmed that its Worldwide Developers Conference 2016 will take place June 13 through June 17 in San Francisco. The keynote address will rock the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, with the remainder of the week’s sessions at Moscone Center West. See below for registration details.
While Apple has not yet made public the dates or location for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, apparently Siri knows when and where the event will take place.
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.
