As a person with a funkily spelled last name, at least for English speakers, I appreciate that Siri tries to say my name, but I never really assumed she could pronounce it correctly. If you’re having trouble with Siri’s pronunciation of any of your contact names, here’s an easy trick to get her to say it correctly.
As Apple slowly but surely turns its back on Google, Siri, its intelligent digital assistant, is doing the same. If you’d have asked Siri a question back in June, there’s a 60% chance the data it came back with would have been from Google. Ask it a question today, however, and that chance is reduced to just 30%. Not only has Apple given YouTube and Google Maps the boot, then, it’s shunning Google’s search data, too.
If you pop into your local Microsoft store and ask for a demonstration of Windows 8, there’s a chance the store assistant will disappear and send over an 11-year-old child to help you. That’s what the company is doing in Portugal in an effort to prove its new operating system is so intuitive, even a child can use it. Either that or it’s taking advantage of cheap child labor.
Google Maps for iPhone is out, and it’s a solid replacement for Apple’s Maps app in iOS 6. Jailbreakers can make Google Maps the default maps app on their iPhones, but everyone else has to deal with the fact that Apple will never let you fully replace its own Maps with Google’s. It’s a shame, but it’s the walled iOS garden we all live in.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use Siri to get directions with Google Maps, however. You don’t even need to jailbreak. There’s a simple trick that makes it possible.
In case you hadn’t already heard, Google finally released an official Google Maps app for iPhone on Wednesday night, and I must say, I think it’s terrific. It’s super quick, it looks fantastic, and it brings back all the mapping features you had on your iPhone before Apple gave Google Maps the boot — including Street View and transit directions. Google has also thrown its own turn-by-turn navigation into the mix for good measure.
In fact, the new Google Maps app for iPhone is so good that Google admits it’s better than the Android version. It also promises an iPad version is coming soon.
Ever want to see the robot computer code language Siri actually thinks in before she translates it to English? Well if you’re in the U.S. and ask Siri why she doesn’t speak Danish, German, Portugese, Mandarin, French, Russian, or a number of other languages, then her answer will come back in a goop of unintelligible robot-speak. Well, unintelligible for people who have little understanding of coding.
It looks like there’s something wrong on the server end of Siri and she’s unable to retrieve the proper answer. Rather than answering in English, or offering to do a web search on your question, she orates the code version of the answer. We’ve yet to find any other questions that prompt a similar response from Siri, but this is another simple flaw that Eddie Cue and his team need to fix whenever they get done saving people from Apple Maps.
Have you seen similar code-based answers from Siri for other questions? Let us know in the comments.
Apple released iOS 6.1 beta 3 to registered developers yesterday, but unless your iOS device’s unique identification number (UDID) is registered with Apple’s developer program, you can’t install it. But don’t worry, we can tell you everything that’s new in this version, including some changes to iCloud setup and Passbook sample cards, new mobile-cellular data options, and more.
You got a brand new baby. Congratulations. Your baby is probably the greatest thing ever. It probably even smells like love. Being a parents is amazing. I mean, I don’t really know what it’s like, but I imagine it’s pretty cool to watch a little person come out of another person and then raise it into a full-grown human like yourself and teach it cool ninja moves and stuff.
Now that you have your new baby you’re probably struggling with a name for it. All the cool ones are probably taken, and it doesn’t help that Beyonce and Jay-Z are doing pompous shit like trademarking their baby’s name. But please, PLEASE, don’t even think about naming your baby after an Apple product.
Sure, you could use the calculator, or any one of a dozen-odd apps that allow you to tap the screen and calculate the tip in a restaurant, but why even bother? iOS and Siri can meet your needs just by talking to your iPhone–or iPad, but won’t that get meatloaf gravy all over it?
Regardless, here’s how to ask Siri the right way to calculate the tip for the super-helpful server or bartender in your life.
General Motors has announced that its upcoming Chevrolets will be the world’s first cars to offer “Eyes Free” Siri integration, allowing drivers to use the voice control capabilities of their iPhone without taking their hands off the wheel. The feature will be integrated into GM’s MyLink infotainment system.
Check this video out – it’s a developer who’s used a Siri development plugin to control his Phillips Hue IP-controllable light bulbs. While the video is short, the guy who did it, Brandon Evans, has posted the code and instructions needed to make it happen on your own iPad, assuming you know what he’s talking about.
Evan has this to say about the project:
The Philips Hue hardware was first intriguing to me because they explicitly mention that it’s a ZigBee certified product on the packaging and labels. ZigBee is a wireless technology that is different from WiFi in a few important ways: Low power, equivalent range and intended for light data mesh networks. It’s popular with DIY hardware makers (think Arduinos) for this reason, as well as that it’s much cheaper than WiFi modules. It seems like it may be the wireless standards of choice for consumer home automation systems that are coming to market. As an example, the Nest thermostat was also found to have ZigBee hardware inside, although it isn’t supported in software yet. Because of all this I wanted to see exactly what hardware Philips was using, and if it would be possible to replicate the Hue system.
Looks like a great first step to using off-the-shelf technology to control home systems. Bravo, Mr. Evans!
Source: Brandon Evans
Via: Loop Insight
The Three Laws of Robotics are supposed to save humankind from an evil robotic uprising. It didn’t really work that way for Will Smith in iRobot, and based on Siri’s answer to the question, “What are the three laws?” we’re probably screwed as well because she doesn’t know them either.
If you ask Siri, “what are the three laws” she’ll respond with the following:
Sometimes she’ll even give you a fourth law:
A person’s birthday is the one day of the year where it’s totally ok to gloat as people shower you with their affections throughout the day. It’s the one day where it’s ok to want to feel a little special.
Even Siri wants to make you feel special. If you tell Siri, “It’s my birthday,” she’ll start singing a sprited version of “Happy Birthday” before remembering that, oh crap, that song is copyrighted. Better luck next year.
Via: Reddit
Did you know you could use Siri, Apple’s personal voice assistant, without unlocking your iPhone? Well, you can. Hold the Home button for the few seconds it takes for Siri’s purple microphone icon to show up, and you can ask it to do anything you like, like making a phone call, composing a Tweet, or sending an iMessage. This is a great feature for the person who owns the iPhone, but what about someone who finds your iPhone, or that one friend who can’t keep from messing with your stuff?
Luckily, you can turn this “feature” off, thereby preventing this from happening. Here’s how.
Now, I love me some Siri, but even I have to admit that the personal voice assistant isn’t always super fast or super accurate. Last night, when I asked it when the new iMac would ship, it said, “I don’t know that that means. If you like, I can search the web for ‘When does the new iMac ship’.” Today, it directs me to “Apple’s rather fabulous website.”
When I asked Google search the same question? I got a ton of responses, including a link to an Amazon.com question And Answer: When will the new imacs ship…”
Google search also seems a LOT faster in recognizing and interpreting what I mean when I speak to it, and it works on non-Siri capable iOS devices. Apple’s got some competition here.
We were a bit disappointed when Apple made the iPod Nano larger this year. The watch-like form factor of the iPod Nano was perfect for a lot of people and we were really hoping Apple would eventually make a iWatch that will rival the Pebble.
Federico Ciccarese has come up with a revolutionary concept called the iSiri Smartwatch. The watch would control everything on you iPhone and give you feedback right from your wrist, which might be an ingenious idea, or add an unnessecary level of interaction with our devices.
Check out the video of the iSiri Smartwatch in action below and tell us what you think of the idea in the comments.
Apple’s had dreams of making a car for a long time. Rumors have even floated around that Steve Jobs really wanted to make an iCar and that Apple considered making an iCar before they made the iPhone, but decided against it.
Well, if you can’t make your own car, you might as well team up with one of the most luxurious car companies in the world. In a statement today, Ferrari announced that Eddy Cue, a senior vice president at Apple, will be joining their board of directors.
If you’ve found Siri to be completely useless, and you’ve decided it’s easier to avoid it than to shout at it, then why not replace it with Google Voice Search? If you’ve got a jailbroken iOS device, it’s as easy as installing a new tweak called NowNow.
No matter how long it spent waiting for approval, Google’s updated search app for iOS was worth the wait. Is it a shameless Siri-clone for web search? Yes, pretty much? Is it fast, instantly usable, and useful? Oh yes. Oh yes it certainly is.
Unaware of Scott Forstall’s recent exit from Apple, Siri will tell you that information on Forstall can be found on Apple.com, even though Apple already moved him from the Executive Profiles page.
Somebody’s got to break it to Siri that her buddy Scott is gone, and who better than Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Phil Schiller. In their latest comic, Joy of Tech imagines what that awkward conversation with Siri would look like, head over there to see how she takes the news.
Source: Joy of Tech
Poor Siri. Her and Scott Forstall looked so happy together each time they hung out at the Apple keynotes, swapping jokes, answering questions and chatting. Now Scott’s kind of almost gone, but no one’s had the heart to break it to Siri that Mr. Forstall no longer plays a major role at Apple, and won’t be there to show off all her new designer threads at the iOS 7 keynote.
Each time you ask about Scotty, Siri tells you to just go look at Apple.com, like he totally works there and the info’s all there man. But yeah, it’s not.
There are only a few hours left until the entire country goes jettisons itself into a deranged mess of Halloween parties. If you don’t have your costume ready by now then you might be panicing about coming up with something cool on the fly.
Don’t worry. We’ve got three great Apple-themed Halloween costume ideas that you can pull of in minutes before you head to your parties tonight. Check ’em out.
Google’s updated search app adds lightning-fast voice-controlled search, just like you get on Android. It’s simple, impressively fast and will run on just about any iDevice you might have, not just the latest hardware.
But it has a long way to go to compete with Siri.
Google is still the champion when it comes to search, but their iOS app has lacked a lot of the neat features that you can use on Android. A big update to the Google Search app has fixed all that though and brought improved voice search capabilities to iOS.
The update is pretty significant for iPhone 5 users and can be downloaded free via the App Store. The biggest update to the app is that users can now can use natural language to control Google Search as well as listen to Google Search dictate the results of your query back to you.
Scott Forstall was destined for big things at Apple. Originally part of Steve Jobs’s NeXT team, he spent 15 years with the Cupertino company and spearheaded its hugely successful iOS software division. Many believed he would succeed Tim Cook as CEO later on, but on Monday, but the chances of that happening looked impossible when Apple announced Forstall was on his way out.
The news came as a shock to us all, but it seems there are several reasons why Apple had to remove Forstall from its executive team — it seems refusing to apologize for the whole Maps debacle wasn’t the only one.
