Apple's quiet update to Siri Shortcuts brings the niche tool into the mainstream

You're either a Siri Shortcuts fan, in which case the new features will absolutely delight you, or you've never looked at it. In which case, Apple wants to help you find out how useful Siri Shortcuts are for you.

William Gallagher 6 years ago 32

Spotify, Pandora, and other music apps could gain Siri playback controls

Siri could be used to play music from third-party streaming services like Spotify in iOS 13, iPadOS, and HomePod, with a change to SiriKit enabling verbal control of tracks and podcasts being played in non-Apple apps via the virtual assistant, without requiring the use of Siri Shortcuts.

Malcolm Owen 7 years ago 14

Global Accessibility Awareness Day commemorated on Apple's homepage

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is May 16, and Apple has chosen to mark the occasion with a big section on the front page highlighting features in Apple's products.

Mike Wuerthele 7 years ago 0

How to make the Apple Watch Raise to Speak feature work every time

The ability to just raise your wrist and speak to your Apple Watch without the words "Hey, Siri," is brilliant. What was initially a convenience is now increasingly useful, too, and yet it's extraordinarily unreliable. Here's how to make it better — and why you need it to.

William Gallagher 7 years ago 23

Editorial: How AirPods and Shortcuts shifted Apple's Siri story and blunted Amazon's Alexa Echo threat

Two years ago there was no shortage of media coverage imagining that Apple's entire hardware business was about to be eclipsed by a new voice-first world where Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant and perhaps even Microsoft Cortana would shift consumer and developer attention away from iPhone apps and toward stationary Internet-connected microphones running ambient "skills." Why didn't that actually happen?

Daniel Eran Dilger 7 years ago 69

Thousands of Amazon workers are listening in on Echo audio, report says [u]

In a bid to enhance its in-house Alexa voice recognition technology, Amazon reportedly employs thousands of people around the world to listen, transcribe and annotate audio clips recorded by Echo devices.

Mikey Campbell 7 years ago 42

How to stop Siri's voice reverting to a robot on iOS

You'll never appreciate just how good Siri's voice is today unless you hit this problem where your iPhone sheds it in favor of the original 2011-era robotic sound. Once you've appreciated it, though, here's how to put it right again.

William Gallagher 7 years ago 7

Apple debuts Apple TV+ and Apple TV Channels for cord-cutters, integrated into TV app

At the company's March special event, Apple has revealed its much-awaited Apple TV Channels streaming video service, coupled with an updated Apple TV app, making that available across the entire range of Apple devices including the Mac. Apple TV Channels will begin in May.

William Gallagher 7 years ago 50

Apple publishes five new Apple Watch videos about using Siri, band changes, and more

Apple posted a collection of five new tip videos to its YouTube channel, teaching owners of the Apple Watch Series 4 how to perform some basic functions on the wearable device, including a few covering the wrist-worn hardware's fitness functionality.

Malcolm Owen 7 years ago 4

Apple confirms buyout of machine learning startup Laserlike

Apple on Wednesday confirmed its recent takeover of Laserlike, a Silicon Valley startup that applied machine learning to content discovery.

Roger Fingas 7 years ago 5

Apple's smart glasses can change the game in a niche augmented & virtual reality market

We don't need more technology, we need someone to find a true use for Virtual and Augmented Reality. Apple is just the firm to do it — since it's done the same thing twice before.

William Gallagher 7 years ago 34

Apple rolls out changes to female British voice on HomePod and iOS

Apple has made another change to the British voice of Siri on its devices, with iOS and HomePod users now able to hear an updated version of the female voice following similar upgrades recently made to the male version in February.

Malcolm Owen 7 years ago 17

Apple hunts for program manager to help respond to Siri criticisms

Apple is searching for a Siri engineering program manager to keep tabs on how the world is reacting to the AI assistant and transform any criticism into real-world improvements.

Roger Fingas 7 years ago 51

Apple heralds more health and fitness apps gaining Siri Shortcut support

More apps have been given updates to work with Siri Shortcuts, with Apple highlighting a number of health and fitness-related tools that take advantage of the digital assistant's abilities to provide custom verbal queries.

Malcolm Owen 7 years ago 2

Airbnb, American Airlines, Dexcom & others getting Siri Shortcuts

Several prominent apps have gained Siri Shortcuts compatibility this week, and more prominent names are coming between March and April.

Roger Fingas 7 years ago 1

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