Siri

Siri does more than ever. Even before you ask.

593 'Siri' stories July 2011 - April 2019

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Siri is Apple’s personal assistant technology that debuted in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. Apple purchased Siri in 2010. At the time, it was a dedicated app on the iPhone. When it became built into the iPhone, it could do basic things like play music and make phone calls.

Now, it can do things like integrate with third-party messaging apps. payments, ride-sharing service, calling app, set timers, get directions, add reminders, start TV shows on the Apple TV, make language translations, search for photos, open documents, interact with your smart home though HomeKit, and a lot more.

In iOS 12, it became integrated into more third-party apps through Shortcuts. Companies can build their own interactions for the service to work with.

Compatible Devices

Siri Remote for Apple TV

Apple poaches top Google machine learning expert as it continues to expand AI team

Chance Miller Apr 4 2019 - 2:12 pm PT

HomePod Siri Apple

Apple has poached one of Google’s top artificial intelligence engineers as it continues to build up its AI team. Apple recently hired Google’s Ian Goodfellow to join its “Special Projects Group” as a director of machine learning, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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Apple buys up Laserlike, an ex-Googler founded AI startup focused on following news topics

Peter Cao Mar 13 2019 - 12:40 pm PT

Apple recently acquired the startup Laserlike, according to a new report from The Information. The company was founded by former Google engineers and makes it easier for users to follow news in various topics.

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DirecTV Now

DirecTV Now gaining TV app support, Single Sign-On, Siri search, more

Peter Cao Mar 7 2019 - 11:05 am PT

An update to the DirecTV Now live TV app is today adding support for the TV app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Users will now be able to easily search and access shows, as well as keep track of your viewing history within the TV app.

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Siri

Apple quietly updates the quality of the British Siri voice

Benjamin Mayo Mar 5 2019 - 10:43 am PT

Seemingly through a server-side change, Apple is quietly updating some of the international Siri text-to-speech synthesizers. Last month, some readers commented that the British male voice had been upgraded and we can confirm that the British female voice has also been updated as of this week. The change can be heard on iPhone and iPad as well as the HomePod.

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How to play podcasts on HomePod with Siri

Peter Cao Feb 28 2019 - 12:01 am PT

Most people know that you can play music with HomePod by simply asking for it. However, did you know you could also request podcasts through HomePod as well? Follow along to learn how to play podcasts on HomePod with Siri.

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Epson Siri Shortcuts

Siri

Siri Shortcuts and Google Assistant learn to print and scan documents with Epson printers

Peter Cao Feb 19 2019 - 10:31 am PT

Epson is today adding support for voice assistants to its printers including Siri and Google Assistant. For iOS, users will be able to create a Siri Shortcut to quickly print and scan documents.

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alexa human review

Siri

Apple reportedly buys PullString, a voice assistant startup behind enterprise Alexa apps

Peter Cao Feb 15 2019 - 1:57 pm PT

Apple has today agreed to buy a San Francisco-based startup Pullstring, according to Axios. The company focuses on designing and publishing voice apps. Such an acquisition could play an important role for Apple as it continues to work on improving Siri, which many believe is far behind the acquisition.

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Siri

Apple’s Siri VP exits role as Giannandrea shifts team’s focus to ‘long-term research’

Peter Cao Feb 1 2019 - 3:25 pm PT

HomePod Siri

Siri has gotten its fair share of scrutiny over the years, with many believing it’s falling behind in the smart assistant game despite being the first major company to market with the technology. Bill Stasior, who was responsible for Siri over the last seven years, has recently left the company.

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Controlling iRobot’s Roomba vacuum with Siri, no HomeKit required

Zac Hall Jan 18 2019 - 12:02 pm PT

siri roomba

Robot vacuums remains one obvious category HomeKit should support in the future. HomeKit support would bring voice control for vacuums through Siri, app control through the Home app and Control Center, and clean up scheduling through automation — all in the same app you manage other smart home accessories.

Even without HomeKit support, you can build your own Siri control for Wi-Fi-enabled iRobot Roomba vacuums using MacStories‘ very helpful guide for connecting IFTTT (If This Then That) triggers to Apple’s Shortcuts app on iOS 12. Here’s my Siri-controlled robot vacuum experience and best practice recommendations:

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How-to
Siri

How to disable Siri when iPhone is locked

Peter Cao Jan 10 2019 - 12:01 am PT

Ever have a friend or family member take your phone and start playing pranks by asking Siri to send a message? By default, this works whether or not you’ve actually unlocked your iPhone. Follow along to learn how to disable Siri when iPhone is locked.

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Apple’s Siri team far behind Amazon’s Alexa employee hiring rates

9to5 Staff Jan 3 2019 - 9:02 am PT

New data from Thinknum shows how hiring for Amazon’s Alexa platform is currently outpacing Apple’s attempts to grow the Siri team, at a rate of nearly 5:1. As of writing, there were about 750 job openings mentioning “Alexa” from Amazon, with just under 170 from Apple with specific mention of “Siri“.

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Siri lawsuit

Voice of Siri in Hebrew suing Apple for ‘illegitimate’ use

9to5 Staff Dec 28 2018 - 8:29 am PT

An Israeli broadcaster behind the voice of Hebrew Siri is suing Apple for NIS 250,000 (approximately $67,000), claiming the company never sought permission to use her voice before the localized virtual assistant launched in 2016.

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HomePod

PSA: Here’s a quick and easy way to prep your HomePod for party season

Ben Lovejoy Dec 18 2018 - 6:57 am PT

Siri listening history

Any HomePod owner who has ever hosted a party will know that visiting family and friends love to tell the speakers what to play. Which is great fun during the party, but not so much fun when it comes to the effect on your Apple Music recommendations for weeks later …

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Apple details how the HomePod uses machine learning to ignore noisy surroundings for Siri requests

Benjamin Mayo Dec 3 2018 - 7:38 am PT

In the latest post on its machine learning blog, the Apple audio software engineering team explains the challenges of speech detection for smart speakers, and how it uses machine learning models running on the HomePod’s A8 chip to help improve far-field accuracy.

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Apple set to attend major machine learning conference, highlights over 100 open ML jobs

Michael Potuck Nov 29 2018 - 8:22 am PT

Apple has today shared that it will be attending the 32nd Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS). Apple will have members of its ML team at a booth and notes it has many open positions as it works to build “a team of exceptional researchers and engineers.”

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You can now say ‘Hey Siri, Ok Google’ to use Google Assistant on the iPhone …

Ben Lovejoy Nov 21 2018 - 5:09 am PT

OK Google iPhone

An update to the Google Assistant iOS app means that you can now issue ‘Ok Google’ commands on your iPhone – albeit having to invoke Siri first …

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Volkswagen vehicles get Siri Shortcuts and voice control to unlock, flash lights, check mileage, more

Michael Potuck Nov 12 2018 - 8:32 am PT

Volkswagen is out with an update to its Car-Net iOS app that brings Siri voice control and Siri Shortcuts to a handful of useful features.

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How to invoke Siri on iPad Pro

Peter Cao Nov 9 2018 - 12:01 am PT

Siri helps you get things done by asking for it. With recent revisions iOS devices, the method in which you invoke Siri has changed. Follow along to learn how to invoke Siri on iPad Pro….

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Gorgeous iOS concept imagines refreshed Siri, Dock, and multitasking for 2018 iPad Pro models

Michael Potuck Oct 25 2018 - 11:40 am PT

A couple of months ago, we saw a beautiful concept from Kévin Eugène that reimagined Siri for iPhone with a new intuitive and much less intrusive design that ditched the current full screen takeover. Today, he’s shared a super sharp new concept for a redesigned Siri, Slide Over, multitasking, and Dock for the upcoming new iPad Pro models. Head below to check it out!

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Apple Watch: How to add third-party apps to Siri Watch face

Peter Cao Oct 2 2018 - 12:01 am PT

With the recent release of watchOS 5, users are now able to add information from third-party apps to the Siri Watch face. This means you can add information such as Carrot Weather, or calendar information from Fantastical.

Follow along to learn how….

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Siri waveform animation on Apple Watch Series 4 responds dynamically to the sound of your voice

Benjamin Mayo Sep 21 2018 - 11:06 am PT

siri apple watch

The waveform in the Siri interface on Apple Watch Series 4 works differently to how Siri behaves on other devices. It now animates the waveform in sync with changes in volume, like how Siri on iPhone works. Previous watches were much cruder.

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HomePod

Almost a third of smart speaker owners using them to control smart home devices

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2018 - 7:03 am PT

A new Adobe survey on the use of voice assistants unsurprisingly finds that usage is greatest among those who own a smart speaker like HomePod, and that more than two-thirds of usage is playing music.

It does, though, give some insights into other ways smart speaker owners are using their devices, including what the firm categorizes as ’emerging usage’ …

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Smart Home Diary: An update to our blinds revealing that Alexa is no smarter than Siri

Ben Lovejoy Sep 7 2018 - 7:07 am PT

I’ve played around a bit with Alexa, and even considered buying an Echo Dot or two before the launch of HomePod, but in the end decided to wait it out.

However, while Hunter Douglas is still promising HomeKit support for our Luxaflex Duette blinds, and was expecting to get there by now, certification has been delayed until later in the year. In the meantime, it’s gone ahead with the launch of the new bridge which brings voice control to the blinds – but so far only for Alexa and Google Home …

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How-to
Siri

iPhone: How to customize the way you trigger Siri

Peter Cao Sep 6 2018 - 12:01 am PT

Most people understand that pressing and holding the Home button on an iPhone (or Side button on iPhone X), will trigger Siri. However, there are other ways to trigger Siri, including hands-free.

Follow along to learn how to use different trigger methods for Siri….

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