Siri

In Apple’s latest Machine Learning Journal entry, the Siri Speech Recognition Team shares an overview of the work behind improving Siri’s understanding of names for regional points-of-interest by incorporating the user’s location.

Based in part on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Apple has been able to tune Siri to better understand users based on where they are and what POIs they’re more likely to ask about.

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Shared in a Reddit post this morning, a gorgeous new iOS concept has detailed a whole new approach to Siri and multitasking that offers a look into how Apple could move away from the intrusive full-screen takeover design.

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MacWorld has an interesting piece entitled ‘How subscriptions, Siri, and Shortcuts in iOS 12 will forever change Apple’s App Store.’

Michael Simon’s suggestion is that Siri Shortcuts will enable us to use voice to do things which currently require us to get hands-on with apps, and that this will change the way in which we interact with our phones …

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An apparent patent troll is suing Apple for claimed patent infringement over Siri control of HomeKit devices …

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According to a new report from The Information, the last remaining Siri cofounder has departed Apple. Tom Gruber, who served as the head of Siri’s Advanced Development group, has retired in an effort to “pursue personal interests in photography and ocean conservation,” the report says…

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Apple regularly faces lawsuits from patent trolls – companies whose only business is buying patents and then suing companies for alleged infringement of them.

We noted only yesterday one relating to the ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’ feature introduced in iOS 11, and today there’s a report of a new claim that Siri infringes a similarly purchased patent …

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Today is the day that many Sonos and Apple users have been waiting for! This morning, Sonos has launched AirPlay 2 support via a software update that brings HomeKit and Siri functionality. Follow along for how to get your Sonos speakers up and running with AirPlay 2.

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As Apple hired away Google’s chief of search and AI this past spring, Tim Cook noted that he would be heading up the company’s AI and machine learning strategy. Now, we’re learning more about how some teams are being restructured in a way that could bring future improvements to Siri and more.

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One of the more exciting things that users are looking forward to in iOS 12 is the new Shortcuts app. While it’s an invite-only beta via TestFlight, we’ve managed to get our hands on it, and this is what we think thus far…

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Apple is making its new Shortcuts app in iOS 12 available for developer testing ahead of release through TestFlight. Shortcuts is based on Apple’s acquisition of Workflow and be available in the App Store when iOS 12 is released later this fall.

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Apple’s senior director of Siri, Alex Acero, will be speaking at the upcoming AI Frontiers conference this fall. The event is slated to take place from November 9th through November 11th at the San Jose Convention Center in California…

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‘Raise To Speak’ Siri is a new Apple Watch feature included in the watchOS 5 update that allows you to activate the voice assistant without saying ‘Hey Siri’ or pressing any buttons.

Raise to Speak was first announced at WWDC in early June, but the feature didn’t appear to work when watchOS 5 beta 1 and beta 2 were first released. That’s changed for several testers in the last few days however. Here’s how to double-check you have Raise to Speak enabled and how to try it:

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A new survey of smart speaker owners found that only 6% of them are currently using the device to control smart home devices like lighting and heating.

Interestingly, even for HomePod – which is a very music-focused device – playing music was only the third most common use …

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Siri has always been above average when it comes to talking about sports. Now, Apple is adding support for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in its virtual assistant.

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A cybersecurity company has demonstrated how a Siri feature could be exploited by scammers to assist with phishing attempts.

The approach replies on the way that Siri attempts to identify unknown callers, potentially presenting you with a misleading impression of who they are …

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If you prefer Alexa to Siri, you’ve been able to use Amazon’s voice assistant on your iPhone for more than a year now.

There’s no official support yet on the Apple Watch, but a third-party app now lets you do it via a watch complication …

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Siri Shortcuts is Apple’s answer to a more robust personal assistant across their product line. A near visual clone to its predecessor Workflow, the new Shortcuts app brings deeper automation to iOS devices. Developers will be able to create “donations“, specific actions within their apps, that can then be controlled by Siri. By chaining these donations together, users will be able to personalize Siri requests to fit their personal use cases.

During the WWDC 2018 keynote, Apple demoed just how much Shortcuts is able to accomplish. Kim Beverett from the Siri Shortcuts team created a custom shortcut that allowed her to: send someone a message on her ETA, navigate to her home, set her HomeKit thermostat to 70 degrees, turn on her fan, and then play her favorite NPR station.

Although Siri Shortcuts isn’t officially out yet, even on the iOS 12 developer beta, we can surface a lot of this functionality with the currently available Workflow app. Let’s dive in.

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Apple was the first company to bring a voice-driven intelligent assistant to the masses. Since then, however, it’s been overtaken in capabilities by both Google and Amazon.

As I’ve written before, that’s not coincidence. Google collects and analyzes huge volumes of personal data to help make its intelligent assistant as powerful as possible. Amazon lets anyone create a ‘recipe’ which any Echo owner can use. Apple, in contrast, chooses to limit the amount of personal data it collects and uses, and tightly controls access to Siri by third-party companies.

That approach has arguably become a strong selling-point at a time when the privacy of user data has become headline news in the mainstream press. All the same, many Siri users do find it frustrating that Apple’s AI – the one that once led the market – is now the dumbest kid on the block …

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We’re officially less than a week away from the start of WWDC, which means it’s time to start getting in your last-minute predictions. This evening, Apple analyst Gene Munster has shared his rundown of predictions, including a new Beats speaker…

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