Information from Wikipedia is used in a variety of places throughout the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and it powers a lot of the data that is fed through the Siri virtual assistant. Currently, there is no financial relationship in place between Wikipedia and Apple for this information, but that could soon change.
Expand Expanding Close
Wikipedia’s Chief Revenue Officer, Lisa Gruwell, has said that companies which pull data from the service without donating could be considered guilty of exploitation.
She said that smart assistants relied heavily on information sourced by Wikipedia, but while Google has made substantial donations, Apple and Amazon haven’t …
Wikipedia this week has pushed a notable update to its iOS app. The update brings the app to version 5.6 and includes new features such as a dark mode, a new “On this day” feed, and iMessage stickers…
Wikipedia today has released an update to its iOS app that adds a host of new features and capabilities. The latest version of the app offers a redesigned interface that places a focus on “exploration” as opposed to the normal quick fact-checking that we’ve come to use Wikipedia for. The update also adds features like 3D Touch support, Handoff support, and more.
Wikipedia today has announced a major update to its app on iOS. The update adds a handful of new features to both the iPhone and iPad Wikipedia apps. First off, the update makes a few design tweaks to the appearance of articles. At the top of every article now is a large header image. Previously in Wikipedia on iOS, header images would appear smaller and below the first paragraph of text.
The popular online service Wikipedia has re-launched its iOS app with a new native version that features editing and an offline mode. The free app has some unique features other than browsing through Wikipedia entires, as Wikipedia tells us:
Wikipedia also shared some other important features:
Starting off the new year with new features and improvements, Amazon updated its Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch today to version 4.1.
The update brings new features to users like the ability to create flash cards from text books for studying. This feature essentially creates bookmarks outside of the content for reviewing information on specific characters, places, or topics, and uses data from Wikipedia as part of Kindle’s X-Ray feature.
The update also includes a number of requested features and performance enhancements (full change log below).
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple’s head of iTunes Eddy Cue is live on stage during Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote presentation today and just unveiled a brand new, revamped version of Siri that includes a lot of new features on top of a redesign that fits in with the rest of the new look for iOS 7. It also announced a new service dubbed “iOS in the car” that will bring more functionality to the consoles of some vehicles through a partnership with several car manufacturers. The integration will allow you to place calls, have more control of Siri, and view maps, much of which we already revealed leading up to today’s event.
As for Siri, the app now has an all new voice and users will also have the ability to change the voice between male and female. New highly quality voices in both male and female will initially be available only in English, French, and German, but Apple plans to add more over time. That’s not all, however, Siri is also getting a bunch of new features and integration with other web services such as Wikipedia.
Eddy Cue noted during his demo of the redesigned Siri that you’ll now be able to control a lot more functions on your iPhone with Siri, such adjusting the brightness of your display, enabling Bluetooth, or playing a voice mail. The just unveiled iTunes Radio will also have Siri integration.
"Surprise: Apple’s Siri adopts Microsoft @Bing for web search" http://t.co/fHXrpjZOoD via @GeekWire
— Microsoft Stories and News (@MSFTnews) June 10, 2013
Microsoft is happy about Apple’s decision to include Bing web results (and not Google) in Siri for iOS 7.
Siri will also be able to answer a lot more questions in iOS 7, which is in part thanks to the integration of new web services including Wikipedia, Twitter (to view Twitter account updates through Siri), and web search results from Bing.
The new in-car features through ‘iOS in the car’ will be arriving in vehicles from several car manufacturers in 2014.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Gmail version 2.0: Google has just released a major update to its Gmail iOS app, introducing multiple account support, a new look that appears to be partly inspired by its Sparrow acquisition, search predictions and much more. The update also brings interactive Google+ posts support, an infinite scroll inbox, new welcome screen, and the ability to respond to Google Calendar invites. Google walked through some of the new features of the overhauled Gmail app in a blog post noting the app was six months in the works:
[tweet https://twitter.com/gmail/status/276023586265919489]
Kindle version 3.5: Amazon previously rolled out its X-Ray feature, which used to be exclusive to Kindle devices, to iOS devices back in October. At the time, it was only making the feature available for textbooks on iOS. Today, Amazon has updated the Kindle iOS app to extend the X-Ray to all books. The update also includes “Manga Image Rendering Improvements”:
• X-Ray for Books – see the “bones of the book”. X-ray helps you learn more about notable characters, places, and phrases with descriptions from Shelfari.com and Wikipedia.
• Manga Image Rendering Improvements
Uber version 2.1.0: iPhone 5 support and localizations:
-Uber app now supports iPhone 5. Also in this release are Dutch localization, and an enhanced look for top riders.
Netbot for App.net (iPhone): Tapbots updated its Netbot client for App.net today with some new features and improvements. The iPad edition is available here.
– Added support for Stream Marker
– Added Unified Stream option
– Added support for img.ly as an image service
– Performance improvements for older devices
– Better support for image annotations
.
Click to enlarge
Ever wondered how long a new version of iOS is in beta stage? Well, Will Hains did (via iPhoneClub). He used the available data from Wikipedia to create bar charts, revealing some interesting information.
The fastest release was iPhone OS 2.1 in 2008 (iPhone OS was later renamed to “iOS”), with a total of 50 days in beta spread over four developer versions. iOS 5.0, which released Oct. 12, 2011, spread over eight beta versions with a record-holding total of 128 days.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9h2dF-IsH0I]
Everyone has their SOPA/PIPA things today (and that is good!). Here is ours.
My former professor, Clay Shirky, explains what SOPA and PIPA are, what will happen if these are passed and why it is bad. He’s good at this stuff.
