Items tagged with Siri
Apple has fessed up to a bug introduced in iOS 15 that, for some iPhone users, was not respecting their wishes to opt out of sharing voice recordings to strengthen Siri, the built-in digital assistant. Fortunately this privacy bug was stomped out with the release of iOS 15.2, so be sure your iPhone is updated (the...
Read more...
With the recent cancellation of the HomePod smart speaker, Apple has abandoned the high-end smart speaker market, leaving just the HomePod mini to tackle the entry-level sector. This loss does not appear to be stopping the Cupertino-based company quite yet, though, as rumors swirl of a revival in the smart home space...
Read more...
Apple yesterday made a somewhat surprising cancellation in its hardware lineup. The HomePod smart speaker initially launched in early 2018 and was never the big sales hit Apple expected. As a result, the HomePod is getting kicked out of the Apple family.
The company issued the following statement to TechCrunch last...
Read more...
Once upon a time, if you had a question about something and hoped to find the answer on the web, you might have been compelled to Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) for the answer. These days, Google is so popular that its search functionality has become a verb, as in, "Why don't you Google it?" Bing is the other big search...
Read more...
Apple got off to a rocky start with sales its HomePod smart speaker, which integrates the Siri digital voice assistant. We can't blame consumers for staying away from the HomePod initially, as Apple debuted the smart speaker at a lofty $349, when Amazon sells scores of Echo devices for under $100. Around this time last year, Apple finally
Read more...
Apple is a company that prides itself on protecting user privacy, and has gone so far as to call out the competition with huge billboards to drive that point home. However, Apple is not exactly without fault when it comes to protecting user privacy as we found out last month with a whistleblower brought attention to...
Read more...
The vast majority of Siri users had no idea that some of their recordings were being listened to by contractors in what Apple said was an attempt to make its digital assistant services better. The contractors were listening to various recordings that Siri made to see if the digital assistant answered the question...
Read more...
Voice assistants can be great for looking up the weather, playing music, and answering inquiries. However, consumers should use caution before asking their voice assistant to call a business or customer service line. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently reported that voice assistants are accidentally dialing...
Read more...
A report surfaced in late July from a whistleblower who worked for Apple that warned contractors can listen to some Siri recordings. The report raised concern among Apple users, and the company has now stated that it is suspending its global internal program for "grading" Siri commands. Apple had said that it employed...
Read more...
Are Apple employees listening to your conversations? There is a chance that whatever you say is not just between you and Siri. An Apple whistleblower recently revealed that contractors listen to Siri recordings and frequently hear private information.
According to an interview in The Guardian, Apple hires...
Read more...
One of the drawbacks to using Siri on iPad and iPhone devices is that the digital assistant dominates the display when invoking the AI feature. It does not work that way on Mac systems—Siri appears in a smaller window so that you can see everything else on the screen. Well, with the introduction of iPadOS, Apple could...
Read more...
Remember life before digital assistants? Even if you are not using one, it is a safe bet that you know someone who is, because they are all over the place. The market is flush with them—Alexa (Amazon), Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft), Google Assistant (Google), and Bixby (Samsung), those being the main ones. There...
Read more...
Loup Ventures has published the results of its Annual Smart Speaker IQ test where it took the four major Smart Speakers on the market that are packed with Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana and put them through a round of tests. The test asked each of the four smart speakers 800 questions to see which of the...
Read more...
Whether you primarily use Siri or Google Assistant (assuming you use a digital assistant) likely comes down to which platform you're invested in—Android or iOS. It doesn't have to be one or the other, though. Google recently updated its Assistant app for iOS to support Siri Shorcuts, which allows users to call up...
Read more...
We are now just two weeks shy of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which means that new product and service announcements from the Cupertino company are right around the corner. So, what can we expect out of WWDC? Some users posed that question to Siri, and surprisingly the digital assistant...
Read more...
For many people, digital assistants have become a party of daily life—you might have Siri set a reminder for an upcoming appointment on your iPhone, or tell Alexa to order more laundry detergent from Amazon. These AI (artificial intelligence) assistants are becoming more capable by the day as well. But can they be...
Read more...
Wouldn't it be awesome if one of the voice options for Siri was Samuel L. Jackson? That is not likely to happen, given the actor's penchant for swearing profusely (on the big screen, anyway). Be that as it may, you might be surprised that Siri is not afraid to drop an f-bomb on occasion, as one user discovered. In a...
Read more...
If you have ever used the AI personal assistants baked into smartphones, you know they aren't always that helpful. Research firm Stone Temple has issued an update for 2018 on its Digital Personal Assistants accuracy study. The study tested 4,952 queries on five different devices including Alexa on Amazon Echo...
Read more...
When Apple pushed Siri as a standout feature of its iPhone 4S way back in 2011, there was skepticism over the need for a digital assistant. Fast forward to today and they are commonplace, with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung all heavily invested in AI assistants. To compete with those other technologies, and in...
Read more...
Siri was one of the first digital assistants to be released for smartphones, but it arguably hasn't kept pace with its rivals when it comes to adding new features and overall performance. And earlier this week, it was revealed that Siri has a penchant for reading notifications that are hidden on your lock screen when...
Read more...
Apple launched its somewhat funky-looking AirPods (some people likened them to Q-tips dangling from your ears) back in late 2016, and they became widely available in 2017. Given that Apple didn't announce an update for the wireless earbuds during the iPhone X's introduction last year, it's about time for the rumor...
Read more...
When it comes to standalone media streaming hardware, Roku is the market leader with it family of affordable devices. Roku has even managed to integrate its streaming goodness into smart TVs, including popular budget brand TCL. First initiated in 2014, the Roku TV initiative has grown to include eight television...
Read more...
