How Apple’s casual search engine Siri is containing Google search on iOS

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 21, 2012

Steve Jobs used to defend his “thermonuclear” option against Android by stressing how Apple did not enter the search space while Google had decided to challenge the iPhone with its Android.

Jobs’ words no longer hold true. With Siri, an AI-driven personal digital assistant, Apple has begun slowly but surely eating into Google’s significant search traffic coming from iOS devices.

As such, Siri is emerging as a key tool for casual search on iOS devices. And with iOS 6, Apple is expanding her reach with new alliances, making it easier for users to bypass Google, especially for local search… Read More

 

LG announces new Siri competitor ‘Quick Voice’

By Cody Lee on Jun 21, 2012

Since it debuted back in 2007, the iPhone has become somewhat of a point of reference for other smartphones. It seems that every time a new handset is released, we hear: “is this the iPhone killer?”

And it looks like the same thing has happened with Apple’s digital assistant. “Siri competitors” seems to be becoming a popular meme, as we’ve already seen one from Samsung, Google, and now LG… Read More

 

Chevy Sonic, Spark to be among first Eyes Free adopters

By Cody Lee on Jun 20, 2012

A few days ago, we found out a little bit more about the mysterious Eyes Free feature that Apple unveiled last week. The Siri component will allow vehicles to offer native, in-car support for the digital assistant.

Today, we’ve learned some information regarding those cars. According to a new report, GM is looking to be a frontrunner in the Eyes Free adoption race. And it plans to start with its Spark and Sonic models… Read More

 

Google accelerating plans to launch Siri competitor code-named Majel

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 19, 2012

We’ve known for awhile that Google’s been working on improving Voice Actions in Android. Needless to say, last October’s release of the iPhone 4S and its headline voice assistant feature dubbed Siri sent Google’s engineers back to the drawing board in an attempt to re-envision what conversing with an Android device should be like. According to the well-informed Wall Street Journal, the search giant has now “accelerated” plans to bring Siri competitor to the market.
Read More

 

More details surface on Siri’s Eyes Free feature

By Cody Lee on Jun 18, 2012

As Scott Forstall rattled off a list of Siri’s new capabilities in iOS 6, there was one particular feature that really stood out: Eyes Free. Apple will be teaming up with auto-makers to take its digital assistant act on the road.

But outside of a list of manufacturing partners, and a brief explanation of how Eyes Free will work, not much else has been said about the new feature. How will it be implemented? And when can we expect to see it? Read More

 

Woz: “A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo”

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 14, 2012

The other Steve never shied away from criticizing the company he co-founded with Steve Jobs in his parents’ garage back in 1976. The Times Union chatted briefly with everyone’s favorite geek during his visit to a New York farm of rescued horses and of course the inevitable question of Siri criticism came up. Here’s what came out of him… Read More

 

Siri in iOS 6 Beta spotted performing location searches abroad

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 14, 2012

Although this has been announced in the WWDC keynote, we are beginning to receive reports that Siri in iOS 6 Beta is now able to find places internationally, at least in certain countries and with limited precision. By the way, jailbreakers can get this functionality by way of an AssistantExtensions plugin called International Locations… Read More

 

Apple to Google: f**k you

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 12, 2012

Apple really stick it to Google by supplanting Google Maps in iOS 6 with in-house mapping service, didn’t it? But more than anything, yesterday’s WWDC keynote has proven that Apple is just as merciless without Steve Jobs.

As both tech giants fight tooth and nail for mindshare, Cupertino is now adamant to go thermonuclear on everything Google, not just Maps.

The iPhone maker demonstrated its incredible agility and willingness to fight Google on multiple dimensions yesterday. To that extent, iOS 6 could be viewed as the biggest step yet in the de-Googlification of iOS.

Here’s why… Read More

 

iOS 6: Siri video demonstration

By Jeff Benjamin on Jun 11, 2012

Here is our first video demonstration showcasing some of the new Siri features included in iOS 6. As we previously reported, new features include sports scores, Movie info, including showtimes, trailers, reviews, and actor information, the ability to launch apps, and much more.

The new Siri is also iPad compatible, and we provide you with a sneak peak of the virtual assistant running on the iPad near the tail end of the video as well. Be sure to let us know what you think about Siri’s new and improved features and iPad compatibility in the comments below.

 

This is what Siri looks like on the new iPad

By Cody Lee on Jun 11, 2012

Since Apple introduced Siri last fall, folks have been going through great lengths to install it on other devices. But Apple has continued to keep the feature exclusive to the iPhone 4S. Until now, that is.

Along with a number of other Siri-related announcements this morning, Apple announced that iOS 6 would be bringing the digital assistant to the latest iPad. So you know iDB had to go hands-on… Read More

 

Siri receives major upgrades for iOS 6 and is officially coming to iPad

By Jeff Benjamin on Jun 11, 2012

Siri has received a major update with iOS 6. She can now provide sport scores for the NBA, NFL, etc. She can also tell you batting averages for specified baseball players, and provide arbitrary information like the height differences between basketball players. And this is just the very tip of the iceberg. There’s also integration with Rotten Tomatoes to highlight movie reviews, and even watch trailers from within Siri.

Even better is the fact that the iPad is now officially receiving Siri support! Read More

 

iOS 6 to bring Siri to iPad 3, here’s a mockup

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 4, 2012

Much as it has been speculated, Apple is apparently working to enable Siri on iPad by way of iOS 6, according to the inevitable people familiar with the matter. We’re talking about full-blown voice assistant, not just the Dictation feature, and it will reportedly work just as you’d expect it to. Here’s a mockup based on the description provided by the source…

 

NoDictation removes dictation while keeping Siri enabled

By Jeff Benjamin on Jun 1, 2012

Do you rarely use dictation on your iPhone? Would you prefer if there was a way to completely get rid of the dictation button without totally getting rid of Siri? Well, if you’re jailbroken, now you can.

Introducing: NoDictation — a simple jailbreak tweak that removes the dictation button on the iPhone keyboard once installed. The nice thing about NoDictation is that you can disable dictation on your iPhone, without having to totally disable Siri.

Take a look at our video walkthrough of NoDictation for more information on how it operates… Read More

 

This jailbreak tweak allows you to have a more engaging Siri conversation

By Jeff Benjamin on May 31, 2012

Are your Siri conversations feeling a bit like a dead end? Are you looking for a more conversational personal assistant? If that’s the case, then PersistentAssistant is a jailbreak tweak you need to investigate. PersistentAssistant forces Siri to continuously listen for new queries until your close the Siri window, making for a more engaging conversation.

PersistentAssistant is especially useful if you’re in a situation where you can’t use your hands to continuously re-invoke Siri — for example, when driving. Check out our video walkthrough inside to see how it works… Read More

 

Cook at D10: “you’ll be pleased” with where your best friend Siri is going

By Christian Zibreg on May 30, 2012

Be careful how you call Siri. Apple’s boss Tim Cook says the controversial digital secretary is “your best friend”, teasing “you’ll be really pleased with some of the things” the company has in store. We also have a cool vid with Cook fielding questions from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at yesterday’s D10: All Things Digital talk.

So, is Siri up to Apple’s standards? Here’s from the mouth of Tim Cook himself… Read More

 

Here’s Siri telling John Malkovich a really dirty joke

By Christian Zibreg on May 25, 2012

So, the new Siri advertisements starring John Malkovich. At the end of one of the ads, the actor asks Siri to tell a joke. She comes up with a line that’s long in the tooth, giving him the “two iPhones walk into a bar…” routine. What’s that? Not funny, you say? Didn’t crack me up either. There’s a better version… Read More

 

Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s S-Voice go head to head (video)

By Christian Zibreg on May 25, 2012

The Verge was first out of the gate today with its exhaustive review of Samsung’s Galaxy S III handset. A section of the piece provides an interesting side-by-side comparison of two intelligent personal assistants, Siri on the iPhone 4S and Samsung’s darling dubbed S-Voice.

Both features work as advertised (well, most of the time), amuse with canned responses, delight with factual answers – all the while letting you converse with your handset using natural language rather than remember a bunch of hard-coded commands.

Siri and S-Voice also score similarly in handling common tasks such as pulling local weather, creating appointments and reminders and what not. And of course S-Voice is a blatant rip off of Siri’s user interface. Apple’s digital secretary appears to be snappier at running queries and S-Voice at times has a hard time understanding what you want.

And here’s a nice side-by-side comparison video laying it all out for you… Read More

 

Siri by the numbers: interesting stats about Apple’s assistant

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2012

Ever since Apple unveiled Siri at its iPhone 4S media event last fall, the digital assistant has remained in the spotlight. Whether it’s celebrity-laden TV spots or class-action lawsuits, it seems like it’s always making headlines.

But some would argue that Siri is more of a black eye for Apple than an accomplishment. It’s spent the last 9 months in beta, its location services still aren’t available abroad, and its functionality in general is still super limited.

In fact, is anyone even using the feature anymore? Infographic time! Read More

 

Apple airs two new iPhone 4S ads starring John Malkovich

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2012

As noted by a number of other tech sites tonight, Apple has started airing two new iPhone 4S commercials featuring actor John Malkovich. You might recognize Malkovich from such films as Con Air, and Burn After Reading.

The two spots, both of which star the actor, are titled “Joke” and “Life” respectively. And like nearly all of Apple’s iPhone 4S commercials before them, the new ads are all about Siri… Read More

 

IBM bans the use of Siri on its network over data privacy fears

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2012

Have you ever wondered what happens to your conversations with Siri? Obviously your queries are sent over the internet to Apple’s servers for processing, but what then? Does Apple store these conversations? Does anyone have access to them?

These questions seem to be heavy on the mind of IBM’s Jeanette Horan, as the CIO recently told MIT’s Technology Review that her company has banned Siri from their network over fears that the assistant could be logging sensitive information… Read More

 
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