Hound voice assistant launches in the App Store, but how does it compare to Siri?

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 1, 2016

There are numerous companies competing to be the top dog in voice assistant software, but the makers of sound-tagging service SoundHound have made another alternative called Hound that promises an excellent voice assistant experience. Many initial reports suggest it's even more capable than the voice assistants you're used to using already, such as Siri, Google Now, and Cortana.

So just how capable is Hound? In this piece, we'll walk you through the new free-to-download Hound voice assistant for iOS and find out if it's as good as everyone says.

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How to update your Apple TV Siri Remote

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 10, 2023
Apple TV and Siri Remote on a red yellow gradient background

A tvOS update may include new firmware for the Siri Remote to fix bugs, improve reliability, and add new features. Improve your Apple TV experience by learning how to effortlessly update your Siri Remote, and stay in control with the latest features and improvements.

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How to place Apple TV in recovery mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 20, 2018

If your Apple TV won't start up properly, or you are a developer who wants to install a tvOS beta, you must first put your set-top box in recovery (DFU) mode. As is the case with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, entering DFU mode makes a malfunctioning Apple TV discoverable in desktop iTunes so you can restore it to factory settings, downgrade to an earlier version of the software or side-load a beta firmware onto it.

The method to put an Apple TV into DFU mode differs from that for other iOS devices. In this post, you'll learn how to put an Apple TV into recovery mode so you can restore it to factory settings if it's acting up.

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Apple seeds beta 5 of iOS 9.3, watchOS 2.2 and tvOS 9.2

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Apple on Tuesday released iOS 9.3 beta 5 to developers. The update is available for members of Apple’s develop program (and public testing program) either via an OTA update, for those already on iOS 9.3, or as a download from Apple’s dev center.

Today’s release comes just one week after the previous beta 4, which added a redesigned Night Shift mode icon in Control Center and other under-the-hood improvements, and nearly two months after the original 9.3 beta was pushed to developers.

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Apple seeds OS X 10.11.4 beta 5 to developers and public testers

Cody Lee ∙ March 1, 2016

Apple on Tuesday pushed out the fifth beta of OS X 10.11.4 to both developers and public testers. The beta is available either via the Mac App Store, in the Updates tab, for those who are already running 10.11.4, or on the websites of each of the respective testing programs.

Today's beta comes one week after Apple seeded 10.11.4 beta 4 to developers, and nearly two months after the first beta was released. It's mostly under-the-hood improvements, but it does include a few new features such as Live Photo support and password-protected Notes.

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Get a taste of Siri on your Mac right now with this neat trick

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated May 15, 2019

Ever since Siri was announced in 2011, Apple users have been excited about the prospect of the digital assistant coming to OS X. More recently, rumors have indicated that a Mac version of Siri will ship with OS X 10.12 this fall. September is quite a long way off, but it's possible to get a taste of Siri-like voice commands on your Mac right now, thanks to the accessibility features baked in OS X.

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Tip: use 3D Touch to export PDFs on your iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 10, 2019

iOS includes a Share sheet action for saving PDFs to iBooks. This is great for, say, turning a webpage or other document into a PDF form with one notable complaint—not everyone wants to read PDFs in the Books app.

As it turns out, you can export a PDF to any app on your device with 3D Touch right from iOS's Print Preview screen. This is an extremely convenient feature, but it's unfortunate that it requires 3D Touch so owners of previous-generation and older iPhones cannot take advantage of it.

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iOS 9.3 lets your boss lock apps to the Home screen and impose other restrictions

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

Apple's upcoming iOS 9.3 software update will allow employers to lock apps to the Home screen of company-issued devices, preventing them from being moved around, as first discovered by Irish developer Steven Troughton-Smith.

Buried within Apple's documentation for developers, the Home Screen Layout Payload, which defines a layout of apps, folders and web clips for the Home screen, is supported on iOS 9.3 and later.

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Rumor: iPhone 7 has a thinner Lightning port, flush camera and stereo speakers

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

The fairly reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara today shared some new details pertaining to Apple's iPhone 7 refresh, which we're expecting around its usual September timeframe.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Mac Otakara says that the next iPhone will be 1mm thinner than the current iPhone 6s, which measures 7.1mm in depth, making the new phone the same 6.1mm thickness as the sixth-generation iPod touch.

Somewhat surprisingly, the iPhone 7 won't be waterproof after all and should also incorporate a thinner Lightning port. The camera bulge on the back will be gone because the phone's iSight camera is now flush with the chassis. Oh, and the new iPhone will come outfitted with stereo speakers—for the first time in iPhone history.

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Get directions to home and work with 3D Touch and Google Maps

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

As part of yesterday's update to Google's iPhone and iPad mapping application in the App Store which brought pit stops to navigation mode, the refreshed software has replicated one of my favorite 3D Touch features found on Apple Maps: the ability to get directions to home and work right from the Home screen.

In the new Google Maps 4.16 for iOS, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners can press the app's Home screen icon to bring up the shortcut menu with two useful Quick Actions: Directions to Work and Directions to Home.

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GoPro is buying powerful iPhone video-editing apps Replay and Splice

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

GoPro, an American manufacturer of action cameras that are popular in extreme-action videography, has acquired two mobile video editing apps, Replay and Splice.

In a media release yesterday, GoPro said that merging these apps into its mobile strategy will help them deliver powerful mobile editing solutions to GoPro customers “and billions of smartphone users,” indicating the apps will continue to be available in the App Store.

In fact, both apps will be coming to Android later this year, said GoPro.

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