As we previously outlined, quite thoroughly, iOS 11 and watchOS 4 introduce many cool new features for HomeKit across iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch devices.
Hands on with new HomeKit features in iOS 11
Siri
Watch Siri co-creator discussing how AI could make personal memory enhancement a reality
Tom Gruber, a Siri co-creator who still works at Apple, gave an interesting talk for TED in April in which he discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) could make personal memory enhancement a reality and help boost our memory, work and social lives.
The Rock shows off Siri’s HomeKit and language support in new Apple videos
Apple on Friday released a pair of new Siri mini-ads featuring Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock.
Apple airs three Siri mini-ads starring The Rock
Apple's partnership with Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock that gave us perhaps the best television commercial for Siri ever is continuing with a trio of amusing mini-ads that the Cupertino firm published on its official YouTube channel yesterday evening.
Facebook hiring Apple veterans to work on Siri-style voice assistant
Facebook is poaching Apple veterans and tasking them with building a “Siri-style voice assistant” that should power the company's rumored wireless speaker and another upcoming device dedicated to video chatting, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple airs its best Siri commercial ever, featuring The Rock
Apple last evening uploaded on its YouTube channel arguably the best advertisement for Siri yet.
How to use Siri to translate words and sentences
Want to turn Siri into a personal pocket translator? In this quick tutorial, we’ll show you how to use Siri on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, or HomePod to translate words and phrases into other languages.
Pioneer’s Rayz Plus Lightning earphones now support “Hey Siri” function
First announced in February, Pioneer's Lightning-equipped Rayz Plus earphones have gained “Hey Siri” support, Munenori Otsuki, CEO of Pioneer & Onkyo U.S.A. Corporation, said today.
With support for this feature, the earphones automatically recognize “Hey Siri” commands and allow customers to accomplish various tasks just by using their voice.
“Today we are pleased to announce that customers can say 'Hey Siri' while using Rayz earphones to easily make a call, send a message, listen to music and much more, even when iPhone is in their pocket or purse,” Otsuki said.
The firmware update also enables other capabilities, like language support for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, audible alerts when the Smart Mute feature is active, AutoPause improvements and more.
Here's our video hands-on with the Rays Plus earphones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axvB9azU0QI
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The noise-cancelling earphones use a wired Lightning connection which lets you listen or talk on your iPhone at the same time you're charging it.
A Smart Button on the earphones can be customized in the free Rayz app to bring up your favorite app, mute or unmute a call, or launch the Rayz app at a single touch.
For instance, you can create and save custom equalization profiles, enable HearThru mode to allow ambient sound, or activate AutoPause to pause music when you remove the earphones.
As of last month, the $149.94 earphones are available in two new colors—Black and Rose Gold—from Apple.com and Apple retail stores worldwide.
How to let Siri sync data across all your Apple devices
Let Siri use iCloud to sync its machine learning data across all your Apple devices so you get an improved, uniform Siri experience, regardless of the iPhone, iPad, or Mac you use the voice assistant on.
Force Google Assistant to listen immediately after app launch with InstantAssistant
Siri is the default voice-based assistant on iOS devices, and while some people like using her, others prefer to use different voice assistants because of the features they offer or their superior fluidity.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t let you choose the default voice assistant, but a new free jailbreak tweak called InstantAssistant by gilshahar7 can help quell the pain.
Video: Top 6 WWDC 2017 announcements
Apple had a pretty big day at yesterday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, revealing a bunch of new or updated products and technologies that have set the stage for other important hardware announcements this fall.
If you didn't have the time to sit through the entire keynote talk and are wondering about the big takeaways, our video editor Andrew O'Hara has put together a short five-minute video highlighting the top six announcements Apple made during the WWDC 2017 keynote.
Andrew's main topics of interest include:
tvOS 11 with Amazon's Prime video-streaming app coming to Apple TV watchOS 11 with all the major improvements for workouts, notifications and more macOS High Sierra and core technologies aimed at AR/VR content creation iOS 11 with all of the improvements for your iPhone and iPad iPad Pro and iMac Pro changes and enhancements HomePod, Apple's high-end Siri-enabled speaker with hi-fi soundAnd here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBulSRR9Fc
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What's your favorite WWDC 2017 announcement so far?
Post a comment below to let us know!
Siri design patent updated to include smart glasses, making hotel reservations & more
Apple's Siri design patent in the European Union and Hong Kong has been updated ahead of today's live-streamed WWDC keynote to also cover “smart glasses” as a category. As noted by PatentlyApple, the patent now lists “smart glasses” under the “remote control for” category.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo gave the rumored standalone Siri speaker a 70 percent chance of being formally unveiled during the keynote presentation, but he had nothing to say about any kind of Apple-branded smart glasses.
A sketchy report that appeared on Reddit this weekend, attributed to an alleged Foxconn insider, leaked more info about the purported Google Glass-like augmented reality accessory.
Apparently code-named “Project Mirrorshades,” the glasses are said to include polarized or prescription lens with smart optics from German maker Carl Zeiss, noise-cancelling microphones, a light sensor, bone-induction modules, an accelerometer sensor for tracking steps and head movement, magnetometer for navigation, a capacitive panel on one side, a ceramic battery, an Apple-designed chipset and more.
The bone conducting modules would presumable allow for Siri command and hands-free phone calls, among other features. The poster mentions there's a 65 percent chance that the project is cancelled so take the report with a pinch of salt.
Another new entry covers making hotel reservations. Siri can currently make a reservation at a restaurant, but not a hotel. The Cupertino technology giant is expected to announce plans today to make Siri work with a larger variety of apps, Reuters reported yesterday.
The updated patent is no guarantee that Siri could be used to control the rumored smart glasses or that Apple's voice assistant could play a major role in its augmented reality plans.
All shall be revealed in less than an hour and a half.
Any predictions?