Siri

How to use Travel Time in Calendar on iPhone and Mac

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Travel Time is a nifty addition to Apple’s Calendar app, capable of precisely estimating the duration of your upcoming trip based on parameters such as milage and traffic. Used properly, it can notably ease some of your daily scheduling woes, but paradoxically, a large contingent of regular Calendar users still routinely overlook the feature.

Formerly introduced as frequent locations and traffic conditions widgets, the service has only slowly gained traction amongst users. Travel Time today however has come of age and is now neatly integrated into one of the most popular productivity applications both on iOS and macOS. So if you didn’t get the memo on the virtues of Travel Time in Calendar, here’s what you need to know.

DigiTimes: iPhone 8 to feature enhanced Siri capabilities

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 24, 2017

Apple's next-generation iPhone is expected to feature enhanced Siri capabilities, according to unnamed industry sources who spoke with Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes. The report states that other vendors aside from Apple are likely to launch new smartphones featuring artificial intelligence features as a means to ramp up market shares in 2017, including Samsung (their version of Siri is called Bixby), Huawei, LG Electronics and Xiaomi Technology.

Galaxy S8’s assistant to be called Bixby, offer camera-based visual search & text recognition

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 19, 2017

Galaxy S8 is widely expected to include a new Siri-like personal assistant, called Bixby, which may let users search for objects identified in a photograph and recognize text on images. These features should be integrated directly into Samsung's standard Camera app via a dedicated Bixby button, SamMobile learned Thursday.

Aside from these rumored visual search features, Bixby is thought to let the user control all stock apps and conduct payments, similar to Apple's Siri, and more.

Apple shares new AirPods ads showcasing Siri, seamless Bluetooth pairing & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2017

Apple on Saturday shared four brief television commercials for AirPods on its official YouTube channel, running fifteen seconds long each. The videos showcase some of the key user features of the wireless earphones, like accessing Siri with a double-tap and seamless Bluetooth pairing on Apple gear made possible by the firm's in-house designed wireless chip, dubbed the W1. Watch the new ads and let us know how you like them in comments.

In addition to the company's first-ever AirPods ads, they also released a new fitness-focused Apple Watch advertisement which challenges you to close those Activity rings.

How to quickly fix mispronounced Siri queries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 10, 2018

You may be aware that there is already a feature in iOS that sort of lets you type in your questions to Siri instead of using voice commands. It's quite handy for those situations when talking aloud isn't an option or Siri fails to recognize repeatedly what you said. Starting with iOS 10, Siri includes a “Maybe You Said” feature.

Taking advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence, it suggests corrections for mispronunciations or incorrectly recognized queries. In this post, you'll learn how to leverage this feature to avoid having to manually correct any mispronounced words.

Siri, cease all motor functions

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

It seems Apple's partnership with Universal Pictures that uses funny Siri responses to promote the animated movie “The Secret Life of Pets” was just the beginning. As revealed by actress Evan Rachel Wood who stars in “Westworld,” Siri is a fan of the show.

In another major movie tie-in for Apple, this time with HBO, Siri has learned some amusing responses to queries related to the science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO.

Here are some of them.

How to find out which apps on your iPhone support Siri

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 21, 2026

Find out which third-party apps on your iPhone can work with Siri and let you do things just by using voice commands.

“Siri, what do my pets do when I’m not home?”

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2017

It seems Apple has partnered with Universal Pictures to promote “The Secret Life of Pets” by updating Siri's backend with a bunch of responses related to the animated movie. The company's official iTunes USA Facebook page promotes Siri partnership with a nicely done teaser video.

We also spotted a dedicated “Siri, what do my pets do when I'm not home?” banner which briefly appeared in the iTunes Movies app on the Apple TV.

Apple patent would integrate Siri into Messages to assist with tasks via bot-style commands

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 17, 2016

You've been able to ask Siri to send messages on your behalf for a few years now and with iOS 10, Apple's expanded Siri capabilities to third-party apps like mobile payments. But if a new patent for a “Virtual assistant in a communication session” that the company filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is anything to go by, the virtual assistant could soon be integrated deep into Messages, assisting users with peer-to-peer payments, scheduling dinner and providing other chat bot-style interactions within message threads.

Apple is increasing the size of its Siri team in Cambridge, job ads reveal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 19, 2018

About a year ago, a certain California firm quietly snapped up VocalIQ, a UK-based startup that used machine learning to build conversational virtual assistants. Subsequent reports noted that Apple kept most of the startup's employees to work out of their unmarked Cambridge, UK office on integrating VocalIQ technology into Siri.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Business Insider reports that Apple is now looking to increase the size of the Siri team in Cambridge.

“Hey Siri, send Sébastien $100 using PayPal”

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 10, 2016

PayPal's iPhone and iPad application was updated on the App Store this morning with support for iOS 10's SiriKit integration for mobile payments, allowing you to send and request money in 30 countries around the world using just your voice.

With a simple voice command like “Send $20 to Dad using PayPal” or “Request $20 from John with PayPal”, Siri connects with the PayPal service and pulls up a custom sheet with details of your transaction before you authorize it.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to integrate Viv personal assistant developed by Siri creators

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 7, 2016

As we reported, Samsung last month bought Viv Labs, a San Jose startup co-founded by former Siri creators who have developed a brand new Viv artificial intelligence assistant. The Galaxy maker has now confirmed to Reuters that it will be integrating Viv technology into an advanced personal digital assistant of its own.

Samsung's Viv-based AI assistant will debut on next year's Galaxy S8. According to The Wall Street Journal, the handset should have a dedicated button to summon the new service though the Galaxy S8 may be delayed until April following the costly Note 7 debacle rather than at the Mobile World Congress trade show in February.