Have you ever found yourself looking for a public Wi-Fi hotspot? Maybe you were nearing your monthly wireless data cap, or were on a laptop or some other non-cellular device.
How'd you go about finding it? Sure there are websites you can look at, and apps that you can download. But if you're looking for an easier way to do this, you can just ask Siri...
I've been asked a few times about Siri's presence of the new iPad mini. Yes, Siri will be included out of the box on the new iPad mini. Apple even has screenshots of Siri in action on their iPad mini page.
Check after the break for a few more screenshots of Siri in action for the iPad mini...
Apple's patent attorneys are busy again. The Cupertino, California company has filed two patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, related to extending AirPlay mirroring to iPads and iPhones, as well as describing how Siri scans through databases to match searches.
In the first application, entitled "Gesture Visualization and Sharing Between Electronic Devices and Remote Displays," Apple talks of protecting technology allowing a touch screen device to share its screen with a second, larger display. Because the patent application mentions a touch interface, reports suggest the patent is limited to the iPhone and iPad...
According to a new report by AllThingsD, Apple has nabbed an Amazon search specialist William Stasior, who also held a senior position at AltaVista and Oracle. Stasior has reportedly landed the top job: Apple basically has charged him with running its Siri unit.
In hiring a new tutor for its underachieving digital secretary, Apple has indicated intentions to double down on enhancing Siri's skill set, per Tim Cook's promise a few months ago.
It also might signal a broader search agenda down the road that might give birth to an Apple-branded, more natural version of the traditional web search.
At any rate, the iPhone maker is interested in expanding Siri's scope, which in its current incarnation focuses on voice-activated artificial intelligence, leaving search queries to specialized search engines and data bases such as Wolfram Alpha.
This could change down the road, however, especially as Apple continues to lessen its reliance on Google technology for some software features of the iPhone...
Back in August, Google showed off an update for its iOS Search app that included its new Google Now digital assistant technology. It's the same tech it uses in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).
During the showing, the company said that it had submitted the update to Apple and was awaiting approval. But more than two months have passed now, and we haven't heard a peep...
In addition to this morning's story that the iPhone 5 will launch in India at the end of the month, another report has surfaced regarding international availability of Apple's latest handset.
The report claims that Brazil's telecommunications regulatory authority has just approved the iPhone 5 for sale in the country. And word is, Siri has learned how to speak Portuguese...
Would you like to use Siri on your old iPod touch 4th generation or iPhone 4 running iOS 6? The first thing you need to do is jailbreak your device, and then install Cydia.
Once you've jailbroken your device and installed Cydia, you can then add the necessary Cydia repo to install the package needed to configure Siri on these devices.
Check inside for our full tutorial.
One of the best task management apps available on iOS or the Mac, just received a fairly substantial update.
Things, a darling app among many Apple enthusiasts and the Getting Things Done crowd, receives support for the iPhone 5's larger display, support for iOS 6, and the ability to create new inbox items using Siri.
The song-a-day man Jonathan Mann can be funny as hell, even more so considering he's been able to write a song a day for more than two years straight without ever running out of inspiration. He's back at it again with a new song about Apple's mapping woes. If you like it, check out his birthday song to Siri from last week (part one from last year is here). Joy of Tech also has a nice take on what happens when Apple Maps meet Siri...
And the iOS Maps bashing saga continues… Wanna know how it ends? Go past the fold for the remaining three tables. Joy of Tech also has another funny take on Mapgate, by the way…
Musician and songwriter Jonathan Mann made a name for himself by writing a song a day and sharing it on YouTube. He's been doing it for over a thousand days straight, every single day. The song-a-day man scored big with fans of Apple when he posted the amusing Antennasong on the eve of Apple's hastily organized presser two years ago to deal with the aftermath of the iPhone 4 antenna debacle.
Steve Jobs even played that song to kick off the presser. And now, John's back with a new song celebrating Siri's first birthday, though nine days early. More clips right after the break...
Apple's Siri digital secretary, now a feature present on the iPhone 4S/5, the new fifth-generation iPod touch and third-generation iPad, is infamous for Apple's over-the-top advertising, availability issues and inaccuracies.
Still in beta, Siri in iOS 6 is more reliable and faster. It can now display sports scores, help you make restaurant reservations, discover showtimes, watch movie trailers in-line and more. It is also tightly integrated with Apple Maps and more broadly available.
A law student is taking issue with how Siri responds to questions like "what's the best smartphone/tablet ever". As you know, based on web customer review average scores, Siri briefly used to name the Lumia 900 the best smartphone ever unitl Apple recalibrated her to favor the iPhone (with responses like "the one you're holding"), much to Nokia's disgust...