While the HomePod mini appears to be doing all right, all things considered, Apple is still missing a huge chunk of the smart speaker market. Meanwhile, Google and Amazon have capitalized. But it looks like Apple's not quite ready to go quietly into that good night (yet).
Apple now allows Siri voice commands on third-party devices, with Ecobee's SmartThermostat becoming the first smart home appliance that comes with Siri on board.
Some Siri voice commands have stopped working. Apple's digital assistant is no longer able to assist you with sending an email message, checking your call history or recent calls, and more.
With iOS 15, HomePod gets several new features like creating a stereo pair from two HomePod minis, controlling media playback on your Apple TV with Siri on your HomePod and much more. Here's everything new, enhanced and improved in HomePod Software version 15.
While Siri still has some room to grow, especially in relation to its primary competitors, it's still one of the most-used services under the Apple umbrella. But the company needs to constantly be pushing the needle forward. And, to help with that, it has launched a new app.
User privacy and security is a major focal point for Apple. Safety, too. Making sure that a user is able to keep their data safe, for instance, is one of the selling points of iOS in general. So it makes sense that Apple would want to broaden that scope, especially as it relates to protecting children.
iOS 15 brings offline Siri, which leverages on-device processing to handle specific types of requests even without an internet connection, and we have a video to show it to you.
Check out this list of useful offline Siri commands on your iPhone and iPad that work without an internet connection, including messaging, networking, setting timers and much, much more.
Apple's iPhone usually feature an excellent camera, and can take some really good photos and videos. Several users also place the iPhone on a tripod, or lean it against a rock, to take group shots or shoot jitter free videos. Of course, you can set a timer and be done with it. However, there are ways to capture photos and videos totally hands-free.
Although there are plenty of music apps available on iOS, Apple never let users choose a preferred music service while requesting playback via Siri. Of course, you could manually play music using your app of choice. However, if you were to ask Siri to play a track, it would only use Apple Music. Thankfully, Apple has changed this since the release of iOS 14.5. You can now set your preferred music app while using Siri.
iOS 15 kicked things off for this year's WWDC keynote. It's not the biggest update for the mobile operating system to date, but it has quite a few noteworthy new additions.
With iOS 15, you can approve personal Siri requests on your iPhone, such as accessing your contacts, by wearing your Apple Watch without having to use Face/Touch ID or your passcode.