Following a recent report by 9to5Mac's reliable blogger Mark Gurman that a fourth-generation Apple TV will cost between $149 and $199, BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski has corroborated that information, adding that the set-top box will also include a universal search feature.
Billed as another tentpole feature, universal search will allow owners of the forthcoming set-top box to search for a show or movie once “and see results from all sorts of different sources.”
On Thursday, August 27, Apple released the media invitation for an event on September 9. The fall announcements typically highlight updates for iOS devices. Sometimes iPhone and iPad are announced separately, but it is estimated both devices will receive a refresh in the coming weeks.
In line with new invitations, the web quickly rushes to build corresponding, celebratory wallpapers. Inside, we have some quick work done by avid iDB readers. Within hours, they shared their collections and we pass them on to you.
Facebook on Wednesday began testing a new digital assistant feature called 'M.' As explained by Facebook Messenger lead David Marcus, the feature, which lives inside Messenger, is powered by artificial intelligence that can complete tasks and find information on a user's behalf.
The artificial intelligence is both trained and supervised by real live humans, and unlike other AI-based services available today, it can do things like purchase items and deliver gifts. Of course it can handle normal chores too, such as booking restaurants and logging appointments.
Apple debuted the iPhone 4s with Siri on October 4, 2011. The unexpected arrival of the digital personal assistant was called a life-changing moment bound to reshape how we interacted with mobile devices.
A year later, Siri went live on iPads. Siri is also an important feature of CarPlay and this year got added to the Apple Watch as a crucial method of hands-free user interaction. The digital personal assistant is now in the pockets, on wrists and in the cars of the millions, answering the world’s questions.
But what does it take to become the voice of Siri? Former Siri voice actors have shared secrets of the trade with The Guardian newspaper and talked about becoming instantly recognizable voices around the world.
Here are the juiciest bits.
A Siri-powered voicemail service for iPhones is in the works and it will transcribe your voicemail messages, if a report published Monday by Business Insider is anything to go by.
Writer James Cook claims that Apple employees are already testing an upcoming voicemail service “which uses Siri to answer your calls and transcribe voicemail messages.”
Facebook is working on a personal digital assistant of its own, designed specifically for use with its popular Messenger mobile software.
Referred to internally as “Moneypenny” after Miss Moneypenny, a secretary to M in the James Bond films, it will reportedly allow Facebook Messenger users to perform tasks like checking the weather, buying products and more.
According to a report by The Information, hidden behind the paywall, one crucial difference will set apart the James Bond-inspired digital assistant from the likes of Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google's Google Now, Amazon's Echo and others: it will be human-powered.
Apple has refreshed a support article detailing setting up and using HomeKit-enabled accessories with a list of supported Siri voice commands to control your HomeKit hardware locally or remotely, through your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
After pairing a HomeKit-enabled accessory to an iOS device, you can use Siri commands to turn your home appliance on or off, adjust its settings and more, using just your voice.
Finishing up with OS X El Capitan, Apple's Craig Federighi moves on to talk about Siri. Apple has been working on a number of improvements to the digital assistant, which has been criticized over the years for lagging behind the efforts of Google and others.
In line with run-up event rumors, Siri is getting more intelligent in iOS 9 thanks to 'Proactive,' which makes your device more contextually aware. This allows Siri to respond to queries more intelligently based on your location, the time of day and other things.
Apple's introduction of Siri back in 2011 was a watershed moment for voice-activated personal digital assistants. Today, a myriad of Siri-like services exist such as Google Now on Android devices and Microsoft's cross-platform Cortana, which will be hitting iOS soon following Windows 10 debut on July 29.
But many if not all of the existing services, Siri included, could be put to shame by Hound.
Hound is a forthcoming digital assistant which promises a groundbreaking smartphone experience, created by SoundHound, the maker of namesake mobile music and audio recognition service.
A couple of hours ago, I got my first real hands-on experience with HomeKit—the connected smart home framework that Apple announced at WWDC 2014. A year later, and some of the very first HomeKit enabled products are now landing on store shelves.
The folks over at Lutron were nice enough to send us the Caséta Wireless Smart Lighting Dimmer Kit ($229.95 on Amazon). This kit comes with a Smart Bridge, two remote controls and two plug-in lamp dimmers. Although the kit in and of itself is interesting, our main interest at iDownloadBlog is with its HomeKit support. With that in mind, this post consists of an unboxing and overview of Lutron's kit and a walkthrough of the HomeKit configuration, including Siri control.
Want to see how HomeKit works in the real world? Then watch our full video walkthrough for more details.
Apple is reportedly reading a Siri Application Programming Interface (API), according to a new report. Called Breadcrumbs, it should let developers enhance iPhone and iPad applications by implementing Siri intelligence in a limited fashion. Another new initiative seeks to create a Google Now experience for iOS devices.
In addition, the Cupertino firm is reportedly adding augmented reality features to Apple Maps, including one dubbed Browse Around Me.
The way it's supposed to work, you'd point your iPhone's camera toward a particular business or an area and Maps would put up relevant information such as a virtual view of menu items or daily specials, 9to5Mac said Wednesday.
Microsoft Cortana, the software giant's Siri-like personal digital assistant available on Windows Phone and Windows 10 mobile and desktop platforms, will expand later this year to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, as well as Android smartphones and tablets.
The company officially confirmed the news in a blog post this morning, basically corroborating an earlier March report by Reuters which claimed Cortana would hit non-Microsoft mobile platforms this fall.