Siri

How to replace Siri sound effects with Jarvis sound effects

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 16, 2015

Ever since Siri's been out, I've seen people comment about how great it would be to replace Siri's voice with J.A.R.V.I.S. from Marvel's Iron Man series.

Apparently, that desire hasn't waned, as there's a fairly large thread on Reddit discussing a method for replacing Siri's stock sound effects with custom Jarvis effects pulled right from the movies.

I've tried this method out, and honestly, it sounds a little bit low budget. Nonetheless, I know some of you will enjoy this, and just the fact that you can learn where the Siri sound effects are, and how to replace them properly, makes this tutorial worth checking out.

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Hey Siri, will you please let me talk back to you?

Sébastien Page ∙ May 13, 2015

Siri has come a long way since it was first introduced along the iPhone 4s and iOS 5 back in 2011. The assistant has gotten smarter, wittier, and all around more helpful, at least on the iPhone, because in my experience,  it's a completely different animal on Apple Watch.

To be fair, I'm not so much complaining about actual voice dictation on Apple Watch. Besides a few missteps that were most likely due to my strong French accent, dictation has been very reliable on Apple Watch. What hasn't though, is to getting Siri to activate, whether it is hands-free or by using the Digital Crown. And when I do get it to work, not being able to interact with Siri with interactive voice commands is also a source of frustration. Allow me to explain.

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Applebot, a web crawler for Siri and Spotlight, unmasked in a support document

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 6, 2015

An official support document updated last evening has confirmed that Apple is using a web crawler service called Applebot to index the web for content used by its Siri personal digital assistant on iOS devices and built-in Spotlight search on both iOS and OS X.

An Apple-operated engine, Applebot is described as “the web crawler for Apple” which gathers useful content for products including Siri and Spotlight Suggestions. The document doesn't state how long AppleBot has been operational in production.

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How to complete various actions hands-free on Apple Watch

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

You may have noticed that while using Siri, the Apple Watch interface presents on screen buttons that you have to tap with your finger to confirm commands. While this is doable in a lot of circumstances, it takes away from the hands-free element that's necessary in many situations.

At times, it's simply impossible to physically tap a button on the Apple Watch to confirm a command, and that's where using the Hey Siri hands-free assistant to its full potential can come in handy. In fact, it's totally possible to send text messages, establish calendar events, set reminders, and more without touching your Apple Watch.

Yes, despite what the Apple Watch interface may lead you to think, you can use Siri completely hands-free in quite a few scenarios. Watch our hands-on video for the details.

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How to control Spotify with Siri

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

As most of you guys know, I'm a huge Spotify fan. I've been using the service ever since it appeared on US shores, and it's by far the best music streaming service in my opinion.

One thing that I've always missed about Spotify when compared to the stock Music app, is the ability to control my tunes via Siri. With the stock Music app, you can use Siri to play any song in your library, or play a music station using iTunes Radio. Spotify? Not so much.

That all changed a few days ago when developer Zaid Elkurdi released Assistant+. With a little finagling, you can get Assistant+ to interface with Spotify on a limited basis. But with Zaid's new add-on called SpotifySiriControls, you can do a whole lot more.

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Assistant+ lets Siri trigger Activator events

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

If you're a big fan of Siri, or even if you're a bit down on the virtual assistant, listen up. Assistant+ can significantly enhance Siri and its capabilities by allowing it to interface directly with Activator.

Activator, the jailbreak tweak that allows you to assign a variety of actions to assorted gestures, is incredibly deep on its own. But when given the ability to invoke the many Activator events with Siri, things really get interesting.

Imagine activating a car mode by saying "Siri engage car mode". All of the sudden, your Bluetooth connection comes on, Wi-Fi goes off, the volume is boosted, and Spotify is launched. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the things that you can do with Assistant+.

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Siri website gets prettier and more helpful

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Wednesday launched a revamped Siri website with a slew of changes, including an all-new design and several other improvements. Atop the new page is a video of Siri in action, followed by a comprehensive page of information on the digital assistant's features.

Users can now sort Siri's abilities into categories, such as 'Staying in Touch, Getting organized, Sports, and Entertainment. There are also dedicated sections for how to get directions and how to find answers to commonly-asked questions, all by talking to your device.

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Siri can’t wait for Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 22, 2015

Jokers as they are, Apple engineers have included Siri in the company's meticulous preparations for April's arrival of the Apple Watch, if the responses the voice assistant is giving to Watch related queries are anything to go by.

As first spotted Sunday by French enthusiast blog iGen.fr, asking Siri about the Watch's release date or simple stuff like what she's doing yields some funny responses and amusing remarks concerning the highly anticipated wearable gizmo.

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New in iOS 8.3: placing phone calls through speakerphone via ‘Hey Siri’ command

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 22, 2015

Users who upgrade their iPhone to iOS 8.3 when it's released next month will be finally able to tell Siri to make a phone call through the device's speakerphone when the 'Hey Siri' option is enabled, reports 9to5Mac.

You can say, for example, 'Hey Siri, call my Mom on speaker' and the call will be automatically transferred to the iPhone's speaker, like it should have always been, may I add.

Again, provided the 'Allow Hey Siri' option is enabled in Settings > General > Siri and the phone is plugged into power.

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Microsoft bringing Cortana personal assistant to iOS this fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2015

Microsoft has been hard at work developing an iOS and Android version of its Siri-like personal assistant, Cortana, which could hit the iPhone and iPad as a standalone application sometime in the fall 2014 timeframe, Reuters reported Friday.

The software giant currently provides Cortana on Windows phones and is set to launch it on desktop with the arrival of Windows 10 this fall.

Windows 10 integrates Cortana so users can perform queries and get various answers just by asking.

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