Siri

Apple patents Airplay mirroring for touchscreens, putting Siri in context

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

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...

Apple poaches a prominent Amazon search technologist to improve on Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

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...

Two months later, Apple still hasn’t approved Google Search update

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

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...

Brazil approves iPhone 5 for sale, may see Portuguese support for Siri

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

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...

How to install Siri on iOS devices running iOS 6

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

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.

Things updated with iPhone 5, iOS 6, Siri support

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

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 iOS Maps song

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 1, 2012

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...

Maps says sorry

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 27, 2012

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…

Jonathan Mann wishes Siri a happy birthday

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2012

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...

Law student sues Apple over Siri sponsored responses

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 17, 2012

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...

Co-creator of Siri Adam Cheyer reportedly leaving Apple

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

As we all know, Siri, Apple's now popular voice assistant, started out as a third-party iOS app. The story goes that Steve Jobs personally called up Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus one day and made an offer to buy his work and team. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Shortly after the iPhone 4S launched, Kittlaus left Apple for personal reasons, but a majority of his team stayed on. Today, however, it's being reported that Adam Cheyer, another co-founder and member of the Siri team, has also recently decided to leave the company...

Apple stalls on approving Siri-like Google Search update

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 12, 2018

It's obvious that Apple has a "my house, my rules" kind of approach to managing its App Store. And it's even more obvious that the company isn't very fond of Google at the moment.

So it's really no surprise that after three weeks, it has yet to approve the highly-anticpated Google Search update — you know, the one that adds the Siri-like Google Now feature...