Tag Archives: siri

Update (12/04/21): While we only just heard about Microsoft's negotiations to acquire Nuance in the last 48 hours, things have moved quickly. This afternoon, Microsoft officially announced that it is acquiring Nuance in a deal worth $19.7 billion – the second largest acquisition in the company's history. As expected, this …

Ever since standing against the US government and refusing to crack open an iPhone locked by Touch ID, Apple has been pushing its stance on privacy and security quite heavily. Unfortunately, Apple has had a couple of security missteps along the way that fly in the face of that. Most …

Earlier this year, Spotify began taking aim at Apple with claims of anti-competitive behaviour and calling for an EU anti-trust investigation. Aside from the 30% iOS App Store tax, one of Spotify's complaints was a lack of Siri support for its competing music streaming service and now several months later, …

Last month, Apple found itself in the middle of a privacy controversy after it came to light that the tech giant had contractors employed to listen in on secretly obtained Siri recordings. This practice was quickly called out by privacy advocates, leading to Apple suspending the program indefinitely. Now, Apple …

Earlier this month, Apple ended up suspending its Siri voice grading program due to privacy concerns. Apple was found to have been sending voice recordings from unsuspecting Siri users to contractors tasked with grading Siri on its voice recognition capabilities, but these contractors ended up hearing private conversations, which sparked …

Within the last couple of weeks, Apple has found itself in the middle of another privacy and security misstep. A report surfaced stating that contractors were given access to Siri recordings and would often hear private conversations while trying to ‘grade' Siri commands in order to improve the service in …

Although voice assistants such as Google Home, Alexa, Cortana, Bixby and Siri are all getting progressively smarter in their responses, all have one disadvantage in common – understanding a thicker dialect. Enthusiasts intent on continuing their use of the devices could begin to lose their regional accents in the long-term …

Some iPhone users have had quite a shock lately, as a bug has been causing the device’s voice assistant, Siri, to read out hidden lock screen notifications to almost anyone that asks. Luckily, Apple is aware of the issue and has promised it has a fix in the works. The …

At last year's WWDC event, Apple officially announced the HomePod, otherwise known as the ‘Siri Speaker’ in rumors leading up to the announcement. The speaker is designed as a competitor to the Amazon Echo, which has been dominating Smart Home sales lately. Originally, the HomePod was supposed to hit shelves …

It looks like Apple is set to make another major acquisition before the end of the year to bolster its services. According to sources, Apple is planning to buy music discovery app ‘Shazam' in a deal worth around $400 million. Shazam is an app that lets people identify songs, TV …

When Siri first appeared on our phones in 2010, she was something of a curiosity. Most of us weren’t at all used to talking to our phones, but we slowly adapted to the convenience associated with Siri, summoning her to send a text while driving, schedule an appointment, or look …

Later this year, Apple will be stepping in to the smart home/smart speaker arena with the HomePod. This wireless speaker will rival other heavy weights the market right now including the Amazon Echo and while the idea of taking on Alexa seems to have sent Samsung running for now, Apple …

Over the years, digital assistants have become an integral part of the smartphone experience, with Siri often being the most popular. Unfortunately for Apple, while Siri does continue to dominate, usage does appear to be dropping significantly according to new research. Verto, an app analytics company has released a report …

Back in early May, we heard that Apple may be expanding its foray into the Smart Home market with its own Amazon Echo competitor. Now, at WWDC, Apple has made the ‘Siri Speaker' official. The product is officially called the HomePod and it is designed to use spatial awareness to …

As far as mobile digital assistants go, Apple's Siri is often regarded as one of the best. However, Apple didn't initially come up with the idea, Siri began life as an app that was sold to Apple back in 2010. After selling the app, the original team behind Siri went …

Amazon may have made quite a splash with the launch of it Echo home speaker and voice recognition system, but it's not the only one in the market. Google is expected to announce its Home device later today, which will offer comparable features but built on Google's own architecture. The …

Since its first launch, Apple's digital assistant, Siri, has been kept on the iOS platform and while there have been murmurs of it heading to Macs in the past, it never quite panned out. However, this year things seem to be a little different as a leaked screenshot from Apple's …

After years of speculation on the topic, it looks like Apple will finally be bringing Siri to Mac OS X this year according to new reports. Right now it is believed that this year's OS X update is codenamed ‘Fuji' and Siri will be one of the big flagship features. …

Although the digitally entrenched future shown to us in the movie Her seems like it's still at least a decade from becoming reality, companies like Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are all developing and pushing their digital assistants upon us. This has to led to a number of interesting questions about …

A French government-funded security firm has found a bug within Siri and Google Now that would enable a hacker to take control of the virtual assistants remotely. The hack uses radio waves to trigger what should have been a human instruction, it would take some old-fashioned spy work to implement …

Apple's September event is still on-going, with the company ushering out announcement after announcement. Next up on the block is the long-rumoured Apple TV, which has finally received its first revamp in years, with a new remote, voice support, better app support and even the addition of Siri. The new …

Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring of digital, personal assistants with the announcement of its own competitor to the likes of Cortana and Siri, called M. The single lettered software will have something that separates it from the pack of contenders however, in that M will not only …

Russia isn't well known for its tolerance of homosexuality, with a law passed back in 2013 banning gay “propaganda” discussion with under-18s, making life very difficult for people who identify as homosexual in the country. Apparently that head-in-the-sand mentality extends to the Russian version of Apple's digital assistant, Siri, as well, …

Samsung is apparently working on a tablet that will feature an iris-scanner, bringing more biometric reading systems to smart devices. The technology is actually being built by the team that originally made Siri, Apple’s digital assistant for iOS. SRI International, the company that initially came up with Siri, is now …

At the annual meeting with investors, Tim Cook announced that Apple now employs over 100 thousand people worldwide. In addition, the CEO of Apple revealed that the company has acquired 26 smaller firms and startups for various reasons in the last 15 months. Apple traditionally does not make disclosures regarding its …

Apple's map and search partnership with Google is set to expire in early 2015, meaning that Safari on iOS devices may be due to get a new default search engine. It won't take long for Apple to line up a replacement though as Yahoo and Microsoft have already met with …

Microsoft finally created its own digital assistant for Windows Phone earlier this year, based on Cortana from the Halo universe. Cortana has remained exclusive to Windows Phone for a while now but that could change soon as new speculation arises, suggesting that Cortana will soon hit new devices. During a …

The dates for this year's WWDC were just announced and we've already got an idea of what we could expect to see at the event. Apple recently acquired Novauris, a research firm previously owned by Dragon Systems, which is well known for for its voice dictation technology. Apple did comment on …

If you've thought that Microsoft's Windows phone platform was lacking a voice activated search feature like Apple's Siri, then don't worry, it won't be like that for much longer, as Cortana, the AI chick from the Halo series is going to be your new digital companion. Cortana will spread herself …

Microsoft has been working on a translation tool that's designed to work similarly to the human brain, offering near instantaneous translations while preserving the cadence and tone of the speaker. This would be a big leap over currently available translation tools which are often inaccurate, slow and don't relate how …