Siri can now read WhatsApp messages

After being able to send messages via Siri, you're now finally able to ask Siri to read WhatsApp messages as well.

Google Assistant vs Siri

Apple made sure the entire world knew about Siri when it was launched, but since then things seem to have remained basically the same... and it seems Google Assistant may even have the upper hand.

iOS 10's Siri will keep apps away from the limelight

Apple's iOS 10 is about to be launched, and with it we'll finally get a Siri that can interact with 3rd party apps - which may end up having quite significant effects later on.

iOS 10 takes care of "Hey Siri" near multiple devices

Saying "Hey Siri" to activate Siri by voice is a nifty (and useful) feature, but things can get messy once you start having multiple devices around you, all competing to fulfill your request. With iOS 10 Apple is doing something about it, and it's one of those things that seems to work by magic.

Apple launches iOS 8.3 and Siri learns to speak Portuguese

After several years of waiting, portuguese users will finally be able to use Siri without having to speak in english. Apple's iOS 8.3 is out, and among several other improvements, Siri multilingual capabilities are certainly the thing most international users will care about.

Google Now knows a lot more than Siri and Cortana

Siri, Google Now, Cortana... it seems all major companies are working hard to make our smartphones answer all our questions. But... which one does the best job? Some folks decided to put it to the test, with over 3000 questions, and the results show a clear winner.

Using Siri while driving is more dangerous than you think

Digital assistants like Apple's Siri might be very helpful for hands-free operation, and that may be of great use while you're driving. However, they might not be as "safe" as you might imagine, as AAA points out.

Teach Siri your friends and family

While we wait for Siri to understand multiple simultaneous languages like Google does; there's a small thing you might not have noticed and that will be of tremendous help when dealing with it. Just think about how you normally speak... do you really say "call John Smith" or do you say "call my brother"; do you say call "Joanne Smith" or "call mom"? Thankfully, Siri can learn to know who's your family and friends... and more.

7 Secret Siri tricks you'll love to know

Although Android and even Windows Phone also have their own (and capable) voice assistants, Siri is still considered the reference to which they are compared. Today, I bring you 7 little tricks you might now that Siri can handle... and that can actually be quite useful.


1. Find settings
You can ask Siri to do things like "turn on/off bluetooth", but considering the settings section in iOS has grown to become a complete mess where you may never find what you're looking for, it's nice to know that Siri can lend a helping hand. Say something like "change the font size" or "adjust the screen brightness" or "edit Safari settings," and Siri will promptly direct you to the right place, saving you the hassle of finding it yourself.


2. Passing planes
Curious about that plane flying high above in the sky? Just ask Siri "what planes are above me right now?" and you'll soon find out. Unfortunately, this one works only in the US (shame on you Apple - there's an entire new world out there that also likes to be well treated. ;P)


3. Setting power naps
Want to take a quick nap, or stay in bed for a little while longer, just tell Siri to "wake me up in 30 minutes" and you're all set... provided your iPhone doesn't run out of juice until then (yes, that did happen to me, but just once... or twice at the most).


4. Movie reviews and times
Want to check a movie while you're trying to decide which one to see at the theater (or Netflix)? Just ask Siri "how good is The Dark Knight Rises?" and Siri will  get you sorted out via Rotten Tomatoes. You can even ask her how long a movie is - if you need to make sure you're on time for your next event (commercial breaks and ads not included.)


5. World Cup data
Siri is big on sports, and even though soccer might not be on your top list, Siri can now give you all kinds of data regarding the World Cup: "When is England v Italy?" or "When does the World Cup end?" to know when your favorite teams will play, and keep an eye on things by asking "Who will win the World Cup?" to get the current state of play in the tournament.


6. Find some food and drink
You probably now you can ask Siri for bars and restaurants; what you probably didn't know is that you can be more specific and ask for specific drinks or dishes. "Find whiskey" will give you a list of bars and restaurants where whiskey is served (is there any bar that doesn't?)


7. What's on Twitter?
If you're a Twitter user, you'll love to know you can ask Siri for things like "what's trending on Twitter?" or even ask what specific people, accounts and handles are saying right now: "What is Best Secrets saying on Twitter"? And you'll quickly find out! :)

[via gizmodo]

Better than Siri expands Siri without jailbreak

Siri might be pretty useful (though is just a select few number of languages), but no one can deny it could/should do a lot more. Apple will eventually open up Siri, allowing developers to expand its capabilities, but until then we are forced to find ways to work around it. Most of the time that requires you to jailbreak your iPhone - which is a big no-no for most users - but today I bring you an ingenious way that allows you to add to Siri whatever commands you may want... without jailbreaking your iPhone. Meet Better than Siri's GoogolPlex.

How is done? It's quite clever. When you speak to Siri your commands are sent to Apple's servers for processing. BetterThanSiri works by specifying a proxy server that you set in your network configuration and intercepts those requests, allowing them to recognize and process lots other commands when you speak to Siri and begin your phrases with GoogolPlex or GoogolGenie.

Until Apple opens up Siri to developers, it's one way for you to have Siri turning on your lamps at home, unlock your car, and do practically whatever you may want... no jailbreak required. (Just keep in mind that by using a proxy, all your data is going through Better Than Siri's servers, with all the security implications it has... so, use at your own risk.)

[via Aberto até de Madrugada]

Siri drops Beta in iOS7

Looks like Siri is finally getting out of beta with the upcoming arrival of iOS7. This means that Apple is confident that Siri no longer requires a beta tag to serve as an excuse for its mishaps (should it happen), and from what we've been able to gather, iOS7 beta testers say that Siri is indeed a lot better, faster, not to mention you can now select different voices and choose whether you prefer a female ou mal Siri answering you.

Though Siri still has a major drawback in here (even after all the rumours, Siri doesn't yet understand Portuguese, nor there is any official info regarding when/if it will ever do), I do find myself using voice queries and commands more frequently. Truth be told, most of the time I do it on an Android device, as Google seems to be doing a better job as recognizing what I ask; but it does come in handy when I just want to do some quick fact checking or unit conversions while writing a blog post and don't want to take my hand off the keyboard or open up a new browser window to do it.

What scares me the most is that while Siri loses its beta status, I'm afraid that the entire iOS7 still deserves one. iOS7 will be made publicly available on the 18th, but not a single day goes by without me hearing about weird bugs persisting in the "GM" version that is supposed to be the final one. A fact that seems to be confirmed by the fact that Apple seems to be already readying several patches iOS 7.0.1, 7.0.2, and 7.1.

Apple has already had a few iOS "buggy" versions before... but I don't think people are too keen on enduring any kind of bugs now as they were back then. When you buy something you expect it to work, not to become a paying beta tester that will have to wait weeks or months till they can finally use their devices as intended. Even to this day I'm still often plagued by the bug that causes the last taken photo to become blurred should you see it on the "preview" section by swiping the camera screen - forcing me to go to the photo gallery app to see it straight. With a new iOS7, a new 64 bit architecture to worry about, a fingerprint scanner and all... I think there is to many new stuff for them to be able to keep bug free.

... But I hope I'm wrong...

Siri Learns How to Pronounce Names in iOS7

If you're an avid Siri user, you've certainly come across some contacts' names that Siri insists on not recognizing and//or reading aloud the wrong way. It isn't easy dealing with names, particularly foreign name that even us humans might need some training to say correctly. In iOS you can already add a phonetic name entry into your contact list, but in the upcoming iOS7 Siri will be intelligent enough to ask for your help to learn how to say those strange names.

Considering most of the time we use Siri to send call someone or send message to someone, correctly detecting who we're talking about is one of the most important aspects. I was forced to change some contacts names in order for Siri to work properly - as it sometimes got "stuck" in deciding between two different contacts with the same first name (and when she asked which one I wanted, she would get back into telling me she had two contacts, and so on, and so on).

Hopefully that won't be the case with iOS7 - even though what I really would like to see was Siri finally expanding into lots more languages... such as Portuguese. Apple seems to forget that since it introduced Siri with the iPhone 4S nearly two years ago, lots of international customers haven't yet been able to take advantage of it, unless they're willing to speak english, german or french. Even Google, that got to the party later on has already introduced lots more voice recognition languages (including portuguese) and offers weekly improvements on Google Now - we're now getting the latest news and movie info on our nearest cinemas.

Apple really should remember there's a "rest of the world" whenever it launched lots of "new features"... that only work in the US.

Siri's About to Learn new languages?

Siri might be quite helpful, but there's still a small "big" step that Apple needs to address and where it has been failing for a very long time: there's a whole world out there... and there are hundreds of different languages Siri will need to understand to go global.

Google is doing a much better/faster work in that area, with its Google Voice Search already working with dozens of different languages, and although in my case I'm interested for Siri to hear me in Portuguese (seems that is also in the works, as it's about to reach Brasil), it seems that Apple is finally speeding up Siri's polyglot abilities.

At least that's what we can expect from the job posting where Apple says it needs native/fluent people in Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.

I would feel a lot more comfortable if Portuguese was also in that list... but... I'll hope for the best.

Siri Always Ready on your Jailbroken iPhone

Siri has been one of the most important differentiating features of the new iPhone 4S (even though it could easily be allowed on the iPhone 4 and 3GS), and while still in "beta" and with limited usefulness in other countries, it has been transforming our habits.

Things like setting reminders, appointments, setting alarms, doing conversions, and lots more - that could be done before with a bunch of swipes and touches, can now be done instantly via voice. And it makes us wonder... wouldn't it be nice if it were always listening so that it didn't require the initial Siri button press?

If you have a jailbroken iPhone... you can, thanks to this Hands-Free Control.

This mod allows you to have your iPhone always listening, and enable Siri as soon as you say her name. Sure it will have an adverse impact on the battery life, but hopefully, in the future, this sort of thing will be handled by low power cores that can perform these actions more efficiently, and make voice commands really "full-voice" without the need for any physical start up action.


[via macdaddynews]

Siri Plays the PIano

We've seen Siri jumping out into the real world before, by setting thermostat temperatures at home, and more... But none can get close to having Siri play a real piano, as we're about to see.

Craig Knudsen is the inventor of the amazing SmartKEY for Yamaha's Disklavier pianos... the ones that can play all by themselves, moving the keys and pedals up and down, just like if it were being played by an invisible pianist.

The system sends a audio file (with embedded MIDI data) via WiFi to an Apple Airport Express mounted underneath the piano, and connected to the analog MIDI inputs of the diskclavier via a standard audio cable.

The result, as you're about to see... is pure magic. And as Christmas is coming... it reminds me that I still have a grand piano MIDI keyboard in my wishlist... for ages!

Even Santa uses Siri

Apple continues to promote Siri as a real lifesaver for the daily life... and it looks like Siri's abilities can impress even the most occupied person in the entire world on Christmas eve: Santa Claus himself!

A great video ad from Apple that shows that there's still magic in the air... :)

Google's Answer to Siri is Star Trek

Google's first reaction to Apple's Siri was - as expected by any company not having a direct competitor to that product - to downplay it and say people weren't interested in talking to a virtual assistant. But, it wouldn't take a genius to imagine Google engineers inside their secret Google X Labs going into overdrive to bring something similar, or even better, to market as soon as possible.

And that may very well happen sooner rather than later.

Project codename: Majel.
Mission: to go where no man has gone before...

Star Trek fans will immediately recognize the reference to Gene Rodenberry's wife, Majel - which gave voice to Star Trek's famous computer.

Unlike a virtual assistant, Google's approach is not to make it sound personal, the voice being just another way for humans to interact with machines.

Well... as long as they can give it a sense of humor when someone asks their Android to beam them up, or actually implement a "Kitt, come and get me!" function for their driverless cars, I'm in! ;)

Robin Williams Impersonates Siri

There have been a lot of funny videos related to Siri lately, but whether you like Robin Williams impersionations or not (who doesn't? ;) you can't miss him impersonating Apple's latest digital assistant: Siri.

Maybe Nuance or Apple will hire him for Siri 2.0?




And if things start to get crazy... even Siri might want to bail out on you:

Siri0us - Siri Dictation on the iPhone 4

Still baffled why Apple didn't allow Siri, or even the "simple" voice-to-text transcribe feature of the new iPhone 4S, to work on the older iPhone 4? Fear no more, you can now get voice-to-text working in your iPhone 4... as least for jailbreak iPhone users.

Thanks to Siri0us, you can now tap into Nuance voice recognition service and simply talk to enter text into any text field in any App you could use your regular iOS keyboard.

Even better - and unlike those Siri port attempts - you don't even need to worry about providing/using a valid iPhone 4S identification code, as this Siri0us simply doesn't need one.
(Just don't get your hopes up: this is not Siri; but simply a "dumb" voice-to-text input method - which, in any case, is better than nothing... and allows you to write a text without "typing".)



[via iDownloadBlog]

Siri Learns to Control Your House Temperature

Can you imagine an iPhone or iPad without Apps? It might sound crazy, but crazier still is to remember that the first iPhone didn't have 3rd party Apps at all - and now it's actually one of the most important things making it a huge success.

Can the same thing be about to happen with Siri?

I also think Siri is - as it is now - just like the iPhone was without the 3rd party Apps; merely a shadow of what it can actually do and become. Even though Apple has decided not to allow Siri on the older iPhones (something we all know could easily be done) I think they'll sooner or later open up Siri to 3rd party developers as well.

Hackers are already out, showing use the amazing possibilities of Siri. Like this case of teaching Siri how to control your home temperature; which, although is still very complicated, doesn't even require you to jailbreak your iPhone.

How long till we're able to say: Siri... Lights On please! ;)



[via ModMyI]