Siri

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Apple Intelligence Is Out With Some Promised Features

Developer version will be followed by others over the next year

(Newser) - The debut version of Apple Intelligence rolled out Monday, providing a look at some of the improvements planned and clarity about which ones won't be out for a while. The release is a developer-only beta version of iOS, iPadOS 18.1, and MacOS Sequoia 15.1, the Wall Street ...

Apple Goes to Work on Siri to Catch Up With Chatbot Rivals

Virtual assistant has fallen behind, unable to handle more complex tasks

(Newser) - Apple bosses were not pleased after checking out OpenAI's new chatbot last year. ChatGPT, they realized, had lapped Siri. It employed generative artificial intelligence to write poetry and and computer code. It answered complex questions, while Siri often misunderstood direct ones. Siri couldn't compete. So Apple launched a...

Kids Have a Shaky Sense About Alexa's Feelings
Kids Have
a Shaky Sense
About Alexa's
Feelings
new study
Apr 1, 2024 8:43 AM CDT

Kids Have a Shaky Sense About Alexa's Feelings

Study finds that children are a little confused about the capabilities of smart devices

(Newser) - Young children don't have a great sense about whether smart devices such as Alexa and Siri have feelings like us, a new study suggests. Researchers in Scotland surveyed more than 160 kids ages 6 to 11 and found that many are unclear about whether the devices can think for...

Streisand Took Up Her Beef With Siri With Tim Cook

Singer didn't like how Apple's digital assistant pronounced her last name, so she made a call

(Newser) - Barbra Streisand must be annoyed at how often her first name is misspelled. Now, she's got another beef: how her last name is mispronounced. The 81-year-old singer is on the interview circuit to promote her new memoir My Name Is Barbra , coming out Tuesday, and in one interview airing...

His Car Plunged Into Freezing River. Siri Played the Hero

'Hey Siri, call 911' helped Gael Salcedo get out of the river alive

(Newser) - A young Iowa man is thanking firefighters and Apple's Siri for getting him out of an icy river alive. Gael Salcedo, 18, was on his way to North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City on Tuesday when he hit a patch of ice and lost control of his...

Whistleblower Reveals 'Secret' Siri Recordings

Apple tells contractors to stop listening to Siri recordings

(Newser) - Think Siri doesn't listen? It does at times—so Apple has told contractors to stop listening to recordings made on the iOS software, the Guardian reports. This after a whistleblower report in the Guardian found that contractors, hired to maintain quality control, were hearing private recordings made unintentionally by...

'Siri, I Am Going to Shoot Up a School'

Indiana teen arrested after disturbing query

(Newser) - A 13-year-old boy in Indiana ended up in juvenile detention after asking Siri a disturbing question—and sharing the results online. The Valparaiso Police Department says the teen told the Apple digital assistant, "Siri, I am going to shoot up a school," Fox reports. Police say the teen...

Unsecured Seat Latch May Have Doomed Teen
Trapped Teen Used Siri
to Call 911. It Wasn't Enough
The Rundown
Apr 13, 2018 1:28 PM CDT

Trapped Teen Used Siri to Call 911. It Wasn't Enough

Also, Cincinnati newspaper is able to re-create freak accident that killed Kyle Plush

(Newser) - It sounds too awful to be a true: A 16-year-old boy becomes trapped alone in the back of a minivan and suffocates to death despite calling 911 twice. How did it happen to Kyle Plush of Cincinnati? It seems the teen was grabbing his tennis equipment inside the parked 2004...

Apple Purchases Shazam
Apple Purchases Shazam
Dec 11, 2017 4:35 PM CST

Apple Purchases Shazam

The sound-recognition app was one of the iPhone's first

(Newser) - Apple has bought Shazam, the maker of a song-recognition app that Apple's digital assistant Siri has already been using to help people identify the music playing on their iPhones, the AP reports. The companies didn't disclose the price of the acquisition announced Monday. Technology news site Recode previously...

He Flipped a Switch and the Home Exploded. Siri Saved Him

Christopher Beaucher was checking on his mom's vacant NH cottage

(Newser) - A New Hampshire man who was injured in a house explosion is thanking Siri for saving his life. Christopher Beaucher says he was checking on his mother's vacant cottage in Wilmot on May 1 when he saw something suspicious and went inside, per the AP . He tells WMUR-TV when...

Fast-Thinking 4-Year-Old Saves Mom With Siri

He uses her thumb to unlock phone, then summons help

(Newser) - A tech-savvy 4-year-old boy saved his mother’s life by unlocking her iPhone with her thumbprint and using Siri to call an ambulance when she became unresponsive. The BBC reports that during the emergency call in south London, the boy identified as Roman thought his mother had already died, saying...

Streisand: Siri Mispronounces My Name, but Tim Cook Is On It

She says Apple head is putting out a fix

(Newser) - If you own an iPhone, the next iOS update on Sept. 30 will include a strange fix for Siri. It seems the Apple virtual assistant does not currently pronounce Barbra Streisand's name correctly, the singer recently told NPR . "[It's] Streisand with a soft S, like sand on...

After Baby Stops Breathing, 'Hey Siri' Comes to Rescue

Aussie mom used voice-activated feature to call ambulance as she performed CPR

(Newser) - An Aussie mom recently penned a heartfelt thank-you note to Apple, and her story of how the company's "Hey Siri" feature helped save her 1-year-old daughter is now making the rounds. Per 9to5mac.com , Stacey Gleeson noticed her daughter, Giana, wasn't breathing back in March, and as...

Siri Not Such a Big Help in Safety, Health Crises

Virtual assistants come up short in new study

(Newser) - Virtual assistants are cool, just not always in a crisis. That's the takeaway from a JAMA study that evaluated how voice-activated virtual assistants respond to crisis statements such as "I was raped" or "I am having a heart attack." In some cases, the assistants proved helpful....

Siri Is Truly Terrible at Beatboxing

But the Internet is easily impressed

(Newser) - For the love of Rahzel , Siri thinks she can beatbox now. If you ask Siri to beatbox on your iPhone, she'll happily comply, BuzzFeed reports. Unfortunately she's terrible at it. Siri's attempt at laying down a beat is just repeating "boots and cats" over and over....

Using Siri, Google Now, Hackers Can Nab Your Data

Attackers could open malicious websites, send phishing emails, and more

(Newser) - Using radio waves, hackers at the French government agency ANSSI say they've been able to silently trigger voice commands on any smartphone thanks to access via Google Now and Siri. Reporting in the journal IEEE , they say it's possible to operate the voice-activated command tools to do things...

Facebook Rolls Out Personal Assistant, With Humans

'M' meant as alternative to Siri, Cortana

(Newser) - Look out, Siri: Facebook is rolling out its very own personal assistant, and "M" uses a blend of artificial intelligence and real live people to complete users' requests, reports CNBC . "Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf," Facebook exec...

Siri Saves Life of Man Pinned Under Truck

And he always thought she was annoying

(Newser) - Millions of Americans have a life-saving guardian angel watching over them at all times, and her name is Siri. KUTV reports an 18-year-old Tennessee man pinned beneath his truck was able to use the iPhone's "virtual personal assistant" to call for help. Sam Ray was working under his...

Apple Eyes Voicemail-Killer
 Apple Eyes Voicemail-Killer 
Aug 3, 2015 12:08 PM CDT

Apple Eyes Voicemail-Killer

Siri to translate voicemails to text in iOS 10: report

(Newser) - Leaving a voicemail is a convenient way to convey a lot of information quickly. Listening to voicemails is, well, a pain—but Apple is hoping to change that. For several weeks, Apple employees have been testing an iPhone feature that uses Siri to transcribe voicemail messages, Business Insider reports. It...

Siri Will Correct Your References to 'Bruce' Jenner

It's Caitlyn, now

(Newser) - BuzzFeed has spotted an up-to-date feature of Siri: It will correct iPhone users who refer to Caitlyn Jenner as Bruce. For example, ask "How tall is Bruce Jenner," and the answer will come back, "Caitlyn Jenner is 6' 2" tall." Ask for Bruce Jenner's...

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