Voice

You can now start Chrome in Voice Search or Incognito mode from Spotlight Search

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 5, 2016

Google added Spotlight Search integration to Chrome for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch back in January 2016, allowing you to search for your Google bookmarks using iOS's Spotlight feature. Today, the Internet giant issued a small update to Chrome for iOS, bumping version number to 55.0.2883.79 and adding a pair of enhancements.

The first lets you start Chrome in Voice Search mode or open a new Incognito tab right from Spotligh.

As for the other change, Google has now removed the folder named All Bookmarks from your bookmarks view in Chrome “by popular request”.

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Amazon working on premium Echo model with 7″ touchscreen to “fend off competition”

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 29, 2016
Amazon Echo

Bloomberg's well-informed Mark Gurman reported Monday that online retail giant Amazon is developing a brand new premium model of its Echo wireless speaker that will feature a built-in seven-inch touchscreen in an effort to “fend off competition” from Google's Home device and Apple's rumored entry into the connected home market with its own Siri-powered hardware.

Amazon may release a higher-end Echo device, known internally as “Knight,” early next year. It will target kitchens and cost more than the current Echo models.

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Apple is increasing the size of its Siri team in Cambridge, job ads reveal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 19, 2018

About a year ago, a certain California firm quietly snapped up VocalIQ, a UK-based startup that used machine learning to build conversational virtual assistants. Subsequent reports noted that Apple kept most of the startup's employees to work out of their unmarked Cambridge, UK office on integrating VocalIQ technology into Siri.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Business Insider reports that Apple is now looking to increase the size of the Siri team in Cambridge.

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10+ new features in iOS 10.2 beta 1

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 14, 2017

Apple yesterday issued beta 1 of the forthcoming iOS 10.2 software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. For starters, iOS 10.2 beta 1 includes three new wallpapers, provides a bunch of new emoji as part of the Unicode 9.0 standard and gives Camera the optional ability to remember filter, Live Photo and mode settings.

Star ratings are back in the Music app and Videos has its own widget. Oh, and you can now annoy friends with a brand new animation in Messages.

Without further ado, here's our video hands-on with iOS 10.2 beta 1 accompanied by a detailed description of all the new features and enhancements.

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This tweak makes Siri less impatient so you can take your time speaking

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 19, 2016

A lot of times while using Siri, you might have to repeat yourself or start over while you're talking because if you speak too slowly, or pause while you're talking, you'll get the "I didn't quite get that" message.

As frustrating as this can be, especially in louder environments, a new free jailbreak tweak called SiriKeepListening now available in Cydia helps remedy this problem.

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This website chronicles a comprehensive list of things you can do with Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

As Apple continues perfecting Siri and adding new operations to her arsenal of supported actions, chronicling everything the digital personal assistant can do on your behalf is becoming increasingly difficult, even for Apple itself which highlights only the most popular Siri queries on its website.

That's where a new website, aptly named Hey Siri, jumps in. As first discovered by The Loop, it's a comprehensive list of things you can do with Siri which uses crowdsourced data to share some of the most successful queries made to the digital assistant.

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Google app gains Forward button (seriously!), more reliable voice search & other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 27, 2016

In addition to adding support for Accelerated Mobile Pages to Chrome for iOS, Google also this morning issued a refresh to its native search app on the App Store, which supports Google Now cards. Google 17.0 for iOS, a free download, packs in improvements to help you get things done more quickly in the app such as the addition of a Forward button (what took them so long, really?), a more reliable voice search, the ability to revisit recent pages for a full seven days and a few local search results improvements.

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Voice calls come to Slack, video calling and screen sharing in the works

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 8, 2016

Slack, a cloud-based, cross-platform team collaboration service, has rolled out support for voice calling, the team announced yesterday. With it, team members can call one another without leaving Slack, and calls even have an emoji response feature.

Calls are currently voice-only, but Slack says that features like video calling and screen sharing will come in the future. Slack is available across iOS, OS X, the web and other platforms.

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Xbox One is getting Cortana soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 6, 2016

Microsoft's personal digital assistant Cortana is coming to the Xbox One console with an forthcoming software update for the console, the Windows giant revealed this morning. Cortona is currently available on Windows as an integrated feature and on iOS and Android devices as a standalone app.

Cortana for Xbox One will let players find new games, see what their friends are doing, start a party, perform common tasks and even turn on the console with their voice.

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