Apple has temporarily suspended its Siri “response grading” program that had contractors listen in on Siri recordings. That’s good, but it’s unfortunate that it took media coverage to push the company to change its practices.
Apple has increasingly used its stance on privacy as a selling point, but The Guardian has revealed that, like Amazon, Apple lets contractors listen in on conversations held while Siri is active. The audio may be difficult or impossible to trace back to the individuals who are speaking, but Apple should still find a better way to improve Siri.
Apple News+ may be the main change in iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 Mojave, but Apple has also added small features and options to a number of apps and technologies, including AirPlay, Apple Pay, Safari, and Screen Time. There are also a handful of bug fixes and a slew of security fixes.
Apple Music hasn’t changed much at all since Apple introduced it back in 2015, but Adam Engst has a few suggestions—some extremely easy—that could make listening to music through the service more enjoyable.
Siri takes a lot of flak, but it’s a lot more powerful than many people realize. If you haven’t been using Siri for much, these tips from “Take Control of Siri” author Scholle McFarland will expand your conversations with Apple’s digital assistant—and hopefully get Siri to do more for you.
It’s time to take a stand. We’re sick and tired of apps (Netflix!) and Web sites (CNN!) assaulting our ears and eyes with audio and video that starts playing on its own, without so much as a by your leave. Let’s fight back.
Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri, sat down for another interview to discuss her career and how she dealt with her voice suddenly being famous.
The new Siri Shortcuts feature in iOS 12 lets you create your own Siri commands for both built-in features and for capabilities provided by third-party apps. “Take Control of iOS 12” author Josh Centers explains how to create and use these custom Siri commands.
Like most small children, Siri doesn’t know how people are related and it often has trouble pronouncing names correctly. Learn how to teach Apple’s personal assistant about relationships, nicknames, and proper pronunciations.
Siri takes a lot of flack, but some of the problems Apple’s digital assistant suffers from aren’t its fault. In this installment of Bad Apple, Adam Engst looks at how Reminders fails to name reminders properly even when Siri gets the text right.
Apple’s HomeKit home-automation ecosystem has been growing slowly but steadily, and numerous companies took advantage of CES 2018 to announce new HomeKit-compatible devices. Explore the most compelling new devices with HomeKit expert Josh Centers.