Apple is preparing to release a software developer kit, or SDK, for app developers who want their apps to be accessible through Siri, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
Note that this is one side of the equation. Bringing in 3rd parties will extend Siri’s range, allow Siri to interact more intimately with those 3rd party apps, give Siri access to the objects inside said app. For example, if I created a favorite recipes app that tracked ingredients, I might be able to pose this to Siri:
Ask Best Recipes how much chocolate I need to make Devil’s S’mores
The flip side of this is growth of intelligence and context within Siri. Can Siri combine queries made over time, to remember context?
If I booked flights and a hotel room the week of June 12-18, would Siri understand that I was attending WWDC? If I asked about restaurants that week, would Siri know enough to show me choices around Bill Graham Auditorium and Moscone West, even if I made the query before I arrived in San Francisco? If I asked Siri to schedule a local appointment that week, would Siri remind me that I would be out of town?
As for its Echo-competitor, Apple has been working on the device since long before the $180 Echo launched in mid-2015, according to a person with direct knowledge and another person briefed on the project. The Echo has been a surprise hit even among some non-tech-savvy English speakers.
Apple is not a “me too” company. They don’t build knee-jerk products. I can only imagine that Apple’s device will be an extension of Siri, just as Siri’s reach will soon extend to the Mac, a broadening reach of a central intelligence.
Apple will have a distribution advantage because Siri is built into the iPhone and Apple Watch.
This is a huge advantage. Unlike Echo, Siri is always with you, at home, when you travel, at the store, everywhere. Apple did this in the right order. The infrastructure is stable, now Siri can evolve somewhat seamlessly.
Huawei has filed lawsuits in the United States and China seeking compensation for what it said was unlicensed use of fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software in Samsung phones.
Jon Callas, who co-founded several well-respected secure communications companies including PGP Corp, Silent Circle and Blackphone, rejoined Apple in May, an Apple spokesman said.
Ars Technica: > I toggled on the auto-cruise and auto-steer, dialed the target speed up to 90mph and the desired follow distance to four cars, parked myself in the right lane, and pulled my hands slowly away from the wheel. > >It takes a while to get used to this feeling. Instead of serving as the primary means of direction for a car, you’re now a meat-based backup and failsafe system. Instincts and impulses formed by more than two decades behind the wheel scream out a warning—”GRAB THE WHEEL NOW OR YOU’LL DIE”—while the rational forebrain fights back. Eventually, the voices quiet as the car starts to prove itself. When the road curves, the car follows. If the car is ever going too fast to negotiate the curve, it slows down and then accelerates smoothly back out of the turn.
This is a really interesting read. I still won’t give up my motorcycle for a (semi) autonomous car but this description of a long trip while letting the Tesla take care of a lot of the driving shows you what the future will hold. Those who are not excited about autonomous vehicles may invest in used cars in murrieta with great features that make driving safer. Furthermore, if you have an old car that’s no longer being used, you may sell it and earn cash for junk cars.
In this short presentation, photographer Mathieu Stern—who specializes in finding and reviewing “weird lenses” for his YouTube channel—introduces 4 soviet Jupiter lenses that anyone hunting for a bargain on glass should write down. Created between 1950 and 1980 in the USSR, they are: the Jupiter 9 85mm f/2, the Jupiter 11 135mm f/4, the Jupiter 11A 135mm f/4, and the Jupiter 21M 200mm f/4.
In the video each lens is shown off quickly and followed by a few sample photos Mathieu has captured using that lens. Oh, and all of them except the Jupiter 9 are going for well under $100 on eBay as of this writing, with the Jupiter 9 coming in around $150.
These are some very strange lenses but, if you are a victim of Lens Envy, they might scratch that itch. If nothing else, you’ll have some interesting photographic conversation pieces.
The swarm of around 20,000 sparked chaos when their queen got stuck in a car boot.
Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers says the car’s owner drove away with the queen unknowingly trapped in the back, resulting in the swarm taking up the chase – even being spotted on the car’s boot the next day.
I’m sorry but I’d park the car, sell it and move to France.
Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box.
So you get a dialog to upgrade, click the button to close the window, and the upgrade starts instead of just dismissing the window. Yeah, that’s nasty.
Tim Cook featured at StartupFest this morning, in an interview with Neelie Kroes discussing Apple’s influence in startups and entrepreneurship culture. Cook covered many topics including the role of entrepreneurs and the App Store, the startup climate in Europe, economic optimism, technology in education, Apple Watch and more.
There are some great comments from Cook in these snippets taken from the interview.
User names and media attachments such as photos and videos will no longer count towards the length of a tweet, Twitter Inc said on Tuesday, but the 140-character limit will stay.
Rather than focusing on the incremental innovation needed to win back the attention of enterprise users and premium consumers, Google’s vision for Android this year has again leapt in new directions which appear even less attainable. Android’s scattered, imitative strategies du jour are resulting in a platform that looks a lot like Apple’s—albeit the very unsuccessful Apple of the mid 90s.
This is a really interesting article from Daniel Eran Dilger. It will certainly be interesting to see what Apple does at WWDC.
i.am+, the company founded by musician will.i.am, recently announced the launch of its new i.am+ EPs, a set of premium Bluetooth earphones that are available exclusively from Apple retail stores and Apple.com.
Something about this strikes me as odd. The rumors of Apple releasing their own wireless headphones, Apple owning Beats, all of that. I don’t know.
I mentioned in a previous article how I was using Apple Music’s curated radio stations (specifically the Hard Rock station) to find new music on the service. For the last little while, I’ve also been using Apple Music’s “A-List: Hard Rock” as a way to find music.
The curated Hard Rock station is a mix of songs–some you know, others that will be brand new to you. It’s a great way to listen to music if you want some familiarity, along with a mix of songs that Apple deems to be the best of the new music.
The “A-List: Hard Rock” is a playlist, not a station, and it’s focused only on new music. After looking at the list of songs, I found that many of the new songs I found on the Hard Rock station were listed here–and I found a few others too.
“A-List: Hard Rock” is basically a shortcut into finding the newest Hard Rock trends. What’s more, Apple has “A-List” playlists for many of the music genres, so you can pick your favorite by going to “New > Genre” and have a listen.
I’m not always in the mood to just listen to new music–most of the time, the Hard Rock station suits my needs with a mix of both. When I really want to listen to mostly songs I know, I’ll start my own station based on one of my favorite songs.
Whatever your listening habits, you can find new music on Apple Music using the curated stations or the “A-List” playlists.
The punch and musical character offered by the Neve EQs, compressors, and preamps have left their mark on legendary pop, rock, and hip-hop albums for over 40 years.
I’m one of those that loves what Neve gear brings to the sound of an album.
Spotify has upgraded its family plan, now allowing up to six Premium accounts per family for $14.99 a month. The new plan is a direct match to Apple Music’s family plan — which Google Play also matched back in December — and is a dramatic improvement over Spotify’s old family offering, which would’ve cost users $30 a month for family of five (there was no six-person plan available before today).
Before Auburn decided what to do, the district surveyed grades seven through 12 students and teachers, Auburn School Department Technology Director Peter Robinson told the Auburn School Committee on Wednesday night.
The results were overwhelmingly in favor of laptops: 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students favored them over iPads.
Interesting that iPads showed great success in lower grades, but the schools said “iPads have shortcomings for older students.”
The only work he could find was as a night custodian at a local college. It was about a 50 percent pay cut, the work wasn’t stimulating, but the benefits were good. He decided he would take advantage of every free benefit the school offered so it would feel like he was making more money.
So Vaudreuil starting taking undergraduate classes tuition free at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts by day, and cleaning up after his classmates by night.
Nearly a decade after his life unraveled, Vaudreuil graduated on May 14 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.
Someone hand me a tissue. I think I’ve got something in my eye.
Based on press releases, we know that the tourist in question encountered a newborn bison in the park, physically put it in his vehicle, and transported it to a park ranger facility because he thought it was cold. The man was cited for disturbing wildlife. However, after a two-day attempt by park rangers to reunite the calf with its herd, park officials made the difficult decision to euthanize the animal. These events paint a sad but all too common picture in which humans tampering with wildlife results in detrimental, and often fatal, outcomes for the animal.
First of all, I’m embarrassed that the idiots who did this were Canadian. Secondly, if you have to go out in the woods (and I don’t recommend it), please be aware you are the visitor/intruder and leave it the same way you found it. That includes not physically interacting with the animals you come across.
Apple CEO Tim Cook laid out his company’s plans for the vast Indian market in a meeting Saturday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in turn sought Apple’s support for his “Digital India” initiative focusing on e-education, health and increasing farmers’ incomes.
It’s fine that India ask for help from Apple, but the country is going to have to give something too—you can’t ban Apple from selling used iPhones and then ask them for help.
Amid a growing number of complaints over iOS 9.3.2 bricking some 9.7-inch iPad Pro models, Apple yesterday pulled the iOS 9.3.2 update. 9.7-inch iPad Pro users who have not installed iOS 9.3.2 no longer see the update, with iOS 9.3.1 now listed as the most current version of iOS 9 available for download.
Very specific problem for one model of the iPad. Weird.
Mr. Cook said he was not chasing market share in India but wanted to partner with telecom operators to enhance the quality of services. “We are in India for the next thousand years. Our horizon is very long. We are focussed on best, not most. So it doesn’t bother me that we don’t have top market share,” he said.
Apple is committed to its new markets, no doubt about that.
The plan involved a sequence for the final three minutes of episode 595 (entitled “Simprovised”) that would be acted and animated in real time. The idea was to feature skilled improviser Dan Castellaneta, as Homer Simpson, responding to questions from live callers—real ones, who dialed a toll-free number—as a series of other animations played around him. The beginning and ending lines would be scripted but would still be performed in real time.
I find this an incredible achievement. Imagine an entire episode performed live.
