- Red Sox announcer sets off his iPhone’s ‘Siri’ after announcing at-bat of Rays player with same name Fox News
- Red Sox announcer sets off iPhone Siri while announcing Jose Siri MLB.com
- ‘I’m not asking you, Siri’: Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione had a funny moment with iPhone during Saturday’s game vs. Rays Boston.com
- Boston Red Sox Broadcaster Joe Castiglione Involved in Hilarious Moment in Game vs. Rays Sports Illustrated
- Siri responds when Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione calls Jose Siri USA TODAY
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Siri
Apple Plans To Change ‘Hey Siri’ Command For Voice Assistant To…
Currently, the trigger phrase ‘Hey Siri’ activates the voice assistant on Apple devices.
Washington:
American tech giant Apple is looking to change Siri’s trigger phrase from ‘Hey Siri’, to just ‘Siri’, suggests a new report.
According to The Verge, the said report was shared by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and this change would mean that users would just need to say ‘Siri’ followed by a command to activate the smart assistant.
Gurman noted that Apple’s been working on this feature for the past several months and is expected to roll it out next year or in 2024.
However, in order for the functionality to work effectively, Apple would need to invest a “significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work,” since the smart assistant will need to grasp the single wake word in numerous accents and dialects.
The current, two-word trigger phrase, ‘Hey Siri’, increases the chance of Siri picking up on it.
The Verge reported that switching to a single wake phrase might help Siri compete with Amazon’s Alexa, which already allows users to activate the smart assistant with ‘Alexa’ rather than ‘Hey Alexa’.
It would also put Siri ahead of Google Assistant, which requires the ‘Ok Google’ or ‘Hey Google’ phrases to activate, though users do not have to repeat the wake word when saying back-to-back requests.
Before shutting down its voice assistant last year, even Microsoft had shifted from ‘Hey Cortana’ to ‘Cortana’ on smart speakers.
The shorter trigger phrase isn’t the only change expected from Siri; according to Gurman, Apple may also integrate Siri into third-party apps and services and increase its ability to comprehend and process user requests.
As per The Verge, Apple recently made some small tweaks to the voice assistant, adding a new voice recorded by an LGBTQ+ community member and introducing a new Siri activation sound.
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Nothing Ear (stick) Wireless Earbuds Are Great
Although the company’s specialty seems to be manufacturing hype, after the Ear (1) and Phone (1), Nothing is back with its third product: another set of wireless earbuds that deliver solid performance (with a side of gimmick) at a very compelling price that makes them hard to ignore, even for iPhone users.
Although they didn’t deliver industry-leading sound quality, noise-canceling performance, or even the smallest charging case, Nothing’s original Ear (1) wireless earbuds were still a fantastic overall package when you factored in their $99 price tag, which was $150 cheaper than the Apple AirPods Pro (the first generation) they were being positioned against. Just over a year later, we’ve finally got all the details on the new Nothing Ear (stick) wireless earbuds after a few months of well-hyped teases, which appear to be coming after Apple’s third-generation AirPods instead. They can’t compete with how seamlessly the third-gen AirPods play nicely with all the hardware in the Apple eco-system, but that could be a minor sacrifice, even for iPhone users, when you’re saving $80 by opting for Nothing’s latest instead.
Thinking Outside the Boxy Charging Case
By now we know that Nothing’s playbook for new products includes lots and lots of hype paired with a hardware design that makes it stand out from its competitor’s products. For the Ear (1), that design featured a gratuitous use of clear plastic revealing the electronics inside each earbud, and for the Phone (1), it was all about flashy illumination on the back panel, called Glyph lights, that provided visual cues about notifications or the smartphone’s charging status. These design choices can certainly be viewed as gimmicks, but you can’t fault Nothing for wanting to stand out in two already crowded markets.
For the Ear (stick), Nothing has packed the wireless earbuds in a cylindrical charging case that feels like a super-sized tube of Chapstick, particularly when slipped into a pocket.
The Ear (stick)’s case is quite a bit larger than the charging case for the third-gen AirPods, and it’s not like Nothing justifies the added size with a significant step-up in battery life over the third-gen AirPods. The Ear (stick) will run for about 29 hours when paired with their case, while the third-gen AirPods promise 30 hours in total.
If you’re a skinny jeans devotee, the Ear (stick) might not be a fit for you, both literally and figuratively.
The case is charged through a USB-C port on one end, but the cylindrical design means that adding a wireless charging coil wasn’t an option. Next to the charging port, you’ll also find a single button that’s really only ever used to put the earbuds into pairing mode for connecting them to a new device. The red plastic portion? It’s red for no other reason than to add some color contrast.
A simple twist of the cap rotates the charging case’s outer shell until an opening provides access to the earbuds inside. It’s simple, satisfying, and is currently competing against the AirPods’ charging case’s magnetic lid that I snap open and closed hundreds of times a day as my favorite fidget toy.
Nothing likes to point out that the rotating case’s design means it won’t pop open on its own after an accidental fall, ejecting the wireless earbuds inside. What it doesn’t acknowledge is that the perfectly cylindrical case isn’t asymmetrically weighted which means that it’s prone to rolling off a desk, and will continue rolling when it hits the ground, which I’ve already discovered several times during my testing.
A Familiar Bud Design
You wouldn’t be wrong to point out that the overall shape and size of the Ear (stick) were reminiscent of the third-gen Apple AirPods, but Nothing takes a more brutalist approach to the bud’s design with sharper angles and less contouring.
The Ear (stick) earbuds are only slightly heavier than the third-gen AirPods—4.4 grams compared to 4.28 grams, respectively—and are extremely comfortable to wear, even for longer periods.
The large bulb that sits just inside the ear is more or less the same size as the one atop the third-gen AirPods, however, I found that Nothing’s design sat more securely in my ear. That’s the big challenge with open or half in-ear designs like this, unlike earbuds that use a squishy silicon tip you securely jam into your ear canal, these buds have to securely nestle themselves into the folds of your ear. Compared to the third-gen AirPods, it required a far more vigorous head shake to dislodge the Ear (stick) buds from my ears. But the size and shape of everyone’s ears differ, and I know people who can’t get the third-gen AirPods to stay in no matter what they try.
Nothing doesn’t use the same touch-sensitive stem strip with gesture controls you’ll find on the Ear (1) for the Ear (stick). You’ll instead find a metal button on the stem that doesn’t physically move but detects presses (or more specifically, careful two-finger squeezes, assuming you don’t want to dislodge them out of your ears) for playback control and other shortcuts.
I’m not entirely sure what Nothing is doing differently, but I found squeezing the Ear (stick)’s stem to be far more responsive and reliable than with the third-gen Apple AirPods. I think it has something to do with the boxy design of the stems, making it easier to feel when you’re squeezing the right area. I also like Nothing’s implementation of volume control with the stems: you squeeze and hold the right stem to increase volume in stepped increments, or squeeze and hold the left stem to decrease the volume in the same manner.
An Ever-Improving App
With the arrival of the second set of earbuds comes a big update to the Nothing Ear (1) mobile app, which has been renamed to be more generic: Nothing X.
It’s available for iOS and Android, but not necessary for those with the Nothing Phone (1) which makes all these settings available through the phone’s Quick Settings while the buds are connected. (We weren’t able to test the Ear (stick) with the Nothing (1) phone, but performance isn’t affected by which smartphone you’re paired to.) The customizability isn’t expansive, but Nothing does provide the option to choose from four different EQ presets, as well as a custom setting allowing the balance of the bass, treble, and mid-range frequencies to be manually adjusted. You can also change what squeezing each of the bud’s stems does, including prioritizing quick access to a smart assistant.
Surprisingly Solid Sound
They may not be as comfortable for all users, but wireless earbuds with silicone or foam ear tips that direct sound directly into your ear canals are going to sound better than an open or half in-ear design like the Ear (stick) uses. There are fewer outside sounds getting into the ear to interfere with what you’re listening to, and less sound leakage from the buds themselves.
Nothing takes a brute force approach to sound quality with the Ear (stick) through the use of 12.6-millimeter drivers that more than over-compensate for sound leakage while providing decent bass performance. They don’t deliver as satisfying a thump as in-ear options like the original Ear (1) earbuds, but I was genuinely impressed with how lower frequencies still make themselves heard in tracks like Martin Solveig and Dragonette’s Hello. Highs are satisfyingly snappy, although I occasionally experienced a bit of distortion during particularly emphatic parts of certain tracks with the volume cranked, like Loren Allred belting out Never Enough.
Do they sound better than the third-gen AirPods? No, but they come very close. Apple’s tuning gives the AirPods a slightly more balanced sound with a bit more presence on lower frequencies. It’s easier to pick out the strum of a bass guitar, for example, with the third-gen AirPods, but you really have to be listening for the differences, and I did my comparisons in a dead quiet house without the ambient noises of the outside world or even a busy office. Could I tell the two apart while listening to music on a noisy bus or subway car? Definitely not.
Call quality was also good, although, with a little more emphasis on higher and lower frequencies than the mid-range, I found. One person I called complained that higher frequencies, including sibilant consonants, were over-pronounced and uncomfortably high-pitched, although most couldn’t tell I was using wireless earbuds instead of my iPhone’s mic.
Good Performance, Great Value
With the new Ear (stick), Nothing once again demonstrates that very good wireless earbuds don’t need to cost a small fortune. The Ear (stick) have taken over the original Ear (1)’s $99 price point (the latter has increased in price to $149) which makes a very compelling case for choosing Nothing’s latest over the limited number of half in-ear buds options out there, including Apple’s.
The third-gen AirPods do offer tighter integration with other Apple devices, wireless charging, and the ability to call on Siri without having to press any buttons, but I’m not entirely convinced that those features justify spending an extra $80 over the Ear (stick). I know I’m not going to sway Apple die-hards from sticking with AirPods, but everyone else looking for an extremely comfortable pair of wireless earbuds will in no way be disappointed if they opt for the Nothing Ear (stick) instead.
Krafton’s Latest ‘AI’ Woman Recycles The Usual Sexist Tropes
When I first saw Ana, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds publisher Krafton’s attempt to put a face on its artificial “virtual human” technology, I was disappointed to see that this supposed Web 3.0 innovation was really just another pretty, pale girl. She’s airbrushed, but still tangible. She’s biting her tongue, looking at you. And I fear she exists only to be looked at, and not much else.
Krafton released its first images of Ana on June 15. We got two tight close-ups of a vaguely East Asian woman with all of the expected egirl accoutrements, dyed hair and adventurous ear piercings. Ana, who was created with Unreal Engine, has a lightning bolt tattooed on her finger. It’s clearly visible when she puts her pinky up to her lips to stare at you with clear, amorous intent.
Krafton revealed its “virtual human” technology in February with a technical demonstration displaying “motion-capture-based vivid movements, pupil movements enabled by rigging technique, colorful facial expressions, and even the soft and baby hairs on the skin.” The publisher announced its intent to use carefully designed virtual humans not just in its games but in its Esports demonstrations, and in the hope of creating more virtual influencers and singers like “robot” Instagrammer Miquela.
That’s influencers and singers, plural, so Ana is likely only the start of what I can only imagine to be a circus troupe of PUBG robot babes. Robot babes are particularly trendy right now, because we haven’t grown at all since watching the movie Her in 2013. Before that, we got used to the idea of robots being malleable, unemotional women. In other words, “perfect” women.
Back in 2011, deferential, female-coded virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa started to live in our devices and corroborate the popular image of a loving, supportive electronic woman most recently informed by future-focused Y2K media—think Cortana in Halo in 2001, or the virtual popstar in Disney’s 2004 movie Pixel Perfect. In 2016, a man in Hong Kong spent $50,000 to build a robot that looked like Scarlett Johansson, who coincidentally voices the virtual assistant in the movie Her. We really haven’t learned anything from that movie.
We also haven’t learned much from real artificial intelligence experts, who, over the years, have emphasized that female-coded robots alienate human women tech users and reward harmful stereotypes about women being servile and dedicated through whatever abuse they suffer. In 2019, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a publication arguing that “Siri’s ‘female’ obsequiousness—and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women—provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products, pervasive in the technology sector and apparent in digital skills education.” But tech companies like Krafton continue to create within these gender biases, sewing them tighter and deeper into our societal fabric.
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Partially, that’s because of gaming’s conflicted but addicted relationship to sex, and the evil eye of the merciless, always appraising male gaze. Mainstream developers have, on occasion, attempted to move beyond the archetypal video game woman to embrace more realistic depictions (to Reddit’s great disappointment), but character designs of women in video games at large remain recursive: buxom and flexible. I love embracing my inner bimbo as much as anyone else, but when stiletto-heeled women with nipped waists are the only representation we have in video games, it reduces an entire gender into a repressive stereotype.
But even more than they are for pliant women, tech and video game companies are horny for the ill-defined terms “Web 3.0” and the “Metaverse.” Both are meant to invoke the idea of an empowered online individual but, in practice, are usually just ways to rehabilitate and market out-of-date virtues (prioritizing work productivity, individual ownership) for a fresh audience. Perhaps to take cover from quickly crumbling blockchain “innovations” like pay-to-win video games, new Web3 proponents cling to comforting images of technological progress, which includes those ethereal, buxom digital women who might be capable of a roundhouse kick in Mortal Kombat, but would never nag you about your dumbass NFT investment. Criticism isn’t in their source code.
Krafton invoked all the right buzzwords for its Ana news, writing in a press release that “ANA is designed to engage a global audience and help establish KRAFTON’s Web 3.0 ecosystem” that will “attract the interest and popularity of Gen Z” through music and a foray into influencer-dom.
The company declined to answer any of my questions (“Do you think Ana’s design will alienate female gamers? “Is Krafton doing anything to prevent Ana from relying on stereotypes?” “Can you describe how Ana’s design and capabilities might appeal to Gen Z specifically?”), saying in an email to me that “there will be more announcements/details in the coming weeks!”
Ideally, in the coming weeks, we’ll be lucky enough to receive another close-up of Ana giving the camera meaningful bedroom eyes, except with a little more forehead. Speaking on behalf of my generation, we can’t get enough of a poreless forehead.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be wholly pessimistic about Krafton’s intentions. It’s possible that, below her neck, Ana will contain some messaging that indicates she is not another iteration of male developers conquering technology by shaping it into their preferred future—a thin, pale, obedient woman. Who, by the way, also wants to sing with “advanced voice synthesis” and become a social media phenom, which you’d be forgiven for mistaking as the only two career paths open to a beautiful woman.
OK, so maybe I do mean to be pessimistic. It’s eternally frustrating to be a woman excited by video games and the internet only to have their potential routinely diluted to the same tedious tropes a straight man depends on to get off. Making AI women that represent the same qualities Victorians found in the restrained angel in the house is not “Web 3.0,” it’s bog-standard, traditionally sexist. An AI-assisted voice can be represented by any visual, any blob or creature, but the best Krafton can come up with is a woman I’ve seen on advertisements and thinspiration Tumblr since I could go online.
But I should put up with it, shouldn’t I? This is how we live, regurgitating the same images and rewriting the same opinions that no one listens to and yet still finds time to disagree with. I just don’t want Krafton to act like this is the future. Sometimes I feel like we’ve been stuck in history for as long as we’ve been recording it.
7 Ways Uncanny AT&T ‘You Will’ Ad Predicted the Future
In 1993, telecom giant AT&T launched an advertising campaign that somehow predicted quite a lot of aspects of how we work and live today. The “You Will” ad series, directed by now-famed thrill-master David Fincher, was an eerily accurate look at what life in the mid to late 2000s would look like. The ads, narrated by former Magnum P.I. star and professional mustache-haver Tom Selleck, imagined a series of scenarios involving gadgets and technology that didn’t yet exist.
“Have you ever done *insert thing we all do now*? Well, you will!” Selleck would say at the beginning of each ad. “And the company that will bring it to you? AT&T,” he added, at the end of each commercial. The campaign foretold a number of technological advances that would define the decades to come like tablets, smart TVs, remote work, smart watches, and smart home devices.
The central prediction of the ad was wrong, though. As Vox noted a couple years ago, while these ads were “remarkably accurate in predicting the cutting-edge technologies” that would soon arrive, they ultimately missed the fact that the company to “bring it to you” was not AT&T. Instead, it would be a whole bunch of startups that didn’t exist at the time, the publication noted.
That said, it’s uncanny to run down all of the things that “You Will” got right about the future.
Apple will add fifth US English Siri voice in iOS 15.4
Enlarge / The back of the iPhone 13 mini.
Samuel Axon
There are already four American-accented English voices for Siri, but Apple will add a fifth in iOS 15.4. The new voice aims to provide a gender-neutral option for the first time, as reported by Axios.
The voice is labeled “Voice 5” in the Settings panel in the current beta release, though developer Steve Moser noted on Twitter that the voice is named “Quinn” under the hood. Apple confirmed to Axios that the voice is built from recordings by a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Moser also tweeted an example of what the new voice sounds like:
For most of the time since Siri first became a core iPhone feature back in 2011, a female voice was the default. That changed last year when Apple changed the iPhone setup to prompt the user to pick a male or female voice when first starting the iPhone, with no default choice selected.
Apple sent the following statement to Axios about the new voice added in the iOS 15.4 beta:
We’re excited to introduce a new Siri voice for English speakers, giving users more options to choose a voice that speaks to them. Millions of people around the world rely on Siri every day to help get things done, so we work to make the experience feel as personalized as possible.
Apple also added the third and fourth US English Siri voices last year—female and male voices meant to represent the speech of African Americans.
In addition to these five US English voices, Apple offers Siri voices in numerous other languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. There are also several regional or accent variations within those languages, such as Chilean, Mexican, Spanish, and US variants of Spanish.
Other changes in the upcoming iOS 15.4 include the ability to use Face ID while wearing a face mask, dual-sim 5G support, the ability to set a preferred music-streaming service, and more.
Siri gets a new voice in iOS 15.4 beta
The latest beta of iOS 15.4 adds a fifth American voice for its Siri voice assistant. Apple’s user-facing interface simply calls it “Voice 5,” but iOS developer Steve Moser reports that its filename refers to the new voice as “Quinn.” The voice has arrived a little under a year after Apple added its last two American Siri voices, and stopped defaulting to using a female-sounding voice.
Axios notes that the new voice sounds more gender-neutral than earlier Siri voices. Apple confirmed to the publication that it was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, though the company didn’t offer any further details on the voice actor’s identity. Last year’s voices were recorded by Black actors as part of the company’s “long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion,” Apple said at the time.
You can listen to all the Siri options below. The audio clips start and end with the new, fifth voice.
“We’re excited to introduce a new Siri voice for English speakers, giving users more options to choose a voice that speaks to them,” Apple told Axios in reference to the new fifth American voice. “Millions of people around the world rely on Siri every day to help get things done, so we work to make the experience feel as personalized as possible.”
Other new features included in iOS 15.4’s latest beta include a new anti-stalking privacy notice when setting up AirTags. An official release date for the software is yet to be announced, but it’s expected to be made widely available next month.
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10 Reasons to Upgrade to iOS 15.2
During Apple’s fall ‘Unleashed’ event back in October, you’ll recall that the company hyped a new, cheaper Apple Music plan that enabled users to access tunes solely via via.
Now that plan is here, and users can kickstart it by saying, “Hey Siri, start my Apple Music Voice trial.”
Once activated, the new plan will allow users to verbally cue up their music on all Siri-enabled devices, including the HomePod mini, AirPods, iPhone, and when using CarPlay. Upon the release of iOS 15.2, the new feature will immediately become available in Australia, Austria, Canada, China mainland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S.
As to whether relying on your voice for the full Apple Music experience is any good, well, we’re still putting that to the test.
Your Older iPhone Won’t Get These iOS 15 Features
The public beta of iOS 15 is out and available to install for anyone who wants to try it. Every handset that could run iOS 14 is eligible for the upgrade—that’s everything back to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus from September 2015. However, not every compatible iPhone will get every iOS 15 feature. Here’s the small print in full.
What it really comes down to is the amount of power your iPhone has under the hood. Certain iOS 15 features require the A12 Bionic chip or something more powerful, and that chip made its debut in the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR in 2018. Not only did it bring better performance than the A11 Bionic, it also had an improved Neural Engine for AI processing.
There are also a couple of features that only apply to newer models but that aren’t related to the A12 Bionic processor. If you don’t have an iPhone from 2018 or later, here’s what you’re going to miss out on—and why.
FaceTime Enhancements
Portrait Mode: With the introduction of iOS 15, FaceTime is going to be smart enough to blur out the background behind speakers, just like the Portrait mode in the Camera app. The feature will only be available on newer iPhone models though.
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Spatial audio: Older iPhones don’t have the processing capacity to create the effect of people’s voices coming from different directions either. Apple is promising to create “a sound field that helps conversations flow as easily as they do face to face.”
Apple Maps Features
Augmented reality walking directions: If you’re using an older iPhone, you won’t be able to use the more immersive AR view for your walking directions, a feature Apple Maps is taking inspiration from Google Maps for with the introduction of iOS 15.
Interactive globe: Apple is making Maps more detailed and immersive, and the improvements include a 3D globe view with enhanced mountains, forests and other features…as long as you’re using an iPhone with at least an A12 Bionic processor.
Detailed city experiences: The extra detail in Apple Maps extends to roads, trees, landmarks, and buildings in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London—but you’ll need a newer iPhone to be able to see all these enhancements.
Digital Keys
All of the fancy digital key systems that your iPhone can support through iOS 15—from unlocking your car to getting into your hotel room—require hardware that was introduced with the iPhone XS, so older devices are out of luck.
New Camera Tricks
Live Text and Visual Lookup: iOS 15 can identify and process image text in a variety of apps in iOS 15, and also do some smart tricks—like telling you the breed of a dog you’ve photographed—but only with the A12 Bionic processor or something newer.
Zoom in QuickTake videos: QuickTake videos are where you press and hold the shutter button in the Photo mode in the Camera app. iOS 15 lets you zoom in or out during these videos with a swipe up or down—but you need newer iPhone hardware to be able to do it.
Better, Faster Siri
On-device Siri processing: Apple says Siri will process more actions on your iPhone with iOS 15, improving speed and privacy, but if your handset doesn’t have the A12 Bionic or something newer, Siri requests will still get sent to Apple’s servers for processing.
On-device Siri personalization: Not having the A12 Bionic CPU or something newer also means that Siri can’t calculate and save certain personalizations to your phone. These personalizations include new words and topics that you’re interested in.
Siri offline support: With the introduction of iOS 15, Siri is able to do more on your actual iPhone, without going online—think setting alarms, launching apps, adjusting the volume, and so on. Again though, this won’t apply to iPhones that were launched before 2018.
On-device dictation: As with the Siri features above, if you’re on an older iPhone then iOS 15 isn’t going to be able to process dictation on your actual device. Instead it’s going to get sent off to the cloud, which means that it’ll be a slightly less private and slower process.
A More Dramatic Weather
Sorry, older iPhone owners, but you’re not going to get the stylish-looking animated backgrounds in the Weather app introduced with iOS 15, which show off the current meteorological conditions through computer-generated graphics.
Spatial Audio Upgrades
If you’ve got iOS 15, some AirPods Pro or AirPods Max headphones, and some Dolby Atmos music, you can get the dynamic head-tracking component of Apple’s Spatial Audio feature, but you need at least an iPhone 7 handset as well for this to be available.
More Advanced Health-Tracking
iOS 15 deploys some custom algorithms to keep an eye on how steady your walking is, but Walking Steadiness is a new feature exclusively for iPhone 8 and newer devices—if you’ve got something older than that, you won’t be able to access it.