Siri

A summary of the way that various tech giants last year sought to address the needs of people with disabilities shows that Apple’s accessibility record is better than that of most companies – but did make things worse in one respect.

The piece summarizes the accessibility wins and losses of Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter …

At WWDC this summer, Apple announced that it would be expanding Siri’s availability to third-party devices for the first time. Today, Ecobee is announcing that it is rolling out support for Siri integration for its popular SmartThermostat with voice control. Head below for the full details on how this works.

Ten years ago today, Apple announced its brand-new personal assistant Siri. At the time, it was able to show you the weather, add an appointment to the calendar, and more. Now, you can celebrate Siri’s birthday by saying “Happy Birthday” to the personal assistant.

Update: Automated tools like UserWay are highly controversial among disabled web users.

Susan Bennett revealed back in 2013 that she only found out by chance that she had become the original voice of Siri. She’s now taking advantage of her accidental fame to promote a new approach to web usability.

Bennett stars in an amusing Siri-based ad for an AI-based approach to making websites accessible to people with disabilities, such as those using screen readers …

Apple announced a major upgrade to Siri this year with iOS 15, which is now able to process on-device requests without an internet connection. However, it seems that Apple’s virtual assistant has also lost some functionality, as users have been complaining about Siri no longer being able to send emails or check call history.

iOS 15 is finally here. It brings a handful of new features with Messages, FaceTime, Safari, and much more. For example, the company’s personal assistant, Siri, also received some great improvements. Here’s everything new with it.

A Chinese company has filed a lawsuit as it seeks an injunction to stop iPhone production in China, including the upcoming iPhone 13.

Xiao-i (whose full name is Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co) previously made an unsuccessful attempt to block sales of all devices with Siri in China, claiming that Apple’s intelligent assistant (IA) violated a “chat robot” patent the company owns …

A federal judge said Apple must face nearly all of a proposed class-action lawsuit claiming that its voice assistant Siri violates users’ privacy. As reported by Reuters, US District Judge Jeffrey White could try to prove that “Siri routinely recorded their private conversations because of ‘accidental activations’, and that Apple disclosed these conversations to third parties.”

Siri antitrust concerns have been expressed by businesses, says the European Union’s competition chief, with the same issues being raised about Alexa and Google Assistant. The remarks were made after a consultation process that heard from more than 200 companies over the course of a year.

Competition head Margrethe Vestager said there are four concerns…

iOS 14.5, which was released to the public earlier this year, brought an important new feature that lets users unlock an iPhone using the Apple Watch instead of Face ID when wearing a mask. With iOS 15, Apple is expanding this feature by enabling personal requests to Siri when the “Unlock with Apple Watch” option is turned on.

iOS 14.5 is coming next week for everyone, and Apple today released the RC build to developers and public beta users. While the beta versions have already brought several new features, the final release also enables a new option to answer calls using Siri while using headphones.

A patent application published today shows Apple could be testing new ways for Siri to speak based on environmental conditions. This would give Siri similar functionality to the Amazon Alexa platform.

The sixth developer beta for iOS 14.5 went live earlier today, and it comes bundled with noteworthy features: two brand-new realistic-sounding American Siri voices, and an updated battery tool for iPhone 11 users. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the details, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more video content.

Among the new features introduced with the sixth beta release of iOS 14.5, which is currently available to developers and public beta users, Apple has added two new voice options for Siri. If you have already updated your iPhone, iPad, or even HomePod to iOS 14.5, read on as we explain how you can find and enable the new Siri voices.

As part of today’s release of iOS 14.5 beta 6, Apple is making several notable changes to Siri. The company says that Siri will no longer default to a female voice starting with iOS 14.5, and it’s adding two additional voice options from which to choose. The changes also apply to the HomePod.

Information from Wikipedia is used in a variety of places throughout the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and it powers a lot of the data that is fed through the Siri virtual assistant. Currently, there is no financial relationship in place between Wikipedia and Apple for this information, but that could soon change.

As Jeff Benjamin noted in 9to5Mac’s video coverage, iOS 14.5 will use Siri intelligence to select music services based on listening behaviors. While the feature falls short of actually allowing you to set a default music service, it will open Siri to easier music control for more services without having to specify which service to use. Apple has now described in more detail how it intends the new behavior to work.

One of the new features introduced with the iOS 14.5 beta was the ability to change the default music player used for Siri commands, similar to what’s already available to HomePod users. For some unknown reason, this option was removed from iOS 14.5 beta 2, but Apple has re-enabled it with today’s release of iOS 14.5 beta 3.

Apple is investigating ways to enhance its Siri voice assistant for users with atypical speech patterns, the company confirms to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Apple is leveraging its podcast library for speech samples that could train Siri to adapt to users who speak with a stutter.