Submitted by Fred Straker on
Big changes could be on the horizon for the Siri personal assistant. According to reports, Apple is planning to launch an SDK for Siri at WWDC next month. This would open the voice assistant to third-party developers. Apple is also said to be working on new hardware to compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
The Control Center makes it simple to toggle commonly used settings in iOS 7. But what if you're in a hands-free situation, and need help changing something in a hurry? Siri has your back. With the right voice command, Siri can change settings or enable specific features of iOS while you're driving or otherwise unable to use the screen.
For example, tell Siri to "turn on airplane mode" and voilà, the radios on your iPhone switch off. Other toggles such as "turn on Bluetooth" or "turn off Wi-Fi" will also immediately change these settings. If Siri is asked to turn something on that's already enabled, the personal assistant will let you know this is the case.
Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
The list of commands recognized by Siri gets longer with every major iOS update. Many of the best features of Siri can easily be overlooked or forgotten. One thing Siri can assist with is checking up on new messages and email. This is especially helpful in a hands-free situation such as driving.
When it comes to email, simply activate Siri by holding the home button and say "read my email." New messages will appear and Siri will begin to read everything out loud. By everything, that means the date, sender, receiver and all text within the message body. While this can be tedious, it beats taking your eyes off the road.
Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
Sometimes iPhone owners need help making a decision. Nowadays with so many purchases happening exclusively with plastic, there aren't always stray coins lying around to flip. What luck, arguably the most advanced, portable personal assistant ever created can now flip a coin for you instead. Tell Siri to flip a coin and she'll do just that, letting you know immediately whether it was virtual heads or tails.
There are some other tricks you can use to get help with random numbers or even play games when you're missing a pair of dice. You guessed it, just tell Siri to roll the dice and she will tell you which side of the six-sided dice are facing up after the roll. Ultimately when you need two random numbers from 1-6 or one number from 2-12 this can be handy (simply add the two for a bigger number). But what if you need a larger random number?
Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
The wait is finally over. Apple showed off its new mobile operating system, iOS 6 at today's WWDC 2012 keynote event. The beta will be released to developers right away, with the rest of us getting the firmware update this fall.
There are over 200 new features in iOS 6, and these will be coming to the iPhone 3GS and later models. The improvements include new and completely redesigned apps as well as system-level Facebook integration. Here's a list of features highlighted by Apple:
