Tag Archives: siri

The Galaxy Note 10 finally gets rid of the Bixby Key button

The Galaxy Note 10 doesn’t have a hardware button for Bixby, Samsung’s AI smart assistant. The reveal came during the Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday. Bixby debuted on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in 2017 and was an attempt to answer Apple’s Siri on the iPhone, the Google Assistant is on pretty much any …

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Nike’s newest Adapt Huarache sneakers can lace up through Siri

Nike is continuing to build out its line of Adapt line self-lacing shoes, and its newest models take the futuristic technology to another level. Voice control via Siri.  On Thursday, Nike announced a revamp of the Huarache, a shoe first unveiled in 1991, called the Adapt Huarache. Taking “loose inspiration from its namesake,” the new 2019 version of the sneakers …

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Apple won’t listen to Siri recordings without your permission anymore

Your conversations with Siri won’t be going directly to Apple anymore. The tech giant said Wednesday that it will stop retaining voice recordings by default.  Apple announced the Siri privacy changes after The Guardian reported in July that contractors were regularly listening to conversations from people giving voice commands. While the data is anonymized, those conversations included identifiable details like …

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Steve Wozniak wishes Apple split up ‘a long time ago’

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he’s in favor of breaking up big tech companies, including Apple, Facebook and Google. These tech companies are using their power in one market to subsume other markets, he told Bloomberg Wednesday. “I am really against monopoly powers being used in unfair antitrust manners … and I think that’s happened a lot in big tech …

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Google Assistant lets you set timed reminders for family and friends

Google on Thursday said it’s unveiling a new feature for its Assistant software that lets people send reminders to friends and family on their phones or Google Home devices.  Here’s how the update, called “assignable reminders,” works: You can trigger the Google Assistant, the search giant’s rival to Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, by saying “Hey Google.” Then you can …

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Facebook paid contractors to transcribe Messenger calls

Facebook last week halted a program in which it was paying third-party contractors to listen to and transcribe audio clips from its users, the company said Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported on the existence of the program and the fact it had been stopped. The contractors had no knowledge of where the audio was being recorded or how it …

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Microsoft workers listen to some Skype calls, report says

Microsoft contractors listen to recordings of some Skype conversations to help improve its translation feature, Motherboard reported Wednesday. Skype’s website does state it “collects and uses” conversations that utilize the translation feature in order to improve products and services, but according to Motherboard it doesn’t specify that this includes human review. Microsoft’s practice with Skype appears similar that of Apple, Amazon and …

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There’s a privacy explanation for why Apple doesn’t let you delete Siri recordings

Apple’s reputation for respecting privacy was called into question last week with news that contractors listen to Siri recordings. That sparked an understandable clamor for better control over voice data collected by the digital assistant. If you own an Apple product, you might want the option to delete your recordings from the company’s database.  Here’s the rub: Apple can’t delete …

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Apple hits pause on Siri review process that had workers listen to recordings

Apple is suspending its Siri grading process globally while it conducts a review. The move comes after a report last week in  The Guardian said a team of contractors around the world listens to a random, small subset of the recordings Siri hears after people push its activation button or say “Hey Siri,” to check the voice assistant’s accuracy and response. Apple …

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AirPlay 2 rollout expands to LG and Vizio TVs

Waiting for AirPlay 2 to come to your new TV? Your watch is ending. Announced at CES in January, Apple’s streaming system is now rolling out to compatible LG and Vizio TVs. Previously limited to the Apple TV streaming box, AIrPlay is similar to Google’s Cast, allowing iOS and Mac users to stream content directly from their devices onto a compatible TV. The …

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