Apple Intelligence is Now in Beta

Apple released the public beta versions of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 yesterday, making its Apple Intelligence platform available to users enrolled in the beta program. This generative AI-driven system has been in development since June and is now accessible in the U.S., though it remains unavailable in the European Union and China due to regulatory challenges. Users with an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or the newly-launched iPhone 16 models in the U.S. can access these features. Continue Reading →

Will Cortana dream?

Microsoft is not joking. Stick a fork in Cortana... it's done! If you are one of the dozens of Cortana users wondering why the Cortana content you created (such as reminders and lists) aren't working on your mobile devices, it's not an April Fools' joke: Microsoft announced last July that it would end support for the Cortana mobile app on March 31, 2021. Continue Reading →

Smart Home Rivals Amazon, Google & Apple Announce Partnership

Smart Speakers
Amazon, Google, Apple, and the Zigbee Alliance announced a new partnership called Project Connected Home over IP. It will create a new smart home standard so their products can work together. Sadly, we won’t see a draft specification until late next year. But the good news is that the partnership is announced and there will be a spec and open source materials, too. Continue Reading →

5 Awesome Illegal Uses for Alexa

Alexa Echo ASR NLU
If you let your imagination run wild in the world of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU), and you throw in a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), you can come up with several illegal uses for systems such as Alexa Voice Service, Google Home, Siri, and Cortana that will give you pause. Just for fun, let’s play pretend in our world of infinite possibilities. Continue Reading →

I’ve Talked to the Future and It Talked Back

Google Home and Amazon Echo
Sometimes I walk into a room and say, “Alexa, what’s the temperature outside?” She answers by speaking the current temperature followed by an abbreviated weather report. She’s so human-like, I have to resist the temptation to say “Thank you” when she finishes. Importantly, Alexa is not a she; it is a component of Amazon's Echo natural language processing system. Amazon has anthropomorphized Echo with a female voice and a feminine name, which makes it easy to call Alexa a “she.” Should we be polite when we speak to it, or is it OK to be abrupt or even abusive? The device won’t care. It doesn't have feelings; but how will we teach our children to differentiate between machines that sound and act like people, and other disembodied voices that actually are people? Continue Reading →

Shelly Palmer Radio Report – October 16, 2014

You may not know this, but Siri loves music. Siri has always been able to let you play tracks, albums or genres through voice commands. But with iOS 8, Siri can do even more. Siri is now able to rate songs in your music collection. While a song is playing, you can tell Siri, “Rate Continue Reading →