Apple’s newest hire looks to address Siri’s shortcomings

Looks like Apple want to make sure Siri keeps up with its competition. The tech company has hired Carnegie Mellon University Professor Russ Salakhutdinov to head its team working on artificial intelligence, which is considered a big part of the industry’s future. And if this is your line of work, Salakhutdinov is even hiring people for his team. He’ll also remain as a professor at Carnegie Mellon. One of latest researches involve work on how to better derive context behind the questions people pose. If applied to Apple’s tech, that can come quite handy and perhaps put them back in the running in the virtual assistant space.

Excited about joining Apple as a director of AI research in addition to my work at CMU. Apply to work with my teamhttps://t.co/U2hQl2GdhA

— Russ Salakhutdinov (@rsalakhu) October 17, 2016

 

Source: Recode

Barbra Streisand gets Siri to correctly pronounce her name, hints at possible release of new iOS update

It pays to be a superstar with friends in really high places. Barbra Streisand has had her name mispronounced by Apple’s virtual assistant Siri all this time. Siri has been pronouncing her name as “Strei-zand” instead of “Strei-sand.” So, what is Barbra Streisand to do? She calls Apple CEO Tim Cook to see if he can fix this, and, of course, he does.  As she narrates this experience in an interview with NPR, Streisand seems to have released an important update when it comes to iOS 10, which might be heading our way on September 30^th.

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Ford Sync update brings Siri into the mix

Ford has released its first major on-the-fly update for its Sync software. It’ll be available for over five million vehicles that come with the company’s infotainment services. It’ll work for model years 2011 onwards that come with second-generation version of Sync. The update introduces Siri integration as well as access to Siri’s hands-free help. All you need to do is long press on the voice recognition button on the steering wheel.

Meanwhile, the third-generation version of Sync will include Siri Eyes-Free. This version has started to appear in vehicles with the current model year.

Source: Gizmag

Ford adds support for Siri Eyes Free to older vehicles

A new update for Sync infotainment system brings with it Apple’s Siri Eyes Free feature to second-generation Sync system. This is found in Ford cars made in 2011 or earlier. It’s a bit late since the feature was first introduced by Apple back in 2012 when iOS 6 was released but better late than never. Siri Hands Free has less features than CarPlay but it does let you operate your iPhone with Siri. It’s a boon since Siri’s gotten more new features with the release of iOS 9. Sync 3 platform is coming out in 2016 and Ford does plan to support CarPlay, too, but they won’t give any details yet.

Sync 3.8 also brings with it an improved pairing capability between the iPhone and Sync. It automatically reconnects your phone if it gets disconnected.

Source: Cult of Mac