Facebook M is the social network's new Messenger-nested digital assistant that aims to one-up Siri, Google Now and Cortana by performing real-world tasks.
As we have continued taking steps toward a future that well and truly embraces the "internet of things" it has become extremely evident that voice activated personal assistant apps and services are going to be here to stay. We've seen the progression of Google Now within Android Lollipop and recently witnessed Apple introduce a smarter, more Proactive Siri as part of its iOS 9 updates. Now, potentially due to the stability of the digital assistant arena, it's being reported that Facebook is set to take on Siri and Google Now with its own digital assistant software, codenamed "Moneypenny".
The latest beta release of iOS 8.3 download now finally enables the iPhone's speakerphone when Siri is used to initiate a phone call using the 'Hey Siri' command.
Following the release of iOS 8.3 beta 2 today, plenty of attention has turned to working out what differentiates this release from the first one. Beyond the usual bug fixes, a new set of emoji characters, and re-jigging of how everything hangs together deep inside iOS, one new feature has already gotten the attention of Siri users around the globe.
Here's how you can use Siri and find out to whom the lost iPhone in question belongs to. More details on how this works can be found right here.
Shazam has essentially eliminated that ever-so-annoying "what song is this, again?" conversation that we used to have amongst ourselves whenever we heard a song we liked on the radio. As a third-party app / service, it's been running for years now, but with iOS 8, Apple took the favorable step of baking it into Siri. So instead of using the app - which becomes typically hard to find when you know a song is about to end - one can simply ask for title, artist and album through the digital slave that is Siri. Yes, this is even more convenient than Shazam as we already knew it pre-iOS 8, but then again, at least Shazam keeps a neat list that we can always refer to. iOS 8 does too, although it's a little trickier to find, and so, we've compiled a very little guide to help you find a list of the songs that you've asked Siri to tag.
For some reason, the tech world spends more time parodying voice assistants than actually using them, and just like when Siri and Google Now first arrived, we got a little excited about Microsoft's Cortana earlier on this year at BUILD. Certainly, the software giant is every enthusiastic about the software, which is based on the virtual voice of the character from Halo, and with the HTC One M8 confirmed as releasing on Windows Phone, Microsoft has taken the opportunity to take a swipe at Apple and Siri once more.
The concept of personal assistants has been around for a long, long time, and they indeed make one’s job a lot easier by sharing a hefty amount of your workload, maintaining schedules, prioritizing stuff, keeping track of projects and whatnot. With advancements in technology, a lot of that responsibility has shifted to our smartphones, further supported by the fact that not everyone can afford (or is entitled to) a personal assistant. Apple took the concept to the virtual world with its implementation of Siri, followed closely by Google Now and now, Microsoft’s Cortana for Windows Phone, with the latter being the highlight these days.
We cannot, it seems, help but get carried away by voice assistants, and even though Microsoft joined the party extremely late with the introduction of Cortana earlier this year, the amount of hype it has generated for the software giant will certainly do Windows Phone's cause no harm whatsoever. Having already been compared a dozen times to Google Now and Apple's Siri, Cortana has had the benefit of watching and learning from both, but while the Halo-based voice assistant has clearly borrowed from its two longer-serving rivals in many departments, Siri is now looking to Cortana for inspiration.
Siri, which first emerged alongside the iPhone 4s back in 2011, looks set to be taking on a more significant role in Apple's product line-up with the introduction of HomeKit, HealthKit and CarPlay, to name a few, and although the early buzz regarding the voice assistant has naturally died down, the technology continues to advance. Now, having helped Apple implement voice recognition software into the iOS device range, the team behind the original Siri technology is taking a stab at an entirely new demographic by introducing Kasisto, a similar product to Siri aimed squarely at the business side of things.
