Apple has moved to settle a five-year-old class action lawsuit over Siri privacy. Reuters reports that the proposed settlement was filed on Tuesday in Oakland, CA. The company agreed to pay 95 million to class members, estimated to be tens of millions of Siri-enabled device owners. US District Judge Jeffrey White needs to approve the settlement before it becomes official. The lawsuit stemmed from a 2019 report that Apple quality control contractors could regularly hear sensitive info accidentally recorded by the voice assistant's "Hey Siri" feature. The clips were said to include medical information, criminal activities and even "sexual encounters."

Voice assistants have a reputation for finicky activation, such as responding to their prompts that are spoken in an ad. Apple may have a fix for that in the works. A part of code called AdBlocker appears to use the Shazam API to match audio captured by a device's microphones against audio fingerprints downloaded from Apple. When there's a match, the usual Siri trigger command is disabled. In theory, this means Apple could have devices not react to the "Hey Siri" prompt when it's spoken as part of the company's keynote presentations or TV advertisements.

Many iPhone users may be familiar with that heart-stopping feeling when you pat your pocket and the familiar outline of your phone isn't there. Usually, you're able to find it lying nearby, but a tech expert has revealed fail-proof ways to locate a lost iPhone if it's taking longer than usual to find it. Kurt Knutsson, also known as Kurt the Cyberguy, is the founder of The Cyberguy Report which warns viewers about possible cybersecurity scams and whether you could be a target. The Apple watch can be used to ping your iPhone if they're within 330 feet of each other He has now explained that the tools users already have access to like Siri and the Apple smartwatch are effective ways to locate your missing phone. Although iPhone users can use most Apple devices to locate their phones, there are three other options you may not have considered, according to Knutsson.

In rebranding artificial intelligence as Apple Intelligence, Apple Inc is banking on the idea that people by and large won't buy the powerful A.I. software that its rivals are developing. Instead, they'll want really cool hardware that incorporates A.I. It's a compelling but risky strategy for a company that specializes in seamlessly integrating hardware and software into must-have products. "It's the next big step for Apple," Apple CEO Tim Cook said Monday in unveiling Apple Intelligence at the company's developers conference. Apple is diving into artificial intelligence – focused on the idea of a "virtual personal assistant" - as a potential must-have app for consumers. Since it lacks its own cutting-edge version of the predictive, sounds-like-a-human technology known as generative A.I., Apple will license that technology from other companies, starting with OpenAI.

The results were promising, according to the paper. The model was able to make more accurate predictions than audio-only or text-only models, and improved further as the size of the models grew larger. Beyond exploring the research question, it's unclear if Apple plans to eliminate the "Hey Siri" trigger phrase. Neither Apple, nor the paper's researchers immediately returned requests for comment. Currently, Siri functions by holding small amounts of audio and does not begin recording or preparing to answer user prompts until it hears the trigger phrase.

Have you seen the meme about people who dangle too many things on their fingers for no reason whatsoever? I'm not proud to admit it, but I'm one of those. No matter how big of a bag I'm carrying, I always find my hands full, making it difficult to interact with my phone or smartwatch on the go. Which is why voice controlled assistants and hands-free gestures are so appealing. With the Apple Watch Series 9, the company is introducing two new methods of interaction: Double Tap and Raise to Speak (to Siri).

From where you go to what you say to Siri and Google Assistant, most smartphone apps collect your data continuously. Companies then sell this data to advertising companies, hence why it can sometimes feel like you are recommended ads about products you mentioned in passing once. Data privacy advocate Gaël Duval said that, thankfully, it's possible to change settings so this doesn't happen. Murena believes this has measurable benefits: he says that poor data privacy and personalised adverts directly contribute to increased time spent online, impulse buying and even worsening mental health problems – as tech companies understand more about you, they will target adverts at you more precisely. Research by TASO in 2022 found that 79 percent of people were worried about online technology companies using their data, and 65 percent felt uncomfortable sharing their data to use services for free.

Kurt'The CyberGuy' Knutsson shows the best way to take voice control selfies. How cool would it be if you could just say "Cheese!" and voilà, your phone would capture the perfect selfie without you ever lifting a finger? Oh yes, you heard that right. Aside from selfies, there are several other benefits of setting up a voice-controlled camera. It can capture speech much faster than you can type.

Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are powerful - but the sad reality is most people aren't maximizing their true potential. The average user is not aware that their pocket AI assistant can scan thousands of photos instantly and find old images with a few simple commands. And these bots also make incredible PAs, bookmarking dates in your calendar and setting reminders for crucial meetings. So, let's delve into the top voice commands for your smart assistant that can simplify your daily life: With those details settled, let's delve into the top voice commands for your smart assistant that can simplify your daily life (stock image) Before we get started, to make your phone's virtual assistant work better, be sure it truly understands your voice, tone and inflections. These common mistakes make it more complicated. In dimly lit situations, such as trying to decipher a menu or navigating a hallway, the last thing you want is to struggle with your phone to locate the flashlight feature.

Language speakers often use what are known as repair initiators to mend fundamental disconnects that occur between them during verbal communication. Previous research in this field has mainly focused on the human-to-human use of repair initiator. We proposed an examination of dialogue repair structure wherein the dialogue initiator is human and the party that initiates or responds to the repair is a virtual assistant. This study examined the use of repair initiators in both English and Spanish with two popular assistants, Google Assistant and Apple's Siri. Our aim was to codify the differences, if any, in responses by voice assistants to dialogues in need of repair as compared to human-human dialogues also in need of repair. Ultimately the data demonstrated that not only were there differences between human-assistant and human-human dialogue repair strategies, but that there were likewise differences among the assistants and the languages studied.