Siri AI first look: How Apple's rebuilt AI-powered assistant behaves across iPhone, iPad and Mac Siri AI first look: How Apple's rebuilt AI-powered assistant behaves across iPhone, iPad and Mac A quick preview of what's to come this fall. The biggest news out of WWDC 2026 was, as widely rumored, the next generation of Siri. Called Siri AI, the AI-boosted assistant will be infused into lots of Apple products like the iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can sign up to get early access to the new Siri AI to get a feel for how it behaves. But since I've already had the opportunity to check out some demos here at Apple Park after the keynote ended, I figured I'd preview it for those of you who don't want to go through the hassle of beta software.

Every time my cat Mira walks across a keyboard, I learn a few new Mac and PC keyboard shortcuts I never knew about. All cats love keyboards (but this is not a photo of my cat). My cat Mira is perfect, and has never done anything wrong. She also loves walking on laptop keys--both my MacBook and my wife Kathy's Windows PC . You might think that walking on laptops is an example of Mira doing something wrong. And, in any case, we've both learned a lot about how our computers work because of this.

It's called Handy, and it uses AI models to accurately convert your speaking voice into text--all for free. If old sci-fi shows are anything to go by, we're all using our computers wrong. We're still typing with our fingers, like cave people, instead of talking out loud the way the future was supposed to be. Have you ever seen Picard touch a keyboard? And it's odd because our computers are all capable of turning speech into text by default.

Back in June 2024, Microsoft unexpectedly removed the Windows key C keyboard shortcut for launching the Copilot AI assistant in Windows 11 and replaced it with a dedicated Copilot key on newer keyboards. That was followed up with a Copilot voice chat keyboard shortcut and then later with a "Hey Copilot" verbal launch trigger. As of update KB5058502--the optional May patch that released yesterday for Windows 11 23H2--the Windows key C keyboard shortcut has been reinstated. Tap it to launch Copilot in text chat mode or long-press it to launch Copilot in voice chat mode. A similar update will be released for Windows 11 24H2, reports Windows Latest.

Newer Windows PCs have included a special Copilot key for about a year now. The Copilot key is meant to be a dedicated way to bring up Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant, although some people never use it and have turned to repurposing the Copilot key for other actions. But then there are others who want to use Copilot and wish they had a dedicated button for calling it up, yet don't want to shell out money on a new laptop just for said key. If that's you, then here's some good news: Microsoft is adding a new keyboard shortcut for Copilot. According to the announcement post, the Copilot app for Windows (available via the Microsoft Store) will soon be able to initiate a voice conversation with Copilot by holding Alt Space for 2 seconds. Once you're done talking, you can press Esc to end the conversation.

Windows PCs are incredibly powerful and flexible, and that's true even before you install any apps. As it turns out, Windows itself is chock-full of useful features that few people actually know about. If you're a college student who wants to take your college laptop to the next level, here are several obscure Windows features that'll help you whether you're taking notes, researching projects, or otherwise. Windows 11 has a feature called Live Captions that listens to audio and automatically generates readable captions on the fly. It works when you're watching a video, but it also works with audio captured by your microphone.

In some categories of computer software, there are scant free options and spending a few bucks on paid software makes a big difference. In other categories, paying for software is not necessary. Video editing is one such example. In fact, one program widely used in Hollywood is free, and there are several other decent programs for Windows users--including the utterly fantastic DaVinci Resolve. Windows even has a built-in program now that Microsoft is the owner of the simple video editor Clipchamp.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller was Microsoft's first real attempt at making accessible hardware. And while it was very well-received, it didn't really impact non-gamers. Today, the company is launching a new product with a much wider audience: a mouse. The Microsoft Adaptive Mouse kit actually consists of a mouse, attachable tail, hub and button. They're modular and highly customizable, offering a wide variety of ways for people with different needs to interact with their laptops, tablets or phones.

But it's not just a skill for software devs -- learning bash can be valuable for anyone who works with data. In short, Bash is the Unix command-line interface (CLI). You'll also see it called the terminal, the command line, or the shell. It's a command language that allows us to work with files on our computers in a way that's far more efficient and powerful than using a GUI (graphical user interface). Making the switch from graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to a command-line interface can feel overwhelming.

Google Colab is an amazing gift to the data science community from the fine folks at Google. Colab gives us the ability to build complex and heavy machine learning and deep learning models without having to expend our machine's limited resources. I can certainly appreciate this given how much I used to struggle on my machine! The'out of memory' error is now quite infamous in the data science community – Google Colab provides us with the workaround and adds several cherries on top! I love the free GPU and TPU support – it's simply unparalleled and unrivaled in any other coding IDE.