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Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Look Up Back to School Mashable Selects Say More Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series You can try the new AI assistant now. Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Siri, that little robot in your phone, gets its awaited upgrade. Apple's Surprise and Shine event is sure to be full of surprises, but the imminent launch of the new AI-powered Siri is not one of them. The tech giant has been dangling its new, technologically advanced Siri over the heads of Apple users for years, following a 2024 announcement that Apple was overhauling its famed assistance as the company dived deeper into AI.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Look Up Back to School Mashable Selects Say More Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series Apple's Siri Recap will remember your conversations for you Is the new Apple Intelligence feature an innovative audio tool or privacy nightmare? Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Siri will listen in on and report back your conversations. With Apple Intelligence, you don't need to worry about emails or texts or calendar alerts. You can clear your skin and track your health stats and even generate entirely new realities.

Apple is still playing a cautious catch-up game with Google and Samsung in deploying agentic AI features and AI assistant capabilities. But the company is looking to change that with the upcoming release of iOS 27 and a complete overhaul of Siri. But if you want to change Siri's voice or make a few additional tweaks to the iOS mascot, you don't have to wait for the new update to roll out in mid-September. On current versions of iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings Apple Intelligence & Siri Voice. Select one of the available options, listen to the playback, and decide whether it's the right option for you.

Siri's ability to speak notifications is great in the right circumstances, but if it won't shut up about incoming alerts in the car, you can turn this off. Back in Settings on your phone, choose Notifications Announce Notifications. If you want to use this feature outside of CarPlay, keep the top toggle on and select the CarPlay menu. There, disable Announce Messages and Siri won't read anything that comes in during a trip. Back on the Announce Notifications page, you might also want to turn on Reply Without Confirmation.

If Siri suddenly remembers how to do its job as soon as the phone leaves CarPlay, the connection becomes highly suspect. For wired and wireless CarPlay, the potential connection problems are a little different. If you're using wired CarPlay, Apple suggests using a different USB cable or a compatible USB port. Wireless CarPlay requires both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with Auto-Join turned on for the CarPlay network, so either connection can cause odd behavior even if the CarPlay interface appears to be working normally. Apple's troubleshooting list includes restarting the iPhone and the vehicle, forgetting the car under Settings General CarPlay and pairing it again.

Apple has laid off employees in its Vision Pro and Siri teams as it shifts focus to smart glasses and next-gen AI tech, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported. The cuts are said to affect around 200 workers, with 100 cuts in the Vision Pro division and another 100 in the Siri and software divisions. The Vision Pro layoffs are focused largely on gaming and immersive video teams, according to the report. The Siri cuts, meanwhile, are aimed at teams working on the old version of the Siri assistant, as the new Siri AI system requires personnel with a different type of expertise. Apple acknowledged that it was making cuts and realigning teams based on a changing product mix. "While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles," the company said.

Apple appears to have accidentally leaked its camera-equipped AirPods in a video tucked into the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate, MacRumors reported. The new AirPods are said to have a camera that can feed low-res imagery to Apple's long-delayed AI Siri assistant, which can then tell the viewer what they're seeing via a new function called Visual Intelligence. They were first tipped by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman back in May. In the video (also revealed by X user @aaronp613), a man wearing AirPods asks Siri to remember the book he's currently checking out. In response, Siri's voiceover states: "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes saveable. Just ask me to save it for later."

PCWorld reports that Apple's new AI-enhanced Siri, now in public beta, takes a revolutionary business-like approach focused on practical tasks rather than companion-style interaction. The updated Siri efficiently organizes emails, retrieves specific information, and brainstorms ideas without attempting to bond with users like ChatGPT or Claude. This shift toward utility-focused AI assistance will reach wider audiences with the fall release of iOS 27 and macOS 27. After a couple years of false starts, the new AI-enhanced Siri has finally arrived on Apple devices via public beta. Its most revolutionary feature may be what it doesn't do - namely, it doesn't try to be your buddy. I've been testing the new Siri (which goes into wide release this fall once iOS 27, macOS 27, and the Apple's other OS 27's land) on my iPhone for the past few days, and I'm struck by how business-like it is.

Apple's upgraded AI assistant is finally here. Apple is finally attempting to deliver the next-gen, AI-infused Siri experience. The iOS 27 beta is centered around an elevated Siri, transformed from a basic voice commander to something closer to the intelligent, personal helper we were promised years ago. In iOS 27, Apple is prioritizing day-to-day utility over flashy gimmicks. The new Siri is smarter and faster, and it even has its own app to call home, while the company has focused on software efficiency gains -- especially on older devices.