Siri Archives - Memeburn

Samsung’s Bixby disses Apple’s Siri in voice assistant rap battle
By Andy Walker: Editor on 3 May, 2017
Samsung just couldn't resist taking a swipe at Apple's Siri using its own smart voice assistant, could it? Bixby, which launched this weekend in South Korea on the Samsung Galaxy S8, hides a rather innocuous diss within a command. Asking Bixby to "please rap" or "beatbox", the voice assistant drops rhymes that would put Pitbull out of work. But more interesting still is the message hidden within one particular rap. Users on the Samsung subreddit noticed that when the first letters of a rap's lines are read vertically, it spells out the sentence "I am better than Siri". That's rude, Samsung. Also, dope...
Apple’s Siri saves three men from drowning off Florida coast
By Staff Reporter on 3 May, 2017
Apple's Siri, the voice assistant that commands many of the company's devices, reportedly saved three boatmen from drowning this weekend. The men, according to a Fox 4 news report published Monday, were around six kilometres off the coast of Florida when they encountered choppy water. The conditions soon overwhelmed the little boat, forcing the men to don life jackets as the vessel took on water. This is where Siri comes into play. Police suggest that the fishermen were unable to use the device's screen because of cold hands, but the "Hey Siri" voice command was still available as on option. Boaters that ran into...
Samsung to buy artificial intelligence startup Viv
By Andy Walker: Editor on 6 October, 2016
This is big. In light of Google Assistant's move to its new home, Apple's Siri finding refuge on the iPhone 7 and Microsoft's Cortana slowly breaking its PC chains, Samsung is also in the market for an intelligent voice assistant. And it seems that it has found the perfect candidate. The company has announced that it has acquired artificial intelligence platform and startup Viv, a company that has Siri's co-creator -- Dag Kittlaus -- at the helm. "Viv has developed a unique, open artificial intelligence (AI) platform that gives third-party developers the power to use and build conversational assistants and...
Microsoft’s Cortana now available on Android in public beta
By Myolisi Sikupela: Staff Reporter on 25 August, 2015
First announced in May this year, Microsoft has finally launched Cortana for Android devices in public beta. Some of the digital assistant's features include searching the web by voice command, setting reminders and alarms, making calls by voice and voice texting. Similar to Apple's Siri and Google Now, Cortana also gets to know the user over time by keeping track of their interests and providing them with relevant content. Read more: Microsoft’s Cortana whips Apple’s Siri in this new Windows Phone ad Microsoft says that since it launched the closed beta, it has made several improvements. Some of these include the ability to...
Microsoft’s Cortana whips Apple’s Siri in this new Windows Phone ad
By Lauren Granger on 28 July, 2014
Microsoft's not shy when it comes to tackling its competition head-on -- from openly pitting its Surface Pro 3 against the Macbook Air to all those Scroogled ads. The latest victim? That would be Siri. The company's new Windows Phone ad essentially simulates a showdown between Apple's personal assistant and its own recently-launched competitor, Cortana. It directly compares Apple's flagship device to the Lumia 635, assigning them both a series of tasks -- and the budget Nokia beats it every time. While the ad does state that the screens have been simulated and the sequences shortened, its a pointed dig...
4 major components to finding success in a digital world: mobile [part one]
By Megan Bernstein on 13 November, 2013
It’s a fair statement to make that we are not living in the digital revolution. We are living and breathing the history that many will look back at in generations to come and see as the era that changed the fundamental way we interact. Forever. The world is changing, technology is changing, the way we communicate is changing and it's no longer about becoming digital, it’s about succeeding in a digital world. In order to succeed in a digital world, there are four key factors to consider. Over a series of four articles I will explore each of these factors:...

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They aren’t just for our phones anymore: the coming virtual assistant revolution
By Ilya Gelfenbeyn on 15 February, 2013
“Where can I hide a dead body?” With that esoteric question, Siri was launched on the iPhone 4S in October 2011, ushering in the era of the virtual assistant app (and the arms race between these app developers). The genre has come a long way in the past year and a half, and virtual assistant downloads for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone have remained high as new functionality continues to be added. The popularity of these apps, at least in its infancy, can in part be attributed to the novelty of interacting with a phone that has now taken on...

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Meet Siri’s relative Lola, she’s smarter and likes banking
By Stuart Thomas on 13 July, 2012
So you're an iPhone 4S user. Your love for Apple's voice assistant Siri obviously knows no bounds. You'd never cheat on her right? What if we introduced you to her more intelligent, financially savvy cousin? Her name's Lola and Spain's second largest bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) reckons she could save it a ton in staffing costs. The voice assistant was built by the team behind Siri and, according to Technology...
Tim Cook: Apple needs social, Siri updates are coming
By Stuart Thomas on 30 May, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook has given hints that the Cupertino-based tech giant wouldn't exactly be averse to scuppering its social effort Ping. Speaking at AllThingsD's D10 conference Cook said that while Apple understood the need to integrate social elements into its products, that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to has to "own a social network". Answering a question raised by ABC's Joanna Stern, the Apple CEO said: Apple doesn’t have to...
John Malkovich uses Siri and it’s kinda creepy [Video]
By Stuart Thomas on 24 May, 2012
If there's one thing that John Malkovich excels at, it's playing John Malkovich. He reprises that role in two ads for Apple's voice assistant app Siri. The first features the logo of US carrier Verizon, and features the actor using Siri to find out about the weather, search for restaurants, and to tell a joke. Malkovich appears to find the joke hilarious, which is worrying. The second ad, which...
IBM bans Siri over fears that she spills secrets
By Stuart Thomas on 23 May, 2012
When IBM revealed that it had banned its workers from using Siri, it could easily have been a throwback the halcyon days of its rivalry with Apple. As it turns out however, Big Blue's fears -- that all those queries asked of Siri had to being stored somewhere -- are justified. According to Wired, the validation of IBM's fears is plainly visible in Apple's Software License Agreement: “When you use Siri or Dictation,...
Siri changes its mind on ‘the best smartphone ever’, Nokia isn’t impressed
By Lauren Granger on 15 May, 2012
When you ask Siri "What is the best smartphone ever?", you'd expect it to spout some pro-Apple response like "the iPhone 4S, duh." So when Apple's personal assistant responded with "The Nokia Lumia 900", it was actually quite funny. Alas, the joke is over. If you ask the same question now, you'll be met with a response like "You're kidding, right?" or "The one you're holding." The Gearburn editor tried it out --...
Samuel L Jackson, Zooey Deschanel star in new Siri spots [Video]
By Staff Reporter on 17 April, 2012
Apple’s not exactly renowned for using celebrity endorsements in its adverts (unless you count Santa’s Siri spot). Seems like that’s changing with Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschenel making appearances in the latest video spots for Siri. Jackon’s spot features him in sensitive date mode, rather than the badass action star we’ve all come to know so well: Deschanel’s spot meanwhile features her in archetypal, ridiculously cute mode, ordering soup on a...
Siri gets her Led out, sings ‘Stairway to Heaven’ [Video]
By Stuart Thomas on 13 March, 2012
We know Apple’s celebrated voice assistant Siri can do a whole lot, but did you know she could soon be the voice of the entire iTunes catalogue? Apple-centric parody news site Scoopertino has imagined a present in which Tim Cook and co. have become so enamoured with Siri that they decide to drop musicians entirely and let Siri take over on vocal duties for every song ever licensed to iTunes. “Apple started...
Gatfol: Google, Yahoo! and Bing are OK, we can make them better
By Martin Carstens on 20 February, 2012
Search engines get you the results you want 80% of the time. That's according to a South African startup called Gatfol (pronounced Gat fole, not like the Afrikaans Gatvol) which will soon be launching its first product to help you get closer to 100%. Gatfol may seem like an odd name for a startup, but its US patented semantic search algorithm certainly isn’t. Rooted in natural language processing or NLP, the free Gatfol...