Surprise: the HomePod may be Apple's physical embodiment of Siri, but there Cupertino firm would really rather you think of the smart speaker as a music system first and foremost. Described as a blend of Sonos and Amazon Echo during the WWDC 2017 keynote, here Siri is really the gateway rather than the main event.
This morning Apple revealed the HomePod, their first "home speaker" - or Siri Speaker, if you prefer. This device has the same processor as the most modern iPhone, no display, and a much more powerful set of speakers than an iPhone. It needs to be plugged in to a physical wall socket and it's able to do a litany of tasks if you ask it - through Siri, of course. Today we're having a closer look at Apple official.
The Apple Home Speaker is what Tim Cook suggested would be Apple's attempt to "reinvent home music." This device, says Apple, is in line with the legacy of the iPod, and reinventing personal mobile music. Phil Schiller stepped on stage and detailed the speaker top to bottom as a piece of equipment that had not existed before - "Why hasn't this happened yet?"
Apple has announced big changes coming to Siri on iOS 11, among them being a new voice that sounds less robotic than the current iteration. The changes were announced here at the company's WWDC 2017 keynote, where Apple explained that the updated version of its digital personal assistant will be arriving on Apple products later this year when iOS 11 rolls out. The changes are both big and welcomed.
After a lot of talk and many rumors, the day is finally here. Today Apple delivers its WWDC 2017 keynote address, and while looking at past WWDC keynotes gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect, quite a few rumors have suggested that this particular show could be something more. According to the reports we've heard thus far, here's what to expect (and also what to hope for) during today's WWDC 2017 keynote.
Apple's WWDC 2017 event is only a few days away now, meaning we'll soon have a decent idea of the company's plans for the rest of the year. But what about beyond that? What's Apple planning or working on that we won't find out about until 2018 or later? Well, an in-depth thread on the Apple subreddit has appeared this weekend, with a supposed Foxconn insider revealing a number of details on the company's product roadmap.
Apple's Siri speaker may well show itself at WWDC 2017, the company's annual developer conference, next week, it's reported, though it won't ship until later in the year. The device, which will take on Amazon Echo and Google Home, will give Siri a physical embodiment within the home. However, it'll also take on other tasks to help distinguish itself in the increasingly crowded smart speaker market.
It seems that voice-controlled personal assistants are all the rage these days. Microsoft and Harman Kardon just revealed the Invoke Cortana speaker, Amazon put a screen on the Echo and called it a a Show, and Google just gave the Assistant more smarts, more features, and more places to be on. But one of the inherent drawbacks of relying on voice as a medium is that no one really speaks the language in the same way. Yes, we're talking about accents, which has tripped up many personal assistants. Years after their initial debut, how far have these AI-powered agents come along? The folks over at WIRED made some rather comical tests to find out.
It's become clear in the last few years that Apple is doubling down on its focus on Siri, with recent advancements including the use of AI and other technology that allows the assistant to do more with data from users. In what's likely a part of that effort, it's been revealed that Apple has acquired Lattice Data, an AI and machine learning company that specializes in "dark data," or unorganized information like images and text.
We've been hearing about Apple working on a new addition to the iPad Pro lineup — one with a 10.5-inch display, to be specific — for some time now, and June's Worldwide Developers Conference is expected to be when it will finally be unveiled. This comes from the latest report by Ming-Chi Kuo, the well-regarded KGI Securities analyst with a solid track record when it comes to Apple.
In a recent interview with Apple's Phil Schiller, the SVP of Worldwide Marketing shared some thoughts on the state of voice assistant-powered home speakers and how they could be improved by screens, possibly hinting at Cupertino's own debut of a device to compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. There have been rumors for weeks now about Apple unveiling a Siri-powered connected speaker at WWDC in June, and Schiller's comments seems to indicate that the company has been thinking about a device for some time now.
Last week, we heard that Apple could introduce a Siri-based smart speaker as early as June. Today analytics firm KGI is saying that it expects the same reveal, along with making some predictions about what kind of hardware we'll see in it. Get ready to potentially spend some money though, because if there's one theme to KGI's predictions, it's "premium."
