Hasta La Gadget!

It’s a weird quirk of the current generation of AirPods: they support Siri, but only if you double-tap one of the earbuds first. Unlike with iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and HomePods, you can’t just say “Hey Siri” and babble out your request.

Rumors have been floating around for a while suggesting that a new iteration of AirPods — AirPods 2, the rumor mill is calling them — would bring “Hey Siri” functionality. Now a screen hiding in the latest iOS beta seems to suggest the same.

While it’s not a publicly accessible screen, Guilherme Rambo of 9to5mac managed to trigger the following prompt in the just-released iOS 12.2 beta:

(Image Credit: 9to5Mac)

“Talk to Siri with your AirPods or iPhone by saying ‘Hey Siri’,” it reads.

Its absence from the current generation of AirPods presumably boils down to a matter of battery life. Apple figured out how to make “Hey Siri” work with minimal impact on battery life with the iPhone 6s, then broke down how it all works in a post on its Machine Learning Journal in April of 2018. But to pull off the same trick in a tiny earbud — each having a battery capacity of 93 milliwatt hours, or roughly 1 percent of that of an iPhone — is an entirely new challenge. For the first gen, it was just easier to let the headphones wait for that double-tap, queueing it up as a new selling point whenever Apple figured out how to pull it off.

Rumors have also hinted at other features for the eventual AirPods sequel, from waterproofing to sensors that help track health data. Alas, no sneaky hidden prompts hinting at any of that have been found yet.

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Apple’s CEO Tim Cook had recently confirmed that demand for the iPhone is weaker than they expected, and that a market that they’re seeing the most weakness in is China. It is unclear why that might be as there could be several reasons, such as cheaper alternatives from local brands, and the ongoing trade war between the US and China which could prompt locals to support Chinese brands.

For those who might be wondering how bad the situation in China is for Apple, according to Strategy Analytics, it seems that Apple has experienced a 22% decrease in iPhone shipments to the country. Based on their findings, Apple shipped about 10 million iPhones to China in Q4 2018. This is a lot of phones, but when you compare it to the 14 million they shipped in Q4 2017, that’s a huge difference.

In fact their numbers seem to suggest that Apple’s foothold in China isn’t what it used to be. Local companies such as Huawei and Vivo have only seen an increase in shipments from 90.8 million to 105.1 million for Huawei, and 73.1 million to 79.3 million for Vivo. It is anyone’s guess as to what Apple can do to turn things around for themselves, although last we heard, the company had authorized discounts for its phones in China which should make it more accessible.

However like we said, another possibility for flagging sales is due to the ongoing trade war where we have heard how some Chinese companies are punishing employees who use iPhones, while others are offering incentives to employees to make the switch to a local brand.

iPhone Shipments To China Are Down By 22% , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

It’s a weird quirk of the current generation of AirPods: they support Siri, but only if you double-tap one of the earbuds first. Unlike with iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and HomePods, you can’t just say “Hey Siri” and babble out your request.

Rumors have been floating around for a while suggesting that a new iteration of AirPods — AirPods 2, the rumor mill is calling them — would bring “Hey Siri” functionality. Now a screen hiding in the latest iOS beta seems to suggest the same.

While it’s not a publicly accessible screen, Guilherme Rambo of 9to5mac managed to trigger the following prompt in the just-released iOS 12.2 beta:

(Image Credit: 9to5Mac)

“Talk to Siri with your AirPods or iPhone by saying ‘Hey Siri’,” it reads.

Its absence from the current generation of AirPods presumably boils down to a matter of battery life. Apple figured out how to make “Hey Siri” work with minimal impact on battery life with the iPhone 6s, then broke down how it all works in a post on its Machine Learning Journal in April of 2018. But to pull off the same trick in a tiny earbud — each having a battery capacity of 93 milliwatt hours, or roughly 1 percent of that of an iPhone — is an entirely new challenge. For the first gen, it was just easier to let the headphones wait for that double-tap, queueing it up as a new selling point whenever Apple figured out how to pull it off.

Rumors have also hinted at other features for the eventual AirPods sequel, from waterproofing to sensors that help track health data. Alas, no sneaky hidden prompts hinting at any of that have been found yet.

As much as your dog prefers to smell like butt, he’s probably overdue for a bath. In fact, he’s probably been due for a long time now. But if you live in an apartment and don’t have easy access to a hose, a regular shower or sink isn’t really the right tool for the job. At least not without the Waterpik Pet Wand.

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