Microsoft is next in line to build a mobile personal assistant, one that’s more than more than a robotic voice that obeys spoken commands. The feature will tie together all Microsoft products. So it’s probably appropriate that it’ll be named Cortana after the artificially intelligent character in Halo.
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So though the premise of a man falling in love with the voice of his phone’s operating system is a little ridiculous, Spike Jonze’s movie Her actually looks wonderful and maybe even believable. But duh! Who wouldn’t fall in love with Scarlett Johansson’s voice? Just hearing the huskiness makes you imagine the bombshell that is Scarlett Jo. So what if we replaced Johansson’s voice with something more robotically realistic… like Siri’s. Yeah, it would be pretty funny.
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Apple’s virtual personal assistant, Siri, now takes a rather humorous swing at Google Glass. Saying “Okay Glass” to Siri will make the virtual assistant return four humorous responses at the expense of Google Glass. “Okay Glass” is actually the phrase that is used to invoke Google Glass, the origins of this phrase are explained in detail here.
The four responses are as follows: “Stop trying to strap me to your forehead. It won’t work,” “I think that Glass is half empty,” “I’m not Glass. And I’m just fine with that” and “Glass? I think you’ve got the wrong assistant.” Its unclear if Apple plans on adding more phrases to the list, these four seem to suffice though. Apple naturally won’t be too excited about Glass. Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that he doesn’t believe Google Glass will turn out to be a mass-market item. According to him, the wrist is a more natural place for wearable gadgets. There have already been a lot of rumors about Apple working on its own wearable gadget, the iWatch as it is commonly known. Nevertheless, Google has stirred up a lot of hype for Glass but we’ll only know how it performs in the market once the retail version goes on sale next year. [Image via AppleInsider]
Siri Takes A Humorous Swing At Google Glass original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Everybody knows that Siri gets silly from time to time and starts cracking jokes. Most of them are not funny (e.g. "Two iPhones walk into a bar… I forget the rest.") But when Siri starts trash-talking Apple’s competitors, things start to get interesting.
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When Apple first demonstrated Siri, it looked like Apple had a pretty awesome new feature in their hands, but unfortunately the rollout of Siri to the masses left a lot to be desired. Apple has since labeled Siri as being in beta, and in a recent report from Xconomy, it looks like Apple is definitely stepping up their efforts at improving their voice assistant software. According to the report, they claim that Apple has been busy hiring speech recognition talent at one of Apple’s “secret” offices located in Boston and near the MIT campus, and that these speech recognition talents have been hired solely for the purpose of working on Siri, although the exact nature of their jobs remains unknown for now.
Ever since Apple has introduced Siri, the Cupertino company has been slowly making changes behind the scenes, such as introducing new languages Siri would support in updates to iOS, and earlier this year a job listing has revealed that Apple is looking for more engineers to help improve Siri. In any case with this reported bout of hiring, hopefully the next update we see to Siri will be a more noticeable one, one that perhaps will be announced alongside the new iPhone in September, but we can only hope!
Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | Apple’s Alleged Secret Boston Office Working On Improving Siri With Recent Hirings original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We’ve driven a number of EV‘s over the years — from the Ford Focus Electric to the Tesla Model S — but none have been as affordable as the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV. It costs $19,995, including the $7,500 federal tax credit, and just $17,495 in California, thanks to an additional $2,500 credit. The Spark EV is GM’s first pure electric car since the company scrapped the EV1 program in 2002. It’s a five-door supermini designed to carry four people plus luggage in comfort. While it’s primarily a city car, it’s perfectly at ease on the highway. We recently got the chance to take one for a spin in lovely Portland, Oregon, so hit the break for our impressions and hands-on video.
Gallery: Chevrolet Spark EV hands-on
Filed under: Transportation, Apple
Cars are dangerous, all the more when drivers reach for controls positioned at arm’s length. Road risk is increased by the fact that many drivers seek distraction or productivity while rolling along. Multitasking while behind the wheel can be more perilous than driving drunk.
The car also represents third-party business opportunities. It is an under-served mobile environment. Many apps that work beautifully at home or in a coffee shop, such as music playback or messaging, are halting or awkward in the rolling living room of a car.
The race is on for control of the car’s infotainment systems. Apple’s recently granted patent for a touchscreen dash is Cupertino’s aim toward owning the dashboard operating system and interface, in ways that hook into the company’s device and media businesses. But thorny competition comes not only from other tech companies, but also from the car companies. And whatever victories Apple enjoys in the dashboard could ultimately be neutered by longer-term automotive tech inventions.
Filed under: Misc, Transportation
In iOS 7, Siri’s voice is becoming less robotic and more human (we’ll have to wait and see if she’s more useful). One of those improvements will be how she pronounces names. Instead of butchering your name or choppily spelling out letters of your friends’ names, she’ll be able to be ‘taught’ what the correct pronunciation is.
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We got to see quite a bit of iOS 7 back at WWDC 2013, but we only saw it working on an iPhone. Well, we’ve got some good news for big screen Apple devs, as a new iOS 7 beta’s been released OTA and it now works on the iPad. Of course, the new beta also brings the usual nebulous “bug fixes and improvements” for all devices, and among those improvements is the addition of the Voice Memos app and Siri’s new voices in English as well. It’s available now, so if you’re in the beta, you best get to downloading!
Source: TUAW
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