Microsoft today released an update for SwiftKey that includes a handful of new features including emoji prediction and enhancements to 3D Touch gestures.
Users who tap on the emoji key will now see a new prediction panel that automatically suggests up to 18 relevant emoji depending on what they type, saving them the trouble of searching through the entire list.
The update also includes eight new "Oxygen" themes adding up to a spectrum of vibrant colors for SwiftKey keyboards. The new hues can be found in the Design section of the app and include Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Light Blue, Blue, Purple, and Pink.
In addition, Microsoft said it had made substantial improvements to the responsiveness of 3D Touch gestures in SwiftKey on supporting iPhones, including those that trigger cursor control and cursor movement. Haptic feedback has also been implemented for some keyboard actions, such as opening the emoji panel.
Lastly, SwiftKey added support for 15 new languages including Egyptian Arabic, Tanglish, Bambara, Wolof, Mossi, Greenlandic, and Northern Sami. See here for the full list.
SwiftKey is a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Apple privacy advocates met with attorney general George Brandis and senior staff in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's office on Tuesday to discuss their concerns about the legal changes, which could compel tech companies to provide decryption keys to allow access to secure communications such as that provided by WhatsApp and iMessage.
Apple has consistently argued against laws that would require tech companies to build so-called "back doors" into their software, claiming that such a move would weaken security for everyone and simply make terrorists and criminals turn to open-source encryption methods for their digital communications.
While Apple's position is clear, the Turnbull government has yet to clarify exactly what it expects tech companies to give up as part of the proposals. A source familiar with the discussions said that the government explicitly said it did not want a back door into people's phones, nor to weaken encryption.
However, given that encrypted services like WhatsApp and iMessage do not possess private keys that would enable them to decrypt messages, a back door would seem the only alternative. "If the government laid a subpoena to get iMessages, we can't provide it," CEO Tim Cook said in 2014. "It's encrypted and we don't have a key."
As it happens, Cook's comment only applies to iMessages that aren't backed up to the cloud: Apple doesn't have access to messages sent between devices because they're end-to-end encrypted, but if iCloud Backup is enabled those messages are encrypted on Apple's servers using an encryption key that the company has access to and could potentially provide to authorities.
However, Apple is moving in the same direction as WhatsApp and Telegram to make encryption keys entirely private. As announced at WWDC in June, macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 will synchronize iMessages across devices signed into the same account using iCloud and a new encryption method that ensures the keys stay out of Apple's hands.
As senior VP of software Craig Federighi noted in interview with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, even if users store information in the cloud, "it's encrypted with keys that Apple doesn't have. And so they can put things in the cloud, they can pull stuff down from the cloud, so the cloud still serves as a conduit — and even ultimately a kind of a backup for them — but only they can read it."
How this will play out in Apple's discussions with the Australian government – and indeed other governments in the "Five Eyes" intelligence sharing network seeking similar access to encrypted communications – is anything but clear. According to sources, Apple and the Turnbull government are taking a collaborative approach in the discussions, but previous statements by officials imply a tougher stance behind the scenes.
Last week, Senator Brandis said the Australian government would work with companies such as Apple to facilitate greater access to secure communications, but warned that "we'll also ensure that the appropriate legal powers, if need be, as a last resort, coercive powers of the kind that recently were introduced into the United Kingdom under the Investigatory Powers Act... are available to Australian intelligence and law enforcement authorities as well".
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Popular note-taking platform Bear received an update on Wednesday across Mac and iOS that adds a number of community-requested features to the Apple Notes rival.
Top of the feature list in version 1.2.2 is the ability to highlight parts of notes in a neon color to indicate importance, by bracketing text in "::" tags.
Over on the Mac, it's now possible to break out Bear notes into separate windows for easy reference between multiple entries, simply by double-clicking them in the notes list.
To simplify organization, Bear 1.2.2 also has a new option to edit note tags right from the sidebar and notes list. To do this on Mac, click a tag in the sidebar to view all notes with that tag, and then right-click any note and select "Remove tag (X)". The same option can be accessed on iPhone and iPad by tapping a tag in the sidebar, swiping left on a note, and tapping More.
In addition, the app has gained some new advanced search options or "Special Search" triggers. It's now possible to add "@today" or "@yesterday" to searches to find notes with those creation dates. The new functions join existing triggers such as "@untagged" to find all untagged notes, "@tasks" for all notes that contain tasks, and "@files" for notes that have attachments.
Elsewhere, there's new shortcuts for quickly inputting the current date/time in various formats, a new Print Note option and note counter at the top of the notes list, while an AirDrop option has been added over on iOS Share Sheets. It's also now possible to share notes as rich text.
Bear is available to download on the App Store for iPad and iPhone [Direct Link], as well as on the Mac App Store [Direct Link].
An opera based on the life of late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs is set to open in Santa Fe, New Mexico this Saturday. Called The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the opera will have its world premiere showing on July 22 at 8:30 p.m on the Santa Fe Opera's open-air summer stage.
The opera has been in development since 2015, created by electronica DJ Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell. It tells the story of the Jobs and his struggle to balance life, family, and work, and is set to a live orchestra accompaniment, guitar, natural sounds, and expressive electronics, including Apple's own devices.
Bates described one of the scenes to ABC News in an interview last week, highlighting the moment where Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone before being exhausted by illness.
At this moment in Mason Bates' opera "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs," a harrowing sound emerges from the orchestra pit, a crushing downward progression that's described in the score as an "electronic shutdown."
"It's a combination of a stand-alone synthesizer with the actual sound on the old Macs of hard drives turning off -- and one in reverse booting up," Bates explained in an interview last week at the Santa Fe Opera, where his work will have its world premiere on Saturday.
"That moment is the realization of his mortality, so I wanted to have that kind of shutdown sound," Bates said. "Even if you can't recognize it, it adds a little authenticity that the guy who is the subject of this opera is the creator of some of the devices we're hearing."
The opera, which is approximately 90 minutes long, kicks off with a prologue in the garage of the Jobs family home in Los Altos, California, with Jobs father, Paul Jobs, gifting him a workbench.
From there, it jumps to 2007, where Jobs unveils the first iPhone, and then shifts back and forth between 2007 and Jobs' early years developing Apple. Campbell and Bates, who say the opera does not vilify or glorify Jobs, aimed for a non-chronological timeline dictated by emotion and memory. It will feature Jobs and several supporting characters like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Chrisann Brennan, with each character highlighted through a unique series of sounds.
The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs has been financially backed by opera companies in San Francisco and Seattle, with guaranteed performances coming to both California and Washington in the future.
Since his death in 2011, Steve Jobs' life has been the subject of myriad books, movies, and documentaries, including an Aaron Sorkin-penned Danny Boyle-directed feature film that debuted in 2015.
Hulu today announced a new distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, which will see almost 3,000 new episodes of popular Fox dramas and comedies added to Hulu's streaming service.
Hulu has obtained streaming rights to every episode of long-running hits like How I Met Your Mother, Burn Notice, Bones, and Glee, along with all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H and the complete NYPD Blue library. A list of some of the shows coming is below:
Hit Comedies: How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, The Bernie Mac Show, Better Off Ted, Reba, Life in Pieces
Long-Running Dramas: NYPD Blue, Bones, Glee, Burn Notice, White Collar, The Practice
Iconic Series: M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, The Bob Newhart Show
Fan Favorites: Don't Trust the B--in Apartment 23, The Grinder, Blue Collar, Saving Grace, Lie To Me, Graceland
Cult Hits: Dollhouse, Wilfred, The Glades
The deal between Hulu and 20th Century Fox is an expansion of an agreement that has seen Hulu gain shows like Bob's Burgers, American Dad, Futurama, The Cleveland Show, This Is Us, Emptire, Homeland, and more.
According to Hulu, the new titles will be added to the service ofer the course of the coming weeks.
Former DreamWorks Animation CEO and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is working on a new mobile-focused TV service, tentatively named New TV, and has met with Apple executives to discuss a possible investment, reports Variety and CNBC.
Katzenberg was in attendance at this year's Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, along with dozens of other tech and media moguls, including Apple CEO Tim Cook. According to Variety, he was aiming to coax one of several tech companies into a $2B investment in his new project. Katzenberg was seen meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Eddy Cue at the event, and CNBC says he has previously held meetings with Apple, Google, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Snapchat, and Spotify.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Sun Valley event last week. Image via Rob Latour, Shutterstock
Given the sheer number of investors Katzenberg is courting, it's not yet clear who he will partner with nor if Apple is interested, but New TV is a unique proposal. Katzenberg wants to create a short-form video series that's produced with primetime TV budgets to target 18 to 34-year-olds.
For example, imagine a drama akin to "Empire" or "Scandal" but shrunk to 10-minute episodes made for mobile consumption. Or a five-minute talk show, or a two-minute newscast -- all with high-profile talent attached.
In addition to seeking a distribution partner, Katzenberg is also pursuing potential content partners, with CBS and Disney CEO Bob Iger considering producing shows for the service. "The explosion of short-form video is obvious to all of us, but a lot of what we've seen is the production of amateurs -- user-generated content," Iger told Variety.
Katzenberg's goal is not to shrink longer-form media into a shorter format, but to create "new and different" programming that's native to mobile devices. No episode will last longer than 10 minutes, and there will be no ad breaks, with monetization coming via title sponsorships and brand integrations.
New TV will be shaped by whichever partner joins the project, says Katzenberg. It could work as a subscription service offered by a single video provider for a monthly fee, or it could be entirely free and integrated into an existing brand.
Apple has been aggressively pursuing original content in recent months, but in a more traditional format with standard episode lengths. Planet of the Apps, the company's first original show, launched in June, and its second show, Carpool Karaoke: The Series is set to be released on August 8.
A United States House panel this morning unanimously approved a proposal that would allow car manufacturers to deploy tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles without adhering to existing auto safety standards, reports Reuters. The legislation would also ban states from implementing and enforcing some driverless car rules as regulators work to create improved federal safety standards for autonomous driving.
Under the terms of the proposal, automakers would be required to submit safety assessment reports to United States regulators, but pre-market approval of autonomous vehicles would not be required.
Automakers would have to show self-driving cars "function as intended and contain fail safe features" but the Transportation Department could not "condition deployment or testing of highly automated vehicles on review of safety assessment certifications," the draft measure unveiled late Monday said.
Companies working on autonomous vehicles, including General Motors, Alphabet, Ford, and Tesla, have been lobbying Congress to pass a federal measure that would pre-empt rules being considered in California and other states that would limit the deployment of self-driving vehicles. The measure preliminarily approved today would let manufacturers subvert the rule requiring autonomous cars to have driver controls, and it would prevent states from setting self-driving car standards for software and safety systems.
One of the Lexus vehicles Apple uses to test its autonomous driving software
The measure was updated last week to add a directive that would require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to draft new rules for autonomous vehicles within 18 months, but consumer advocacy groups say that the bill needs tweaking to ensure that automakers prioritize safety and do not put consumers at greater risk of a crash.
Apple has its own autonomous driving software in development and would benefit from the relaxed regulations should the bill be passed. Apple has previously asked the California DMV to re-evaluate some of its rules, including those requiring companies to provide detailed public reports about testing variables and results.
Apple CEO Tim Cook in June said Apple considers its work on autonomous driving systems as "the mother of all AI projects." Apple is currently testing its software in several Lexus RX450h vehicles that are equipped with a host of sensors and cameras.
The full committee could vote on the measure as soon as next week, but the U.S. House of Representatives will not consider the bill until it reconvenes in September after the summer recess. Representative Robert Latta, who leads the Energy and Commerce Committee subcomittee overseeing consumer protection, plans to continue considering changes ahead of the full committee vote.
Apple has partnered with French fashion label Balmain to create special edition versions of its Powerbeats 3 Wireless Earphones and Beats Studio Wireless Headphones. The two accessories feature a Safari color with metallic gold accents and prominent Balmain labeling.
The Beats/Balmain collection delivers premium sound and exquisite design reflective of Balmain's iconic style. The Beats Studio Wireless headphones are finished in Safari color with metallic gold accents to represent Olivier Rousteing's dreamlike vision of an urban safari. Each comes with a matching suede case adorned with a Balmain plaque and the symbolic Balmain coin zipper pull.
In an interview with fashion magazine Vogue, Balmain designer and creative director Olivier Rousteing said his connection with the Beats by Dre brand began four years ago when members of the team came to a Balmain show in Paris. "What they love about Balmain is that I embrace music. We've always had an idea of making something happen together," he said.
He went on to say that his aim with the design was to bring French luxury to technology. "When it's about technology, there are challenges, so you need a lot of respect. You cannot treat headphones like a garment," he said.
Apple and Balmain are working with model Kylie Jenner to promote the partnership and the new headphone line. Kylie Jenner has shared a photo of herself wearing the headphones on Instagram, and she's featured in product videos on Apple's website.
Alongside the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.6, which came after a two month beta testing period, Apple has introduced a new version of iTunes, iTunes 12.6.2.
iTunes 12.6.2 is a minor update, with Apple's release notes saying only that it introduces minor app and performance improvements.
Today's iTunes update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free using the Software Update function.
iTunes 12.6.2 follows iTunes 12.6.1, another minor update that was released back in May.
Apple today released macOS Sierra 10.12.6, the sixth update to the macOS Sierra operating system that launched in September of 2016. macOS Sierra 10.12.6 comes two months after the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.5, an update that introduced a headphones audio fix, enhanced Mac App Store compatibility, and more.
macOS Sierra 10.12.6 is a free update for all customers who have a compatible machine. The update can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.
There were no bug fixes, feature additions, or other changes found in macOS Sierra 10.12.6 during the beta testing process, suggesting the update focuses on security improvements and other small enhancements.
macOS Sierra 10.12.6 is likely to be one of the last updates to the macOS Sierra operating system, as Apple is preparing to shift focus to macOS High Sierra, the next version of macOS. Apple introduced macOS High Sierra at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5.
Apple today released a new update for tvOS, the operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10.2.2 update comes two months after the release of tvOS 10.2.1, a minor update.
The tvOS 10.2.2 update can be downloaded on the fourth-generation Apple TV using the Settings app. Go to System --> Software Update to install. For those who have automatic software updates turned on, the Apple TV will be upgraded to tvOS 10.2.2 automatically.
We didn't find any new features or design changes during the short tvOS 10.2.2 beta testing period, suggesting the update focuses on bug fixes, security enhancements, and other under-the-hood improvements.
tvOS 10 will be replaced with tvOS 11, the next-generation version of the tvOS operating system, this fall. For that reason, tvOS 10.2.2 may be one of the last updates to tvOS 10.
Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 3.2.2 to watchOS 3.2.3. The watchOS 3.2.3 update comes two months after the release of watchOS 3.2.2, which introduced bug fixes.
watchOS 3.2.3 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone.
An iPhone running iOS 10 or later is required to download the new software, but it is available for all Apple Watch models.
During the beta testing period for watchOS 3.2.3, no major changes or new outward-facing features were discovered, so watchOS 3.2.3, like watchOS 3.2.2 appears to focus mainly on performance improvements and bug fixes.
watchOS 3 will soon be succeeded by a new version of watchOS, watchOS 4, which was introduced at the June Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple today released iOS 10.3.3 to the public following several weeks of beta testing with six betas provided to developers and public beta testers. iOS 10.3.3 comes more than two months after the launch of iOS 10.3.2, a minor bug fix update.
iOS 10.3.3 is a free over-the-air update available to all users with a compatible iOS device. It can also be downloaded and installed on iOS devices using iTunes on a Mac or PC.
No outward-facing changes or features were discovered during the short beta testing period, so it appears iOS 10.3.3 focuses on bug fixes, security enhancements, and other minor improvements, much like iOS 10.3.2.
Apple's work on iOS 10 is winding down as the company prepares to launch the next-generation version of iOS, iOS 11, which first debuted at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. iOS 11 will see a release in the fall following a summer of beta testing. With work shifting to iOS 11, iOS 10.3.3 is likely to be one of the final updates we see to iOS 10.
Update: Apple has shared detailed notes covering the bug fixes that were introduced in iOS 10.3.3. Among the fixes is an update for a major vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to execute code on the Broadcom Wi-Fi chip built into many iOS devices. This issue was also previously addressed in iOS 10.3.1.
Amazon today announced a new feature coming to its iOS and Android apps called "Amazon Pay Places," which will let users pay for in store items and order ahead meals using the payment information saved in their Amazon accounts (via TechCrunch).
Amazon is opening up the feature with a small scale launch, however, and only enabling pay-ahead food orders through one restaurant, TGI Friday's, at locations in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
To use Amazon Pay Places, users on the Amazon iOS mobile app can tap on the hamburger icon to find "Programs and Features" in the navigation tab, where Amazon Pay Places will be located. When tapped, users will be able to browse TGI Friday's menu, place an order, and pay directly within the app.
Amazon is today introducing a new feature called Amazon Pay Places, that allows customers to pay for in-store and order ahead shopping experiences using their Amazon app. That is, instead of using cash, check, credit or debit while shopping out in the real world, you can just use your Amazon account information instead.
According to TechCrunch, Amazon Pay Places will eventually encompass multiple in-store and "physical world" retail applications in the future, placing the Amazon iOS app as more of a potential Apple Pay competitor than the initial launch's focus on ordering ahead. Amazon didn't mention when new partners will be announced for Pay Places, or when the feature might launch in markets outside of the United States, where it will currently only be supported.
Amazon Pay Places is an expansion on the company's current "Amazon Pay" checkout option, which allows retailers to place a button on their websites to give users an easy checkout option, similar to PayPal. With Pay Places, the company is now looking to slowly expand the use cases of Amazon Pay out into stores and restaurants in the real world, although it remains unclear how such in-store transactions will work.
A questionable rumor has surfaced today suggesting Apple could unveil a new iPhone SE next month, but it might just be more noise in iPhone silly season.
The rumor comes from French-language blog iGeneration, which cited an unnamed source claiming Apple will hold a product event in late August to introduce an updated version of the 4-inch smartphone.
Mickaël Bazoge, the author of the article, told MacRumors that he received the info from a "new source" with an unproven track record. He expressed some skepticism, but added that the source "seems reliable."
The timeline is immediately questionable given Apple has never introduced any new iPhone model in August. Beyond the current iPhone SE and iPhone 4s in March 2016 and October 2011 respectively, Apple has officially debuted all other iPhone models at events in June or September each year.
Moreover, given the current iPhone SE essentially has iPhone 6s tech specs, the next model's tech specs would likely be closer to the iPhone 7. And if that happens in August, then the new iPhone SE would be nearly as powerful as the iPhone 7 with a much cheaper price tag, potentially cannibalizing Apple's sales.
When introducing the iPhone SE, Apple acknowledged that some people simply love smaller phones, and revealed that it sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015. The device looks like an iPhone 5s, but it has newer tech specs, including a twice-as-fast A9 chip and a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera.
iPhone SE remains Apple's cheapest smartphone, starting at $399 in the United States. Today's rumor claims the next-generation model could start at €399 in Europe, down from €489 currently. The rumor also says Apple will hold a second event in October to introduce the supposedly delayed "iPhone 8."
Apple doubled the current iPhone SE's storage capacities to 32GB and 128GB, up from 16GB and 64GB, in March.
Apple today debuted a new blog called the "Apple Machine Learning Journal," with a welcome message for readers and an in-depth look at the blog's first topic: "Improving the Realism of Synthetic Images." Apple describes the Machine Learning Journal as a place where users can read posts written by the company's engineers, related to all of the work and progress they've made for technologies in Apple's products.
In the welcome message, Apple encourages those interested in machine learning to contact the company at an email address for its new blog, machine-learning@apple.com.
Welcome to the Apple Machine Learning Journal. Here, you can read posts written by Apple engineers about their work using machine learning technologies to help build innovative products for millions of people around the world. If you’re a machine learning researcher or student, an engineer or developer, we’d love to hear your questions and feedback. Write us at machine-learning@apple.com
In the first post -- described as Vol. 1, Issue 1 -- Apple's engineers delve into machine learning related to neural nets that can create a program to intelligently refine synthetic images in order to make them more realistic. Using synthetic images reduces cost, Apple's engineers pointed out, but "may not be realistic enough" and could result in "poor generalization" on real test images. Because of this, Apple set out to find a way to enhance synthetic images using machine learning.
Most successful examples of neural nets today are trained with supervision. However, to achieve high accuracy, the training sets need to be large, diverse, and accurately annotated, which is costly. An alternative to labelling huge amounts of data is to use synthetic images from a simulator. This is cheap as there is no labeling cost, but the synthetic images may not be realistic enough, resulting in poor generalization on real test images. To help close this performance gap, we’ve developed a method for refining synthetic images to make them look more realistic. We show that training models on these refined images leads to significant improvements in accuracy on various machine learning tasks.
In December 2016, Apple's artificial intelligence team released its first research paper, which had the same focus on advanced image recognition as the first volume of the Apple Machine Learning Journal does today.
The new blog represents Apple's latest step in its progress surrounding AI and machine learning. During an AI conference in Barcelona last year, the company's head of machine learning Russ Salakhutdinov provided a peek behind the scenes of some of Apple's initiatives in these fields, including health and vital signs, volumetric detection of LiDAR, prediction with structured outputs, image processing and colorization, intelligent assistant and language modeling, and activity recognition, all of which could be potential subjects for research papers and blog posts in the future.
Check out the full first post in the Apple Machine Learning Journal right here.
When the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones went on sale in April, voice support for Bixby in the United States was missing due to Samsung's decision to delay the virtual assistant's English-language launch until what was then estimated to be sometime in late spring. This week, the company has announced that voice capabilities for Bixby are now arriving for Galaxy S8 and S8+ users across the United States.
Samsung describes Bixby as "fundamentally different" than AI helpers like Siri and Microsoft's Cortana because of its deeper and more nuanced integration into the Galaxy's core apps, as well as some third party apps at launch including Google Maps, Google Play Music, YouTube, and Facebook. The Bixby integration into these third party apps is available through a service called Bixby Labs, which Galaxy S8 owners can opt into through their smartphone.
Bixby's many features include letting users complete simple tasks like turning on the device's flashlight and taking a screenshot or selfie. More complex flows can be arranged as well, like asking the assistant to gather all of the photos taken over the past week into one album called "Vacation," and then sending it to family and friends. Samsung plans to continuously update Bixby with new features, app support, languages and devices, and the company said that thanks to deep learning, the assistant will only improve over time.
What’s more, because Bixby is deeply integrated into the device’s operating system – rather than being a separate app –users can seamlessly switch between controlling an app via voice or via touch commands, rather than choose one or the other ahead of time.
“There are over 10,000 functions on our smartphones, but each day, people may use less than five percent of them. The features on your phone are only useful if you know how to find them. Our goal with Bixby is to make it easier to use our phones, creating the best possible user experience for our customers. That’s why we created Bixby – an intuitive new way to do more things with your phone,” says Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.
With the Bixby update, Galaxy S8 users can simply press the dedicated Bixby button on their device to call up the assistant and begin asking it questions and performing tasks, and a voice activated "Hi, Bixby" feature is also available. Right now, Bixby recognizes English and Korean languages, but Samsung noted that, "Not all accents, dialects and expressions" will be recognized.
Every time that Galaxy S8 users call up Bixby they will also earn experience points in a gamification system that Samsung is also rolling out for the launch, and ending September 14, 2017. Each message sent, call made, setting updated, or any action performed through Bixby will earn XP, which users can convert into Samsung Rewards points that can be amassed to try to win bigger prizes like Samsung products, gift cards, trips, and more.
Earlier this month, it was rumored that Samsung is planning to enter the smart speaker market with a device that uses Bixby as a way for users to interact with music playback. Codenamed "Vega," the project would place Samsung as a competitor against Apple in yet another category, since the Cupertino company at WWDC this year announced the December launch of the HomePod, its Siri-powered speaker.
Delays related to Bixby's U.S. launch are reportedly behind a slowdown on the smart speaker project, and a report out of The Korea Herald this week has furthermore placed the launch of a Samsung speaker well into the future. Sources familiar with the matter claimed that Samsung is "not enthusiastic" about a smart Bixby speaker because it "does not view Al speakers as marketable" at this time, thanks to the domination of products like Amazon Echo. Rather than dive into an uncertain market, Samsung is said to be taking a wait-and-see approach for the potential launch of its Bixby speaker.
Apple today resumed carrying Nokia's digital health products on its online store in the United States and Canada, nearly two months after the two companies announced they settled all litigation related to their intellectual property dispute.
Apple's website indicates the products are also available for pickup at Apple's retail stores between Friday, July 21 and Monday, July 24.
Apple had removed all Withings accessories from its online and retail stores around the world in December due to a legal dispute with Nokia. On May 23, however, Apple and Nokia announced they settled all litigation and agreed to a business cooperation agreement with a multi-year patent license.
The legal dispute began last December, when Nokia filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in the United States and other countries. Apple countersued Nokia, accusing the former phone giant of transferring patents to patent holding entities to squeeze additional royalties from the iPhone maker.
As part of the settlement, Nokia will receive an up-front cash payment from Apple, with additional revenues during the term of the agreement. Nokia will also be providing "certain network infrastructure product and services" to Apple.
Apple has sent its top privacy executives to Australia twice in the past month to lobby government officials over proposed new laws that would 
Over on the Mac, it's now possible to break out Bear notes into separate windows for easy reference between multiple entries, simply by double-clicking them in the notes list.
Alongside the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.6, which came after a two month beta testing period, Apple has introduced a new version of iTunes, iTunes 12.6.2.
A questionable rumor has surfaced today suggesting Apple could unveil a new iPhone SE next month, but it might just be more noise in 
