Businessweek reports on the movement towards voice-activated TV remotes in the coming year. The move seems triggered by Apple's plans to enter the TV market in the near future. Steve Jobs said that he had finally "cracked it", referring to the TV user interface. Most believe that this revelation relates to Apple's Siri voice recognition system, and the industry is on the move:
Whether the rumors are true that Apple is planning to release a TV set by 2013, Siri-like voice recognition is headed for the living room. Microsoft (MSFT) is already there, via its Xbox 360 game console, and Comcast (CMCSA), Samsung Electronics (SHCAY), LG, and Sharp are working on voice-enabled features for TV sets, set-top boxes, and related products.
Businessweek suggests an voice command as simple as "Record the next episode of Modern Family" as a much needed improvement over the current solution. Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group goes on to say "Anything would be better than what we have now."
Upcoming remote devices are said to look more like iPhones than traditional remotes, with possibly a single physical button to activate the microphone. Others are working to simply embed microphones around the living room and eliminating a physical remote altogether. Nuance suggests that 5% of TVs could be voice controlled by Christmas 2012.
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more.
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Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features.
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Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by Joe Rossignol
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In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date.
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We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon.
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Black Friday deals have begun, and Amazon is one of the best places you can find steep discounts on numerous products this week. We've already collected all of the best Apple-related deals you'll find at Amazon (and other retailers) in our Apple Black Friday Deals post, so below you'll find other discounts on devices like Anker accessories, Beats headphones, video games, TVs, and more.
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Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others.
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Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition.
The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
The only problem with voice recognition on TVs is that it could interfere when commanding volume. If the TV is too loud, then the mic may pick that up. "Turn volume down to ten." "Did you say, 'buy a Snuggie?'"
Why do people keep thinking this?
Obviously they're gonna add a trigger where the TV volume will go mute when Siri is on.
Relative to all this "Siri can't hear over the TV volume" nonsense, why not just program the system to ignore the audio stream for the television programming so that Siri can't hear it at all (like noise canceling headphones, but much better since the "noise" would be very specific and precise)? Then, Siri would just hear the sounds in the room that are NOT playing through the TV.
In my opinion, in order for Apple's television solution to really be a revolutionary product, it will have to do more than just have a Siri-remote (http://www.techperfect.net/2011/11/the-challenge-facing-an-apple-television/). That would be a nice feature, but remember that most televisions don't live alone in an isolated environment - they are connected to stereos that have their own complicated "universal" remotes.
In order to really crack the TV - and therefore the living room - Apple needs to have their Siri remote not only be able to command the TV, but all of the other devices that you have. Maybe they'd use Airplay? Maybe they'd use HDMI control?
That's before we even start talking about content and content synchronization.
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The only problem with voice recognition on TVs is that it could interfere when commanding volume. If the TV is too loud, then the mic may pick that up. "Turn volume down to ten." "Did you say, 'buy a Snuggie?'"
Saying this is like saying that playing music from a phone is a bad idea because it would interfere with phone calls.
