In today's announcement about the HomePod's February 9 launch date, Apple quietly provided new data on how many people are using Siri. According to the company, Siri is now actively used on more than half a billion devices.
As noted by Above Avalon's Neil Cybart, that's an improvement over the last Siri data point shared by Apple. Back at the June Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said Siri was used on more than 375 million iOS devices each month, suggesting Siri usage has increased since the debut of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra.
iOS 11 brought several improvements to Siri, including new, more realistic male and female voices designed to more closely mimic natural human speech. Siri also uses on-device learning to understand more about user preference, and syncs that information across all of your devices for a more consistent experience.
Siri in iOS 11 is also able to translate English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and there's a new Type to Siri accessibility feature.
Siri usage is likely to grow further with the introduction of the HomePod, which will be heavily reliant on the personal assistant. Siri is designed to serve as an in-home musicologist on the HomePod, and Apple has been working to improve Siri's understanding of music related data.
On HomePod, Siri will be able to make music recommendations based on personal taste, aiding in music discovery, and Siri will be able to respond to a range of music related commands and queries like "Play more songs like this," "Play something new," "Who's singing?" and "Play more like that."
Siri on HomePod can also answer questions about a wide range of topics, providing weather updates, sending messages, playing podcasts, checking the news (a feature introduced in iOS 11.2.5), making calendar appointments, offering up data on movie times, and much more, and the personal assistant can be used to control HomeKit devices.
HomePod will launch on Friday, February 9, but Apple will begin accepting orders for the device on Friday, January 26. It will be available in the United States, Australia, and the UK to begin with, and it will cost $349 in the U.S.
As noted by Above Avalon's Neil Cybart, that's an improvement over the last Siri data point shared by Apple. Back at the June Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said Siri was used on more than 375 million iOS devices each month, suggesting Siri usage has increased since the debut of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra.
iOS 11 brought several improvements to Siri, including new, more realistic male and female voices designed to more closely mimic natural human speech. Siri also uses on-device learning to understand more about user preference, and syncs that information across all of your devices for a more consistent experience.
Siri in iOS 11 is also able to translate English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and there's a new Type to Siri accessibility feature.
Siri usage is likely to grow further with the introduction of the HomePod, which will be heavily reliant on the personal assistant. Siri is designed to serve as an in-home musicologist on the HomePod, and Apple has been working to improve Siri's understanding of music related data.
On HomePod, Siri will be able to make music recommendations based on personal taste, aiding in music discovery, and Siri will be able to respond to a range of music related commands and queries like "Play more songs like this," "Play something new," "Who's singing?" and "Play more like that."
Siri on HomePod can also answer questions about a wide range of topics, providing weather updates, sending messages, playing podcasts, checking the news (a feature introduced in iOS 11.2.5), making calendar appointments, offering up data on movie times, and much more, and the personal assistant can be used to control HomeKit devices.
HomePod will launch on Friday, February 9, but Apple will begin accepting orders for the device on Friday, January 26. It will be available in the United States, Australia, and the UK to begin with, and it will cost $349 in the U.S.
Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)
76 comments
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
26 months ago
I asked Hey Google and Alexa “Who is Legolas’s father?” They both quickly answered “Thranduil”.
I asked Siri the same question.
First she told me she doesn’t know who my father is (but apparently thinks I’m talking about someone who is “legless”.
I tried again and she said that I don’t have a Lego List but she can make one for me.
Oh Siri. :rolleyes:
Let’s hope she can hear much better on the Home Pod.
I could not get Siri to understand what I was asking. I had to spell out the name. Keep in mind this doesn’t confuse the other search assistants. They seem to know there is a Legolas out there and that I’m asking about him.
I asked Siri the same question.
First she told me she doesn’t know who my father is (but apparently thinks I’m talking about someone who is “legless”.
I tried again and she said that I don’t have a Lego List but she can make one for me.
Oh Siri. :rolleyes:
Let’s hope she can hear much better on the Home Pod.
I could not get Siri to understand what I was asking. I had to spell out the name. Keep in mind this doesn’t confuse the other search assistants. They seem to know there is a Legolas out there and that I’m asking about him.
Apple today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2020, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2019.
For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $91.8 billion...
iOS 13 is now installed on 77 percent of iPhones that were released in the last four years, according to updated adoption numbers that Apple shared today on its App Store support site for...
When Apple's latest iPhones were introduced in September, Filmic, known for its video recording apps, showed off a new app designed to capture video from multiple iPhone cameras at the same time,...
Signs of new Powerbeats 4 wireless earphones were found in the iOS 13.3 beta back in December, and in today's iOS 13.3.1 software release, there are a few icons that depict the design of the new...
Apple today released iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1, minor updates to the iOS 13 operating system. iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1 come over a month after the release of iOS/iPadOS 13.3, which brought Communication...
Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the iPad, and alongside that milestone, Input has published an interview with Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, two of the key Apple employees behind its...
Filmic today released its DoubleTake camera app, which allows iPhone users to shoot with multiple cameras at the same time. An early version of the app was demoed during Apple's iPhone 11 Pro...
Apple's production plans for the so-called "iPhone SE 2" or "iPhone 9" next month could face disruption due to the coronavirus outbreak that has caused more than 100 deaths in...
