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The trouble with bots: A parent's musings on SmarterChild

In 2000, I founded SmarterChild, the world’s first commercial instant messaging bot. SmarterChild had 30 million people in his IM buddy list, making it the most popular artificially intelligent agent in history — at least until Apple released Siri in 2010. While Siri had more distribution, though, its popularity wasn’t necessarily because people liked Siri, but because Apple forced it …

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Will Siri Force Industry's Hand on Banking-by-Voice?

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At Apple’s annual developers conference, Craig Federighi, its senior vice president of software engineering, said financial services firms Number26, Square Cash and AliPay would allow customers to interact with Siri. IMAGE: Bloomberg News Siri, will banks be ready to use you on launch day? Come this fall, Apple will begin to allow third-party apps to …

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A new app and a more open approach to Siri could save Apple’s smart home

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We’ve long-lamented over the glacial pace of Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform when it comes to adopting new partners, but that might be changing soon. At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday, the tech giant finally committed to offering a direct portal to HomeKit via a dedicated app in iOS 10. It also announced …

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For Apple, Apps Are The New Platforms

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[embedded content] After last month’s Google’s I/O conference, I wrote about how its announcements followed a theme of lowering barriers, such as not requiring a separate device for Android Auto, or a PC for advanced virtual reality, or even installation to experience an app. While Apple also announced efforts to make app development child’s play …

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Why You Won't See an 'Apple Echo'

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Why bother? With Siri on iOS, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, you already have a voice assistant any time you need one. When Amazon first introduced the Echo—its cylindrical, AI-enhanced digital assistant/speaker—reaction was mixed. Who would actually want that? A lot of people, it turns out. Amazon’s answer to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google …

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Apple WWDC 2016: All you need to know

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Apple has stated the new iOS 10 will reach users by fall this year and will come as a free upgrade for the compatible iPad and iPhone devices. The Apple WWDC event concluded successfully, and we do have a good glimpse of what to expect in the coming days with Apple products and services. Also, …

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Why this Microsoft exec totally shook up the team that makes one of its most important products

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Microsoft’s Julie Larson-GreenBrad Barket/Getty Images for WIRED Since the eighties, Microsoft has always thought of Office in a certain, very rigid way. One team works on Microsoft Word, another on PowerPoint, another on Excel, and so on. But on stage at the Bloomberg Technology Conference, Microsoft Office Chief Experience Officer Julie Larson-Green revealed that she recently …

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Amazon's Alexa Will Gauge Your Mood, Decide When You Need Time-Out

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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) hopes to tweak its digital assistant, Alexa, to better help it sense users’ moods by picking up on the tone of voice. After launching its first-ever Bluetooth speaker, Amazon Echo, in 2014, Amazon has been eager to secure Alexa’s position in markets because many rival companies have also launched their own versions …

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Siri: Once a Flake, Now Key to Apple's Future

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ENLARGE At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote in San Francisco Monday, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, announced that Siri would be opened to third-party developers. Photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters By Geoffrey A. Fowler Geoffrey A. Fowler The Wall Street Journal CANCEL Biography @geoffreyfowler geoffreyfowler Google+ [email protected] June 14, 2016 8:00 a.m. ET 12 …

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Why The Experts Can't Seem To Agree On WWDC

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Apple has almost always been a company that has elicited strong feelings — from customers, from non-customers, from tech journalists. Until recently, those feelings were more or less positive and mostly based in adulation. Of late, with falling hardware sales and its air of invincibility pierced, those feelings are getting more complicated. All things that …

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