Apple Announces Smart Speaker, Device Upgrades, and iOS 11

There are also several updates coming to iMessage, including the ability to send money to friends (like you can with Venmo or Square Cash) and an app drawer to keep all those new iMessage apps introduced a year ago nice and tidy.

The lack of a breakthrough device has periodically raised concerns that Apple has become too dependent on the iPhone and supported the theory that the company lost its knack for innovation when its co-founder Steve Jobs died of cancer in 2011. Both the male and female versions of the voice will get the machine learning-based updates.

You can use Apple Pay at certain brick-and-mortar stores (Apple says 50 percent of US retailers will support Apple Pay by the end of the year), online web stores via Safari, and in certain iPhone apps.

Apple’s Siri assistant will be integrated into the $349 speaker, and can make music recommendations that pair with the company’s Apple Music service, send text messages, check news and sports scores and control compatible home gadgets like lightbulbs and thermostats.

Apple’s AI assistant Siri was launched in 2011, and was not an instant hit – nor were original AI assistants on other platforms. It can now translate speech, starting out with English, French, German Chinese, Spanish and Italian.

Apple’s mobile payments app – will support person-to-person payments/transactions in iOS 11. Over a trillion photos per year are taken by iOS users, along with a ton of videos.

Apple’s annual developers conference is the company’s chance to preview upcoming features for iPhones, iPads, watches and Mac computers.

The browser’s new “intelligent tracking prevention”, meanwhile, will use machine learning to identify and block digital-ad trackers in order to keep advertisers from following and profiling users. You can also create movies out of photos taken in portrait mode, as well as trim live photos or add a long exposure or seamless loop to one. Google already tries to be proactive with its Assistant on Android phones and Google Home speaker.

The iPad Pro also gains some productivity features for iOS 11, which more closely mimics the Mac.

Notebooks: Apple said it’s refreshing its notebooks, with the MacBook and MacBook Pro moving to faster processors and faster solid-state hard drives.

The feature, called Do Not Disturb While Driving, could help prevent distracted driving. As a driver, you won’t even get a notification, so that you’re fully concentrated on the road.

Apple also unveiled new Macs, addressing complaints that Apple has let its Mac lineup languish in favor of its better-selling products, namely the iPhone.

Swiping up from the bottom of your screen has always opened the Control Center, and it will continue to do so.

The App Store has completely changed.

Federighi says the new operating system “is going to be a real important step in safety in the car”. All the money that you receive will be collected in your Wallet app in the form of a Cash card. You’ll be getting a bunch more information, though.

iOS 11 also introduces drag-and-drop support, making it easier to grab content and add it to documents and messages.

The company are also talking up the new full-sized Smart Keyboard and reworked Apple Pencil as the ideal accessories for the iPad Pro, saying they bring “breakthrough levels of precision and utility” to the overall package.