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Apple To Open Up Siri To Developers, Release An Amazon Echo Competitor (bgr.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BGR: According to a new report from The Information, Apple is finally ready to let Siri grow up. Specifically, the publication relays that Apple will finally offer official Siri APIs to developers, thus paving the way for third-party integrations, the kind that Amazon Echo users can't seem to get enough of. Things like ordering an Uber or pizza are currently impossible, because Siri is locked down by Apple. What's more, Apple is also reportedly working on a standalone device meant to compete with the Amazon Echo and Google's recently unveiled Google Home. If that's true, it's huge news -- Apple has been lacking any kind of smart home hub until now, but a Siri-powered device would be a serious play to get Apple into our homes. Google is the latest tech giant to announce a virtual home assistant. It unveiled Google Home, a small round gadget with microphones and speakers that listen and respond to your questions and commands.
Can we put Siri and Cortana in a sound proof room and let them fight it out?
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
It'll probably cost double what the Echo does, and you'll have to buy a new one once a year.
Yes, because every single Apple machine turns into a pile of dust one year after it's bought.
You might choose to buy a new one every year because you get excited by the Apple event where the new one is introduced, but you don't have to do that. (I have to buy a new iPhone this year, but that's because next year it becomes an iPod touch with an extra useless radio. It still works, and is actually still mostly usable on the Intertubes.)
I have to give them credit here. If anything, Google or Apple should have been the first one to release the first "Echo". But complacency is one hell of a drug. Looks like they've been dipping into Microsoft's stash.