Tuesday 27 June 2017

Apple wants to hire someone to help Siri be hip with the times

As the Apple HomePod nears ever closer to its release, it looks like Apple is also working to make Siri a more interesting digital assistant to have around the home.

To that end, Apple put out a job listing today for what it calls a "Siri Event Maven." According to the requirements, this specialist would help plan Siri's "understanding of events for the year" and "provide strategic awareness of cultural happenings in the collective zeitgeist."

It appears that Apple is looking to boost Siri's understanding of special occasions beyond the usual major holidays — in fact, the posting specifically mentions sillier pop culture holidays like "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "May the Fourth Be With You", aka "Star Wars Day."

Should you be interested in applying, know that Apple requires applicants to be a "Czar of cool" in addition to the usual prerequisites, but no pressure or anything.

A Siri for your home

While we imagine it won't be used as much as, say, playing music or calling a friend, knowing a bit about special events could go a way to make Siri seem more 'fun,' especially compared to competitors like Amazon Echo's Alexa and Google Home's Google Assistant. 

Additionally, we can see that foundation become built upon to cover more user-specific occasions such as lesser known cultural events or overlooked religious celebrations. 

From there, it's also worth speculating that Siri could one day learn major events relevant to a user's interest, like an upcoming gaming convention or the release of an eagerly anticipated movie.

In the meantime, we just look forward to seeing more third-party apps work with Siri come the release of iOS 11. Whether or not it knows when BlizzCon 2017 or Avengers: Infinity War is coming up, however, will be a pleasant bonus.

Via 9to5Mac



from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/news/siri-may-soon-get-schooled-about-pop-culture-holidays

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