Story by
Emil Protalinski
Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, incl Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, including Ars Technica, Neowin, TechSpot, ZDNet, and CNET. Stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
At its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, Apple announced a very important update to Siri: you can start talking to her without having to touch your iPhone. This is triggered by the hands-free phrase “Hey, Siri.”
As part of the update, Apple has built in Shazam song recognition as well as streaming voice recognition. Siri also now supports purchasing iTunes content and has gained 22 new dictation languages.
In other words, this is Apple’s response to the always-on “Ok, Google” feature in Android. The company is well-aware of Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana, and while today’s news is notable, the fact Apple spent so little time on Siri during WWDC is curious. We assume we’ll be learning a lot more as iOS 8 nears release.
Image Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
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