MacRumors

In iOS 11, Apple's AI-based personal assistant Siri has a much more natural voice that goes a long way towards making Siri sound human like. Siri speaks with a faster, smoother cadence with elongated syllables and pitch variation, a noticeable departure from the more machine like sound in iOS 10.

The team behind Siri, including Siri senior director Alex Acero, has worked for years to improve the way Siri speaks, according to a new interview Acero did alongside Apple VP of marketing Greg Joswiak with Wired. While Siri's voice recognition capabilities were powered by a third-party company early on in Siri's life, Acero's team took over Siri development a few years back, leading to several improvements to the personal assistant since then.

Siri is powered by deep learning and AI, technology that has much improved her speech recognition capabilities. According to Wired, Siri's raw voice recognition capabilities are now able to correctly identify 95 percent of users' speech, on par with rivals like Alexa and Cortana.

Apple is still working to overcome negative perceptions about Siri, and blames many of the early issues on the aforementioned third-party partnership.

"It was like running a race and, you know, somebody else was holding us back," says Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of product marketing. Joswiak says Apple always had big plans for Siri, "this idea of an assistant you could talk to on your phone, and have it do these things for you in a more easy way," but the tech just wasn't good enough. "You know, garbage in, garbage out," he says.

Joswiak says Apple's aim from the beginning has been to make Siri a "get-s**t-done" machine. "We didn't engineer this thing to be Trivial Pursuit!" he told Wired. Apple wants Siri to serve as an automated friend that can help people do more.

One unique Siri attribute is its ability to work in multiple languages. Siri supports English, French, Dutch, Mandarin, Cantonese, Finnish, Hebrew, Malay, Arabic, Italian, and Spanish, and more, including dialect variants (like English in the UK and Australia) and accents. The Siri team combines pre-existing databases of local speech with local voice talent and on-device dictation, transcribing and dissecting the content to find all of the individual sounds in a given language and all of the ways those sounds are pronounced.

In areas where Apple offers spoken dictation but no Siri support, it's gathering data for future Siri support, and in places where Siri is already available, spoken interactions between user and device (gathered anonymously) are used to improve algorithms and train the company's neural network.

Creating the right voice for Siri in a given language hinges on the proper voice talent, and Apple uses an "epic search" with hundreds of people to find someone who sounds helpful, friendly, spunky, and happy without overdoing it. Once the right person is found, Apple records them for weeks at a time to create the right sound. So far, Apple has repeated this process for all 21 languages Siri supports.

Ultimately, Acero and his Siri team are aiming to make Siri sound more like a trusted person than a robot, creating an attachment to the AI that will "make Siri great" even when Siri fails to answer a query properly. Apple also wants to make people more aware of what Siri can and can't do and that it exists in the first place, which is why iOS 11 includes Siri-centric features like cross-device syncing and a better understanding of user interests and preferences.

Wired's full piece, which goes into much more detail on how Siri recognizes various aspects of speech and how Apple chooses voice talent can be read over on the site.

Apple is one step closer to achieving supply/demand balance for its AirPods, and the highly desired earphones are now shipping out from the online Apple Store in just one to two weeks in the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, and several other countries around the world.

According to Apple's website in the United States, AirPods ordered today will be delivered between September 21 and September 28, the best estimates we've seen since the AirPods became available for purchase.

AirPods have been in short supply since launch. For many weeks, AirPods shipping estimates were at six weeks, but stock improved enough in early August that shipping estimates dropped to four weeks. Later in the month, estimates improved to two to three weeks before hitting one to two weeks today.

At this rate, Apple will be close to achieving an adequate supply later this month or at the beginning of October.

During Apple's third quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple had boosted AirPods production capacity and was "working very hard" to get AirPods to customers as quickly as possible.

Though AirPods have been hard to come by from the online Apple Store, Apple retail stores have occasionally received stock and third-party retailers like Best Buy and various carrier stores have been able to offer AirPods with faster shipping on a regular basis.

Priced at $159, Apple's wire-free AirPods have been incredibly popular thanks to features like long battery life, a simple charge case, infrared sensors to detect when they're in the ear, touch-based gestures, and the W1 chip that improves Bluetooth connection and facilitates quick transfers between different devices.

Apple's upcoming OLED "iPhone 8" with an edge-to-edge display and facial recognition faced multiple production issues early in the manufacturing process, which is likely to result in "extended supply shortfalls and shipping delays," reports The Wall Street Journal.

The production problems have led to a setback of "about a month" in Apple's manufacturing timetable, but Apple supplier Foxconn is ramping up development and working to hire new employees.

Today's report is nothing we haven't heard before. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said for months that he expects the iPhone 8 will be hard to come by until early 2018, and we've heard several rumors pointing towards problems with the display lamination process and other high-tech components like the 3D sensor embedded at the front of the device. The Wall Street Journal points to OLED assembly as a major reason for the delays.

Apple and its suppliers also ran into trouble manufacturing the OLED displays. The display modules are being produced in Vietnam by an affiliate of Samsung Electronics. Unlike the OLED display module in Samsung's own smartphones, in which the display and touch panel are integrated, iPhone's display module has the touch panel outside of the display, according to a person familiar with the technology.

The iPhone manufacturing process requires more steps and more layers of adhesive and protective film than are involved in Samsung's manufacturing process, the person familiar with the process said, creating a greater risk of manufacturing error.

Apple also wanted to add Touch ID to the display of the new device, but it "proved difficult," leading Apple to abandon the fingerprint sensor and lose valuable time as deadlines loomed.

While we hear rumors of supply shortages each and every year, it's worth noting that this year's rumors are both more concrete and more dire. If Kuo's predictions are correct, many of us hoping to get our hands on a new device could be waiting for weeks or months as Apple works to ramp up production.

Extended shortages may also impact Apple's holiday sales period, which is often the company's strongest, but because there's also a new iPhone 7s and 7s Plus on the horizon, it's difficult to determine the effect extended iPhone 8 shortages might have on the company's Q4 bottom line.

Customers hoping to get an iPhone 8 as soon as possible will want to pre-order the device right when it goes on sale. It's not entirely clear yet if the iPhone 8 will be available shortly after being introduced on September 12 or if the supply issues will lead Apple to delay shipments beyond September.

ARKit demos have been popular over the summer, showcasing the features that iOS 11 users will gain on their iPhones once the new software update rolls out worldwide later in September. Today we've rounded up some of the latest tech demos of the software development kit, which you can check out below.

In the first ARKit demo, augmented reality and user experience designer Jelmer Verhoog has created an app that lets users design and customize a Tesla Model 3 car. This extends to the wheels, paint, and interior of the vehicle, and even includes driving controls. While Verhoog's demo is focused on the Model 3, it's easy to imagine other carmakers using Apple's ARKit to help customers when they're on the hunt for a new vehicle.

The next demo, by Zach Lieberman, shows off an interesting use of augmented reality and ARKit -- it allows users to record audio through the app, which is then visually represented by waveforms in an AR space. To play back the audio, users can physically move through it, with the ability to listen to the recorded audio both forwards and backwards. Check out the video below with audio to see Lieberman's demo in action.

An app called "Neon" was showcased recently, and it allows friends to find one another in the midst of overcrowded festivals. The app's Twitter page says it'll be out "this fall," and it appears to use its own social network to add close friends, find them through their own iPhones, and present their location to users as augmented reality chevrons that are easy to track down.

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Former software engineer Scotty Allen has posted his second video to YouTube this week, in which he decides to modify an iPhone 7 in order to add a functional 3.5mm headphone jack into the smartphone. On the Strange Parts website, Allen explained that he spent four months on the project, working in Shenzhen, China assembling the tools, going through 7 custom circuit boards designs, and 3 disassembled iPhones to finally arrive with a working unit.

Allen said that the hardest part of creating an iPhone 7 with a headphone jack centered on the electrical design and fitting the new parts inside of the smartphone. Upon the release of the iPhone 7, Apple said that the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack was needed to make room for the internals of the new camera system -- as well as increasing water resistance -- but Allen found that "there was inexplicably a lot of extra room" near the lower left hand corner of the iPhone 7, where he added the component.

While Allen's feat is notable due to many iPhone users' ongoing complaints about losing the headphone jack on the newer iPhones, it isn't a practical solution for everyday users. Allen pointed out that he went through designing numerous circuit boards that were "more complex" than anything he's ever done, as well as spending money on "lots, and lots, and lots" of spare parts and advanced disassembly tools.

I’m pretty proud of the final implementation. I took apart an Apple lightning to headphone adapter, put that inside the phone, and hooked it up by man in the middling the lightning jack with a flexible PCB. The PCB has a switching chip that switches between connecting the headphone adapter to the phone by default, and then disconnecting it and connecting the lightning jack when something is plugged into it. I have a couple other timer chips that briefly disconnect everything from the phone when something is connected/disconnected to improve the reliability of the phone detecting when something is plugged/unplugged (otherwise it sometimes gets confused).

The full 30-minute video goes into detail of Allen's project, and he reveals the successful final product at the 30:00 minute mark. One downside is that the modded iPhone 7 can't listen to music and charge simultaneously, which Allen admitted would require a "pretty serious engineering effort."

Earlier in April, Allen built his own functional iPhone 6s entirely by finding spare parts in Huaqiangbei, China. His final homemade iPhone 6s was a like-new 16GB device with full functionality, including a working Touch ID Home button.

Allen ended his new video telling Apple that he "really wants to buy an iPhone with a headphone jack from you," hoping that Apple will return the 3.5mm headphone jack into an upcoming iPhone model sometime in the future. Apple is holding an iPhone reveal event in Cupertino next week on September 12, and all three new smartphones -- the iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, and iPhone 7s Plus -- are not expected to have a headphone jack, although Apple might continue to include a Lightning to headphone jack adapter in the box.

For more information about Allen's project, check out the Strange Parts website here.

T-Mobile was the carrier with the fastest mobile network in the United States during the first half of 2017, according to a new U.S. Market Report for Mobile Broadband shared this morning by Ookla.

The carrier scored a 23.17 using Ookla's new "Speed Score" metric that combines low-end, median, and top-end performance for both upload and download speeds. Ookla says this is a comprehensive metric combining all factors that "matter to a good network experience" into a single score.

Coming in after T-Mobile was Verizon, with a Speed Score of 21.13, while AT&T came in third with a score of 20.05 and Sprint brought up the rear with a score of 15.39.

According to Ookla, T-Mobile's "tightly-spaced cell site grid" and smaller subscriber base gave it an edge over Verizon and AT&T, both of whom are dealing with higher traffic loads since their unlimited plans were introduced last year.

While Verizon has managed to deliver "consistent and reliable performance" across its network despite the unlimited plans, the rollout of AT&T's unlimited plans resulted in a "notable drop in performance."

Sprint, unsurprisingly, had the slowest mobile network with a Speed Score of 15.39, despite improvements made over the course of the last year. From June of 2016 to June of 2017, Sprint LTE speeds improved by 23.7 percent, but the carrier still can't match the big three.

T-Mobile comes out on top for overall speeds and acceptable speeds at a national level and provides the fastest service in 40% of the largest cities in the U.S. Verizon Wireless has the fastest service in many of the cities we looked at and comes in first on acceptable speeds in the top 100 CMAs, but we suspect their use of depriortization on unlimited could be bringing down their overall performance.

AT&T falls near the bottom in consistency of acceptable speeds and also saw a spoke in low end speeds in Q2 2017. The slowest carrier, Sprint, struggles with consistently providing acceptable speeds but saw big gains in the first half of the year.

While the above chart information covers the United States as a whole, Ookla also compared mobile performance data in the 100 most populated Cellular Market Areas within the country. The rankings were the same, but T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless were nearly neck and neck. Across the board, users in populated cellular markets see higher speeds.

Mobile performance by carrier varies greatly from area to area, so while T-Mobile may have the best overall network speeds, AT&T or Verizon could have a significant edge depending on where a user is located. All four carriers are aggressively pursuing improved LTE speeds and network expansion through spectrum purchases, refarming legacy spectrum (like ending 3G networks), network densification, relay solutions, and other techniques.

Across all carriers in the United States, there was a 19.2 percent increase in average mobile download speeds between the first half of 2016 and the first half of 2017, with an average speed of 22.69 Mb/s.

Average mobile upload speeds didn't see quite as much improvement, coming in at 8.51 Mb/s for a four percent improvement year over year. When it comes to average mobile download speeds, the United States is ranked 44th in the world. That rank drops down to 65th for average mobile upload speed. In rural areas, performance can be significantly worse, with speeds that are 20.9 percent slower than the nation as a whole. Verizon (51.6%) and AT&T (27.3%) have far more coverage in rural areas than T-Mobile (11.5%) and Sprint (9.6%).

In addition to looking at network performance by carrier, Ookla also shared some data on LTE speeds across carriers on two popular devices: the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7. On T-Mobile and Sprint, broadband speeds were on average slightly faster for the Galaxy S7, with little difference on Verizon and AT&T networks.

Both the iPhone 7 and the S7 see higher mobile network speeds than other devices because they aggregate three component carriers to improve peak and average speeds. On T-Mobile, Samsung has an edge because the Galaxy S7 enables features like higher order modulation and 4-Layer MIMO.

Ookla's report is based on data gathered from its popular Speedtest Intelligence benchmark during the first half of 2017. More than 3 million unique devices performed more than 14 million user-initiated cellular network tests, giving the company a lot of data to work with to figure out trends during the year. For the S7 and iPhone 7 comparison tests, data from 250,278 iPhones was collected and compared to data from 134,742 Galaxy devices.

Additional test results covering minimum acceptable experience, the impact of unlimited data, fastest carriers by city, and more can be read in the full report.

For the past five years, Apple's September iPhone-centric events have followed the same general formula. An event during the first week or two of the month, pre-orders shortly after, and then an official launch date approximately 10 days later. Apple's September schedule for 2012 to 2016 is below:

- iPhone 5 (2012) - Sept. 12 event, Sept.14 pre-orders, Sept. 21 launch.

- iPhone 5s (2013) - Sept. 10 event, no pre-orders, Sept. 10 launch.

- iPhone 6/6 Plus (2014) - Sept. 9 event, Sept. 12 pre-orders, Sept. 19 launch.

- iPhone 6s/6s Plus (2015) - Sept. 9 event, Sept. 12 pre-orders, Sept. 25 launch.

- iPhone 7/7 Plus (2016) - Sept. 7 event, Sept. 9 pre-orders, Sept. 16 launch.

If Apple plans to follow this same formula -- and it looks like that's what's happening -- pre-orders for the new "iPhone 8" and its companion devices the iPhone 7s and the iPhone 7s Plus will take place on Friday, September 15 at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Following pre-orders, the new devices will most likely see an official launch on Friday, September 22, with pre-order shipments going out to customers and in-store stock available.

Friday, September 15 is a highly logical guess as to when we're going to see pre-orders, and unsurprisingly, that's the date being cited today by German site Macerkopf. According to the site, German carriers are preparing for a September 15 pre-order date and a September 22 launch date.

While Apple tends to follow a specific September formula, there have been deviations. In 2013, for example, Apple did not accept pre-orders for the iPhone 5s due to supply constraints, and in 2015, pre-orders took place early on a Saturday morning. Still, September 15 and September 22 are the most likely dates for pre-orders and launch, respectively.

Apple will unveil the new iPhone 8 at an event set to be held on Tuesday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m. PT at its Apple Park campus. An iPhone 7s, 7s Plus, LTE Apple Watch, and 4K Apple TV will also make an appearance at the event.

For details on the new iPhone 8, which will feature a glass body, edge-to-edge display, facial recognition, and more, make sure to check out our full iPhone 8 roundup.

Four additional veteran executives from the television industry are joining Apple's video content team, according to a new report from Variety.

Former head of current programming at Sony Pictures Kim Rozenfeld is joining Apple as its future head of programming and lead executive on documentary series development. Apple has thus far purchased several music-related documentaries that have aired on Apple Music, including Kygo: Stole the Show and Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story.

Rozenfeld formerly worked with Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, two Sony Pictures Television executives who joined Apple in June to lead Apple's video programming efforts. Erlicht and Amburg have produced popular shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Crown, and more.

Two additional former Sony employees are joining the video team as development executives. Both Max Aronson and Ali Woodruff also worked with Amburg and Erlicht and will report to the duo at Apple. Aronson previously served as VP of drama development at Sony Pictures Television, while Woodruff was the director of creative affairs.

Rita Cooper Lee, who formerly worked as the WGN America head of publicity is joining Apple to lead communications for the video content unit, and she will report directly to Tom Neumayr. Lee is the second employee to join Apple from WGN America. Former president and general manager of WGN America Matt Cherniss joined Apple earlier in August to help oversee the development of the video unit.

Apple is picking up a lot of talent in the video and television area as it experiments with original content as a way to promote its Apple Music service. The company has launched two shows so far, including Planet of the Apps, a series about app developers pitching ideas to investors, and Carpool Karaoke, a music-based show developed from the Carpool Karaoke segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

While Apple's first two shows have been reality shows, the company is said to have bigger content ambitions, with rumors suggesting Apple is pursing deals with A-list talent to create a roster of shows on par with Netflix and Amazon.

Recent rumors suggest Apple is bidding on a "high-profile drama" starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon and aiming to get the film distribution rights for the James Bond film franchise.