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You'll soon be able to ask Siri to play songs on Spotify
It's been a long time coming, but it looks like you'll soon be able to queue up songs on Spotify with the help of Siri. If you own an iPhone, the lastest Spotify beta allows you to ask Apple's digital assistant to play songs, albums and playlists, says The Verge, which was among the first to spot the new functionality.
Siri will play third-party audio apps in iOS 13
In the future, you might be able to ask Siri to play your Spotify music and podcasts. According to MacRumors, iOS 13 and iPadOS will open the SiriKit framework to third-party music, podcast, audiobook and radio apps. So, when it comes to playing DJ, Siri will be able to control more than your Apple Music, Podcast and TV apps -- formerly known as iTunes, RIP.
A closer look at Apple's new HomePod
The first time I got close to one of Apple's HomePods was in a secluded meeting room at WWDC. Sonically, at least, it blew away the competition. After seven months -- not to mention the introduction of other impressive smart speakers -- Apple invited me to spend another hour with a near-final HomePod, and it still sounds like the one to beat. There's much more to the HomePod than just its stellar sound quality, though, and my time spent with Apple's new speaker provided answers to some key lingering questions. But first: the basics.
Apple Watch will dim its bright lights in Theater Mode
When Apple's upcoming watchOS 3.2 update lands, Cupertino's hottest wristwear will finally add a Theater Mode that will allow courteous users to avoid bothering the folks around them. Android users will note that the competition over at Android Wear already has a Theater Mode feature, but Apple's implementation is (as always) slightly different.
You can now tell Siri to send money via PayPal
Siri is still very much a walled garden, but Apple has slowly begun opening its voice assistant to third parties. At its WWDC keynote back in June, the company confirmed app makers could let iPhone and iPad users send and receive money via Siri, with Square Cash and Monzo becoming the first to tap into that functionality. Now, bigger players are tapping into hands-free money transfers, after PayPal announced it too now lets users in over 30 countries send and request money via using only their voice.
Ask, and Siri will make Skype calls for you
When Skype updates on desktop and gives the "improving your experience" message it's usually pretty easy to dismiss that as a bald-faced lie. But the latest iOS update actually sounds really useful. The VoIP service will now tap into Siri for making calls, pull contact information from the app into your contact list and, like Facebook Messenger before it, make incoming calls look like regular ones. It all sounds genuinely useful. As always, if the update hasn't hit your iOS 10 device yet, that's what the source link below is for.
