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Spotify’s experimental voice control feature is an excellent end run around Siri

Spotify is testing a voice search feature that lets users more quickly access their favorite artists, tracks, albums, and playlists. The feature, which appears based on a 2017 experiment involving a “driving mode,” has begun appearing inside the iOS app for a small number of users. I got early access to the test and tested out the feature set. In short, it’s an excellent step forward for navigation in app that has historically required too much tapping and typing to get where you’re going.

Spotify confirmed the test but didn’t want to talk about it. “We’re always working on improving the Spotify experience for our users, but we don’t have any information to share at this time,” the company said.

To access the new voice search feature, you tap the magnifying glass icon at the center of the bottom row of tabs. If you have it, you’ll see a microphone icon inside a white bubble in the lower-right hand corner of the screen.

Apple appears to have totally cut off Iran from the App Store

iPhone users in Iran discovered today that they’re no longer able to access the App Store, in what appears to be a total block of the country, according to Bleeping Computer. While Apple doesn’t sell phones or operate the App Store in Iran, Iranians could still import Apple products from another county and set them up to access portions of the App Store meant for other regions. It appears that now, Apple has closed that loophole, blocking any traffic coming from inside Iran from accessing the App Store in any capacity.

It’s not clear what prompted the change, but it presumably goes back to US sanctions on Iran, which President Trump amped up last year. Apple hasn’t made a statement on the changes, and it didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Should the ban be permanent, owners of iOS devices in Iran will have to route their internet traffic through VPNs, making it appear that they’re in another country, in order to access the App Store going forward. That’ll make it much harder to use Apple’s devices.

Users who try to visit the App Store in Iran now receive a message reading, “The App Store is unavailable in the country or region you’re in.”

Alert over booby-trapped security software

Piriform told users a booby-trapped version of its CCleaner software had been made available in August and September.

Millions of people use the CCleaner program to remove unwanted junk from Android phones and Windows PCs.

Piriform's owner, Avast, said it had managed to remove the compromised version before any harm had been done.

It appears that it was only the Windows version of CCleaner that was compromised.

Hijacked software used to target tech giants

Hackers who booby-trapped widely used security software also used their malware to infiltrate machines at tech firms, suggests analysis.

Evidence that other companies had been compromised came to light as Cisco researchers probed how attackers got at the popular CCleaner programme.

Millions of people downloaded a Windows version that hackers had laced with malicious code.

Cisco said the attackers were seeking valuable intellectual property.

Cleaning up

Last week CCleaner creator Piriform revealed that attackers had managed to place a hijacked copy of version 5.33 that works on Windows on some download servers. The booby-trapped code was available for about a month between August and September,

Apple's Siri ditches Bing search for Google

When Siri can't give you an answer, it'll now be Google filling in the gaps in Apple's knowledge instead of Microsoft's Bing search service.
The Siri voice assistant built into iPhones, Macs and soon Apple's HomePod smart speaker can handle plenty of requests, like reporting a stock price or defining a word you don't know. When it can't, it searches the web. It's not perfect, but it can be useful.
Google now supplies the answers in that situation. "Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari. We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible," Apple said in a statement.
iPhone users in China will continue to get results from Chinese search engine Baidu. Bing is still used for image search.
Quality is crucial for search results -- nobody likes it when a computer fumbles a query or gives us the answer to a question we didn't ask. And Siri has tough competition: Amazon's Alexa-powered devices are increasingly common and Google Assistant is available in Google Home smart speakers and some phones.
Google, whose mission is making the world's information accessible, is hungry for the business. The company pays an estimated $3 billion a year to Apple for search traffic, according to an August report by Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. "Given that Google payments are nearly all profit for Apple, Google alone may account for 5 percent of Apple's total operating profits this year," Sacconaghi said.

The most anticipated tech of 2017: Autumn edition

The iPhone X

The iPhone X -- that's pronounced "ten," by the way, not "ex" -- is a phone of firsts for Apple. A brand-new 5.8-inch OLED screen, Face ID to unlock the phone and no home button. Optical image stabilization on both rear 12-megapixel camera lenses, a portrait mode on the front-facing camera and a new feature to animate emojis.

The Price of an iPhone x is said to be $1000.00