Handing an AirPod to a friend to listen to that awesome new song you’ve discovered is no different (from a hygiene perspective) to sticking your finger into your ear, then into their ear, then back into yours. That’s why Apple has come up with a more hygienic, and not to mention convenient, way of sharing music using its AirPods.
Audio Sharing requires your buddy to have a set of AirPods and an iPhone. If they do, just bring your iPhone alongside theirs and wait a few seconds. An alert will then appear on your screen asking if you’d like to share audio with their Pods. Agree, and what you’re listening to will also come out of their AirPods, in real time.
Apple didn’t shed any light on how the feature works, but it presumably obtains the unique frequency your friend’s AirPods use to communicate with their iPhone, then bounces it to your iPhone, thus letting you to stream audio to their AirPods, as well as your own — a bit like the generic Dual Audio feature on the Samsung Galaxy S10.
What’s more, Apple announced at WWDC 2019 that it will be arming Siri with the much-requested ability to read aloud incoming messages. From there, you’ll have the option to dictate a response, in the exact same way you would if you were using Apple’s CarPlay platform, but without the added visual prompts.
The Cupertino firm also has something in store for the HomePod. It’s bringing Handoff, the feature it developed to make using iOS and MacOS in unison a lot more intuitive, to the Pod — arming owners with the ability to share a song that’s playing on their iPhone with the entire room by bringing it alongside the smart speaker.
There’s no official word on when Apple will start rolling out the new tricks, however. Some believe the changes for the AirPods will be baked into iOS 13, which is scheduled to start making the rounds in September, while the HomePod will be treated to a separate upgrade via the Home app for iOS around the same time.
Motorola has built some of my favorite foldables and flagship phones. I had a great time with both the Razr Fold and last year's Signature. So when the company began teasing the Signature 27, I couldn't help be excited. The new model comes with Qualcomm's blazing-fast Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, and better still, it is finally getting a proper global release.
One of the reasons I was obsessed with the last-gen Signature was its amazing price tag. But it seems like that budget flagship dream might be officially dead. Portuguese retailer MegaPC has prematurely listed a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage Signature 27 in Pantone Coal Smoke for €1,594.90 (approx. $1,775).
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.