Eliana Willis

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETThe launch of ChatGPT sparked a generative AI craze, igniting a tech revolution that has forced companies to rapidly innovate to stay competitive in this evolving landscape. Also: I replaced my iPhone 16 Pro with the 16e for a week – here’s everything I learnedAlthough Apple was late to the AI race, its launch of Apple Intelligence promised a transformative overhaul, putting Siri at the center of the Apple ecosystem as a context-aware personal assistant. However, Apple confirms this vision may take longer to materialize than expected.When can you expect the AI-improved Siri?On Friday, in a statement for Daring Fireball, an Apple spokesperson shared that the highly-anticipated Siri upgrades, such as more personalized Siri with awareness of your personal context that performs actions for you, will take longer than expected to be delivered to the public. The spokesperson added that the company anticipates rolling those features out in the coming year. According to the report, the statement read: “Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”Also: Got a suspicious E-ZPass text? It’s a trap – how to spot the scamThis confirmation comes days after a new report from Bloomberg correspondent and Apple watcher Mark Gurman revealed that people within Apple’s AI division believe that the fully upgraded, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 — which would place the release at around 2027. When Apple originally showed off the concept at WWDC last June, it was marketed as a personal assistant that seamlessly integrates into a user’s existing device ecosystem to provide meaningful behind-the-scenes help. Additionally, it would finally make Siri more conversational, enabling more human-like conversation, a highly requested upgrade.However, since then, the company has rolled out only a handful of Apple Intelligence features, most of which have low helpfulness value. For example, users with eligible phones can now access Genmoji, Image Playground, notification summaries, writing tools, voicemail transcriptions, Visual Intelligence, and a ChatGPT integration. Ultimately, all of these features have fallen short, not adding much to the everyday smartphone experience. Also: How to program your iPhone’s Action Button to summon ChatGPT’s voice assistantApple Intelligence also continues to trail behind competitors. Just last week, Amazon launched Alexa+, a conversational voice assistant with agentic capabilities that allow it to perform everyday tasks for you. It also uses your personal context and habits to provide better assistance and is coming to Alexa-enabled products already in people’s homes. Two workaroundsBefore Amazon’s Alexa+ launch, Google and ChatGPT each unveiled their own AI-powered conversational assistants, Gemini Live and Advanced Voice Mode. These assistants understand your prompts in natural language, meaning you can speak to the AI as you would a friend. They also have multi-turn conversations, so you can keep the conversation going as long as you’d like without losing prior context. Both voice assistants have settings that make them easy to access from an iPhone, allowing iOS users to forgo Siri for a more conversational, AI-enhanced experience. ChatGPT Advanced VoiceChatGPT’s counterpart, Advanced Voice Mode, even has on-screen and camera awareness, making its assistance multimodal and adding an extra layer of support. As an iPhone user, you can easily access the assistant from the ChatGPT app, or if you want even more seamless access, you can even map it to your phone’s Action Button to summon ChatGPT. All users can access Advanced Voice. However, the limits vary depending on your plan. OpenAI doesn’t specify the limits but does make it known that paid subscribers get more access. I use ChatGPT Plus, a plan that costs $20 per month, and I’ve never hit the limit. I have found plenty of everyday use cases for the assistant, and reach for it constantly.  More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Abbott’s Lingo is a biosensor that provides accurate glucose levels for $50. It lasts for 14 days and helps you understand the relationship between your diet and the effects it has on your body. The app needs more active coaching for a deeper understanding of implementing healthier choices. –> Insulin resistance […] More

NurPhoto/Getty Images Instagram has been launching a flurry of new features lately. Some of these mirror TikTok features, such as Edits — Instagram’s version of the CapCut video editing app. Others — like profile cards — are geared toward professionalizing the app for small businesses. Also, updated algorithms recommend more original content, a benefit to creators. Now, Meta’s […] More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETIf you put any one of today’s best TVs in front of you, you would think you’re seeing what peak display technology looks like. But when you put them side by side, the differences in brightness, color volume, contrast, and more are what separate the good from the truly exceptional.Of course, such comparisons are hard to come by in reality; even if you head to a local brick-and-mortar, the TVs will likely be separated by brand and budget. So when LG invited me to a private testing session ahead of its 2025 TV releases, including for the flagship G5 OLED, I bit. Also: Is your live TV streaming bill too high? You have other options – including cheaper onesI wanted to confirm my impressions of LG’s G5 OLED after naming it the Best TV at CES 2025 (as did my CNET and PCMag colleagues). But I also wanted to see how the TV stacks up to competing models from Samsung and Sony, which were also present at the lab. After an intimate morning with all the TVs, it’s safe to say that the performance gap might be bigger than ever this year. More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The AAWireless Two costs $65 and gives you wireless Android Auto support when plugged in. A new built-in button lets you quickly swap between paired devices. The companion app is almost too robust, but that’s not the worst thing. –> Update: The AAWireless Two adapter is back in stock on Amazon […] More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETMobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 has officially ended, putting a bow tie on one of the most eventful trade shows in recent years. Over the course of the Barcelona event, we saw ultra-slim phones, unique laptop form factors, and surprise appearances from companies like Oppo, Motorola, and Nothing.  Also: This tri-foldable phone at MWC 2025 is the most bizarre thing I’ve seen yetIf you missed out on all the news and product launches that took place, here’s our roundup of the best products the ZDNET team saw at MWC, in no particular order. 1. Samsung made a Nintendo Switch that folds More

All e-commerce apps collect data when you create an account and visit the app’s home page. This data can include your precise physical location, address, and device ID, as well as your search history, payment information, and contacts.Some apps use this data to track you across apps and websites, to understand performance, and to target you with ads.Some of this data is linked to your identity, and some isn’t — the connection depends on the app you’re using. In recent years, people have been increasingly concerned about how their data is being stored and are wary specifically of data storage by Chinese-based apps.Also: Is Temu safe? Why its single-layer security should be a red flag to shoppersAccording to Temu’s privacy policy, the company does not “sell” your data — for money, at least. However, Temu does share your information with shipping affiliates, marketing providers, and consumer research companies, which generates revenue for Temu.Temu also “shares” your data with third-party advertising, marketing, and analytics companies to target you with ads. In its privacy policy, Temu acknowledges that this transfer of data can be considered “selling” your data under applicable laws.Although concerns about sharing your data with Temu might be valid, it’s important to remember that apps can and do collect and store your data with few limits. US. citizens’ user data is not federally protected under a single law, so data collection remains unregulated in most states. Because American user data remains federally unregulated, Temu might access your credit history, Walmart might collect your biometric information (fingerprints, face geometry, and retina imagery), and Amazon might collect your voice recordings More