For those who are waiting to get their chance for an Apple iPhone during Black Friday offering, may in for a disappointment. As Luke Dormehl reports for Cult of Mac, in previous years, authorized resellers of Apple’s products have undercut Apple by as much as 13 percent on Black Friday, and this year isn’t likely to be any different.
Apple will likely offer a free gift card with the purchase of full-price Macs, iPads, and iPods. The amount of the gift cards has varied through the years, though resellers have offered bigger gift cards than Apple and might offer bigger gift cards than Apple does this year, too.
Neither Apple nor retailers are likely to offer any deals on the iPad Pro, but stores could offer about US$ 100 off the iPad Mini 4. Retailers and wireless carriers alike will likely offer a variety of different promotions on the iPhone.
To take advantage of them, buyers should determine beforehand what kind of plan they want, and figure out whether they need a subsidized phone, want to splurge on an unlocked version, or would find an iPhone that’s bundled with a prepaid plan the best fit.
However, one thing that looks promising is what Apple has in store for Siri in the next variant of iPhone.
According to Cult of Mac, a recent patent reveals that Apple’s engineers have been developing a way for Siri to distinguish between different users and offer them customized options based on their past preferences. That would be especially useful as Apple integrates Siri into devices like the iPad and the Apple TV, which are more likely to be used by multiple users than the iPhone, or into CarPlay devices.
The patent describes how Siri would be able to identify "a user providing a voice input, and process ... the input to identify a corresponding instruction based on the user’s identity. In particular, this is directed to processing a received voice input using the subset of library terms used to process the voice input." Once Siri recognizes a specific user, the device could offer different options, such as different music playlists.
Siri isn't the only digital assistant that listens closely to users. Google Now recognizes different accents and switches accents accordingly, and a number of companies, including Apple, promise that their voice recognition systems can be tuned to a particular user’s voice.
Apple will likely offer a free gift card with the purchase of full-price Macs, iPads, and iPods. The amount of the gift cards has varied through the years, though resellers have offered bigger gift cards than Apple and might offer bigger gift cards than Apple does this year, too.
Neither Apple nor retailers are likely to offer any deals on the iPad Pro, but stores could offer about US$ 100 off the iPad Mini 4. Retailers and wireless carriers alike will likely offer a variety of different promotions on the iPhone.
To take advantage of them, buyers should determine beforehand what kind of plan they want, and figure out whether they need a subsidized phone, want to splurge on an unlocked version, or would find an iPhone that’s bundled with a prepaid plan the best fit.
However, one thing that looks promising is what Apple has in store for Siri in the next variant of iPhone.
According to Cult of Mac, a recent patent reveals that Apple’s engineers have been developing a way for Siri to distinguish between different users and offer them customized options based on their past preferences. That would be especially useful as Apple integrates Siri into devices like the iPad and the Apple TV, which are more likely to be used by multiple users than the iPhone, or into CarPlay devices.
The patent describes how Siri would be able to identify "a user providing a voice input, and process ... the input to identify a corresponding instruction based on the user’s identity. In particular, this is directed to processing a received voice input using the subset of library terms used to process the voice input." Once Siri recognizes a specific user, the device could offer different options, such as different music playlists.
Siri isn't the only digital assistant that listens closely to users. Google Now recognizes different accents and switches accents accordingly, and a number of companies, including Apple, promise that their voice recognition systems can be tuned to a particular user’s voice.
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