Sci-tech - All News

The patent was granted in 2014. The iPhone screen will also be locked to prevent drivers from using many of their apps while driving. It means an end to distracting text messages, WhatsApp and Tinder alerts, social media updates and news headlines.

The HomePod will use its internal microphones to pick up voice commands and uses the same processor chip as the iPhone to pump out "spatially aware" sound, Apple said. The speaker can detect the length, breadth and other environmental things, and automatically adjust the sound quality and volume levels according to that environment.

While Apple is going after Amazon with the HomePod , it's offering an olive branch with Apple TV . The much-anticipated Apple Worldwide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) is underway and among their big announcements is the iOS11.

For time being, Amazon is dominating this new category. These giants are battling over still-emerging fields that are expected to turn into technological gold mines, much the way personal computers and smartphones became moneymaking machines in previous decades.

Apple will soon be introducing a new iPhone feature in an effort to end the practice of texting while driving. The feature will disable calls, alerts and notifications by default, and will be automatically enabled once the phone detects the user is driving.

Like the Echo and Home , Apple's HomePod not only plays music with a voice command, but can also answer users' questions and provide information like news , weather updates and sports scores. It also includes a large Apple-designed woofer for deep bass, a selection of seven tweeters that offer high-frequency acoustics with directional control and powerful technologies.

That company offers a similar wireless multi-speaker system for listening to music throughout the home, similar to HomePod's ability to chain together multiple speakers. But Amazon dropped in, seemingly out of nowhere, with a voice-based virtual assistant that won the early fight of the voice assistant war. Both Apple and Google have technological expertise which can allow their intelligent home speakers to compete strongly with Amazon .

Much of the focus at Apple's 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference running from June 5-9 in San Jose seems to be on the software and mobile device sides. It's powered by Apple Music, Apple's subscription music service, and connects directly. "There is so much momentum building around these speakers that it would be hard for Apple not to come out with one", said industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.

But neither can quite give you the experience promised by the (pricey) combination of a HomePod and Apple Music subscription. Apple announced this $350 smart speaker at WWDC to go up against Amazon Echo , Google Home , and Sonos Play 3.

At Apple's annual WWDC , the tech giant announced its entry into the home assistant market. The Apple HomePod comes with six microphones and it has been designed for voice control, Siri can be used to play your favourite music and also perform a number of other tasks.

Apple has entered the competitive smart speaker market with the HomePod , a seven-speaker unit which is controlled by Siri and plays tracks on demand from Apple Music. HomePod is its name, and Siri smarts is what drives it. But as the most expensive speaker of the three - it costs nearly double the price of the Echo - its superior sound quality is to be expected: It needs to earn that bigger price tag.