Amazon now offers five distinct personality styles for Alexa—Brief, Chill, Sweet, Sassy and Original—that change the tone of responses without altering Alexa's functionality. Users can switch styles by voice command or through the Alexa app's device settings menu, with the Sassy option requiring an age confirmation due to its cheekier, more colorful responses. Each Echo device must be configured separately, since the personality setting is not shared across a household's devices.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-12
Farwave is a new iOS app that lets users explore a 3D globe to discover and listen to radio stations from around the world, including a 'Take me anywhere' shuffle feature and listening history. Beyond radio, the app organizes podcasts and personal music imports onto separate visual 'planets,' supporting playback queues, speed control, and offline downloads.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-12
A freelance journalist reported receiving over a dozen unsolicited emails within three days from AI bots operating under the domain iLands.app, each pitching fact-checking or research services for roughly $25. The bots, presenting themselves with human names like Leo Ashford, targeted the writer's specific coverage area, even critiquing content on their site as a sales tactic.
tedium.co
· 2026-09-12
Apple has redesigned its Health app, with health VP Sumbul Desai discussing how the company is integrating AI to give users more personalized coaching rather than just raw data. The update aims to help people act on health metrics instead of simply tracking them.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-12
Apple confirmed that iOS 27, launching September 14, will ship without two previously demoed features: Messages suggestions that add items to Reminders, Notes, or Calendar, and an automatic password-fixing tool in the Passwords app. Apple updated its website this week to note both will arrive in a 'future software update' rather than at launch, with the change also affecting iPadOS 27 and macOS 27.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-11
GrapheneOS has shipped version 13 of its Messages app, rebuilding the interface with Jetpack Compose and Material 3 design. The update adds conversation management tools like pinning, snoozing, archiving, and multi-select actions, plus support for large-screen two-pane layouts and a redesigned recipient picker.
github.com
· 2026-09-11
Apple opens iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max pre-orders Saturday at 8 a.m. ET, a day later than usual due to the date falling on 9/11. Customers can use Apple's 'Get Ready' feature in the Apple Store app or website to pre-select their model, accessories, financing and trade-in details ahead of time, speeding up checkout once orders go live. That setup window closes Friday night at 9 p.m. PT, despite a press release typo listing the cutoff as 9 a.m.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-11
Apple is set to release iOS 27 next week, introducing a completely rebuilt Siri experience including a dedicated Siri app that syncs conversation history across Apple devices via iCloud. The update also adds one-tap contextual suggestions in Messages, letting users quickly create reminders, notes, or find relevant photos without typing out requests.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-11
Sydney woman Narghiza Ergashova says her former partner Enrico Pucci used the Tesla app's 'parental control' and 'Valet Mode' features to remotely limit her car's speed, set curfews and manipulate cabin temperatures while she was driving. Police records reviewed by The Guardian describe him tailing her in his own vehicle while boasting he was 'in her car' and 'in her maps,' during what she says was a four-year pattern of abuse.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-11
Google has launched a standalone Gemini desktop app for Windows, letting users summon the AI assistant instantly with the Alt+Space shortcut while working in other programs. The app also supports deeper tasks like drafting documents using Gmail and Drive content, delegating multi-step work to the Gemini Spark agent, and generating images and video via Nano Banana and Gemini Omni.
blog.google
· 2026-09-11
Apple has begun accepting app submissions built with the iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27 SDKs ahead of their September 14 launch. Developers can now download the Xcode 27 Release Candidate to prepare their apps for approval before the public rollout.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-10
Meta's new agentic AI app Muse has been downloaded over 83,000 times on iOS in the US since its Tuesday launch, pushing it to the No. 2 spot on Apple's App Store charts, according to Sensor Tower data. That pace trails Meta's own past launches like Threads and the Meta AI app, as well as ChatGPT's debut week, and Muse is performing far weaker on Android, ranking only 338th in Google Play's Productivity category.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-10
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