Mac Voice Commands

By now you’ve heard about the iPhone 4S announcement, possibly through our article about Apple’s newest smartphone. However, the star of the show was not the only announcement, so here are a few other announcements that were served along side the main entrée this morning. Let’ ...more

Welcome to another Community Byte announcement! In the past two sessions, we have coded an IRC bot in Python capable of issuing commands. Since it can issue commands and most of you are new to programming, that project will stay idle for a while. Other commands such as voice a ...more

Often times when staying at a hotel or anywhere for that matter, you'll whip out your laptop and check the local area for Wi-Fi. I know you've all been in my shoes when you find an unsecured network that appears to be public Wi-Fi belonging to the hotel or airport, and you con ...more

I have had a lot of people ask me, "How does my neighbor keep getting into my wireless?!". Chances are, these people are all using WEP, a deprecated wireless encryption protocol. Either that, or you are using one weak WPA passphrase. If someone can access your wireless networ ...more

Just last week, the Flashback trojan scared a lot of Mac users. Now, there's yet another trojan spreading across Mac computers—SabPub. The same Java vulnerability that allowed Flashback in seems to be how this SabPub malware snuck in, along with an Office vulnerability, which ...more

Formerly ipchains, iptables is a script-based firewall that's included with both Mac and Linux operating systems. In my opinion, it's the best firewall in existence. The only downfall is that it's complicated for some people to use due to its script-based nature. But this shou ...more

Sharing a laptop's wireless Internet connection with other computers connected to its Ethernet port is a great skill to know. It can be good for a number of reasons; Your computer may not have proper hardware to have a standard setup, or you may have an awkward network topolog ...more

More password cracking action from Null Byte! Today we aren't going to be cracking passwords per se, rather, we are going to learn the basics of generating rainbow tables and how to use them. First, let's go over how passwords are stored and recovered. Passwords are normally ...more

A proxy is a server that lets a client to connect to it and forward its traffic. This enables a certain "layer" of protection by masking your IP. An IP address can be used to learn your location and track you on the Internet, thus eliminating any form of anonymity that you may ...more

Having an SSH or Secure SHell to tunnel your traffic through is something we have talked about many times at Null Byte. As we know, it allows us to securely route and encrypt our traffic through a remote server, effectively anonymizing us and protecting our traffic from all fo ...more

When you first become interested in learning how to program, it can be difficult to find a place to start. A lot of questions come up, especially if you're new to the idea of programming entirely. After you pick which language you want to learn, you have to worry about how you ...more

Your voice is the key to unlocking many features on your iPhone. For example, you can ask Siri to send a text message to a friend, add items to a list, run a custom shortcut, or turn on your lights, but Apple does not allow you to unlock your iPhone with a Siri voice command. ...more

The Google Assistant is great about understanding what you actually mean, so you don't have to issue exact commands like you do with Amazon Alexa, for instance. But even though it's a master of colloquial speech, it could still be better, and that's where shortcuts come into p ...more

Google released its long-awaited Google Now launcher a couple months ago, allowing users to access Google Now with the simple command of the voice. As great as the feature is, it requires that our screens be on, unlike the Moto X's "active listening" service that operates with ...more

Google Now is a wonderfully powerful service—with its predictive cards and voice search, it serves as a great starting point for any searches you need done. In fact, Samsung liked it so much that they decided to build the "Okay, Google" hotword detection right into the Galaxy ...more

On the new Moto X smartphone, the only thing you have to do to activate the virtual assistant is say "Okay, Google Now." That's it. You don't have to press a button or tap on the display at all. It's always ready for your voice commands via its "Active Listening" feature, maki ...more

There are times when physically interacting with your iPhone is less than ideal, like when you're cooking or driving. Fortunately, iOS 13 has you covered regardless of the circumstance you may find yourself in. With the new Voice Control feature, you can control pretty much ev ...more

If you cover a particular area in tech long enough, you develop certain pet peeves, and one of mine happens to be devices that attempt to keep us wed to the Google Glass style of augmented reality. And while I remain mostly uninterested in such devices, one of these products r ...more

Communication is the key to any healthy relationship, and when I say any, I mean human and non-human. Previously, one of the biggest culprits for not understanding what you meant was Siri, but now it looks like it has some competition with the new Kinect system, which can cont ...more

LARPing, or live action role-playing, can look a little silly because it requires a lot of imagination to suspend reality. But mixed reality technology like the Microsoft HoloLens can change all of that with voice commands and special effects. The Medium blog HoloLens Challen ...more

Google hasn't let the throne make them complacent. The king of search has brought one of its newest and most popular mobile features to the desktop. Folks with the latest 4.4 KitKat software available on the Nexus 5 (or those who've installed the awesome APKs we covered for th ...more

The biggest pet peeve of many Google Now users has always been the fact that you can't toggle basic system functions with voice commands. In fact, this was such an annoyance that folks even went so far as to apply root mods to get the functionality. Well, we're happy to repor ...more

Like Gesture Input, Voice Input allows you to act on the focus of your Gaze. However, the commands you can use with Voice Input are only limited by your imagination. Video: . There are basic voice commands like "select," that let you pick a certain hologram in your world. But ...more

While all of my previous Have You Seen This? posts have all focused on individual HoloLens apps in the Windows Store, this time I'll be sharing a couple at once. These holographic applications are really simple in scope, so there is not a lot to say about them, yet they are in ...more

Millions depend on Google Maps for directions, and it's easy to see why. The app comes with tons of features like offline navigation, location sharing, and more. Google is far from done, however, and continually improves upon its navigation app to make it even more efficient a ...more

Its official: On May 8, T-Mobile finally released the Android Oreo update for the LG V30 and V30+. Now, every major US wireless carrier has pushed the update. For me, this update is a big deal. Not only does Android Oreo bring some new tools and features, but LG has also inclu ...more

The all new HTC One M8 is the latest Android flagship making the rounds through major carriers hoping to beckon your purchase. Coming in at about $200 for most carriers with a contract, it makes a good case for itself with its advanced features and solid price point—but, there ...more

Upskill, an enterprise software developer for industrial augmented reality applications, recently received an influx of funding and a major vote of confidence from two of their top customers. The company announced today that it has secured Series B funding from Boeing, throug ...more

For some time now, iPhone owners have been able to use Siri to listen to and reply to text messages, but that functionality has been lacking on Android. That is, until Google silently rolled out a similar feature for Google Now (thanks to Android Police for the tip). Perfect ...more

The launch of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was also the launch of Google Now, a service that was supposed to one-up Siri, the resident personal assistant for iOS devices. Google Now offered enticing features, but its launch went unnoticed by a great many Android users. But that was ...more

The world around us keeps getting smarter. Not only do we have advanced AI services like the Google Assistant, but now we've got the Internet of Things connecting physical objects to the digital world. It's amazing when you think about it, but the real sci-fi stuff starts to h ...more

Because it sources a majority of its vital data from actual drivers on the road, Waze is easily one of the best navigation apps to use if you prioritize safety. Benefits such as crowd-sourced traffic data, police trap locations, and road work avoidance, when combined, help you ...more

This year's I/O was all about bringing Android into the future and onto new devices. On top of announcing the upcoming "L" release of its mobile OS, Google showcased Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV. With a unified design language and notification mirroring, the var ...more

Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services available and allows you a high degree of control over the way you experience your music. Included in that is the album art for your playlists. While not an option ingrained in the mobile app itself, changing a playli ...more

If you're like seventy percent of America and find it hard to focus on just one thing at a time, the Xbox One had you in mind. If you ever thought that being able to watch The Walking Dead while playing The Walking Dead video game would be awesome, you're in luck. How about lo ...more

This week's Magic Leap Lumin OS update contained a number of goodies, including iris authentication, and a way to stream to Twitch from the device. But one new feature really stood out to me, and that's voice control of the system's interface. Don't Miss: Magic Leap Used to ...more

Waze is the go-to navigation app for millions of drivers, and it's easy to see why. Benefits such crowd-sourced traffic data, police trap locations, and road work avoidance are just the tip of the iceberg. It can almost be overwhelming, but with these simple tips, you'll maste ...more

When it comes to note-taking, Google Keep is one of the most diverse and functional applications on the Android platform. Sure, there are a plethora of other note-taking apps to choose from, such as ever popular OneNote and Evernote, but Google Keep differentiates itself from ...more

Streaming media companies like Netflix and Hulu make deals with Roku to have their apps featured on Roku's remote controls, but there's an inherent flaw with this model: the buttons become useless if the app no longer exists. So, is there anything you can do to change those de ...more

When setting up a new Mac, there can be a bunch of settings that need to be changed in order to get the system running the way you like it. That usually involves going through tons of System Preferences panes and app settings—but it doesn't have to. If you'd rather get everyt ...more

Just weeks after previewing its smartglasses in a pair of videos, augmented reality hardware maker Vuzix announced on Friday that pre-orders are open for Vuzix Blade developer kits. The hardware and software developer's kit costs $1,997 plus shipping and taxes, with a $495 re ...more

A developer has previewed a pair of potential applications built on ARKit that can be triggered by Alexa, the resident voice assistant of the Amazon Echo. The demos come courtesy Scott Finkelstein, manager of web technologies at Adelphi University. In the first video, Finkels ...more

By combining years of web search advancements, natural language processing, and even DeepMind's artificial intelligence, Google Assistant hopes to change the way you interact with your devices. If you're familiar with Google's previous services, Google Assistant is like Google ...more

Last week, we told you about one of the first pairs of augmented reality smartglasses to get Amazon Alexa functionality, and now we're finally getting a look at how it works. On Friday, as the CES tech conference in Las Vegas wrapped up, Vuzix posted a demonstration video of ...more