Apple's WWDC 2016 Keynote Event: How To Watch Online

Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) is nearly here! The annual event held by Apple in San Francisco, California, is the time of the year when Apple allows thousands of developers from all around the world to meet with Apple engineers and attend workshops.

Apple kick starts the event with a Keynote presentation that announces what to come from Apple later in the year, relating to software updates. 

This year, Apple is expected to unveil the latest (work-in-progress) updates to iOS, OS X, WatchOS and more... 

Apple will live stream the event on their website and on Apple TV, on June 13th at 10 a.m. PDT. 

If you'd like to watch the Keynote event with commentary from some of the best in tech, I'd recommend you check out TWiT.TV live coverage of the event. 

iOS 9: Siri Contacts, Apps & News Suggestions & How to Switch Them Off

New in iOS 9 is a new page on your home-screen. By swiping to the right, users now have a new Search, Siri contacts and app suggestions and recommended news.

With Spotlight Search, you can search for pretty much anything! Search can now scan through your whole iPhone, apps, and you can even search the web.

Siri Suggestions offers users shortcuts to contacts and apps that Siri thinks you may want to access at that time of the day. Siri looks for habits, so it can better assist you and become precognitive. For example if you open Facebook every morning around the same time, Siri may notice this and offer the Facebook app to you as a suggestion at that same time the next day.

Then there is News. Siri can also now suggest news articles that it thinks you'd like to read. Clicking a news article will open it up in the new iOS News app. In the News app, you can customize the content to the topics (and news sources) that you like to read about.

These new shortcuts like accessing apps, contacts, and even reading and catching up on the news may be more convenient for users, but I can see that maybe not everyone would like it. Suggestions for apps or contacts might be useful, but having news on your iPhone home screen can make your iPhone seem a little less personal. If you'd like to keep the news in the app, unfortunately you can't just switch off news. You have to either switch off all Siri Suggestions or leave them all on. If you switch off Siri Suggestions, the new page will still stay on your iPhone, however it will only contain Search.

If you don't like seeing news on the new Siri Suggestions page, you can switch it off, along with Siri Contacts and App suggestions by accessing:

1. Settings.
2. General.
3. Spotlight Search
4. And then switching off 'Siri Suggestions'.

How To Change Siri's Language, Accent, & Gender in iOS 9

In iOS 9 users have a little more choice with their personal assistant, Siri. Now you can have a different accent without having to change any type of region settings. You can also change Siri's language, and gender.

To customize Siri's voice and other settings in iOS 9 - follow these steps:

1 - Open the 'Settings' app.

2 - Tap 'General'.

3 - Then tap 'Siri'.

4 - Here you have a selection of options:

Hey Siri: Allows you to speak to Siri without pressing a button, when your device is plugged into a power source.

Language: Choose what language you want Siri to understand and speak in. There are a wide option of English variations and other languages including; German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French, and many more.

Siri Voice: here you can change Siri's accent. Gender: You can make Siri's voice either male or female.

Voice Feedback: Choose whether Siri provides answers with voice or text.

My Info: This is where you tell Siri who you are, so Siri will know things like your name, or partner, and other family members. This comes in handy if you want Siri to perform a voice command like: "Siri, call my wife". Related people can be add in your contact profile.

Apple To Hold Media Event On September 9th

Mark your calendar, the rumors got this one right! Apple has just sent out the invites for a Media Event on Wednesday September 9th at 10 a.m PDT, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, in San Francisco, California.

The image that came with the invite, writes, "Hey, Siri, give us a hint."  And, if you ask Siri to give you a hint, you may just get some fun answers.

Apple is expected to announce at the Media Event on September 9th, the new iPhone 6S, and has also been rumored to announce other new products, like new iPad's, (possibly a iPad Pro), and even an upgrade to the Apple TV.

The Keynote will be streamed live by Apple at 10 a.m. PDT, on September 9th.