Business | Virtual personal assistants

The software secretaries

Technology firms are competing to become consumers’ personal secretaries, with big implications for commerce and privacy

|SAN FRANCISCO

By A.S.

A PEPPY crowd poured into the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on September 9th. They had turned up at the venue, which usually hosts rock concerts, to watch a show by Apple, a firm with a cult following of its own. Executives took the stage to unveil updates to the Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad, as well as a new television set-top box, which makes it easier to find TV shows and play games.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The software secretaries”

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