APPLE AND AMAZON, LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES

With Cupertino expected to unveil improvements to its Apple Music service, rumors abound of a new possible competitor in the streaming race—Amazon. What’s that you say? Amazon already has a streaming service, via its Prime tier? Yes, but not one with a comprehensive selection like Apple and Spotify.

It has been rumored that talks for such a service are underway. It would be priced similarly to its competitors and tied to Echo, the hands-free speaker with voice activation via “Alexa.” Because using software to entice people to buy hardware is a pretty solid approach. Apple should look into it.

Speaking of Apple—and virtual beings with alluring names who do stuff you’re too lazy to do yourself—Siri is rumored to have a bigger role in the various updates and changes to be announced at this week’s WWDC. The conference should bring us a spiffed-up Apple Music, which already works with Siri (seriously, just ask her to play a song); look for that deadpan digital diva to play a substantially bigger role.