New updates released today for iOS under version number 11.2.5, add support for the new HomePod speaker, as well as a feature many Google Assistant and Android Alexa users have been using for some time.

iOS users in the UK, US and Australia can now ask Siri “Hey Siri, what's the news”. The news will then be played via podcasts from a local new service – defaulting to the Washington Post in the US, BBC in the UK and ABC in Australia, though these can be changed.

Whilst the feature works better on the iPhone, our initial tests found it to be a little buggy on iPads in these early stages.

It does demonstrate however, that Apple are still developing Siri, perhaps in contrast to Microsoft Cortana, but there is still some way to go to catch up with the competition.