Feed
 

Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
I’ve just ordered a new phone and am looking at re-deploying my iPhone 6 as a replacement for my aged iPad Touch 2 which I use on a speaker dock in my workroom.

In looking at how this might work out, I realised that selecting the music via Siri would be a worthwhile improvement. However, a few experiments revealed just how little I understand about Siri. For example Siri suggestions and Siri Shortcuts are totally unexplored and poorly understood areas for me.

It would be great if we have a Siri aficionado who could give us a talk along the lines of ‘How to make the most of Siri‘

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Tony Still
Or someone keen to learn could do it as a part of their research? You know that they say you only really know you understand something when you can explain it to some else... ;-)

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Now why am I not surprised by that response? I've got more than enough learning to do in order to cope with the switch over to the new phone, thank you very much!

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Mick Burrell
David covered Siri as part of his talk today - you missed it!

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Bother! Meanwhile, I’ve had a go at playing music from the iphone to a Yamaha WX - 010 smart speaker and have been pleasantly surprised by how well it works. It’s just a Bluetooth connection but pause/play and volume control can be done on either device. More impressively, if I go into the workroom in the morning and press the power button on the Yamaha, after a few seconds it resumes playing the music without me having to wake up the phone or unlock it.

So Siri’s services might not be as important after all. I’d still like to learn more about it though when the next opportunity arises.

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Tony Still
So that's a 'no' to a presentation then?

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Correct!

I made a discovery today which further limits Siri’s usefulness for this application (using my old iPhone 6 as a music player): Apparently iPhones earlier than the 6s only support the ‘Hey Siri’ wake up call when plugged into power. I really don’t like the idea of leaving chargers permanently powered up so my plan is to plug it into a timer set to give the phone an hour or two’s charging every couple of days.

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Tony Still
Do you have the option of connecting the iPhone to the speaker by USB?

I have two instances (one being in the car that has an old iPod Touch permanently connected) where connecting a device by USB allows the music to be provided and also charges the device. This would remove the charger/timer from the equation.

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
The setup that the iPhone 6 is replacing is an old iPod Touch which is permanently mounted in a speaker dock. Of course this dock has an old 30 pin connector so is no good for the iPhone. I don’t think there’s a USB option on the Yamaha speaker, but I’ll double check. So far my “one hour every other day” timer setting seems to be keeping the charge level in the 50% - 80% range which should be better for battery health than an ‘always on’ setup. I’ll let you know of any further developments!

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
The 'Bluetooth with timed charging' arrangement seems to be working well but, just to answer Tony's question and keep the intrigue going: The Yamaha WX - 010 does have what appears to be a micro USB port on the back but the illustrations in the instructions don't show it and it isn't mentioned anywhere.

Google tells me that this port is 'for service purposes and updates only' so I think I'll leave it be!

Re: Siri - a topic for a future talk/meeting?

Avatar Tony Still
I've seen such ports, presumably for software updates but never used them; perhaps they're used in manufacturing for initial programming. Anyway, seems sensible not to connect random devices to them!

I have a new proposal for the Siri talk: we should assemble a group of members (socially distanced, of course) and then say, in a loud voice, "Hey Siri, how can we make the most of you?". Might be a short meeting...
 
Feed