Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I find myself in an interesting position. I am going to be traveling for several weeks within the US. I have my iPhone on a grandfathered unlimited data plan and a wifi iPad 2.

I would like to be able to use my iPad while away not only for FaceTime but also general use and even using my slingbox. I would rather keep my unlimited data plan, have thought about using an airport express but that might be cost prohibitive given hotel charges.

Is there anything I have missed? If you post this to the blog I would prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks for the help and the great website!

Your loving nephew,

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

It's pretty easy to share a connection between a non-jailbroken iPhone and a Mac using any of the iProxy-style SOCKS proxy solutions. You can Google up web pages galore about these solutions -- and a new proxy client seems to appear weekly on App Store before it gets pulled a few hours later.

At the same time, it's rather hard to share between an iPhone and an iPad without jaibreaking. That's because you need some sort of shared Wi-Fi network and the iPhone cannot create an ad hoc connection without being jailbroken.

There are various solutions around but most of them rely on you having a laptop along as well as the two devices, to create that ad hoc network. That makes things even clumsier and harder to set up.

In general, you'll do best either by jailbreaking and using MyWi or by buying or renting a third party Wi-Fi hotspot (like Clear or MiFi). Unfortunately, if you do enable iPhone tethering through AT&T, you will give up your unlimited plan. Some TUAW folk have done exactly that -- freeing themselves from feeling they must hold onto the unlimited plan for dear life.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons?

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I love Siri. I'm surprised at how much I actually use it beyond the gimmicky stuff. Texting while driving (through my car's Uconnect system) is so handy.

One thing I've noticed is that when I dictate a message, add a smiley face and have her read it back to me, she says, "Have a nice day colon comma." The odd part is that she has written :-), which is colon hyphen right bracket. Is this a glitch or does a hyphen and right bracket together equal a comma? I was never good at grammatical math.

Your doting nephew,

Damien

Dear Damien,

Ah, bless Siri. She's such a changeable creature. Auntie used to love when Siri would read out "Brr, it's cold" as "Bee. Arr. Arr. It's Cold". Thanks to Apple's live data center updates, Siri now responds "Burr" instead of "Bee. Arr. Arr."

The smiley-face being read back as a colon is similar. It's simply a text-to-speech glitch that Apple may eventually improve. You can report any bugs to Apple directly using their Bug Reporter online website.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I silence my iPhone?

Dear Aunt TUAW,

There is an article in the WSJ about how an iPhone disrupted a performance of the New York Philharmonic. I have experienced the same problem where it is impossible to turn the alarm off once it goes on.

If you set up a calendar alert and change your reminder sounds with the Alarm sound, when the alarm goes off there is no way to silence it. If you turn the phone to silence mode, it still makes noise. If you close the event, it still makes noise. I believe the only way to shut off the sound is to completely turn off the device.

This has been so annoying that I stopped using iPhone's calendar reminder alerts. This article reminded me of the problem. Can you explain how this all works?

Your loving nephew,

Brian

Dear Brian,

iPhone alarms aren't affected by any of the normal system volume settings. This ensures that you'll still be woken up in the morning, a major design touch point for iPhone users who'd prefer to get to work on time. In fact, the iPhone supports numerous independent volume controls.

For example, the mute toggle on the side of the phone controls the ringer without affecting audio playback. The iPod functions built into the unit have independent speaker and headphone levels. Siri audio has its own volume levels as well -- plus lowering Siri speaker audio doesn't change the volume for when you pick up the phone to your ear.

Apple designed these multiple controls to work in the most flexible yet reliable ways possible, ensuring that the phone responds as the user expects it to. A single system-wide volume setting wouldn't be able to handle these day-to-day nuances.

If you mute your phone for the movie theater at night, you should still be able to wake up the next morning. If you lower the speaker volume for your music, it shouldn't keep you from using Siri to call hands-free. Please note that adding headphones does not re-route alarm audio.

That means if you take your phone into a quiet event -- a meeting, concert, or other -- you should probably power off the device completely for the duration. Press the sleep/wake button for about 5 seconds, and then slide to power down.

If this is not possible, you'll want to set the ringer to mute, set the system audio to zero, launch Siri and lower the volume to zero, disable all alarms, and review the Settings > Notifications items in the Notification Center to switch off audio. There's probably some items Auntie is missing here, but she trusts her nieces and nephews will refine this list in the comments.

In the end, Auntie thinks Apple did a great job in designing the various iPhone audio systems. For those rare occasions where you really need to bypass these design choices, powering the iPhone down will keep it from embarrassing faux pas.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I silence my iPhone? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I silence my iPhone? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clever iPhone 4S tricks: Look at your own ear

Have you ever wanted to look in your own ear? Or at the nape of your neck? Or behind furniture? If you own an iPhone 4S and an Apple TV, you can wirelessly beam the picture from your camera to your large screen TV.

Just enable AirPlay. Double-click the Home button, swipe to the right twice, select your Apple TV as your AirPlay destination and enable Mirroring.

Then, click Home and run the camera app. You'll be able to see what the camera sees because its preview mirrors to your home TV, even when your arm is stuck behind a dresser. You can also point the iPhone camera (front or back) at your ear, your nose, or your back -- letting you see through your phone by watching your TV.

You may want to use a flashlight along with your phone as you explore darker parts of your house, like under your couch when looking for spare change or that missing remote.

Clever iPhone 4S tricks: Look at your own ear originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Clever iPhone 4S tricks: Look at your own ear originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carrier IQ references found in iOS 5, probably benign

The Interwebs have been abuzz over the last 24 hours about Carrier IQ on Android smart phones, allegedly logging user activity including keystrokes. TUAW can confirm that Carrier IQ appears to be included on iOS 5, but that its purpose is most likely benign.

iOS virtuoso chpwn discovered Carrier IQ support in firmware as recent as iOS 3.x on Apple's devices. TUAW confirmed Carrier IQ references in iOS 5 after reading this post on the MacRumors forum and evaluating the /usr/bin/awd_ic3 file found in the installed OS.

The firmware contains references to Carrier IQ such as this URL included in the binary. We have included a full set of matching strings at the end of this post.

http://collector.sky.carrieriq.com:7001/collector/c?cm_sl=5

In TUAW's look through the binary calls, we found references to collecting carrier telemetry such as local cell tower, signal strength, and your phone number. We found no references to key logging. We did find remote diagnostic calls like CTServerConnectionEnableRemoteDiagnostics.

What's more, the service may need to be specifically enabled. A property list in the "mobile" user library looks like it has to be overridden to allow diagnostic logging.

iPhone # plutil com.apple.iqagent.plist
{
DiagnosticsAllowed = 0;
}

Further, the binary seems to be somewhat poorly maintained. The primary reference to the /var/wireless/Library/Logs/IQAgent/ folder has now been replaced by /var/wireless/Library/Logs/awd in actual use.

Apple's inclusion of Carrier IQ does not, in our first estimation, appear to be a root kit or threaten privacy. We reserve the right to re-evaluate our judgement on that in the future, but for now we don't see much that bothers us. Given what it records, this sounds like the "help maintain network performance" claim made by Jason Gertzen of Sprint when he was asked about Carrier IQ on Android. But even this is cautiously implemented on iOS.

If you want to stay on top of this story, follow chpwn's blog as he continues to investigate.

Continue reading Carrier IQ references found in iOS 5, probably benign

Carrier IQ references found in iOS 5, probably benign originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Carrier IQ references found in iOS 5, probably benign originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In which, I use Siri to create in-app third party commands while taking a break from cooking for Thanksgiving

Earlier today, I had a brainstorm. Maybe I was just overthinking the whole custom Siri thing for third party apps. I didn't want to install a proxy server or jailbreak my iPhone. I just wanted to use Siri dictation to issue commands to my apps, and I wanted to do that without having to display a keyboard that took up 50% of my iPhone screen.

So I chatted with Steven Troughton Smith about overriding the keyboard by setting its inputView to a custom toolbar, and then using a button to start and stop Siri dictation. This last bit, the custom UI (sorry, but I wanted pretty) is the only "hacking" per se involved here. Instead of overwhelming the screen, he suggested I link directly to UIDictationController and tell it to start and stop dictation.

Originally, I was really aiming for doing a custom view without text at all and implementing UITextInput but apparently there's some other protocol I'm missing, so I ended up reverting to the standard text field with the blinking cursor you see at the top of the video. I'll figure that bit out later.

So what I do is this: I start dictation on the button press, stop it on the button release, and then catch the interpreted text and compare it against four words: up, down, left, and right. If these are found, the app runs the matching animation.

The big idea is this: instead of having Siri interpret commands and return ACE objects that match tasks I want to accomplish (my original approach), I do the text matching and interpretation myself.

In the end, the solution is both low rent and really easy to apply. You could even get this in App Store if you were willing to show the entire keyboard, and not just the start/stop button.

In which, I use Siri to create in-app third party commands while taking a break from cooking for Thanksgiving originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In which, I use Siri to create in-app third party commands while taking a break from cooking for Thanksgiving originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Does Siri work well in the office?

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I am still debating about updating to an iphone 4s from an iphone 4. As someone overwhelmed at work (corporate life). I was wondering if there has been feedback on how someone has been using the iphone 4s' Siri function on a day to day basis at work to help stay organized? I know Siri can be used to check meetings by checking calendars. But how has reminders been effective in your work life? Can it sync with other systems to create to do lists? Has it changed the way any of you operate at work? Thanks. Sincerely, Matt

Your loving nephew,

Matt M.

Dear Matt,

Auntie is strongly of the opinion that Siri is the perfect accessory to corporate life. Between scheduling meetings, setting reminders, and placing calls, Siri works magnificently in the office environment.

Auntie believes that most of the "does it work in the enterprise" question lies in how your iPhone has been configured by your IT department. If your unit is set up to work with Exchange, and otherwise office-ready, Siri will only expand its utility, not limit it.

Just be aware, that with Exchange contacts, the iPhone has a limited ability to respond to relationships (like "my wife", "my assistant", etc). But that's the only drawback Auntie knows of.

Other than making your non-virtual personal assistant jealous.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Does Siri work well in the office? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Does Siri work well in the office? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’re the Pundit: Is talking to Siri the next social sin?

When it comes to discussing the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is Siri.

A push back against Siri seems to be growing. Is talking to your cell phone in public the new faux pas du jour? Or is the problem with those people who haven't mastered the raise-to-ear-and-talk-quietly maneuvers that brings discretion to the Siri table? Maybe it's just a problem for the "talks into the phone like a Nextel walkie talkie phone" crowd.

Is it polite to chat with Siri in public? Is this even a real problem? You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You're the Pundit: Is talking to Siri the next social sin? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You're the Pundit: Is talking to Siri the next social sin? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SiriTunes uses SMS to find free music

Today in TUAWsville, we got a message about SiriTunes, a service that delivers "free music" [tanstafm] to your phone using the Siri voice assistant. We contacted the developer to find out more about it.

We were initially fairly concerned that that there was no privacy policy posted at the website, but the developer Brian Levine assured us, "I do not presently plan to share or sell any of the information, and am tracking very little."

SiriTunes works like this. You text a message to (424) 888-7474 like "Play [artist name]." If you're using Siri, you can assign the phone number to a contact and tell Siri, "Text SiriTunes play Darius Rucker."

SiriTunes searches for that music online and texts you back with one or more links to those files. Or at least what SiriTunes thinks is those files. The service was wrong every now and then in my brief tests.

We were also concerned that these files were (to say the least) dodgy from a legal point of view. Levine responded, "I do not host any of the music tracks the service returns. They are publicly available URLs found through simple web searches. I do request the HTTP headers for each file to ensure the link is a valid music file."

As for how this service might monetize, Levine said, "In this first iteration a small selection of free files are available, but I believe there is great opportunity to up-sell licensed content. Web searches may not be able to turn up results for every request. A link to the iTunes store or Internet radio site (Spotify, Rdio etc.) may be useful and convenient."

Levine also talked about the motivation for his proof-of-concept website. "Customers access the service over mobile phone and it's all about providing benefit by making things easy and saving them time. Siri is a new technology and understanding the ways people search and the things they are looking for is incredibly valuable."

We found SiriTunes to be easy to use and fun, but we are not intellectual property lawyers.

SiriTunes uses SMS to find free music originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SiriTunes uses SMS to find free music originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help us put Grandma in touch with her grandbaby

Dear Aunt TUAW,

My siblings and I will make the plunge and get our mom an iPad 2 for Christmas.

The thing is, my sister is in Texas expecting our family's first grandchild, and mom is out in California.

Is there an app/website/solution that would let my sister publish photos of the new baby to somewhere, and my mom would get a push notification or badge that tells her "Hey, you have new photos to look at." The simpler the better, on both ends.

Keep in mind, sister has an Android phone, and the both of them are PC users (I know, I know, especially since my partner works for Apple, but we can only convert one product at a time).

Any direction would be great!

Your loving niece,

Lisa H

Dear Lisa H,

Auntie's going to answer the question you're really asking, not the one in your email. Buy a Ceiva picture frame for grandma, and get either a current-generation iPod or an iPad 2 for your sister in Texas.

The Ceiva picture frame allows you and your sisters to upload photos from iPhone, iPod touch, iPad 2 or Android device, directly to Grandma's frame. New pictures are added into the rotation, so Grandma always receives a mix of photos, which you and your sisters can remotely manage. It's ideal for both new grandchildren and keeping in touch with your childrens' lives. Having a great vacation? Share your snaps with your mom, even when she's not there.

As for that extra Texas purchase, you will kick yourselves if you don't share that grandbaby using FaceTime. There's no reason for your sister to have to give up her Android phone or her PC. Just get her into the iOS family with a front-facing camera. FaceTime brings California and Texas together instantly for playdates with the baby. It transforms relations-at-a-distance and it's just as magical and revolutionary as all those ads promise, especially with little kids.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help us put Grandma in touch with her grandbaby originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help us put Grandma in touch with her grandbaby originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eight cool ways to dine with Siri

Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that just recently hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that helps you get the most done with your Siri intelligent assistant. We're sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Today, we're looking at Siri's ability to help you pick a place to eat, meet up with friends, and calculate your total at the end. Without further ado, here are eight ways Siri can help you dine.

1. Find restaurants. Tell Siri, "I'm in the mood for Ethiopian food," or ask "What is the best Ethiopian food in Denver?" If you ask more generally, as in the first statement, Siri looks for business near you, sorted by distance: "I found 15 Ethiopian restaurants. 10 of them are fairly close to you." If you search the city as a whole, Siri sorts by Yelp rating: "I've found 15 Ethiopian restaurants. I've sorted them by rating."
2. Get directions. Once you've decided on a restaurant, tell Siri, "How do I get to 'Queen of Sheba.'" Siri replies, "Here are directions to Queen of Sheba," transferring you to the Google Maps application, with suggested routes laid out.
3. Meet up with friends. Ask Siri, "Where is Steve Sande?" Siri uses Find My Friends to see where Steve is -- hopefully on the way to meet up with you and not too far away. Remember, you must log into your Find My Friends account to use this query. Your authenticated session will last for a good long time once you do so.
4. Understand the menu. Curious about something on the menu? Want to learn more before you order? Say, "Search for Ethiopian Injeera on the Web." Siri doesn't handle foreign phrases as well as you might hope, but Google does very good "Did you mean?" analysis, and can help you move from Siri's interpretation to a solid web search about oddball food items.
5. Calculate sales tax. Once you've eaten, say, "How much is $18.95 plus Denver sales tax?" Siri uses the local city rate to add it to your tab.
6. Add a tip. A simple Siri request returns a list of tip amounts including 10%, 15%, 18%, 20% and 25% of a given total. Say, "What is tip on $20.41?" You can also say "What is an 18% tip on $86.74 for four people?" in case you want to split the bill.
7. Find a dessert place nearby. Say, "Where can we go for dessert?" Siri searches through Yelp reviews to find mentions of desserts and lists them (along with their reviews) sorted by proximity. "I've found a number of restaurants whose reviews mention desserts fairly close to you."
8. Get home safely. Once you're done with your evening, tell Siri, "Take me home." Siri provides directions to your home address. If you say, "I'm drunk," Siri will find you taxi cab listings to help you travel in a safe and responsible manner.

Eight cool ways to dine with Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Eight cool ways to dine with Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri tips: Don’t transform your coworker into your spouse

If you don't want to accidentally marry your colleague, make sure you watch your phrasing when talking to Siri.

Following a relationship with a contact without using some kind of relative pronoun like "that" or "about" may confuse your voice assistant, as shown in the screenshot here.

Instead of saying "Tell my wife, Erica Sadun is coming for dinner," insert "that." Saying "Tell my wife that..." followed by your statement helps separate the relationship from the contact that follows.

Siri does such a good job interpreting speech that sometimes it's hard to remember she's just a bunch of algorithms in a North Carolina data center. Be sensitive to interpretation quirks, and try to avoid them where possible.

Siri tips: Don't transform your coworker into your spouse originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Siri tips: Don't transform your coworker into your spouse originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I use bluetooth with Siri?

Dear Aunt TUAW,

Auntie, you did a great job on the Siri book. I plan to work my way through it to maximize the use of Siri.

You indicate a Bluetooth headset can be used to communicate with Siri. I've never had one but I'd like to keep the iPhone in my pants pocket and be able to talk to Siri as well as hear her responses. Is two-way communication possible with Siri in this situation? If so, do I need a certain type of headset or headphones? Are you allowed to make recommendations?

You're assistance is greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work!

Your loving nephew,

Ken B.

Dear Ken,

Auntie has used both a Bluetooth earpiece and iPhone earbuds with Siri, and has found that the Apple earbuds were far better performance-wise. They worked very well in dealing with a pocketed-or-backpacked Siri, ambient-noise permitting (if the guy jogging next to you can't hear you over traffic, Siri won't either).

Auntie tested Siri with a Jawbone ICON and had a great deal of trouble getting Siri to recognize it consistently, even when using the Jawbone in the recommended touching-the-cheek-bone position. Auntie thinks it's probably because of the particular brand and mic pick-up and not because of the Bluetooth technology.

Obviously, this will also vary by noise conditions and the quality of the Bluetooth pickup. Unfortunately, Auntie didn't have access to any other BT devices to test with, so all she can report is that yes, it does work as long as you have a better audio pickup than the Jawbone provides.

Does anyone have a really good BT earpiece to recommend? Let Auntie know!

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I use bluetooth with Siri? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I use bluetooth with Siri? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talking to Siri: the Wolfram Alpha search tricks video

On Friday, I posted a list of ten nifty Wolfram Alpha tricks you could use with Siri. They were inspired from an ebook that Steve Sande and I collaborated on.

After the post was published, we received several emails and comments saying "every time I say Wolfram, Siri hears 'Wolf Ram.' Siri must be broken." On top of that, Mike Rose said he was having issues too. So I made a video to show that everything on that list could actually be said.

I was going to call this the "proof that Mike Rose can't enunciate" video because Mike claims that he can't handle the "say a color hex sequence out loud." Instead, it turned into the "watch Erica butcher classic Monty Python" (because, frankly, airspeed velocity doesn't exactly roll off the tongue -- but on the bright side, I can do a lot of the argument clinic from memory).

Anyway, for those of you (I'm looking at you, Mike) who swore up and down that some of the Wolfram Alpha / Siri examples I posted weren't humanly possible to articulate, well, here's proof.

As for "Wolfram", it's Wolfrum, not Wolf Ram. That should help your recognition rate. Brought to you by the universally recognized "most irritating voice in the universe." If Siri doesn't mind me, hey, that's validation.

Talking to Siri: the Wolfram Alpha search tricks video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Talking to Siri: the Wolfram Alpha search tricks video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri hacked to work on jailbroken iPhone 4 and iPod touch

iPhone experts Steven Troughton Smith and chpwn seem to have just gotten the iPhone 4S-only Siri working on jailbroken iPhone 4 and current-gen iPod touch units this evening. This bypasses earlier authentication issues. They tweeted their success and posted a screen shot showing Siri working via Wi-Fi (the Airplane Mode icon just means that 3G is turned off, but it is possible to turn Wi-Fi back on even in AM; that's what they did.)

Their success comes just weeks after the iPhone 4S debuted. Since Apple's back-end systems are checking for iPhone 4S devices before processing Siri queries, they managed to work around this limitation. The hack is based on moving compiled code components from a 4S to the older units.

More information as this develops.

Siri hacked to work on jailbroken iPhone 4 and iPod touch originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Siri hacked to work on jailbroken iPhone 4 and iPod touch originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 cool things you can do with Wolfram Alpha and Siri

Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that just recently hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that will help you get the most done with your Siri intelligent assistant. We're sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Today, we're looking at Siri's Wolfram Alpha integration. You can force Siri to use Wolfram by prefixing your request with "Wolfram." For example, you might say, "Wolfram, what is the square root of 2?" or "Wolfram, graph x-squared plus three."

But there's a lot more that you can do with Wolfram than just math. Here are ten of our favorite Wolfram searches. These highlight the flexibility of this amazing information resource.

1. Roll a Random Number. Say "Wolfram, random integer." Wolfram returns a random value between 0 and 1000. "Wolfram, random number" provides a 0 to 1 floating point value.
2. Look up nature facts. Say, "Wolfram, what is the scientific name of a mountain lion?" It's Puma concolor. Rabbits are Leporidae, and Peacocks, Galliformes.
3. Check upcoming holidays. Say, "How many days until Thanksgiving?" This returns both the number of days as well as a helpful calendar so you can chart out the time until then.
4. Create a secure password. Say "Wolfram, password." Wolfram generates a difficult-to-crack 8-character password. Scroll down for alternates. If you need a longer password, you can append these together.
5. Convert text to Morse code. Say, "What is Morse code for horsefeathers?" You'll see the entire sequence laid out for your tapping pleasure.
6. Check your diet. Say, "How many calories in a small apple?" Wolfram will tell you that there are 75.
7. Ask out about time zones. Say, "Wolfram, what is the local time in Jakarta?"
8. Query about your chances. Say, "Wolfram, what is the probability of a full house?" For a random five-card hand, it's apparently 1 in 694.
9. Have fun with pop culture. Say, "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" or "Wolfram, who shot the sheriff?"
10. Visualize colors. Okay, I've saved the best for last. If you work with colors, this can save you a lot of time. Say, "Wolfram pound sign E 9 7 4 5 1" (for Burnt Sienna / Tangerine) or "Wolfram pound sign 2 9 A B 8 7" (for Jungle Green). This will also convert the colors to RGB values and look up closely-matching brand colors from Benjamin Moore. Make sure to scroll down to catch all the helpful information.

10 cool things you can do with Wolfram Alpha and Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

10 cool things you can do with Wolfram Alpha and Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought experiment: hacking Siri to control your TV

Yesterday, our lead editor Mike Rose sidelined me to ask, "Could we tell Siri to control Apple TV?" Just as a thought experiment.

After a bit of investigation, I had an answer for him, which was "Yes, you could, but no, you probably don't want to." That's because the degree of hacking necessary to make this happen, versus the actual real-world performance, really isn't worth the effort. It might make a cool demo, but not an effective remote control.

The best and most obvious approach would have been to have Siri use URL schemes to trigger a local application on the iPhone, which would then coordinate with a Mac client or directly with Apple TV over Bonjour. Unfortunately, Siri does not allow you to open web pages -- yet. She's quite apologetic about this, but my hope for a URL-based solution was a no-go.

Moving on, I investigated an AppleScript/email-based approach. Cory Bohon wrote up a series of tutorials a while back on TUAW demonstrating how to use mail rules to trigger scripts. You create rules (Preferences > Rules) that match message subjects and contents, and use the "Run AppleScript" choice to choose a script to trigger based on your rules.

This was a much more promising avenue, but Mike and I agreed that the complexity of sending emails via Siri felt more complicated in practice than using SMS texting. I started investigating ways of triggering email rules by SMS. Fortunately, a simple solution quickly popped up: Google Voice.

GV offers the option of forwarding text messages and provides the bonus feature of tagging subject lines with the incoming phone number. This makes it especially easy to authenticate and match incoming requests to Mail rules.

In order to create the control scripts, I would use AirFlick rather than iTunes. I shall spare you the messy details, but I would extend the app to support external pause and play requests.

Finally, you have to set up a contact on your iPhone using the Google Voice address. No big deal. Just make sure you use a name that Siri can easily recognize.

The operational path then works like this: "Siri, text AirFlick 'pause'." You wait for Siri to compose the SMS message. You then send it. The iPhone texts Google Voice. Google Voice forwards the message to your inbox. The mail rule triggers and runs the AppleScript, which causes AirFlick to send a pause command.

The whole latency from your spoken command to your Apple TV actually pausing? Probably under a minute.

As I said, this is a not an optimal approach, but if I wanted to invest a couple of hours I could get it up and working today.

So how close are we now to extending Siri control to our world and to third-party apps? Well, Siri can already pour you a beer and trigger any SMS-based Arduino set-up. But beyond using it for simple triggers, we're still pretty far away from fine-tuned control.

Apple really needs to release a developer API that will provide third-party rules and vocabulary for Siri to follow before we can truly jump into "build your own remote with Siri" scenarios. Of course, by the time that happens the company may simply release a Siri-savvy TV of its own.

Thought experiment: hacking Siri to control your TV originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thought experiment: hacking Siri to control your TV originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help Siri pronounce Dutch names

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I am a great fan of your articles on all Apple-related products.

I have a question for you about Siri. I am Dutch, live in Switzerland and work in a international company. How will this reflect on my Siri usage? Even with Voice Control I have a problem. My iPhone is setup in English (working language) but Dutch or Swiss/German names are not picked up well. So, did anyone try this out so far?

Thanks for an answer.

Your loving nephew,

Hester B.

Dear Hester,

Here's a quick answer, courtesy of the "Talking to Siri" eBook: You can enter phonetic names in the Contacts app. These help with both pronunciation and recognition.

Auntie created a contact for "Sergio Jones" in her address book, making sure to add a phonetic pronunciation field for the first name of "Ser hee yo" (Edit > Add field).

Sure enough, once added, Siri was able to interpret Auntie's request to "Call Ser hee yo" to the right contact.

The secret lies in using English-sounding phonemes. When Auntie pronounces Sergio correctly -- with rolled R, and the non-English-sounding "e" like "air" -- Siri will not pick it up. You need to English-ify the way you say it, so you better match what Siri expects.

Auntie's friend Sjoerd van Geffen regaled her this morning with hilarious stories about trying to make a C-64 pronounce the Dutch "eu" sound. For some names, Auntie is afraid, you're just going to have to sacrifice the proper vowels.

When talking to Siri with US-English set as your default language, you have to adapt the way you speak: unnaturally enunciated word endings, longer pauses between words than you're used to, and flatter English-y vowels. Try using "Choord" for "Sjoerd" and "Leak ah" for Lieke.

Your Mac offers a great way to build these up. Use the "say" command from the Terminal app's command line, e.g. "Say leak ah". Fortunately Siri is even a little better at the "sounds like" translations than "say" is.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help Siri pronounce Dutch names originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help Siri pronounce Dutch names originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’re the Pundit: Do you need a landline?

When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is landlines.

In the age of the iPhone, when each person can have their own voice and data center that travels with them in their pocket (or sits on their desk), what's the point of land line.

Got no service? Your provider can set you up with a microcell to plug into your router. It runs off your cable data, adding full house-bound coverage.

Want to use traditional handsets that ring throughout the house? You can buy a Bluetooth adapter that hooks into your home wiring and distributes your phone service to the wired handsets.

Many turn to Skype or Vonage for home phones.

So what's the point of a landline?

You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You're the Pundit: Do you need a landline? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You're the Pundit: Do you need a landline? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 days with iPhone 4S: a personal review

Under normal circumstances, I would not be considered a target customer for the iPhone 4S. I bought the iPhone 4 on launch day. I was not up for renewal until late November.

Because of work commitments (look for the upcoming "Taking Your iPhone 4S to the Max" co-written with fellow TUAW bloggers), I paid the early upgrade penalty and received my iPhone 4S on October 14.

I've now spent 10 focused days with the iPhone 4S, exploring onboard features for technical coverage (I probably know a little more about how to make selections and share media in the Photo app than any normal person ought). The rest of the time I've been doing what the iPhone is meant to do: place phone calls, run errands, take family pictures and so forth.

Here's some extremely subjective feedback on my personal 4S experience during this time.

Battery

I know there's been talk about the decreased standby battery time, but man does this iPhone rock out battery-wise. My daughter and I took a trip over the weekend, and she subjected my phone (and my grandfathered unlimited data plan -- bless it) to an unmentionable number of hours of "My Little Pony," courtesy of YouTube.

The iPhone 4S also endured several games of Bejeweled (normally a battery sucker), navigation through maps, and lots and lots of Siri. Despite near constant use, the iPhone 4S made it to the end of each day. It's noticeably a usage power-house compared to the iPhone 4.

Camera

The shutter speed on this unit is simply amazing. With Autumn on full-blast, the child and I spent a lot of time throwing leaves into the air and snapping pictures of them as they fell. We have picture after picture of those leaves frozen in the air, frozen in time, with beautiful crisp resolution. You could not do that with earlier generation units.

Siri

Whether it's finding a restaurant, setting an alarm, or updating a to-do list, Siri has seen lots of use over the last 10 days. It already feels natural to pick up the iPhone, press the Home button and speak.

Siri, in and of itself, has been the main reason I am currently not using a lock code on my phone. That instant access is just so seductive. "Read me my texts" and "Reply to it" are so simple to use and the voice recognition component is absolutely insanely good. I used Voice Memos a lot on my old iPhone -- including the whole unlock / find the app / tap it / start recording sequence. I've touched it maybe once since the 4S arrived.

To be fair, my wish list for Siri is now about a mile long (launching apps is near the top) and the technology is far from perfect, but the feature is amazing.

Airplay Mirroring

The built-in mirroring got reasonable use this past week as I ended up demoing my 4S a lot. The feature works exactly as advertised, with good mirrored responsiveness. If you demo the iPhone, it's a must-have option -- one that you don't get on any other device but the iPad 2.

Processor speed

The iPhone 4S feels plenty zippy, though I should note that I haven't subjected it to serious testing just yet, as I've been focused on writing. This means I haven't done any hardcore gaming, either.

It's not all roses, of course. I'm annoyed by mobile Safari's lack of responsiveness to typing URLs (this seems to be an iOS 5 issue and not unique to the 4S) despite the 4S's high-end processor. I know the extra power is there, I just haven't really internalized it through any personal experience of performance gains.

Phone calls

I have run signal strength tests on the 4S, put it in my signal-killing hands, and made phone call after phone call. Both objectively and subjectively, this is a far better phone-call making unit than the 4 ever was. It maintains good signal quality under more stress, and does not seem to suffer from my hand-held attenuation the way the 4 did. I'm not a quality assessment professional for telephony, but my 4S just seems to work better. I like it a lot.

Conclusions

If you're an iPhone 4 owner, should you consider a jump to the 4S? Each of the points I've listed above may be a motivator. If you need that better camera, that better battery, or Airplay mirroring, the 4S has those items in spades. If you want Siri or the upgraded processor, you're not going to find those anywhere else. If you've had signal problems in the past, the 4S holds out the promise of better telephony, at least in my non-scientific experience.

I'm really happy with my 4S purchase, even more than I expected to be. Yes, it has the same case shape, but as far as I can tell it feels like a new generation -- not just a speed bump. I wish the Apple paradigm (new models each year) and the carrier paradigm (subsidized items, two year contracts, early cancellation penalties) were more in sync.

Depending where you are on your contract, the upgrade may or may not make sense financially. In terms of equipment quality, however, I think most people will be satisfied customers once they really start using the 4S.

10 days with iPhone 4S: a personal review originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

10 days with iPhone 4S: a personal review originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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