All posts in category Siri

How to Let Siri Help You Remember Birthdays

photo credit: freakgirl via photopin cc

photo credit: freakgirl via photopin cc

When you filled out the contact pages on your iPhone, you put in names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

You most likely know that you can add birthdays, too. (Just look way down at the bottom of the contact page (in edit mode), and tap on “+ field”. This will give you a whole list of possibilities, one of which is “Birthday”.)

And so assuming that you have birthdays recorded for your contacts, you can let Siri tell you when they are.

Just ask her.

Here is how to let Siri help you remember birthdays:

Push and hold the home button to activate Siri.

Ask: “When is _____’s birthday?”

That’s all you do. Now just wait for Siri’s answer. :)

Screen shot 2013-03-06 at 7.27.02 PM

6 Comments
by sharechair on April 3, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Beginners, How to's, iPad, iPad tips, iPhone, iPhone tips, Siri
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Posted by sharechair on April 3, 2013

http://sharechair.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/how-to-let-siri-help-you-remember-birthdays/

How To Open Your Apps with Siri: iOS6

photo credit: Daniel Y. Go via photopin cc

When Siri first became a part of my life, I thought that she would be little more than a clever distraction to play with every now and then.

To my surprise, I am using her more and more. Siri can really be helpful.

With iOS6, she can now open your apps. Very handy.

I know, you are probably thinking “but all I have to do to open an app is touch it….”. Yes, that’s true, but as time goes on, and your iPhone and/or iPad fills with apps, and then with folders, and then those folders fill with apps, well, soon you will appreciate Siri’s help to quickly get to an app you might not easily be able to find.

You don’t have to know where the app is located on your iPhone/iPad, because Siri knows. And she will open it for you. :)

Here is how to have Siri open an app:

Push the home button so that Siri will ask how she can help.

Say “Launch Mail” or “Open Scrabble” (I have found that “launch” and “open” are both commands that are understood by Siri.)

Wait a moment, and the app will open on your screen.

Simple and handy!

8 Comments
by sharechair on November 14, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Apps, Beginners, How to's, iOS6, iPad, iPad tips, iPhone, iPhone tips, Organization, Siri, Tech Tips
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by sharechair on November 14, 2012

http://sharechair.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/how-to-open-your-apps-with-siri-ios6/

Food Safety: What to Save and What to Throw Out

This photo was taken with an iPhone 5 (this is a tech blog, after all).

This was the view in a local Target, yesterday.

You are looking at one row of freezers. There about 5 rows of freezers and they all looked like this.

Empty.

The power was off for a while, and food spoils.

Grocery stores, school districts, restaurants and individual families are all finding themselves in the awful situation of trashing mass quantities of food in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

It is tempting to hold on to some things. But there is no “maybe”. Better to be safe than sorry. Toss it!!!

Personally I don’t think I’ll be eating in a restaurant for a little while, making sure that when I do I won’t be served any “we kept this because we thought it might be ok” kind of food.

I decided to test Siri and see how good she would be at finding such important information.

I asked Siri “what food can I keep when the electricity goes out?”

She gave me a surprisingly good number of websites to explore.

I asked her in several other ways, sometimes specifying a particular type of food, and each time she delivered slightly different results. All quite good and relevant to the question.

You don’t have to participate in a Superstorm to have power-outage troubles. Probably everyone experiences this at one time or another.

Here is a link to a very thorough list for Food Safety. There are clear instructions on what you can save and what you have to toss.

Slide down the page for detailed “When to Save and When to Throw It Out”

Great information for us all!

20 Comments
by sharechair on November 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in News, Siri
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Posted by sharechair on November 3, 2012

http://sharechair.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/food-safety-what-to-save-and-what-to-throw-out/

The Wait is Over, and the iPad Mini is Reality

photo credit: Apple

Today Apple broke the long-anticipated news: the iPad Mini is no longer just a rumor. It is real, it is ready and I’m guessing it will be a big seller for the Holiday Season. (Apple also dished a surprise: a new regular iPad. More on that, later.)

The iPad Mini looks wonderful.

It is a smaller, lighter and therefore more PORTABLE version of the iPad. The display is set so that all apps will display perfectly, and therefore it is ready to go, no app updates necessary.

Let’s look at a few specifics:

It has all the wonderful-ness of a regular iPad, only it is all wrapped up in a smaller package. You can use Facetime, all your apps, the cameras, read books, surf the web, watch movies and enjoy a battery life of TEN HOURS. (Happily portable enough to be helpfully distracting for a long uncomfortable plane ride.) You can store photos and take movies. You can send and receive email. And as you do all you want to do, Siri will be available to help. (I regularly ask her now to make reminders and notes for me and she is surprisingly accurate with her efforts.)

The iPad Mini uses the new lightning connector. This connector is reversible. You can’t make a mistake and plug it in incorrectly. (This connector is on the iPhone 5 and since I’ve been using it I can say that I like it… a lot. I was always concerned that I would make a mistake with the old connector. I think the new connector is a fine improvement.)

The iPad Mini has a 7.9 inch display. This is a sweet, sweet size. Big enough to be comfortable on the eyes, but small enough to allow the device to fit easily in your hand.

And just the perfect size to throw in a purse.

The Mini is pencil thin, and weighs only a bit over a half pound. .68 lb, to be exact.

The iPad Mini is available in black or white.

The price was the biggest surprise, and not in a good way. The iPad Mini has been priced more expensively than the rumor-makers were suggesting:

For WiFi only, the 16GB is $329, the 32 GB is $429, and the 64GB is $529

For WiFi + Cellular, the 16GB is $459, the 32GB is $559, and the 64GB is $659

Now the comparisons begin. How will this stack up against the Kindle Fire? Most people agree that the iPad is by far a better device, but price matters….. the question is, how much?

Apple doesn’t think they are competition, at all. Apple’s marketing officer said, “We’re so far ahead of the competition I can’t even see them in the rear-view mirror.”

You can pre-order the Mini iPad starting October 26. The Wi-Fi model will be available for purchase on November 2, and the Wi-Fi + cellular models will be available in the middle of November.

To get more specifics about the new iPad mini, visit the Apple website.

23 Comments
by sharechair on October 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Beginners, iOS6, iPad, News, Siri
Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Posted by sharechair on October 23, 2012

http://sharechair.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/the-wait-is-over-and-the-ipad-mini-is-reality/

How to Ask Siri to Read Your Text Messages to You

Siri can read your text messages to you.

This can be very handy if you are in a situation where you just can’t look at your phone. (Perhaps, for instance, the road would be a better place for your eyes.)

(And sometimes it is just plain fun to use.)

If you have some unread text messages, hold down the home button until Siri asks how she can help.

Say:

“Do I have any new messages?”

or

“Read me my messages”

Siri will then read you all your unread messages, telling you (of course) who sent each one.

When she is done reading, she will ask you if you would like to reply or if you would like to hear her read them again.

At this prompt, you can say “No, Thank you” (I’m always polite with Siri :) )

or

“Read again”

or

“Reply ‘blah blah blah’”

14 Comments
by sharechair on October 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Beginners, How to's, iOS6, iPad, iPad tips, iPhone, iPhone tips, Siri, Tech Tips
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by sharechair on October 19, 2012

http://sharechair.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/how-to-ask-siri-to-read-your-text-messages-to-you/

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