Talking to Siri

Erica Sadun writes a lot of books and blogs at TUAW. When not writing, she’s a full-time parent of geeks who are brushing up on their world-domination skills. According to her academic dosimeter, she’s acquired more education than any self-respecting person might consider wise. She enjoys deep-diving into technology. Steve Sande also writes way too much. He’s the hardware editor at TUAW and has logged more than 1.5 million words written for the blog in a little more than 4 years. He’s written a number of books for Take Control Books and Apress, is married to a rocket scientist, and spends his days being bossed by a cat.

Preface   xi

1 Getting Started with Siri   1

Enabling Siri on iOS   2

  Universal Access   6

Enabling Dictation on OS X   7

Privacy   9

Launching Siri on iOS   10

  Saying Hello to Siri   11

  Canceling Siri   13

  Repeating Siri   14

  Quitting Siri   14

  Getting Help   15

Siri Listens   17

  Listening on OS X   19

  Siri Responds   20

Correcting Siri   21

  Correcting Speech on OS X   23

  Enhancing Your Speech Recognition   24

  Clarity   25

  Fumbles   26

  Viewing Items You Create   27

  Multilingual Siri   28

New in Siri   29

  Living with Siri Limitations   30

  Let Siri Learn About You   31

Summary   31

2 Asking Siri for Information   35

Weather   36

  Other Queries   37

  Locations   37

Web Search   39

  Searching for Pictures   41

  Searching in Wikipedia   41

  The Search the Web Option   42

  Checking Flights   42

Sports and Siri   43

Checking Stocks   46

Using Wolfram Alpha   48

  Querying Wolfram   50

  Wolfram Mode   52

  The Wolfram Saving Throw   52

  Wolfram Alpha Trick Lets You Know What Is Flying Overhead   53

  Other Cool Stuff You Can Do with Wolfram Alpha   55

Summary   56

3 Using Siri to Stay in Touch   59

Contacts   60

  Searching for Contacts   62

  Creating Relationships   63

  Creating an Alternative Identity for Yourself   65

Placing Phone Calls with Siri   67

Text Messages   68

  Reading Texts   69

  Replying to Texts   70

  Sending Messages   70

  Confirming Messages   71

Mail   72

  Creating Mail   72

  Checking Mail   75

  Responding to Mail   75

Social Networking   75

Friends   76

Summary   79

4 Talking to Your Day-Timer   81

Calendars   82

  Adding Events   82

  Making Changes   83

  Checking Your Calendar   84

Reminders   86

  How Siri Can Remind You   88

  A Word of Caution   89

Creating Notes   90

  Creating Single-Item Notes   90

  Adding Items to the Current Note   91

  Starting New Notes   92

  Naming Notes  92

  Finding Notes   93

Clock Functions   94

  Alarms   94

  Checking the Clock   97

  Using a Timer   97

Summary   99

5 Going Shopping with Siri   101

Products and Services   102

  Checking Prices   104

Shopping Math   105

  Adding Sales Tax   105

  Calculating Tips   106

  Currency Conversion   107

Preparing a Shopping List   109

Sharing Shopping Lists via the Cloud   111

  Shopping Limitations   112

Turn-by-Turn Directions   113

  Using Turn-by-Turn to Known Destinations   115

  Maps’ Search and Directions Limitations   115

  Looking up Information on Maps   117

Making Restaurant Reservations   117

Checking out Movies   118

  Siri’s Personal Movie Synopses   120

Summary   121

6 Pushing Limits with Siri     123

Launching Apps   124

Talking to Apps   125

Blogging with Siri   126

  Creating a Post   126

  Confirming Your Account   128

  Blogging by Email   128

  Other Blogging Services   131

Siri Security   132

  Lock Screen and Siri   133

Music   134

Summary   136

7 Siri Dictation   137

Launching Dictation on iOS   138

Launching Dictation on OS X   138

Why Learn Dictation?   141

Enunciation Practice   142

Dictation 101   144

  Improving Dictation   144

Inserting Punctuation   147

  Controlling Flow   149

  Adding Capitalization   150

Including Abbreviations   152

Dictating Technical Terms   154

  Phone Numbers   155

  Dates and Times   155

  Prices   156

Smilies   157

Dictating Formatted Text   157

  Addresses   157

  URLs   158

  Email Addresses   158

  License Plates   159

Dictation Practice   159

Punctuation Practice   161

Summary 163

8 Having Fun with Siri   165

Siri Diversions   165

Asking About Siri   167

Siri Chitchat   171

Pop Culture Fun   174

Siri Miscellany   175

  Siri Philosophy   178

  Mining the Fun in Wolfram Alpha   179

  Queries That Require Wolfram Prefixes   182

Summary   184

Appendix   187

Siri Quick Reference   187

Index   197