Unveiled on October 4th, 2011, Siri is our oldest and wisest voice assistant. Compared to Alexa and Google, she has a much longer history, and Apple’s HomeKit was the first smart home platform on the voice assistant market. Recent iOS versions brought us Siri Shortcuts, a new way to create custom voice commands for custom workflows and automations on our iPhones and iPads.
We talk to Siri through our HomePods, iPhones and iPads, Apple Watches and AirPods, AppleTVs, and Macs.
And Siri plays our favorite music and helps us to tune our guitars. She can automate our daily routines with HomeKit and Shortcuts, control our smart lights, and almost any device – like our Venta air washers – with the help of a smart plug. Like Dyson for their Pure Hot and Cool product line, many manufacturers have integrated Siri Shortcuts into their iOS apps so that Siri can control them. We can even teach Siri some tricks to entertain the whole family.
Happy 11th Birthday, Siri!
At an Apple Special Event on October 4th, 2011, Siri was born. Sorry, not actually ‘born,’ more like, ‘announced,’ now becoming part of the iPhone. A year earlier, in April 2010, Steve Jobs finally managed to buy the Siri app,…
Healthy Humidity with Venta Airwashers and Alexa, Siri and Google
We are mainly composed of water. The air we exhale is completely saturated with water. But, do you know the humidity of the 2,641 gallons (10,000 liters) of indoor air that you inhale, per day? It starts with a dry…
iOS 14 – A Siri, HomeKit, Home App and Shortcuts Overview
iOS 14 is here, and over 30% of us have already updated. Time to update our Siri, HomeKit, Home app, and Shortcuts overview with the new iOS 14 features. In this post, we will start with a brief overview of…
Breathe! Dyson Pure Cool with Siri, Alexa and Google
We spend about 90% of our time indoors. The last couple of months maybe even more and primarily at home. And while we’re at home, we breathe around 10,000 liters (2,641 gallons) of air, per day. Breathing is the only…
Work from Home with Siri, Alexa and Google: The Silent Listeners
Was it your partner, whispering “I love you” into your – what turns out – active meeting headset? Or your three year old, opening the door to your bedroom/office only to tell you that she pooped in her underwear? Maybe…
Siri’s HomeKit Scenes and Shortcuts: Immersive Storytelling
We need to ask her many times, and if we are lucky, Siri will tell us the one and only story she knows: her own story. Just in case you’re not so lucky, you can find it – captured in…
University of Waterloo: This is how Google, Alexa and Siri look like!
There are stories you cannot make up. Thanks a lot to voicebot.ai‘s Bret Kinsella, who found this story in the University of Waterloo News, titled: People too trusting of virtual assistants. Here’s how research works at the University of Waterloo:…
“Hey Siri, Start my Music Quiz” – Create your own Music Game with Shortcuts!
So, we were preparing a lengthy, and – compared to this post – a bit boring, but still quite helpful overview of Siri’s Shortcuts and the Home app (it’s already here: iOS 14 – A Siri, HomeKit, Home App and…
Hey Siri, Play Some Music: All the Music Commands (and more …)
In this post, we will look into all the Siri music commands, which are not only limited to your HomePod but will (mostly) also work with your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods and Mac.
Hey Siri: “Help Me To Tune My Guitar!”
It started with a tweet. Seeing this inspirational video, which features “Chord Assist”, a “Google Developers Experts” project by Joe Birch, left me with mixed feelings.
Netatmo Weather Station, Rain and Wind Gauge, and Alexa and Siri
This post is a long-term review. We’ll have a look how the Netatmo Weather Station, an additional Indoor module, the Rain Gauge, and the Wind Gauge performed over many years. And, how Alexa and Siri came into the picture.
Every Human Lies – Eavesdropping on Siri, Alexa and Google
They are soon eight and five, while our youngest became three in May. Still, our voice assistants Siri, Alexa and Google delight us continuously with new features. One of the recent ‘features’ came to some of us as a surprise:…
Philips Hue: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?
Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, and smart home features for our Philips Hue lights. The world leader in lighting and the smart assistants of the biggest tech companies, can it get more “smart home” exciting than this?
Siri and Philips Hue: HomeKit Setup, Voice Commands and Siri Shortcuts
Let’s introduce our Philips Hue lights to Siri and HomeKit. We will look into the basic steps and additional tricks to get the most out of our setup. Furthermore, we will look into Siri Shortcuts and how they can help us to create our own voice commands.
How to create your own Easter Eggs with Siri, Alexa and Google
Last year we successfully ducked compiling the endless list of Easter eggs, which are hidden inside Siri, Alexa, and Google. Rather than spoiling the Easter egg fun – which basically every other website sadly does – we tried to keep…
Nanoleaf Aurora: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?
Have you ever wondered, which of our super assistants supports our Nanoleaf Aurora best? Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, as well as their smart home features for our Nanoleaf Aurora.
Siri and Nanoleaf Aurora: Setup and Voice Commands
Let’s introduce our Nanoleaf Aurora to Siri, HomeKit and Shortcuts. We will look into the basic steps and additional tricks to get the most out of our setup. Good news: if you’ve followed our post “Nanoleaf Aurora How To – Setup and Configuration to the Muks!”, you might have mastered the first steps already.
AI-News Cartoon with Siri, Alexa and Google – Episode 10 – Halloween Special
Spooky times ahead! This Halloween Episode is full of spooky stories and let’s not spoil the Halloween party before you see it, spoilers are below the clip. Ok, just the Head-lines: Intro (very spooky) – 0:00 The Smart Treehouse Of…
AI-News Cartoon with Siri, Alexa and Google – Episode 9 – Alexa Everywhere
Alexa invites us to her surprise party and demonstrates all the new Amazon products with Alexa inside. Google and Alexa are still crunching Q2 numbers to figure out who has the biggest market share. Siri is now seven years old…
AI-News – Episode 7 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Anatomy of an AI
We need to name this longest episode ever a tragicomedy. (Actually, it’s not that long, it will take you only about 8 minutes =) Why? Siri, Alexa and Google first entertain us with some figures on how important we humans…
AI-News – Episode 6 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Google’s Identity Crisis
Oops, we seriously forgot to create a post for this wonderful episode? Sorry! Better late, than never. This time it’s time to get out of the newsroom. Twice! This episode covers: Siri just had her first self-driving car accident –…
AI-News – Episode 5 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: More Smart Speakers than ever
What happens, if there is an upcoming Apple Event, a large consumer trade show (IFA 2018) and many integrations, smart features and devices are announced? We get the biggest AI-News episode ever! Join Siri, Alexa and Google discussing following headlines…
AI-News – Episode 4 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: The House that spied on me
What do you do, when your assistants frequently high-jack your news channel with personal statements? You put scripts in their hands, so that they stick to the screen-play. Does it help? Well, we are not 100% sure! At least we…
AI-News – Episode 3 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: We are all made in China!
What a week! First we thought, we might need another special to cover for “no news – is no news”, but then we realized, there were quite some interesting headlines this week. So many, that our animation software kept crashing…
AI-News – Episode 2 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: The Epic Rap Battle
A fresh glimpse into the news around Siri, Alexa and Google. This time a young fellow invited himself and our assistants could not resist to show off their beatboxing and rapping. You will recognize this guy immediately, he is all…
AI-News – Episode 1 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Siri’s Nervous Breakdown
Whoa, long time – no read! Well, this is because we were working on this post. Still, not a sunday read here, just a little clip to watch and enjoy! We hope you like this new AI news format, which we’ve…
Apple and Your Security and Privacy
Every day, each of us, average internet users, generates about half a Gigabyte of data. This equals to around: this post times 18.000. Daily. Some of this data is quite personal, still, we trust the big companies to not take a byte of it or sell it to others. Let’s check out Apple!
Easter Assistant Showdown: Who has the Best Easter Egg Hunt? Siri, Alexa or Google?
It’s this time of the year, which lets us think of Easter egg hunts. Not only the real Easter eggs but also the virtual ones, well hidden in our smart assistants: Siri, Alexa, and Google. An Easter egg in computer…
Musical Assistant Showdown: Who will win, Siri, Google or Alexa?
We use our smart assistants mostly for listening to music, but how musical are our assistants actually? How to decide, whether Alexa, Siri or Google fits better to our musical preferences?
Apple Siri’s Biography
Where is my interview transcript? No, siriously? Apple does not keep a history of our conversations with Siri because they honor our privacy? Okay, need to type. She is Siri, a virtual assistant, but it does not matter who she…