iOS Tip 70 - Siri speakerphone calls

You can now make speakerphone calls using Siri in iOS 8.3. Use Siri as you normally would to call a contact, but add "using speakerphone" after the comment. For example, you can easily call a contact by saying the following phrase to Siri:
"Call Capitol Macintosh using speakerphone"

When you do this, Siri will initiate a call per normal; however, the call will be placed on speakerphone, allowing you to be completely hands-free with the conversation. Pair this with the "Hello Siri" command to wake Siri when your iPhone is plugged in, and you can start a phone call on speaker without ever needing to touch your phone.

iOS Tip 69 - The Full Siri Command List

Define relationships for Siri
• “Call me Roy”
• “My wife is ‘Kerry Washington'”
• “My brother is ‘Justin Bieber'”
• “‘Alicia Keys’ is my mom”
• “My boss name is ‘Sean Combs'”
• “My dad is ‘Andrew Bachelor'”

Ask Siri to search Contacts
• “When is my wife’s birthday?”
• “What’s Justin’s address?”
• “What is my father’s phone number?”
• “Who is Sean Combs?”
• “Show Alicia ‘s home email address”
• “Show Justin Bieber”
• “Find people named Kardashian”

Ask Siri to make a Phone Call or FaceTime
• “Call Justin”
• “Call my wife on mobile”
• “Call home”
• “Call my mother on her work phone”
• “Call 703 555 1212”
• “Redial last number”
• “Return missed call”
• “FaceTime Andrew “
• “FaceTime audio Andrew “
• “FaceTime video Andrew “
• “Check my recent calls”
• “Check my voice mail”

Ask Siri to Send Text Messages (SMS)
• “Send a message to my Justin”
• “Send a message to Sean saying ‘Let’s sign the new record deal tonight'”
• “Send a message to Kerry on her mobile saying ‘I am running late'”
• “Text my mom and dad saying ‘Let’s have dinner tomorrow evening'”
• “Text Sharon and Becky saying ‘Where are you?'”
• “Send a message to 301 555 1212”
Ask Siri to Read Text Messages (SMS)
• “Read my new messages”
• “Read it again”

Ask Siri to Reply to Text Messages
• “Reply ‘I love you too'”
• “Reply ‘I will arrive in 10 minutes'”
• “Call him on mobile”

Ask Siri about Voice Mail
• “Do I have new voice mail?”
• “Play my last voice mail”
• “Play voice mail from Kerry”

Ask Siri to make a FaceTime Call
• “FaceTime Andrew “
• “FaceTime audio Andrew “
• “FaceTime video Andrew “
• “Make a FaceTime call to Andrew “

Siri Email Commands
Ask Siri to Send Email Messages
• “New email to Sean Combs”
• “Email Kerry and Lisa and say ‘I am going out of town this weekend'”
• “Email mom about the trip”
• “Mail Justin about the concert tickets”

Ask Siri to Check Email Messages
• “Check email”
• “Read my last email”
• “Do I have any new messages?”
• “Any new email from my boss today?”
• “Show the email from Kerry yesterday”
• “Show new mail about the football game”

Ask Siri to Respond to Email Messages
• “Reply ‘Hey Kerry, let’s watch Scandal tonight”
• “Call him at work”

Ask Siri About Messages
“Read my notifications”
Ask Siri to Locate Friends and Family
• “Where is my wife?”
• “Is my wife at home?”
• “Where is my Justin?”
• “Where are all my friends?”
• “Who is near me?”

Siri Commands for Calendar
• “Schedule a meeting with Sean tomorrow at 1 PM”
• “Schedule a conference call with Justin today at 7 PM”
• “Schedule a meeting about the new acquisition at 1 PM”
• “schedule meeting about renovations at 2PM tomorrow in the conference room
• “Set up a meeting at 10 AM”
• “Set up a meeting with Brian at 11 AM”
• “New appointment with Andrew Tuesday at noon”
• “Meet with Kerry at 6”

Ask Siri to change events
• “Reschedule 7 PM meeting to 9 PM”
• “Reschedule my 10 AM meeting today”
• “Reschedule my appointment with Dr. Manning to next Monday at 9am”
• “Move my 2pm meeting to 3:30 PM”
• “Add Andrew to 3:30 meeting”
• “Add Alicia to meeting with Andrew”
• “Cancel the new acquisition meeting”

Ask Siri about your events
• “What’s on my calendar today?
• “What’s on my calendar tomorrow?
• “What’s on my calendar for Friday?”
• “When is my next meeting”
• “Where is my next meeting?”
• “When is my next appointment?”
• “When am I meeting with Justin?”

Ask Siri to set a Reminder
• “Remind me to check the mailbox”
• “Remember to stop by the bank”

Time based reminders
• “Remind me to call mom at 7 PM”
• “Remind me to walk the dogs at 7am tomorrow”
• “Remind me to leave work at 4 PM”

Location based reminders
• “Remind me to water the flowers when I get home”
• “Remind me to stop by the dry cleaners when I leave work”
• “Remind me to call Kerry when I leave”

Ask Siri to Create and Find Notes
• “Create note: Door pass code is one two three two”
• “Note that I spent $25 on dinner”
• “Create song list note
• “Find my song list note”
• “Add Alicia Keys to my song list note”

Time and Alarm Functions
Ask Siri to set or change Alarms
• “Set an alarm for 7 AM”
• “Wake me up tomorrow at 5 AM”
• “Wake me up on weekdays at 6 AM”
• “Wake me up on weekends at 10 AM”
• “Wake me up in 3 hours”
• “Change my 7 AM alarm to 6:30 AM”
• “Show all alarms”
• “Turn off my 6:30 alarm”
• “Delete my 6:30 alarm”
• “Turn off all alarms”
Ask Siri to check the time
• “What time is it?”
• “What is today’s date?”
• “What time is it in New York?”
• “What time is it in Belgium?”
• “What’s the date this Friday?”
Ask Siri to use a Timer
• “Set the timer for 10 minutes”
• “Show the timer”
• “Reset the timer”
• “Stop the timer”
• “Resume the timer”
• “Change timer”

Ask Siri for Maps and Directions
• “How do I get home?”
• “Directions to home”
• “Directions to my Sean’s home”
• “Take me to my wife”
• “Show my current location”
• “Show me Union Station”
• “Show me directions from Washington DC to Philadelphia Pennsylvania”
Ask Siri about Local Businesses
• “Find pizza near me”
• “Find Starbucks near me”
• “Good Mexican restaurants near me”
• “Find a gas station near me”
• “Show me the closest hospital”
• “Show ATMs near me”
• “Show me the nearest WiFi hotspots”

Siri Commands: How to play Music using Siri
• “Play Jazz music”
• “Play exercise playlist”
• “Play work playlist”
• “Play the album ‘The New Classic'”
• “Play the album ‘The New Classic’ shuffled”
• “Play Alicia Keys”
• “Play ‘Love Never Felt So Good'”
• “Pause music”
• “Stop music”
• “Resume music
• “Skip track”
• “Play previous track”
• “What music is playing?”
• “Play Alicia Keys on iTunes radio”
Ask Siri about the Weather
• “What’s the weather like today?”
• “What’s the temperature outside?”
• “What’s the weather for tomorrow?”
• “What’s the forecast for this weekend?”
• “How’s the weather in Paris right now?”
• “Will it rain in Miami this week?”
• “Check next week’s forecast for New York”
• “What’s the high for Miami on Friday?”
• “When is sunrise in London?”
• “When is sunset in Portland?”
Ask Siri to check Stocks
• “How is the stock market doing today?”
• “What is the Dow at?”
• “Where is the Nasdaq at today?”
• “Show me the stock information for Microsoft”
• “What is Apple’s stock price?”
• “What did Microsoft close at today?”
• “What is Sony’s PE ratio?”
Ask Siri to search the Web
• “Search the web for best Windows tablets”
• “Search for baked chicken recipes”
• “Search the web for best smartphones”
• “Search for news about the November Elections”
• “Search Google for Siri commands”
• “Search Google for top jazz albums”
• “Google upcoming tablets”
• “Search Wikipedia for Steve Jobs”
• “Search Bing for upcoming movies”
• “Bing upcoming smartphones”
• “Search Twitter for “Capitol Macintosh”
• “Search Yahoo for what’s happening in China”
Ask Siri to search the Web for Images
• “Search for images of dogs”
• “Search for images of Washington DC”
• “Search for images of Microsoft Surface”
Ask Siri to Launch an App
• “Play Angry Birds”
• “Open Music”
• “Launch Spotify”
Ask Siri to Change Phone Settings
• “Turn on airplane mode”
• “Turn on Wi-Fi”
• “Turn on Bluetooth”
• “Turn on ‘do not disturb'”
• “Turn on flashlight”
• “Turn up brightness of display”
• “Display privacy settings”
• “Is Bluetooth on?”
• “Open Phone Settings”
Ask Siri to Change App Settings
• “Open music settings”
• “Open mail settings”
• “Open Twitter settings”
Ask Siri to Post to Facebook
• “Post on Facebook ‘On my way to the beach'”
• “Write on my wall ‘Having a great time in Florida’
Ask Siri to Post to Twitter
• “Tweet I love my iPhone 6 plus hashtag iPhonee”
• “Tweet visit “Capitol Macintosh”
• “Post to Twitter ‘Chip Kelly is awesome!'”
• “Tweet ‘Who are you voting for this election’ hashtag politics”
• “Tweet my location ‘Having fun in Miami!'”
• “Search Twitter for best WordPress tips”
• “What’s trending on Twitter”
Ask Siri about Movie Theaters
• “What movies are coming out this weekend?”
• “What movies are playing near me?”
• “Find movie theaters in McLean, VA”
• “Find movie theaters near my office”
• “What are the best movies playing right now?”
• “What R-Rated movies are playing?”
• “What action movies are playing”
Ask Siri about Movies
• “Show me reviews of the movie ‘Edge of Tomorrow'”
• “Show me ratings for ‘Edge of Tomorrow'”
• “Play the trailer for ‘Edge of Tomorrow'”
• “Who directed “Captain America Winter Soldier?”
• “When was the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ released?”
• “Who starred in the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’?”
• “What movie won best picture in 1998?”
• “How many movies has Samuel Jackson been in?”

Ask Siri about Restaurants
• “Show me restaurant information for Cheesecake Factory in Arlington”
• “Show me reviews for Cheesecake Factory in Arlington”
• “I need a reservation tonight at Cheesecake Factory tonight”
• “Show me good seafood restaurants near me”
• “Table for four in Washington DC Friday Night”

Ask Siri about Sports
• “Show me football scores from Sunday”
• “Show me NFL standings”
• “When do the Philadelphia Eagles play next?”
• “Show me the Philadelphia Eagles season schedule”
• “Which NFL team has the most yards?”
• “Show me the roster of the Denver Nuggets”
• “Show me career statistics for Nick Foles”

Math Commands
• “What is 71 x 2?”
• “What is 2 to the 8th power?”
• “What is the square root of 144?”
• “How many ounces in a cup?”
• “How much is $100 in Canadian dollars?”
• “What is the tip on $220?”
Ask a question using Wolfram Alpha
• “What’s the price of gasoline in Washington, DC?”
• “How tall is Justin Beiber?”
• “How many calories in a soda?”
• “How far away is the Moon?”
• “What’s the population of India?”
• “How many days until Thanksgiving?”
• “What are the properties of chartreuse?”
• “What is the nutritional information for a bowl of Cheerios?”
• “Earthquakes, Hawaii, 1985”
• “cumulonimbus cloud”
• “How many degrees are in 3 radians?”
• “What is the wavelength of 500MHz?”
• “What is the molecular structure of corundum?”
• “What notes are in a B minor chord?”
• “What is “No school tomorrow” in Morse Code?”
• “What is the molecular weight of caffeine?”
• Define <insert word>

Accessibility
• Show Accessibility Settings
• Turn on Voice Over
• Turn Off Voice Over

For Fun

• Tell me a joke
• What Flights are above me?

iPad Tip 68 - Tell Me Who Siri

Siri will read your incoming notifications for you as they come in, tell you who is calling, read you new texts or let you know if an important email is received. Useful in private, you access this in Settings>General>Accessiblity>Voice Over (but don’t toggle Voice Over to on) and then toggle “Always Speak Notifications” to on. Be sure to turn it off when in public.

Up Periscope

A while back I wrote about Meerkat a broadcast App for Twitter feeds. Well now there’s a new game in town: Periscope. Online video broadcasting is undergoing a renaissance. Unfortunately for Meerkat’s developers, Twitter has purchased Periscope and quickly cut Meerkat off from its social graph.

Both apps do the same basic thing: stream live video over theInternet and post a link to the stream through your Twitter account. Both apps let you watch live streams as they happen. The biggest difference between the two is video storage. Meerkat saves videos only to your device, not to the cloud, whereas Periscope can do both, offering an option to save locally and automatically saving to the cloud a replay of any video you broadcast for 24 hours. You can save your own broadcasts, but not the broadcasts of others. Happily, you can cancel replay uploads at the end of a stream, and you can delete replays at any time.

Unlike Meerkat, you have a chance to set up your broadcast beforegoing live. Unfortunately, you can’t switch cameras until you’re actually broadcasting, which is incredibly frustrating. But you can decide beforehand whether you wish to share you location with viewers or post a tweet announcing the stream. Also, unlike Meerkat, you can choose to share your stream with only certain viewers by tapping the lock icon on the broadcast screen.

While watching a stream, you can post comments, but unlike Meerkat, which uses Twitter @replies for comments, Periscope’s comments stay confined within the app. You can also tap the screen to send “hearts.” You can see not only the hearts you send, but the hearts that all viewers are sending. It’s sort of disconcerting how many can appear at once, but if you’re broadcasting, it’s as if your audience is cheering you on. Also, the more hearts you receive, the higher you’ll get in the “Most Loved” list of recommended people to follow.

Periscope’s video quality, reliability, and smoothness is superior to Meerkat. Also, there’s less latency, so what you’re actually seeing is closer to live than Meerkat, which is helpful when you’re interacting with your viewers. Periscope doesn’t let you search for videos, nor does it keep a list of recently viewed videos. So if you stop watching a video stream, you may never find it again. Even pulling up a user’s profile doesn’t show current streams or replays.

If anything, both Periscope and Meerkat suffer from boring content. Then again, this seems to be how all social networks start. Remember when Twitter and Instagram were all about what people were having for lunch? It takes users time to figure out good ways to use new services, and food is always a safe, yet attractive topic of conversation. Read more here from the NY Times.

iOS Tip 67 - Lock Camera Focus

Lock focus and exposure

When the camera is active, tapping the screen sets the focus and exposure for that object. But, the moment the camera moves, these settings are lost.
To lock the focus and exposure, tap and hold until you see a yellow bar appear at the top of the screen, Even if you change your composition, the focus and exposure will be unaffected.

iOS Tip 66 - Share Where You Are

Sometimes it’s important for loved ones and friends to know where you are. Whether it’s for safety reasons or maybe you’re lost in a crowd - iOS 8 and your iPhone make it super simple.

Simply launch the Messages app on your iDevice and tap into a conversation or create a new one. Once there, tap on the Details button in the upper right.

• Send my Current Location:
Tapping “send my current location” will immediately send a map image with your location pinpointed by a red pin. The location will show up on your friend’s iPhone right away, just like any other photo message.

• Share My Location:

You’ll be prompted to select from the following options: Share…
1.) for One Hour
2.) Until End of Day
3.) Indefinitely
Once chosen, your friend will have permission to see where you are for that period of time. Now you’ll be able to “bump” into your best friend while out and about. I use this feature when traveling long distances so my hosts know when to expect me without having to send a text saying “be there in 5 min”. Super-easy and no more effort than using your Messages app.

iOS Tip 65 - Travel Scheduling

Traveling to an event? When adding the event to your schedule toggle the “Travel Time” switch and Calendar will figure out your travel time, scheduling this around your event so you don’t double book. Tap on the Event, Tap Edit, Scroll down to Travel Time, slide it On, then select the time.