15 Oct 2015 22:11 | apple | iOS
I've always been fairly cynical about Siri. It seemed more like a gimmick than
something people would use seriously in their day to day lives, but I've
recently discovered how wrong I was.
I don't have a CarPlay stereo in my car, because I didn't want to be tied into
Apple's apps. Maps is nowhere near as good as TomTom (which I also paid good
money for) and TomTom doesn't yet have Siri integration. But I never even
considered that Siri would work with non-CarPlay stereos. Turns out, as my
friend and colleague Paul mentioned to me in passing, that it does. I have a
Kenwood aftermarket stereo and if I hold the Call button on the unit, it
activates Siri.
It seems to know I'm in the car, so lots of potentially useful requests are
denied with "Sorry Mark, I can't do that while you're in the car", which is a
bit annoying, but on the whole it's very useful. Things that work include:
- Playing music (playlists, songs etc)
- Playing podcasts (only works with the official Podcasts app)
- Switching between music and podcasts
- Reading emails/messages
- Sending emails/messages
- Setting reminders
- Navigation (but only with apple maps)
- Making calls
Just the ability to set reminders while I'm driving, or text my wife when I'm
nearly home, is magical.
