jadanzzy

apple

TL;DR: The Apple Watch is my favorite Apple product, and I'm really excited for its future.

I have a bad habit of leaving my iPhone on conference rooms tables and random desks through the office. It is often the case that a coworker of mine is returning my iPhone back on my desk, or that I'm using my Apple Watch to ping my iPhone, and walking around to hear where the “ding!” is coming from.

It could very well be that I'm just forgetful and I'd likely leave any other item in the conference room. Having an Apple Watch, however, has made me enjoy not having my phone on me so much more.

Don't get me wrong. I love the iPhone and, if you know me well, you know how I feel about it and iOS compared to its competitor operating systems and smartphone manufacturers. But it's not the upcoming iPhone that I'm excitedly anticipating for every September anymore. Nor is it the latest MacBook or the iPad Pro (although those things are getting sexier by the year). It's the upcoming Apple Watch. And I can't wait to see what the new Apple Watch Series 5(?), and watchOS 6, bring to Apple's customers.

I could write a bunch about how the Apple Watch has life-saving health tracking abilities, how Apple and the Stanford University School of Medicine collaborated on the largest ever heart study using Apple Watches wearers who volunteered their data (including me), how it automatically dials 9-1-1 a minute after it detects your fall and you don't interact with it, and can be great for a family or friends communicating on a trip together using Walkie Talkie. But I'll focus more on how I personally benefit from it.

What the Apple Watch has done is reduced my dependence on always reaching for my iPhone. The common user experience rule people attribute to the Apple Watch (I'm not sure if it came from Apple itself) is this:

  • Using a laptop is measured in hours
  • Using a smartphone is measured in minutes
  • Using a smartwatch is measured in seconds

All the seconds-only interactions that I previously had to pick up my iPhone for, which then encouraged me to stay glued to the iPhone for more meaningless interactions, were replaced by my Apple Watch. And on the Apple Watch, it's absurd to have any meaningful medium-to-long term interactions.

I don't like getting notifications for things. I curate my notifications settings on my iPhone very aggressively so that I don't get bothered by seeing or feeling things (more on hearing things later). Even more are my notifications curated on my Apple Watch. Apart from the timer notifications I set, I only get bothered for by four things:

  • Text messages
  • Severe weather alerts via the brilliant Carrot Weather app
  • A tap 15 minutes prior to my next meeting
  • Notifications for transportation-related information (Uber driver approaching, Delta flight changes, etc)

I'm currently using the Siri watch face (shown below), which is essentially a “smart” watch face that shows me the most relevant data at the time based on my usage behaviors and the data I enter into my iPhone. And while it's not always super helpful, it usually is. So, at a glance, I can see the current weather conditions, the time, the next meeting, and a photo that often makes me smile.

And then there are the other icing-on-the-cake, but regularly-used, features:

  • I can take calls on the Apple Watch.
  • I use it to track my sleep every night with the excellent AutoSleep app.
  • Siri and voice dictation work way better than you'd expect on a device like this.
  • I can unlock my Macbook Pro with it, and the security technology that undergirds this feature is pretty awesome.
  • My shopping list is right on my watch using the Things app. This life is the good life.
  • It's a very convenient remote for the Apple TV or for taking pictures on an iPhone across the room.

So about sound notifications. Silence is bliss. With my Apple Watch, I don't need any sound notifications. If a call comes in, I get taps. If I get messages, taps. Sound notifications seem barbaric now by comparison.

I am not athletic and do not exercise much at all. So I am aware that I'm not taking advantage of one the Apple Watch's most popular and robust feature sets: workout-related features. Maybe some day.

Now, there's one thing about the Apple Watch that makes me yearn for a regular ol' watch: that I can't inconspicuously sneak a glance at the time.

Due to the small form factor, the Apple Watch is designed to aggressively manage battery usage. This means that you have to raise or flick your wrist for the display to turn on and check the time. I'd love if it could one day have always-on time display dimmed very low, and I can only hope that Apple's working their best to make that a reality in future versions.

🤞🏻

#apple

Oh dear me. I forgot a critical step in The Guide.

In Step 2, when you create a contact for yourself, you're supposed to then go into Settings > Contacts > My Info, and then set your own contact.

My apologies to the maybe 2 people that found the guide valuable but were left confused when certain things may not have worked!

#apple

UPDATE: This guide is missing a critical detail for step 2 below which I write about in a separate post.


(If you don't want to read the intro, go straight to my Guide.)

I use Siri a lot. When I mention that to people, the common response (outside of my very techy company) is, “Really? Huh. I don't really use Siri much.”

When I ask why, I usually hear one or more of these reasons for why they don't use Siri:

  • “Siri sucks. It never does what I want or ask. (Insert other voice assistant) is way better.”
  • “I feel weird talking to gadgets out loud.”
  • “I just don't know how to use it.”
  • “I don't find digital voice assistants useful in general.”

The first point is very understandable. I believe it's because Siri suffers from a marketing problem. To best understand Siri, I tell people to think of it like an iOS actions assistant. That is, whatever iOS-related actions need done, there's a strong chance Siri can do it for you. It is not a random internet search and trivia assistant, although it can do a bit of that. Google Assistant will always run circles around Siri on internet queries.

On the second point, I don't use Siri much in public, surrounded by randos. Heck, I still feel weird using Siri in front of friends. I do, however, use it very comfortably at home. But if it's weird to talk to your gadget at all, well, the guide is a good way to get over it.

My post is for you if you fall mostly in the 3rd and 4th reasons bucket. Well, also the 1st because you're using it wrong. 😏

Lastly, I won't go into more advanced Siri usage on this post, especially with Siri Shortcuts. While it's awesome, it'll make this post too long. I might do it in a part two.

Okay let's get to it.

Dan's Guide to Siri: The Basics.

  1. Turn on and set up “Hey Siri” on your iPhone 6s or newer by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Listen for "Hey Siri".

    PRO TIP 1: When (re-)training the device, hold your iPhone at arms length and turn your face slightly away. This trains the iPhone to understand your voice from a distance. My experience seems to suggest that using “Hey Siri” worked better with every subsequent iPhone. For example, it's near flawless on my iPhone XS and I can invoke it from across the room without having to yell obnoxiously. When I used it with my iPhone 7, it wasn't as reliable. YMMV.

    PRO TIP 2: Destroy the stereotype that assistants are women. Change your Siri voice to male in Settings > Siri & Search.

  2. Create a contact for yourself and fill it out as much as you can, including addresses, your birthday, and especially related names. Then, for those friends and family close to you, fill out as much of their contact info as possible too.

  3. Even if you don't use them, set up your accounts on Apple's first-party Mail and Calendar apps. Then turn off all notifications for those apps in Settings > Notifications. If you want, set up Apple Reminders too.

    PRO TIP 3: Using Siri for Find My Friends is nice, and best used for family.

  4. With all that set up, let's use Siri.

    PRO TIP 4: When you say “Hey Siri,” you don't have to wait for the chime prompt to state your command. Just say the whole command straight through. You'll hear the chime afterwards, indicating receipt (this isn't the case on Apple Watch and AirPods).

    Here's a handful of commands I actually use on a frequent basis:

    • Hey Siri, call [brother's name] at work on speaker.
    • Hey Siri, what’s the weather today?
    • Hey Siri, what my schedule today?
    • Hey Siri, where's [family member on Find Friends]?
    • Hey Siri, set a timer for [length of time].
    • Hey Siri, open [app].
    • Hey Siri, play [artist, album, song, playlist, radio].
    • Hey Siri, tell [friend] “I'll pick you up at 7. Sound good?” (you have to say “question mark”)
    • Hey Siri, take me to [restaurant].
    • Hey Siri, take me home.
    • Hey Siri, go to [website].
    • Hey Siri, remind me to brine the chicken breast when I get home.
    • Hey Siri, how many cups are in 3 liters?

    If you want a comprehensive list of Siri commands, Computerworld has a good one.

  5. Hey Siri works great on the Apple Watch. In fact, since I'm usually wearing the Apple Watch, half of my “Hey Siri”-ing throughout the day is invoked on it. Just raise your wrist to wake the watch, and “Hey Siri...”. Some commands won't be fulfilled to completion on the watch, however. In those cases, Siri will direct you to the iPhone to complete the command.

    PRO TIP 5: Starting with Series 4, you don't need to say “Hey Siri” before your command. Simply state your command by raising your watch so the watch face is perpendicular to the ground. In my experience, however, non-“Hey Siri” invocation isn't very reliable, so I stick with “Hey Siri”-ing first. I suspect it'll get better with every subsequent Apple Watch.

  6. With the new 2nd generation AirPods, you don't need to tap one of your AirPods to invoke Siri. It has always-on “Hey Siri”, ready to execute your command. Nice.

  7. Okay last one. Unlike the HomePod, with its far-field microphone array surrounding the speakers, using “Hey Siri” on your iPhone does not play nice when you're also playing audio from the iPhone speakers. No space for a far-field mic array.

#apple