I bought the HomePod as a speaker. I figured Siri was just a dumb gimmick that I would never use, but Siri on HomePod is so much better at hearing and understanding than I expected. (In fact, I kinda love it.) Here's a list of of all the things I've found Siri on HomePod can do.
when will it stop raining?
what's the temperature?
what's the weather for today?
what's the low tonight?
How many days until December 25th?
what day is next Monday?
when is the next leap year?
when does daylight savings time end?
when is Easter?
when does Ramadan end?
what astrological sign is January 1?
what phase is the moon?
when is the next full moon?
when did the sun rise?
when is sunrise tomorrow?
Basic distances ("as the crow flies") of cities, streets, businesses or landmarks.
how far away is the airport?
how far away is Montréal?
Personal fave: Opening and closing hours...
when does the library open?
how late is "home depot" open?
what's the nearest paint store?
And when you find a business, you can call them using your iPhone...
call them
I've never understood the Reminders app. If you add a reminder, it gets created, but is generally forgotten as the notification is easy to miss. (The irony!) So, I use Reminders as more of a todo list.
create a grocery list
add raisins to my grocery list.
create a "shows to watch" note
add to my "shows to watch" note
{wait for prompt}
bojack horseman
It's definitely helpful to name your timers, since the alarm sound is always the same.
start a 60 minute timer named "laundry".
what are my paused timers?
what are my running timers?
More than just a calculator...
what's a prime number under 100?
random number between 1 and 100
what is pi times 5 squared?
what is six factorial?
what's 3/16 + 7/8?
what is 400 degrees Fahrenheit?
how many meters is six feet and one inch?
how many calories are in a sugar cube?
how many carbs are in 50 grams of potatoes?
how much protein is in tofu?
To get calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein...
what is the nutritional information for lentils?
If you ever need to convert between a european and north american receipes...
how many grams is a half cup of butter?
how many tablespoons in 50 grams of butter?
The secret to playing podcasts is the trailing "podcast" keyword.
play Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast.
It seems like you should be able to play a podcast by an episode number, but I could not get it work. If you've cracked this, let me know!
The HomePod is excellent at skipping ads.
Skip 30 seconds.
Play it double speed.
Other options: "half speed", "normal speed", "one and a half times normal speed"
how do you say "Cheers!" in German?
Other options: Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, French, Spanish.
how do you spell "counterfeit"?
what is "counterfeit"?
what is a synonym for "counterfeit"?
define "counterfeit".
where's my iPhone?
where is {family member's name}'s iPhone?
(I was only able to get this to work by mispronouncing my wife's name! Still haven't gotten it to locate an iPad.)
Check the local time before calling someone...
what's the time in Germany?
An extremely basic network status...
are you online?
List movies playing nearby...
what's a good movie?
Random "wikipedia" facts...
what's the population of Helsinki?
The nuclear option (you will be asked to confirm)
disable "Hey Siri"
These are free internet radio stations that do not require an Apple Music subscription.
play CBC radio
play BBC radio
play NPR radio
(If you know where the definitive list of internet radio stations is, please let me know!)
You don't need an Apple Music subscription to play music. If you have previously purchased tracks with iTunes, they will be available on HomePod.
Play and set the volume...
play My Awesome Mix shuffled at volume 42
add this song to My Awesome Mix
The following commands only work with an Apple Music subscription.
play something new
Other options: "some music to dance to", "top 10 songs of 1999", "some indie music", etc.
i like this
never play this song again
Music meta data...
what year is this song from?
who sings this?
max volume {are you sure?} yes
Maximum volume without confirmation
one hundred percent volume
To play music ultra low...
one percent volume
(But Siri's voice only goes down to about 5-10% volume)
how's the market doing?
how much is one Euro?
how much is 1,000 Yen in US dollars?
This is basically an alternate way to trigger news podcasts. (You should be able to select from a few different news sources.)
what's the news?
Creating events in your calendar requires some practice as there are a lot of components you need.
create an event "Star Wars" for May 4th at 4pm.
Querying events is much easier...
what's on my calendar?
what's on my calendar today?
what's happening tomorrow?
Other options: "next week", "next monday", "February 14"
Am I missing something awesome? Send me a note: jmoore@xinsight.ca Or submit an issue at: https://github.com/xinsight/homepod