Dear Aunt TUAW,

I discovered by accident that I can hold down the home button on the iPhone 4 and it brings up Voice Control. I don't remember this being there before. Is this some sort of Siri light functionality for the iPhone 4? I can use it to makes calls and FaceTime someone, but not much else.

Your loving nephew,

Douglas

Dear Douglas,

Think of Voice Control as Siri's, well, not Mom...maybe Siri's Aunt? Yeah. Exactly. Voice Control is basically an older, less stylish version of Siri -- far more approachable, slightly less sexy. And with a worse sense of humor.

First introduced on the iPhone 3GS, Voice Control offers hand-free dialing and basic music controls. As with Siri, you can press and hold the Home button to bring up the assistant. There you can say "Call Dave at Home" or "FaceTime Steve" or "Next Track" or "Play Songs by Parry Gripp" (Auntie is a huge Parry Gripp fan). When Voice Control is running, recommended, speakable phrases scroll across the screen.

You can use Voice Control on the 3GS and later and on newer model iPod touches. If you disable Siri on the 4S or haven't gotten around to enabling it, the 4S uses Voice Control instead. Apple has never really done the whole hands-free thing on the iPad, which is a shame because Auntie thinks that Siri would rock on the iPad, but that's the topic for a whole different post.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: What is this "Voice Control" thing? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Death Rally is a great iOS title from Remedy Entertainment, the makers of the Alan Wake game for the Xbox 360 a little while back. (Quick disclaimer: I, Mike Schramm, actually have a cameo in the game, for turning in a solid time at a press event. But I wasn't paid at all for my appearance, and I don't make anything from sales of the game. I legitimately think it's a great title, though.) The game has just gotten a big update that adds something players might be surprised by: multiplayer. Up to four people can now load up the game, and race against each other using the Shrieker car, on up to six different maps, including Eureka, which was previously only available via in-app purchase.

The update also adds a new weapon, the flamethrower, available from an in-app purchase reward pack, as well as a new paint job for one of the cars, and some enhanced graphics on the iPad 2. I have to say, iOS 5 support would have been nice (it's kind of a pain to have to re-do the game on the iPad if you've already played on the iPhone), but considering the update is completely free, I can't complain too much.

If you haven't picked up the game yet, it's available for just 99 cents as a universal version right now. Good luck trying to blow me up in the game -- you'll get an achievement for it if you do.

Death Rally gets big multiplayer update originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When the original iPad was released last April, Glasshouse Apps released The Early Edition, one of the first styled RSS readers for the device. Much like Flipboard and some others, The Early Edition gathered your feeds into a self-curated "magazine." It was nice, but The Early Edition 2 (TEE2) is a huge improvement.

A complete UI redesign, gesture support, Google Reader sync (as well as in-app feed additions) and a fun sharing function make TEE2 a pleasure to use. Here's my look at The Early Edition 2 (US$4.99) by Glasshouse Apps.

Overall UI

Glasshouse went with a newspaper theme. When you first launch the app, a rolled newspaper appears on a hardwood background (reminds me of my days as a paperboy). A progress wheel spins as the app updates your feeds. Once that's done (it was quick over Wi-Fi for me; I was unable to test 3G), your paper "unfolds" and the front page is presented.

Its appearance will be immediately familiar to anyone who's seen a newspaper during the last 100 years or so. The app's title is written in script across the top with the current date just below it. Blurbs from the first three articles can be read, and photos will appear as they're downloaded. Kudos to the Glasshouse team on keeping this initial download nice and snappy. I subscribe to an insane number of feeds and watch as well over a thousand images download (you can track their progress on the front page). Yet, the app's performance never suffers.

Gallery: The Early Edition 2

Unique to the front page is the "Sections" section. If you're using Google Reader as TEE2's source, the sections correspond to any folders you've set up.

To read an article, just give it a tap. The black-and-white layout keeps everything legible, as does the optional style override (more on that later). Additionally, three font size options let you choose the size that's right.

The second page of each issue offers several handy features. A "trending words" feature lists terms that appear frequently; tap each for a list of the top articles. Saved searches offer additional content customization and the Sync Stats let you know the last time the app performed a sync with your RSS source(s). The remaining pages offer individual articles, sorted by topic. This is where the fun begins.

Cool features and other UI goodies

Three super-cool features of TEE2 include the Browse Menu, the Clippings Menu, sharing options and the Toolbar. Each offers a fun and darn attractive way to interact with your news. Here's a look at each.

The Toolbar remains hidden until you need it, which is nice. To produce it, swipe down anywhere on the screen (just not the very top, as that will reveal the iOS 5 Notification Center). The chestnut-brown Toolbar offers access to the app's preferences, brightness settings, help files and sync progress notification.

Among the more interesting options is the Featured Feeds list. Just tap the spotlights icon in the Toolbar and the app "flips over" to reveal a list of suggested feeds across several categories, like Mac + iOS, Business, Entertainment and more. Tap any category to reveal its sources and check those you'd like to subscribe to.

The Browse Menu is also pretty cool. Tap the Toolbar's list icon to produce a list of your defined sections and feeds. Each displays an unread count and an optional star rating. Starred articles go into the clippings file.

Consider the clippings to be a collections of favorite articles. To access it, swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The newspaper will disappear and a box of your favorited articles appears. It looks great, in keeping with the rest of the app. Have I mentioned that The Early Edition 2 is very pretty? Because it is.

Sharing

Speaking of pretty, prepare for some serious eye candy. TEE2 goes all social on you with its sharing feature. To share an article, tap the share button in the article-specific toolbar (available when reading an article full-screen). A "Shared Copy" stamp appears on the article, and a manila envelope UI slides into place, offering to share the article with Twitter, Instapaper, Facebook, Delicious or Read it Later. Once you've set these up, just tap Send and off it goes.

Gesture support

Who has time to tap buttons? TEE2 offers some sweet gesture support. Swipe left-to-right with two fingers to bring up the Browse Menu. Swipe up to produce the Clippings UI (though you can't swipe again to put it away) and swipe down to reveal the main Toolbar. Finally, swipe left-to-right on an individual, full-screen article to dismiss the style override and read it as it appears on its parent website (I much prefer the ad-free style override).

The Early Edition 2 will be available from the App Store on October 20. Note that this is a separate purchase from The Early Edition, and requires iOS 5. In my opinion, it's absolutely worth it. The app looks fantastic, has a clever and engaging UI and is plenty fast. Plus, those who don't use Google Reader aren't out of luck, as you can switch to standalone mode and add feeds a la carte style. I recommend you check it out and curl up with a good read.

Early Edition 2 rebuilt, offers Google Reader sync, UI changes, more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I could have probably told you this without doing all of the research, but Loopt asked around anyway, and found out that Siri was the iPhone 4S' most exciting new feature for consumers. Sure, that camera is really impressive, and that processor will come in handy when running new games and apps. But 45% of those polled say Siri is the killer app for the new iPhone. And that makes sense -- not only is Siri flashy and new (and available only on the iPhone 4S, for now), but it's pretty much the marquee feature for the device according to Apple's marketing.

And since that feature was only available on the iPhone 4S, then who, do you think, were the most frequent buyers of that new device? Turns out, according to Loopt's fairly informal data, that it was actually iPhone 4 owners. Personally, I usually go for a "leapfrog" system of hardware upgrades (and since I already have an iPhone 4, that leaves me out of this round), but that's probably not the case with most iPhone 4S buyers -- some people just need to have the latest and greatest, so according to this data, most day-one iPhone 4S buyers were standing in line with their iPhone 4s already.

Interesting. This information is all based on "Loopt Qs," which are apparently social questionnaires put on by the mobile social network, so it seems like these answers are self-selected and probably not really representative of anyone but the folks who use Loopt. But nevertheless, the insight that Siri is driving iPhone 4S adoption seems legit enough.

Siri is the iPhone 4S' most enticing feature originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an AI. Technically, no, Siri's not a real artificial intelligence. When you ask "her" something and she comes back with a witty answer, your iPhone doesn't actually "understand" what you said in any meaningful way -- it's just identifying a set of words that you put together, and then outputting some data based on those words. Sometimes that's movie times or nearby store locations, and sometimes that's just a witty phrase that Apple engineers have programmed into the system.

But of course, while programmers have been creating these "chatbots" for years, Siri has an advantage in that it runs on the cloud; Apple is constantly updating Siri's phrases and responses, which means that "her" answers will only get more appropriate over time. And while the system works as is, you have to imagine that Apple is collecting lots of information from it, including both what people are asking of Siri, and how they're asking for it. The more Apple learns about how to deal with that information, the better Siri will get at providing the right answer at the right time.

That will make Siri "smarter" than ever. Until Apple hooks it up to an as-yet-uninvented thinking engine, it still won't "understand" your queries in the same way that a real human would -- or even in the way that a hyper-parallel quiz show competitor does. But for a lot of people, that doesn't much matter. As long as Siri responds correctly and helpfully, that's as good as many people need in terms of the payoff from artificial intelligence.

Siri and the possibility of artificial intelligence originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post.

Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happen once the product is out of beta and developers are given access to a Siri API. This is my way of letting some iOS developers know that I'd love to see Siri integration in their apps. Here we go:

1. I'd love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: "Check me in here"
2. I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: "Tweet @NikFinn that I'm sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger"
3. I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the "original" Siri app did have OpenTable integration): "Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening"
4. Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking "What time is 'Moneyball' playing near here?" and getting a choice of times, then saying "7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets" to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver.
5. How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: "Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive." Once you see the specs, Siri asks "Would you like to buy this item?" Answer yes, and you've purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you'd like to look at other similar items.
6. Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool.
7. Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying "Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac" or "See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow," and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver.
8. My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I'd love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say "Read me the first two items on my grocery list" and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with "OK, what are the next two items?" and so on.
9. For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you're running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say "Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany" and have it respond with "Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?" could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not.
10. Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say "Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars" and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you.

I think that Siri has the ability to become the intelligent agent that the mid-90s MagicCap mobile operating system always wanted to be. While MagicCap's TeleScript agents suffered from the lack of cheap and ubiquitous Internet service as well as public acceptance of electronic commerce, those barriers are no longer a problem. Add Siri as a super-friendly interface, and the future is going to be very nice indeed.

What are some of your ideas for "serious" integration of Siri into your daily life? Leave your comments below.

Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

California Governor Jerry Brown tweeted Friday night that tomorrow, Sunday October 16th, will be "Steve Jobs Day" in the state. The honor comes just eleven days after the Apple co-founder died due to complications from pancreatic cancer.

October 16 is also the date when Apple will hold an invitation-only memorial service for Jobs at Stanford University. Invites to the memorial, which is closed to the public, were sent to "a range of people" including "prominent Silicon Valley executives," according to an Apple spokesperson.

Later this week, Apple will hold another private event -- this time for Apple employees -- on its Cupertino campus. The October 19th event will be "celebration of [Steve's] life," according to an email sent by Tim Cook.

Apple fans around the world who want to express their memories and gratitude for Steve Jobs can do so by sending an email to Apple at rememberingsteve@apple.com.

October 16th is "Steve Jobs Day" in California, private memorial planned originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of the places where a lot of paper still flies about is for businesses and government are agendas. You walk into a meeting, pick up a paper agenda and, unless you're a reporter who holds onto it for future reference, tend to toss it in the recycle bin afterward. It's a huge waste of paper.

However, more businesses and government organizations are adopting iPads, and this is where the beauty of Agendas comes in. The $9.99 app digitizes the typical paper agenda and turns it into an interactive experience.

Tap new agenda to start a fresh agenda. You can then add elements such as photos, text and real-time polls that can be answered by other people with Agendas loaded on their iPads. Publish the agenda by pressing the talk bubble in the menu bar. You can choose a name for your iPad and an entry code. Once the agenda is published, other Agendas users can access this agenda by typing in the entry code.

The attendees can ask questions through Agendas, and positive feedback on the question from other attendees will flag the presenter to let that person know to add it to the agenda. Once you have a complete agenda, you can print it out for those desiring a paper copy or email a PDF. A meeting length indicator lets you adhere to a certain time so you can keep on track. Agendas can be updated on the fly to add and remove items as needed during the meeting.

In the top right corner of each agenda section, you can tap a pencil icon to make person notes on each section of the agenda. The icon changes to black if you've done this, so you know if you need to go back and refer to a section later. The notes are included on emailed and printed agendas.

Agendas is a great app if you're looking for a program to use to decrease paper usage for your meetings and utilize iPads in the office more efficiently. I would love to see for this to be adopted at my day job for meetings.

Daily iPad App: Agendas originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A new study, by Retrevo, has been released today. The numbers, especially for iPhone 4 owners are higher than I might have expected.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 44% of 3G and 3GS owners plan to upgrade to the iPhone 4S
• 42% of iPhone 4 owners say they plan to make the jump
• 24% of Android owners say they are coming on board the Apple 4S
• 12% of Android owners say they are willing to switch

Other tidbits from the study: 18% of buyers are willing to wait in a long line to get the phone. 53% of Apple iPhone owners are not disappointed with the 4S, but 21% wish it had a new design. 29% wanted 4G connectivity, and 12% wish it had a larger display.

The Retrevo study sampled 1300 smartphone users across the US earlier this month.

New study says almost half of iPhone owners plan to upgrade to the 4S originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Samsung has set up a temporary shop in Sydney, right across from the local Apple Store, and started hawking Galaxy S2 phones for the low, low price of two bucks (with a two-year contract, naturally). The line for the bargain-basement priced phone was reportedly longer than the nearby line for the iPhone 4S. That's not a huge surprise; people do love a bargain, and a two dollar smartphone certainly looks like one.

Not everyone was impressed by Samsung's offer. Two teenagers waiting in line for the iPhone 4S had this to say to the Sydney Morning Herald: "There's this guy who has come up to us trying to convince us to buy the Samsung Galaxy S II two days in a row now. And he's an idiot."

The iPhone 4S will launch in Australia in less than 24 hours as of this writing, and reportedly Samsung's makeshift store will close up shop the next day.

Samsung attempts to ambush iPhone 4S launch in Sydney originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.