ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Hey, Tony’s iPad Siri, Set a 20 Minute Timer

Wouldn’t that be nice?

A boy can dream. Photo by and of author

This is never going to happen without touching something because Apple won’t, or if they do, they’ll screw it up so it will almost never work right.

Yes, I’m still a dumb Apple fanboy, but I have to be realistic: the Apple people who make decisions about product features apparently never use the devices they make decisions about. Their underlings surely do, but why would you listen to someone who probably earns a tiny percentage of what you do? What do they know?

But a boy can dream, can’t he?

So, let’s think about you or me in a room with our iPad, our iPhone, and some HomePods. You want a timer. “Hey, Siri…” you begin, but which device will answer? Well, it depends on:

Proximity: The device that thinks it hears you most clearly (usually the closest one) is more likely to respond.

Recent Activity: The device you recently used, like unlocking your iPhone, might take priority.

Capabilities: If your HomePods think you asked for a song, they might play it — even if you didn’t want it played on the Homepods.

4. Multiple Devices: If two or more devices want to answer, they talk it over between…