HomePod Tips

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.

Weather

when will it stop raining?

what's the temperature?

what's the weather for today?

what's the low tonight?

Dates

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?

Maps and Locations

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

Reminders

create a grocery list

add raisins to my grocery list.

Notes

create a "shows to watch" note

add to my "shows to watch" note

{wait for prompt}

bojack horseman

Timers

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?

Math

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?

Food

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?

Podcasts

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 .

Words

how do you say "Cheers!" in German ?

how do you spell "counterfeit"?

what is "counterfeit"?

what is a synonym for "counterfeit"?

define "counterfeit".

Random

where's my iPhone?

where is {family member's name} 's iPhone?

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"

Radio

These are free internet radio stations that do not require an Apple Music subscription.

play CBC radio

play BBC radio

play NPR radio

Music

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

i like this

never play this song again

Music meta data...

what year is this song from?

who sings this?

Volume

max volume {are you sure?} yes

Maximum volume without confirmation

one hundred percent volume

To play music ultra low...

one percent volume

Stocks

how's the market doing?

how much is one Euro?

how much is 1,000 Yen in US dollars?

News

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?

Calendar

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 ?

Thanks for reading!

Am I missing something awesome? Send me a note: jmoore@xinsight.ca Or submit an issue at: https://github.com/xinsight/homepod