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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Your New iPhone

January 23, 2019January 22, 2019

Well, okay — my new iPhone. An XR, which is a little bigger — and a good bit cheaper — than the XS.

Upgrading was seamless; and look at all the new things you can do!


One feature that looked amazing was the ability to say, “Hey, Siri, what song is this?”

So I said to the trusty Echo Show that sits to the left of my computer:

“Alexa, play Forever Young.”

And as it started to play, I said — to the thin air, because the phone was someplace on the table behind me — “Hey, Siri, what song is this?”

And she said, “Okay, let’s listen.”

After a few seconds — even before Alphaville had begun singing or the lyrics had begun scrolling up Echo’s screen — Siri said, “It sounds like ‘Forever Young’ by Alphaville.”

To which I replied, “That’s —-ing amazing.”

I had never even heard of Alphaville.  I had been thinking of the Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart originals (backstory here).

So then I got Alexa to play Bob Dylan’s version — and again, even before he started singing, Siri nailed it:  “I’m pretty sure that’s ‘Forever Young’ by Bob Dylan.”

Shazam!

(Shazam was the app that invented this capability years ago.  Apple bought it last year.)


I said, “Hey, Siri: show my pictures of Italy.”  Moments later: an album of all 234 pictures I took in October 2017.


There’s more.

I know Androids are cool, too, and cheaper.  But wow.



FANH:  First suggested here at $5.40, when it topped $30 a year ago I suggested selling half (and did).  It’s back down to $22 — in part on a nasty report by short sellers who say it’s a fraud.  My friend who owned a ton doesn’t think it’s a fraud.  He calls it a “hold.”  I’ve sold all the shares I had in my IRA, where there’s no tax to pay; but am holding some I had elsewhere . . . nervous about the headwinds, but thinking it might do just fine.

 

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