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.
