Much thanks to ukedude at Roger’s Tech Bites for the solution.

Roger’s Tech Bites: How to locate your lost Bluetooth headset.

The doodle serve a higher purpose as well.  Recent doodles have become increasingly more complicated from a programming standpoint and showcase the power of HTML 5 and the browser.  The first example of this I can remember is the PAC-MAN doodle which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the game PAC-MAN.  It was a fully playable PAC-MAN game in the browser using HTML 5.

Check out some of the other Google Doodles from the past.

There are multiple problems with this and few benefits.  The benefits are to the Movie/Television/Music industry who are large contributors to the sponsors of these bills.  In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Movie and Music industry are the largest campaign contributor to Representative Lamar Smith .

As for the problems, well the bills would for the most part be censorship opening the potential for the US government as oppressive as countries like China when it comes to controlling internet traffic.  But these bills will also stifle business.  Search engine providers and sites like Reddit where users share links to interesting content, could easily be pulled from the air simply because users may put up links to offending materials.

There needs to be a better solution to the problem of piracy, unfortunately, these bills are not it.  Read more about these bills and get involved by writing your local representative.

• Meet SOPA author Lamar Smith, Hollywood’s favorite Republican 

• SOPA, PIPA: What you need to know
• How SOPA would affect you: FAQ

I am not a gear-head.  When I start working on my car, and do simple things like change the oil and rotate the tires, I enjoy the sense of accomplishment.  I am not a finance nerd.  I don’t sit down and scour books on investing and read the Wall Street Journal’s financial pages everyday, but I do enjoy hearing about it.  I am a tech-head, a complete and utter nerd.  When I find something new related to computer, or electronics gadgets, I read as much on it as I can.  I learn all the nuances and how to use it perfectly, and then I incorporate it into my workflow until something better comes along.  Since I spend 8 hours a day on my  computer, it’s in my advantage to streamline my process.

For that reason, my wife is probably ready to throw my new iPhone 4s out the window.  You see, I just got the new 4s to replace my iPhone 3Gs which I have had since it came out in June 2009.  I put iOS 5 on my iPhone 3Gs and spent the Wednesday through Friday playing with that.  So when I got the 4s, I already knew what I was doing.  But, the iPhone 4s has something that none of my iDevices have, Siri voice control.  So basically, to the chagrin of my family, I have spent the last two days talking to my phone, and learning the ins and outs of Siri.

So, my intention with this long post is to teach you all the little gems I could discover about Siri.

Siri Voice Control Explained

Apple purchased the Siri about a year and a half ago and everyone was waiting to see what they would do with them. At the iPhone event a few weeks ago, we finally found out what Siri was for.  Siri is basically an advanced voice control system for your iPhone 4s.  It is still in Beta, so expect it to get better, but as of now, Apple has integrated Siri into the iOS framework in a pretty major way.  You can use it for everyday tasks like scheduling meetings and checking your calendar, finding restaurants near by, and sending messages to people.  The nice thing about it is they have integrated voice recognition into every app that uses the keyboard. So if you are in an email, instead of typing it out, simply click on the microphone icon on the keyboard and dictate your message.  No more hopping around between apps like Dragon Dictation to dictate a message.

The first day I had the phone, there were a few issues.  It seemed like every time I moved across cell towers or jumped to a different network, it would have a problem.  Siri would come back and say “Sorry, I cannot find the network at this time”.  The reason for this is that Apple is sending some of your voice commands off to its servers to be processed, so a network connection is mandatory.  Usually, restarting the phone fixed it.  But today, I have only received that error once, and it has been pretty solid.

Siri Prerequisites

There are no real “Prerequisites” to use Siri on your iPhone 4s.  Just go to Settings->General->Siri and turn it on.  What I mean by prerequisites is there is some due diligence you should do to make Siri run better.

1. Turn on location services - Go to Settings->Location Services and turn on location services for the Maps, Safari, and weather apps at a minimum.  This will make life easier when you are searching for something in your area.
2. Set your personal information - If you haven’t already done so, create a contact for yourself and put in as much information as you can.  Put in all your email addresses, work and home addresses, Related People, etc.  Then go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendar.  Scroll down near the bottom to the “Contacts” section and select “My Info”.  Find yourself in the contact list and select your contact.  Now Siri will know who you are when you ask things like Take Me Home.
3. Clean up your contacts - Go through all your contacts on the iPhone and tune them in the following way.

• Ensure first and last names are in the correct place – My work uses Exchange and many of the contacts I imported from Exchange had the first and last name entered wrong
• Use phonetic speech – Edit a contact and scroll to the bottom and select “add field” , and select Phonetic First or Last name.  Phonetically sound out the name to help out voice recognition for tough names.
• Use names – Edit a contact and scroll to the bottom and select “add field” and add Nickname.  Enter the Nickname for the person.  For example, enter Mom for your mom or Boss for your boss.
• Use Relationships – Edit a contact and scroll to bottom and select “add field” and add Related People.  If you have contact entries for your spouse, boss, or assistant, select the blue arrow by the field and pick out their contact information.  This will help you when you say things like “Call my wife”
• Use favorites – If Siri finds multiple matches, it tries looks at your favorites to find the best one.  Open a contact, scroll to the bottom, and select “Add to Favorites”.  It will ask you which phone number or email to add to your favorites.

Taking the time to correct errors will make Siri a much more enjoyable experience. Besides, it is a kind of cathartic experience to occasionally clean out your contacts.

Siri Commands

To use Siri, press and hold the Home button until you hear the tone. Then speak your command to the iPhone.  If you are using a bluetooth headset, you can hold the call button for the same amount of time and speak into the headset.  Siri can perform the following actions (plus many more that I haven’t discovered I’m sure).

Make phone calls

• “Call John” or “Call John Smith” – If you don’t use the full name, Siri will ask you which John, and ask you which phone
• “Call John Smith’s Mobile” - This will pretty much short-circuit any questions and take you right to the call.
• “Call Mom’s home phone” – If you have a nickname setup for someone and it is unique, it will take you right to the phone.

Send Text Messages

• “Message John Smith I am headed to the meeting in 5 minutes.” - Siri will find John Smiths Mobile number and send a message saying “I am headed to the meeting in 5 minutes.”
• “Tell my wife I will pick up milk” - Siri will find your wife’s mobile number and send a message saying “I will pick up milk”

Email

• “Send Email to John Smith about the Meeting” – Siri will create an email for John Smith with the Subject Meeting. It will ask you what you want the body of the message to say.
• “Search for emails from John Smith” – A list of emails from John Smith will appear, if you have any in your inbox.
• “Search for emails about the migration meeting” – A list of emails about the migration meeting will appear, if you have any in your inbox.

Calendar

• “Schedule lunch for Tuesday at noon” - Schedules an appointment for Tuesday with the title Lunch
• “Schedule coffee with Bob Smith for Wednesday at 2pm” – Schedules a meeting with Bob Smith for Wednesday at 2pm
• “Move meeting at 2pm on Wednesday to 3pm” - Moves the Wednesday meeting from 2 to 3pm
• “Search Calendar for Dentist” - Searches your calendar for your dentist appointment

Clock, Alarm, and Timer

• “Set alarm for 7am” - Sets an alarm for 7am.
• “Change my 7 am alarm to 7:30 am” - Changes the alarm
• “Clear 7:30 am alarm” – Clears the 7am alarm
• “Wake me up in 8 hours” - Sets an alarm for 8 hours from now
• “Clear all alarms” - Clears all the alarms
• “Set a timer for 5 minutes” - Set the timer for 5 minutes
• “What is the time” – Tells you the current time
• “Whats the date this Saturday” – Tells you the date on Saturday
• “What is the time in Singapore” – Give you the current time in Singapore

Reminders

• “Remind me to call mom” – Sets a reminder to call your mom
• “Remind me to call mom Tuesday at 9am” – Sets a reminder for Tuesday at 9am to call your mom

Maps

• “Find Chinese restaurants near me” - If you have location services turned on for maps, you will see a list of Chinese restaurants nearby.
• “Directions to Bob Smiths work” - It will give you directions to Bob Smiths work address, if you have it entered
• “Take Me Home”  - Directions to your house.  You need to have your info entered for this to work.  Check out the Prerequisites section

Weather

• “What is the weather” - If you have location services turned on for the Weather app, it will bring up the weather forecast in your area.
• “What is the weather in Cincinnati at 2pm” - Will show you the weather forecast at 2pm for Cincinnati
• “What is the high temperature on Tuesday” - Will tell you the high for Tuesday
• “Will it rain today” – Tells you if it will rain.
• “Will it be hot today”  - This is actually a little funny.  I ask it this and it said “No, 63 degrees doesn’t seem very hot (but then, I’ve never been in Cincinnati)”

Stocks

• “Whats Apple’s Stock Price” – Gives you a lot of detail on the stock
• “How are the markets doing” - Tells you how the markets did or are doing
• “What is the P/E Ratio of Apple Stock” – Tells you Apple’s P/E ratio

Address Book

• “Show John Smith” - Tells you John Smiths information
• “What’s my mom’s mobile number” – Shows you your mom’s mobile number
• “What’s Bob Johnson’s home address” - Shows you Bob’s home address
• “Find people named Bob” - Shows you all the Bobs in your address book
• “My mom is Diana Spruance” - Sets your mom to a contact

Notes

• “Note: Spent $20 at lunch” – Creates a note saying you spent $20 at lunch
• “Find my lunch note” – Finds your note about lunch
• “Create a reading list note” – Creates a reading list
• “Add War and Peace to reading list note” – Adds War and Peace to your reading list

Internet Search

• “Search for the web for pictures of 1965 Mustang” - Performs a search on the internet for Images of 1965 Mustang
• “Search Wikipedia for Steve Jobs” – Searches Wikipedia for the Steve Jobs entry
• “Search for news about the iPhone 4s” – Will search the internet for news about the iPhone 4s

Wolfram Alpha

• “How many ounces are in a gallon” – Will search Wolfram Alpha to give you the answer
• “How many calories in a bagel”  -  Will return nutritional information on a bagel
• “What is 15% of 42.25″ - Will compute 15% of 42.25

Music control

• “Play songs by Seether” – Will play songs by Seether
• “Play Black Hole Sun” - Will play the song Black Hole Sun
• “Play Playlist Workout” – Plays the workout playlist
• “Play me rock music” – Plays songs with Genra Rock
• “Play Podcast Buzz out loud” - Will play the podcast Buzz out loud
• “Play” – Plays whatever is in the now playing list
• “Pause” - Pauses
• “Skip” – Skips to the next track

Fun

• Ask Siri something fun and see if it comes up with an answer.  Ask it things like “What are you wearing” or “What is the meaning of life”

To me it looks like one of two things has happened.

1. Rumors we running around that Netflix was looking for some one to buy them, namely Amazon.  This was all here-say and I have no idea if it were true.  But if it were true, the rumor also said Amazon wanted the physical DVD inventory off Netflix’s books, hence Netflix spinning off the DVD division.  If this were the case, that deal probably fell through.
2. Or the more likely scenario, and the reason I think Netflix decided to keep DVDs in house, is that so many people dropped, and there was such an uproar from the community, AND the fact that their stock has literally plummeted since making the announcement, that Netflix decided it wasn’t worth it.  Check out their stock for the last 30 days showing it at a high of 210 30 days ago to 111 now.

iPod Nano

The biggest redesign to the Nano was the addition of a built in pedometer so that you no longer need the Nike+ sensor.  Apple also included several new clock faces making the Nano more of an accessory that it was previously.  The price has been lowered slightly to $129 for the 8GB and $149 for the 16GB.

iPod Touch

Apple started off the iPod Touch announcement by talking about how it is the number 1 gaming platform in the world.  To me this sounded very similar to their last iPod Touch upgrade where they discuss how it was the number one gaming platform in the world.  Beyond letting us know that, it looks like the beefed up the processor on the Touch to make it perform better.  But there was no camera update, which anyone who has a touch will tell you, it needs a good camera.  This is one of the most disappointing things to me.  Pricing is $199, $299, $399 for the 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB.

iCloud and iOS 5

What can I say about these two services that hasn’t already been said.  I’m really not kidding.  Apple has already talked about both in great length at the WWDC over the summer.  iOS 5 brings some nice features like revamped notifications, iMessage, and the ability to get to the camera from the lock screen.  iCloud will work with all apps on your iOS devices to sync music, documents, apps, calendar, and photos with their cloud service.  One of the creepier features is “Find My Friends and Family” which is basically a tracking service for your friends.  The gold release of iOS 5 is coming next week and the pricing will be 5GB for Free, 15GB for $20 a year, a 20GB upgrade for $40 a year, and a 50GB upgrade for $100 a year.

iPhone 4s

The iPhone announcement was the one that everyone was waiting on.  Apple started it off by talking about how the iPhone 4 was the most successful iPhone out of the whole line.  They basically then proceeded to say how they improved the iPhone 4.  This disappointed everyone because they were expecting an iPhone 5.  Here is a run down of features:

• Siri – This is a voice assistant.  Google phones have had voice assistance for a while but apple has really stepped it up with this one.  It looks really nice.  Oh yeah, did I mention it is in beta?  I have never know Apple to do that.
• Faster Processor – Apple put a dual-core A5 processor in the new iPhone, which is the same chip that is in the iPad 2.
• New Camera – They have done a lot of work on the camera of the iPhone increasing it to an 8MP camera that has better white balance and performs better in low light.  The camera now supports 1080P video as well.
• World Phone – The iPhone has a dual antennal essentially allowing for CDMA and GSM connectivity from the same phone.
• Dual Antennas – There are dual antennas on the phone allowing the iPhone to dynamically switch from one antenna to another when there is a reception issues.
• Sprint Version – Sprint will now sell the iPhone

Really, that is about it on the iPhone.  To this though, I have to say what did you expect.  I think a lot of people wished there was a bigger screen on the iPhone and support for 4G networks.  I don’t see Apple adding 4G support until all the carriers have a mature product, look at how long it took them to move to 3G.  And addressing the bigger screen, well there is probably a 5 in existence out there, but the iPhone already has a crazy high pixel count on the Retina screen and that provides a crisp display.  So I am not sure why people are complaining so much.  The iPhone 4s when compared to other phones out there is probably just enough to get apple by until next year.

The iPhone 4s will be available for pre-order on October 7th and available for pickup on October 14th.

Essentially, this product announcement was a safe announcement.  The school year has begun and this is always the time when Apple make the iPod announcements.  The iPhone announcement that did not come in June was rolled in here.  Apple will probably not sell as many iPhones as it did with the iPhone 4 release, but the addition of Sprint will more than make up for the lack of features the iPhone 4s.  Personally, as someone who has access to the iPhone 4, but still uses an iPhone 3gs on a daily basis, I think the iPhone 4s is a worth while upgrade.  But if I had the iPhone 4, I do not think I would bother.

Image via CrunchBase

There is an Apple event planned today from 10-11 PDT (1-2 EDT) where it is expected they will announce iPhone 5s.  We are actually looking at 2 new iPhones at least according to some sources including and iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S.  There may also be an announcement about iOS 5 and the new Assistant which will take your voice commands and help you “Get Things Done” hands free on your phone.  Assistant is said to only run on newer hardware because of the harware requirements for memory and processor speed.

The Techbookshelf will keep you up to date with posts to come later today.  I will aggregate all the data I can find and let you know what is important about the new apple announcement.

Netflix Killer? Try Netflix Promoter: Amazon Talks Up a Rival Video Service.:

If you were looking for another reason to be bearish about Netflix, Amazon helped out yesterday, by unveiling a cheap, attractive tablet designed to work with Amazon’s own video service.

But here’s a reason to be bullish (or just less bearish) about Netflix: Amazon’s new tablet is also going to promote Netflix.

The video service is one of four big developers — along with Pandora, Facebook and Twitter — that should have apps ready for the Kindle Fire at launch, Amazon has said over and over again.

Here, in this Bloomberg BusinessWeek curtain-raiser, for instance. And throughout yesterday’s press event, like during my interview with Kindle content boss Russ Grandinetti.

Why would Amazon welcome Netflix when it’s building a competing video service? That one’s easy: Because even after all the blowback, lots of people like Netflix.

Reed Hastings and company should have 24 million customers at the end of this quarter, and 22 million of them will be streaming video. If you’re trying to sell a new gadget, you want to make sure you can include those folks as potential customers, by making sure they can use the service they like after they give you $200.

There’s also a larger question about how directly the Amazon video service will end up competing with Netflix anyway. The two services seem similar enough at first glance, but lots of smart folks seem to think Amazon is most interested in using its service as an incentive to sign up for Amazon Prime, its express shipping service.

That is: Amazon wants to use digital video to sell physical goods, while Netflix wants to be in the digital video business, period.

In the video industry, Amazon has a rep for being unwilling to pay top dollar for content. For now, at least, it seems instead content to fill its virtual shelves with not just old stuff, but very old stuff – stuff that’s from shows that don’t appear on TV at all anymore.

Netflix has plenty of that stuff, too, but it has has recently made a point of paying up for much fresher stuff – like episodes of “Mad Men” — and stuff that’s so fresh it hasn’t aired yet, like Kevin Spacey’s “House of Cards”.

To be fair, Amazon’s aims could change. It could happen over time, as it cobbles together enough assets and subscribers to make a real run at Netflix. Or it could be overnight: The company is one of the handful of serious bidders still looking at Hulu, and if it landed that service, things could get very interesting very fast.

But for now, Amazon is going to have enough work convincing people who’ve spent a lot of time and money on Apple’s platform to switch to its own cloud service. No reason to make it harder by pissing off millions of Netflix customers, too.

(Via All Things Digital)

Related articles

• Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Announced (techbookshelf.com)

There are  few unique things about the Kindle Fire that most 7″ tablet makers haven’t had going for them, namely

Image provided by CBS Interactive and CNET

the price.  The Kindle Fire is only $199 which means Amazon will be losing money on the hardware.  The other compelling feature that sets the Kindle Fire apart is the content.  Amazon is know for their content library and theKindle Fire will make use of all of it.  You will get Free cloud storage for your documents, MP3′s and Videos, in addition to a Kindle store that includes MP3s, movies, and books.  Next to the price, this feature that I feel will put the Kindle into direct competition with the iPad.  In the past the iPad has had a monopoly on the content with the iTunes store providing an easy method to get your music and movies.  But now Amazon can deliver all their content to the Fire streamed over the internet.

The Kindle Fire is sparse on features, there is no camera, bluetooth, cellular, or GPS.  But for the price and the content that you will have access to, the Kindle Fire becomes a tablet that is very desirable and more people can afford.

It is worth noting that Amazon also announced new Kindles and Kindle Pricing.  The traditional Kindle is now $79.  There is now a Kindle Touch for $99, and a Kindle Touch 3G for $149.

Also, I had to include one more thing.  Amazon posted a video explaining the strengths of their new web browser for the Kindle called Silk.  If you want, watch the video below.  I find it extremely funny because, no one but people like me will really understand it.  I think if my mom watched this video she might slip into convulsions.

(gizmodo.com)