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Siri can control your smart home and doesn’t phone home (any more). You can hook it up with a raspberry pi to control just about anything, including generic zig

Siri can control your smart home and doesn’t phone home (any more). You can hook it up with a raspberry pi to control just about anything, including generic zigbee devices.

tksb 7y ago
Just made this jump recently and have been pleasantly surprised that all stated is true and it's delightful to use. More importantly, I feel as if _we_ use Siri, and not the other way around. Fingers crossed…?
ekianjo 7y ago
That means you have to buy into another walled garden though.
- cmdshiftf4 7y ago
  Not GP but I'm a happy Apple products/services customer. Rightly or wrongly, I feel like I purchase products and services from Apple, rather than the data from my usage of their products being their core product or service. If something abhorrent from Apple comes to the forefront then I'll happily switch back to self-build + Linux + self-hosted services, but for the time being I'm content. On the flip side, I've done everything I can to eradicate Google from my life and will continue to do so.
  - sneak 7y ago
    Apple runs special servers for iCloud inside of China so that the CCP can monitor all traffic and more effectively disappear people who transmit information that they don’t like.
jeena 7y ago
Does the voice recognition work hands free? On phones the microphones were never good enough to be used in the pocket or from a different room and I don't want to hold my phone in ma hand just to turn on the lights. Another problem is that it's as closed as googles eco system so I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes anyway, if it's not free software then what's the point switching from google to apple?
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  Apple has a Home Hub device as well. Also, as a new owner of an Apple Watch (had to back out of Fitbit now that Google bought them, sigh, and this was the most interesting option), the Siri integration with the Watch is fascinatingly better than I'd expect and made me much more interested in using Siri more than I had before. The Dick Tracy-ness of talking to an assistant on your wrist is amusing/fun in general, of course, but so far I've been impressed with the range of both the microphone and speaker for a wrist-worn device, and you don't have to do the Dick Tracy style arm raise (though of course, that doesn't necessarily stop you from wanting to; the amusing long tail impact of old pop culture). (I'm a pragmatist and don't hold closed ecosystems against them. I am on the side that Apple seems more clear about seeing me as a customer than a product or a black box source of data, and that's more than enough reason for me to switch to them over Google [though in my case I was switching from Windows Phone, RIP].)
sneak 7y ago
Siri absolutely phones home, on every single command.
- doctor_eval 7y ago
  Yes - sorry you are technically correct (the best kind of correct!), but you can fully opt out of having your spoken commands recorded and reviewed. That was the point I was making. I don’t know if that’s possible with the other players. None of them have showered themselves in glory but Apple’s track record has been generally positive.

Siri can control your smart home and doesn’t phone home (any more). You can hook it up with a raspberry pi to control just about anything, including generic zigbee devices.

tksb 7y ago

Just made this jump recently and have been pleasantly surprised that all stated is true and it's delightful to use. More importantly, I feel as if _we_ use Siri, and not the other way around. Fingers crossed…?

ekianjo 7y ago

That means you have to buy into another walled garden though.

cmdshiftf4 7y ago
Not GP but I'm a happy Apple products/services customer. Rightly or wrongly, I feel like I purchase products and services from Apple, rather than the data from my usage of their products being their core product or service. If something abhorrent from Apple comes to the forefront then I'll happily switch back to self-build + Linux + self-hosted services, but for the time being I'm content. On the flip side, I've done everything I can to eradicate Google from my life and will continue to do so.
- sneak 7y ago
  Apple runs special servers for iCloud inside of China so that the CCP can monitor all traffic and more effectively disappear people who transmit information that they don’t like.

jeena 7y ago

Does the voice recognition work hands free? On phones the microphones were never good enough to be used in the pocket or from a different room and I don't want to hold my phone in ma hand just to turn on the lights. Another problem is that it's as closed as googles eco system so I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes anyway, if it's not free software then what's the point switching from google to apple?

WorldMaker 7y ago
Apple has a Home Hub device as well. Also, as a new owner of an Apple Watch (had to back out of Fitbit now that Google bought them, sigh, and this was the most interesting option), the Siri integration with the Watch is fascinatingly better than I'd expect and made me much more interested in using Siri more than I had before. The Dick Tracy-ness of talking to an assistant on your wrist is amusing/fun in general, of course, but so far I've been impressed with the range of both the microphone and speaker for a wrist-worn device, and you don't have to do the Dick Tracy style arm raise (though of course, that doesn't necessarily stop you from wanting to; the amusing long tail impact of old pop culture). (I'm a pragmatist and don't hold closed ecosystems against them. I am on the side that Apple seems more clear about seeing me as a customer than a product or a black box source of data, and that's more than enough reason for me to switch to them over Google [though in my case I was switching from Windows Phone, RIP].)

sneak 7y ago

Siri absolutely phones home, on every single command.

doctor_eval 7y ago
Yes - sorry you are technically correct (the best kind of correct!), but you can fully opt out of having your spoken commands recorded and reviewed. That was the point I was making. I don’t know if that’s possible with the other players. None of them have showered themselves in glory but Apple’s track record has been generally positive.