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Thanks for the detailed answer, I did wonder what the exact reason was. Do you think there would be much overhead - financially speaking - speaking to adding t

Thanks for the detailed answer, I did wonder what the exact reason was. Do you think there would be much overhead - financially speaking - speaking to adding the dedicated hardware? I ask because I can only see them doing it if it's financially viable, as in, will enough disabled people or those interested in voice recognition by the iPhone to make it worth our while. Also, does the CPU get hot whilst it's plugged in and constantly listening every few milliseconds?

mikeash 12y ago
I doubt the CPU gets too hot. We're talking about something like 5% utilization. There's a pretty large difference in power consumption between a constant 5% and zero, but there's also a pretty large difference between 5% and 100%. If you run an iPhone at full blast it'll last a few hours before the battery dies. If it's completely asleep then it'll last days. Constant listening would probably cut the standby time down to, fairly wild guess here, a day or two. Which when combined with normal usage over the course of a day could make the difference between making it until bed time and needing to recharge in the afternoon. For the iPhone 6, Apple claims 10 days standby time, 50 hours audio playback time (which uses dedicated hardware for most of the work) and 10-11 hours of internet use. Which doesn't isolate the CPU, of course, what with the screen and radios, but should give some idea of what's going on.
- escapologybb 12y ago
  cool, thanks for the explanation. I wonder if it would be possible to use that dedicated audio playback hardware for this purpose, I would definitely pay a relatively small sum towards RND if anybody is interested! I also wonder if there's a worry that average users might turn this on accidentally, running their battery out and then shouting at Apple? If that's the case, it could be happily buried in the Accessibility menu I think. Seriously, this feature would enable me to keep my iPhone in my top pocket while I go out and be able to access Siri rather than cart about all the other equipment. It would be great! Edit: Why isn't accessibility in Dragon's menu?!
  - mikeash 12y ago
    Apple typically likes to avoid any feature that might cause trouble, even if the usefulness could easily outweigh the problems. Their motto is "It Just Works" after all. Problems with accidental activation and such wouldn't surprise me as being part of their rationale. I'd bet that allowing "Hey, Siri" on battery will be one of the first tweaks available once an iOS 8 jailbreak is released. Might be something to keep an eye out for if you're brave, jailbreak-wise. Also, have you considered an external battery providing power over USB? The phone will be in a charging state that way. Sort of a silly workaround, but maybe worth it. I think an add-on for this would be fairly easy. All you need to do to activate Siri is long-press the home button, which you can do externally through the microphone port or over Bluetooth. A widget that listens for the magic phrase and then simulates a button press would be doable. No idea how much it would cost or how hard it would be to build....

mikeash 12y ago

I doubt the CPU gets too hot. We're talking about something like 5% utilization. There's a pretty large difference in power consumption between a constant 5% and zero, but there's also a pretty large difference between 5% and 100%. If you run an iPhone at full blast it'll last a few hours before the battery dies. If it's completely asleep then it'll last days. Constant listening would probably cut the standby time down to, fairly wild guess here, a day or two. Which when combined with normal usage over the course of a day could make the difference between making it until bed time and needing to recharge in the afternoon. For the iPhone 6, Apple claims 10 days standby time, 50 hours audio playback time (which uses dedicated hardware for most of the work) and 10-11 hours of internet use. Which doesn't isolate the CPU, of course, what with the screen and radios, but should give some idea of what's going on.

escapologybb 12y ago
cool, thanks for the explanation. I wonder if it would be possible to use that dedicated audio playback hardware for this purpose, I would definitely pay a relatively small sum towards RND if anybody is interested! I also wonder if there's a worry that average users might turn this on accidentally, running their battery out and then shouting at Apple? If that's the case, it could be happily buried in the Accessibility menu I think. Seriously, this feature would enable me to keep my iPhone in my top pocket while I go out and be able to access Siri rather than cart about all the other equipment. It would be great! Edit: Why isn't accessibility in Dragon's menu?!
- mikeash 12y ago
  Apple typically likes to avoid any feature that might cause trouble, even if the usefulness could easily outweigh the problems. Their motto is "It Just Works" after all. Problems with accidental activation and such wouldn't surprise me as being part of their rationale. I'd bet that allowing "Hey, Siri" on battery will be one of the first tweaks available once an iOS 8 jailbreak is released. Might be something to keep an eye out for if you're brave, jailbreak-wise. Also, have you considered an external battery providing power over USB? The phone will be in a charging state that way. Sort of a silly workaround, but maybe worth it. I think an add-on for this would be fairly easy. All you need to do to activate Siri is long-press the home button, which you can do externally through the microphone port or over Bluetooth. A widget that listens for the magic phrase and then simulates a button press would be doable. No idea how much it would cost or how hard it would be to build....