WW 819: Sixty-four Threads but None for You

Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…

What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!

Telemetry blindness can be so frustrating. Plex Media Server is another great example of it. Their core software languishes while they throw development resources at features that power users have no interest in. Yet telemetry indicates these features are highly utilized, and that’s because of dark patterns in their UI that trick end users. Just like Paul and Richard said, if the power users continue to be ignored, and we stop running Plex servers, we have 0 reason to entice the “normals” to use Plex.

Re: Satya’s comments on Cortana - I kind of think it’s his “shtick” to toss out internal criticisms to the media. Portray himself as enlightened and forward thinking to the bleeding edge. I agree it was foolish, and voice assistant software would be greatly enhanced by a more advanced conversational engine. Right now they all feel more like I’m interacting with a CLI, guessing at the correct syntax to extract what I want from it.

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Cortana was, for a long time ahead of Siri and Hey Google. It could interact with your apps and was conversation. In reality it died because Windows Mobile and WM died for 2 reasons. 1 Google refused to create versions of their apps for it and 2 Microsofts inability to market properly to the retail stores. WM was better than Android and not as restricted as IOS and iphones - it wasn’t for geeks or posers, it just worked - very efficiently on lower spec hardware. The combination of Google dissuading developers and cutting off their services and Apple buying up all the visible space in stores on websites it was strangled.

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Yes, Cortana had several nice features that the others still don’t have, or are only just getting.

I could ask Cortana to play my audio books and it just worked. Google & Siri still tell me that Audible doesn’t provide support for voice assistants. Likewise, Cortana would read me incoming messages over the car stereo (bluetooth connection). Siri will do this, but only if you are wearing Apple AirPods, over the car stereo, she remains silent.

I have a strong suspicion that Bing AI and Alexa will somehow partner, to make smart speakers better and that a Bing Ai (Alexa Intelligence) app will start to appear on smart TVs

With the snow coming down and stuck at home with Gigantor, my mind, assisted by pain pills is a wandering again.

Here’s a use for deep fakes and ChatGPT. How about we work with dementia and other mental illness charities to develop a ChatGPT powered avatar using photos of a loved one, their captured voice phonemes, and a personal life LLM extension.

You could even create multiples providing a safe and non-threatening conversation partner.

A second device that hit me was a solar powered smart gravestone, using the same technology pathway, but based on the deceased.

Siri reads messages in CarPlay with no problems. Without AirPods. It reads and I can respond by voice as well. All over the car speakers.

I don’t have CarPlay, just a smart head unit with Bluetooth.

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Google Driving mode will read your messages out over Bluetooth, but as we’ve discussed before, you have to go into Maps and plan a route to enable Driving Mode, so it’s awkward.

On long car journeys, even though I don’t use the phone to navigate, I do sometimes open maps and put the route in so I can use the other Driving Mode features.

Try unpairing and repair. It works for me. There was a bug a couple of years ago, but it was fixed.

Another thing to look at is the device type in the Bluetooth device connection.

Good luck.

I never (once or twice a year at most) use the nav software on my phone. It stays in my jacket pocket or in my backpack in the back of the car, I listen to podcasts or audio books over bluetooth and answer calls hands-free. Having my iPhone read me messages over Bluetooth, like it does over the AirPods, would be great.

I don’t understand why the iPhone can read messages over one Bluetooth connection (AirPods) can do this, but no others (car, Galaxy Buds+ and 3 other BT headsets) can’t do it over the others. It is purely to entice you to use an Apple headset, but I’m not replacing my car just to get CarPlay.

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No, it is the same on all BT devices, the iPhone will only read messages on the AirPods, nothing else - I have the car, AirPods, Galaxy Buds, Sony BT headset, BT speaker in the kitchen and another 2 other headsets, the iPhone will only read over the AirPods, the other headsets/speakers just beep when a message arrives.

But getting the messages read to me isn’t worth buying a new car over.

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I just tried this 30 minutes ago. Connected my iPhone to my car over bluetooth. Hey Siri, Read my last message. It answered over my car speakers then prompted me for a response. This works.

The best way to fix this on your phone is to unpair/forget your car bluetooth connection(also delete it in your car’s system) and then re-connect. Even better is to unpair all your bluetooth connections, turn bluetooth off, then turn it back on and reconnect your car first. Bluetooth implementations in cars can have “issues”.

OK, I’ll try that. With the AirPods, Siri stops whatever is playing and automatically reads the message from Signal, with all other connected devices, Siri doesn’t automatically read the messages from messaging apps.

If it works for AirPods it should work with any Bluetooth device. You should also check the device type in the bluetooth settings. Hit the " I " icon next to the device and then there is a device type selection available. You may have to indicate that those other headsets are headsets. Again bluetooth is not implemented the same by every vendor. I hope this works for you.

Just found an article on Apple Support, it is a feature unique to AirPods gen. 2 & 3, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.

If it was unique to AirPods it would not work for me through my car. This article just explains how to do it with AirPods since they all have slightly different gestures available.

It just used to work with Windows Mobile :grin:

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I don’t think so. My experience is the same as David, albeit on Android. 2016 car that doesn’t have Android Auto. Cars use a Hands-Free Profile (HFP), A2DP for stereo streaming, plus others for data (SPP/OPP), BPAB for phone books etc.

My phone in the car will stream music, make phone calls, sync address book, display emails and messages on the screen, but nothing else - unless I enable Google Assistant driving mode, and it will interrupt the A2DP streaming with notifications, nav directions etc.

But functionality also varies between earbuds/headphones, so that must be software provided with the earbuds.

My Sonys do nothing. Samsung Buds announce emails or messages have been received. Pixel Buds read the content of the messages and let you reply with voice.

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Yes, it seems to be reserved for AirPods 2 or 3, but not the originals, plus Pros and Max, plus it sounds like CarPlay. In the car, my watch vibrates to let me know a message has arrived, with the AirPods Pro, it automatically interrupts the current playback and reads the message, no interaction required, no telling it to read the message, it just does it automatically.