I really like the "Hey Siri!" feature, although why it's only usable while the phone is charging is beyond me. I thought maybe battery concerns since it has to be constantly listening, but I wouldn't think it would be that taxing on the battery.
How do you handle typos in iOS as a quadriplegic? They're a pain in the ass to fix by hand and I didn't even know you could do it by voice.
I couldn't agree with this more. You're absolutely correct that battery performance is the reason they don't switch it on by default. However, I really wish they would give me the option whether it's turned on by default or not. M I would gladly take the battery hit to use this feature Apple!
I also use the Apple Switch Control[0] feature which enables me to navigate text and correct typos, this is done through a series of sequential button presses which enables me to use menus to access all of the features of the phone. I use Switch Control in conjunction with the Tecla Shield[1] which uses Bluetooth to connect up a button by my cheek and the iPhone.
So yes, fixing typos when you're quadriplegic takes a little while but compared to the alternative it's awesome!
You can do voice activation for very little power if you have dedicated hardware for it. The iPhone doesn't have such dedicated hardware (presumably they decided to add that feature after most of the current hardware shipped) so the constant listening has to run on the main CPU. That in turn means that the main CPU never gets to idle for more than a few milliseconds while the feature is active, so it'll suck up a lot of power compared to just sleeping normally.
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?
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.
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!
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....
How do you handle typos in iOS as a quadriplegic? They're a pain in the ass to fix by hand and I didn't even know you could do it by voice.