Firstly a disclaimer - although I understand Android phones have a somewhat similar facility I am an iPhone user
I have never had a bike with a WonderWheel and so I have had to stab at the handlebar mounted phone’s screen with a stylus or suitably gloved finger to control it. This is a bit hit and miss, distracting and will probably be illegal soon
Recently I stumbled across an iOS feature called Voice Control, accessed via Settings>Accessibility>Voice Control (this is nothing to do with Siri, although Siri can be used to initially turn on the feature) This brings up a small blue microphone icon top right and from then on there are many plain voice commands you can speak to move around your phone. Examples are “zoom in/out” “swipe left/right/up/down” “take screenshot” “go Home”, “Open Phone”etc
Now, moving to the bottom of the Voice Control page is the sub menu Overlay and this in turn has four sub menus - choose Item Numbers and this will then display small semi translucent numbers adjacent to each tappable icon on your screen, including all those in your preferred third party apps. Simply speak one of these displayed numbers and that icon will be “clicked”
So basically you can sit in font of your iPad/iPhone with your hands in your pockets and operate your device!
All this works very well both in the car and on the bike with my Pocket Earth and Gaia apps and I suppose Scenic, Waze and other Satnav apps will be the same. One particular feature that I am finding useful is the command “take screenshot” as it instantly records data such as position, time and nearby POIs for future reference
Of course talking to your phone on the motorway and from within a helmet is another matter. Initially I used one of the cheap Bluetooth headsets and it worked OK, but I now wear a single AirPod as it pairs seamlessly, the microphone is protected from wind noise and when the power fades it is simply swapped out for the other one. However I guess any Bluetooth intercom or integrated helmet system will work just as well. So far I have only used it tooling around town and have yet to test it in anger at speed. There are several other options of it to explore (including the interesting sounding Customise Commands)
This serendipitous discovery is giving me hours of fun and it’s capabilities might transform the way many of us interact with our phones, both on and off the bike
I have never had a bike with a WonderWheel and so I have had to stab at the handlebar mounted phone’s screen with a stylus or suitably gloved finger to control it. This is a bit hit and miss, distracting and will probably be illegal soon
Recently I stumbled across an iOS feature called Voice Control, accessed via Settings>Accessibility>Voice Control (this is nothing to do with Siri, although Siri can be used to initially turn on the feature) This brings up a small blue microphone icon top right and from then on there are many plain voice commands you can speak to move around your phone. Examples are “zoom in/out” “swipe left/right/up/down” “take screenshot” “go Home”, “Open Phone”etc
Now, moving to the bottom of the Voice Control page is the sub menu Overlay and this in turn has four sub menus - choose Item Numbers and this will then display small semi translucent numbers adjacent to each tappable icon on your screen, including all those in your preferred third party apps. Simply speak one of these displayed numbers and that icon will be “clicked”
So basically you can sit in font of your iPad/iPhone with your hands in your pockets and operate your device!
All this works very well both in the car and on the bike with my Pocket Earth and Gaia apps and I suppose Scenic, Waze and other Satnav apps will be the same. One particular feature that I am finding useful is the command “take screenshot” as it instantly records data such as position, time and nearby POIs for future reference
Of course talking to your phone on the motorway and from within a helmet is another matter. Initially I used one of the cheap Bluetooth headsets and it worked OK, but I now wear a single AirPod as it pairs seamlessly, the microphone is protected from wind noise and when the power fades it is simply swapped out for the other one. However I guess any Bluetooth intercom or integrated helmet system will work just as well. So far I have only used it tooling around town and have yet to test it in anger at speed. There are several other options of it to explore (including the interesting sounding Customise Commands)
This serendipitous discovery is giving me hours of fun and it’s capabilities might transform the way many of us interact with our phones, both on and off the bike