Tag: voice dictation

How to: Fix the 5 Most Common Apple TV Problems

 

 

Previously posted by CNET

The Apple TV is a very capable streamer that has only gotten better over time with the addition of things like the Siri remote, applications and a TV guide. Still, the Apple TV is not impervious to problems. Here are five common problems with the Apple TV and how to fix them.

Just like with your smart phone, things can go awry with apps on Apple TV, they can sometimes lag or freeze up all together. If anything like this happens, the best thing to do is to force close the application. To do this, on the Siri remote Double press the Home or TV button, slide left or right on the touchpad to select that app and then swipe up to force close it.


Sometimes it’s more than just one app that’s acting funky or the Apple TV can act glitchy in general, just not right. If this is the case, then you just need to restart the Apple TV, you can do this by going into Settings > System > Restart or on the Apple TV remote You can hold Menu and the TV or Home button until the light on the front of the Apple TV begins blinking. When this happens release those buttons and the Apple TV will restart.

If the Siri remote just randomly stops working or doesn’t work at all one day it may need to be charged. You can charge it using a lightning cable in the port along the bottom edge of the remote. And you can also actually also check its charge level under remotes and devices in the Settings. You may need to use an iPhone or an iPad in the remote app to get there. If that doesn’t work, you may need to reset the remote and repair it with your Apple TV To do this, hold the remote near the Apple TV and hold the Volume Up and Menu button for a few seconds, and it should repair.

Every so often, audio on the Apple TV will cut out. Obviously this depends heavily on what your own sound system set up is, but if it happens to you, try restarting the TV and any audio hardware connected to the Apple TV such as a sound bar. That should fix the problem but if not try restarting the Apple TV. If that doesn’t work, go to settings, audio and video, and make sure you’ve selected the right speakers under audio output. And then in Audio Mode, make sure it’s set to Auto.

If you’ve installed a lot of applications and games on your Apple TV, storage space might get tight over time. The obvious solution is to remove some of those apps and games. If you do this from he home screen, it’s gonna take quite a few steps for every single application you want to remove. Highlight the application on the home screen that you want to remove. And long-press on the track pad until it starts to wiggle. Then, press the “play/pause” button. Select “delete” and then select “delete” again to confirm. If you’re trying to remove several applications at once, a faster option is to go to “settings”, “general”, and “manage storage’. There you’ll find applications sorted by file size in descending order Think the trash can to the right of any application to remove it and then click delete to confirm.

What are your favorite Apple TV hacks? Let us know in the comments below.

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How to: get the most out of voice dictation, one of the iPhone’s most underrated features.

 

 

By Kif Leswing of Business Insider

Talking to Siri may be hit or miss, but Apple’s iPhone is actually pretty good at understanding what you’re saying to it.

In fact, Apple’s speech-to-text software can be extremely useful outside of Siri. Users can talk to their phone and have it turn to text for anything that takes text input.

The button to dictate text to speech is prominently displayed on the default iOS keyboard next to the spacebar.

Talking with my colleagues, I was surprised about how few of them have ever tried dictation. Although it’s been included in iPhones for over three years, few people seem to use it often.

In my opinion, it’s one of the most underrated parts of using an iPhone.
When you press that button, you’ll get a waveform. As you talk to the waveform, words will appear in the text. Like this:

 

Here’s what you need to know to use Apple dictation to its fullest:


First, make sure it’s turned on. You need to have Siri on for dictation to work. It’s in Settings > Siri.

Watch your data. Apple’s dictation uses a remote server to decipher what you’re saying, so make sure you have enough data under your cap or that your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi.

Learn the shortcuts. When dictating, Siri understands certain words, like “smiley” or “winky face.” It also understands certain settings, like “caps on” or “caps off.” A full list is here.

Say punctuation out loud. One of the biggest issues with speech-to-text is that it can’t usually tell when a sentence ends. So you’ll need to say “period,” “apostrophe,” or other punctuation marks when you want them to show up in the text.

Speak clearly and slowly. It’s a lot easier for the computer to decipher what you’re saying if you’re not talking a mile a minute.

Proofread and edit your text. Once you’ve dictated — perhaps a paper you’re writing, or an email — don’t just send it off. Software isn’t perfect, and going through and fixing errors in a dictated text can still be faster than typing it from scratch. Anything underlined with a blue underline the software has flagged as possibly erroneous.

The blue underline means you should give those terms a closer look. Screenshot
Don’t confuse dictation with voice memos. On iMessage, there’s a microphone button next to the text input. That sends a short voice message, but it doesn’t transcribe your speech into text.

Have you tried using voice dictation? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

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