Cortana is now on IFTTT

In a move that has frankly been a long time overdue, Cortana is now available on IFTTT.

If you did not already know, IFTTT(IF This Then That) is a service for connecting various other services together. Literally, if this happens on one, then that happens on the other. Cortana, as I am sure you will know, is the personal digital assistant available for your Windows 10 PC, phone or Android. As a follower of both Microsoft and IFTTT, I have been waiting for this development since the beginning of Windows 10.

With Cortana on IFTTT you can connect your Internet of Things devices together and control them from Cortana. Philips Hue, Manything, Harmony TV, WeMo and Samsung Robot vacuum are some of the many services that now have Cortana integration.

Some of the many new Cortana applets on IFTTT

I have been playing with this new feature by making a few applets of my own.

The first one I tried was an applet that rather pointlessly fires a notification to my Android whenever I utter the phrase "Hey Cortana, what's happening?".

Tadaaa!

Ok, so that one was rather pointless, but as proof of concept goes I am pleased with the result. I suppose it has a use if you were feeling really lonely.

The next thing I tried was a slightly different trigger for Cortana, that is to use a specific phrase with a text part that is then specifically used for some purpose. I thought that it would be useful to have an applet that creates a new page in OneNote, with a title you specify, whenever Cortana hears "Hey Cortana, create a OneNote page X", where X is the name of the new page.

Notice the $ indicates the text phrase that you want your new page to be called. I used 'test' here, but you could say 'my world domination plans', or 'reasons I hate Apple' or 'help I think I am sinking' or whatever.

OneNote page created by Cortana with some dummy text just to see what would happen, look!

And that's about all I have managed to play with so far, although I have also been looking at creating some Cortana applets to work with LaMetric time as well. I think it would be really handy to be able to start and stop LaMetric internet radio from Cortana. Currently, this takes several clicks of the LaMetric Android app.

If you have managed to get all the way down to the bottom of the page without your face melting from boredom, then you might like to read my other Cortana posts, or maybe you want some more technology news. Either way, you might like to post a comment on this noticeboard?

Amazon Echo and LaMetric Time

The Amazon Echo is a smart speaker system with digital assistant. She responds to the wake-up word 'Alexa' and her features include music streaming from Spotify, internet radio, shopping lists, alarms, timers, reminders, weather and news updates, as well as one-sided conversations. The sound quality is really very good, and I do love watching the glowing light spin as Alexa broods over my last response. It almost makes me forget that she is always listening to me.



Alexa also provides voice command access to other internet-enabled devices. Today I shall deal with  Echo and the LaMetric Time. LaMetric Time is a smart clock with internet radio. It features various apps including clock, radio, weather, sunrise/set times, moon phase, timers, stopwatch, message board, news update, etc. I dealt with all of the features of LaMetric in a previous post. Amazon echo can now be used as voice-control for LaMetric.


Once you are connected you can use your voice to tell Alexa to perform actions with the LaMetric time. For example:

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to start fifteen minute timer"

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to show clock"

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to wake me up at 7am"

Alexa, LaMetric and If This Then That

Both Alexa and LaMetric get even more interesting when you use the IFTTT app. IFTTT allows you to connect services together using 'applets', for example, if 'this' happens in one service, then 'that' happens in another. I use this service to pass notifications from my Android phone to the LaMetric device. In fact, at the last count I have several hundred IFTTT applets running various jobs in the background (including copying this blog post to Twitter, for example).

With these two applets running you can switch your internet radio off by simply leaving your house, place of work or hovel. When you come back again, the internet radio is ready for you. 

These applets provide you with buttons on your smart phone's home screen allowing you to control various parts of the LaMetric device at the touch of a button.

One of many applets for Alexa.

The Alexa App

Both the Alexa and LaMetric devices have apps for your Android device (sadly not Windows phone). These are required for access to various settings, such as clearing your shopping list, or cancelling alarms, but they also give you access to your device history.

The LaMetric app

Part of the LaMetric Time app showing just six of the apps you can get for it.

Quite apart from all of the awesome time apps that LaMetric Time can do for you, I mainly use my LaMetric for the internet radio. This app boasts over 3000 stations. Oh, and if you would prefer, you can use the LaMetric as a Bluetooth speaker for your phone.

Well that's it for now. More geeky tech stuff coming soon, or you may enjoy reading about that time I tried to use my BBC micro as my main computer, or when I had a virtual pet called Phil.

This clock is the Internet in a box

I recently bought a LaMetric Time.

What is it?

LaMetric Time is an Internet connected clock with a difference. I like to think of it as a smart watch in clock form. A smart watch for your desktop. It has just three buttons (forwards, backwards and 'action') and a cheerful LED display. Although it is a clock, it differs from your current wall or desk clock with one phrase: 'App store'.

The LED technology in the LaMetric Time defeats all ut my best attempts at capturing a good image on my cameras. See the links for better images. The display scrolls like those you see in airports or shops, or whilst waiting for your doctor's appointment. I can't stress enough how the display actually looks much better than shown in the image captured on my cheap Samsung camera above.

Setting up

Getting going with LaMetric is painless. You simply pair it with your Android device and point it at your WiFi connection. As with such devices there is a usually a software update, which it performed fairly quickly although there was no indication of how long this would take. Ultimately, it it not take long. The device picks up the correct time from time servers on the Internet and you are good to go.

LaMetric Time is a clock...durr!

As you would expect, the date and time are displayed in big bold chunky 8-bit-style characters. There are also apps for stop-clocks, calendars, timers, alarm clocks and count-downs. You can set LaMetric so that it displays just the time, or a single app, or you can have it cycle through all the apps. You can even customize for how long the apps display on screen.

One really nice feature is the sunset and sunrise time. I like having this information on my desktop. It also shows the number of hours of sunshine (important as we move from our vitamin-D deficient UK winter into the ever-so slightly brighter months of summer). You can also choose to show the moon phase, which keeps me happy, and could help avoid any unpleasant entanglements with werewolves. Again.

LaMetric Time is a Radio

Initially I was disappointed with the 5 preset radio stations my LaMetric came with. That was until I found the 'plus' button which lets you add from over 3000 Internet radio stations including those you also might expect to also get on FM radio. There is an audio-out socket at the back and I have mine hooked up to my stereo pre-amp. The sound quality is really rather good.

Message Board

This app turns your device into one of those scrolling display tickers you see in shop windows. If you feel like you need one of these in your life, then maybe you are a shop window, or you own one. I haven't found a use for this yet. I am not sure why I would want to display a scrolling message to myself, however I guess this app is for people you want the LaMetric to be a public-facing device.

The LaMetric companion app interface running on my Samsung GT-N5110. Just press the plus button for more apps!

All the other apps...

Although not supported quite as well as other smart products on the market, there is an app store full of all-sorts of stuff for you to personalise your desk clock. One of my favourites is the hugely pointless 'Coffee Counter', which tracks how many coffees have been consumed by LaMetric users (actually it keeps track of how many times someone has pressed the action button whilst using the app, but close enough). Somehow this helps you feel closer to other coffee drinkers.

The Asteroid Today app shows you how close we as a planet came to a collective inhalation today. Phew. Most of them miss.

Scrolling through the apps in the app store I can see dozens of apps both for productivity and entertainment: News headlines, motivational quotes, Facebook fan counters, Chuck Norris jokes, London Underground status and Weather to name just a few.

Furthermore you can connect your LaMetric time to other Internet of Things such as the Amazon Echo or Hue lights. Or you may just wish to use it to stream music from your phone through the Bluetooth speakers.

The really cool part.

LaMetric gets really interesting when you connect it to your IFTTT account. If you didn't know, IFTTT lets you connect all your favourite online services (well, perhaps not all of them, but more are arriving all the time).

With IFTTT you can create 'applets' or 'recipes'. Litterally, if this happens, then that should happen. There are two ways this can play with your LaMetric. This first is so you can receive notifications on your LaMetric in the form of a notification sound, icon and short message, and the other is through the IFTTT indicator app. This leaves a permanent message appearing on your device (until the next message appears). You can also use your LaMetric device as an IFTTT 'do' button, should you so desire.

I have found it most useful to receive notifications whenever new YouTube videos have been uploaded onto my favourite channels. I wouldn't want to miss the next Lindybeige.

I have other applets set up to inform me of new tweets, mentions or followers on Twitter and other social media including Yo. I get a notification whenever the International Space station passes overhead along with news and weather from Mars. I even have a notification telling me when my bedtime is (it was twenty minutes ago).

In fact, there really is no end to what you can do with your LaMetric once you have IFTTT working with it. I suggest you head over and buy one now. They really are an awesome tech toys.

Don't believe me? Perhaps this video from Techmoan will be of interest to you.



Or, perhaps you would listen to the Elders of the Internet?


That's all from me for today. +1 geek experience point for LaMetric Time (even though the calendar app does get the date format wrong!)

PS. If you enjoyed this post, then you might like my RSS news ticker for Raspberry Pi.

The Internet of Fish

My new favourite site - aquard.io

Aquard.io is an online fishtank.  There are three webcameras allowing you to remotely view over fifty happy tropical fish through your web-browser.  An arduino computer controls the backend allowing viewers to request feedings and squirt bubbles into the water.

If you want to teach the concept of The Internet of Things to children, then this is the site to come to.  I showed this to three year 9 girls who are really into computers and they had to admit that it was  'quite cool,' however they wished that there was a chat feature.  Presumably so you can chat to other viewers (not the fish).  They also said that it 'wasn't fair' because somebody has 'bought a fishtank and now we look after it for free' (!).

You can join the fun on Twitter @aquardio.

A video explaining more.