Siri Feature For Civil Aviation Fans

**Scott K** · #1 08-19-2017, 09:19 AM

I get occasional "iDrop News" emails, and sometimes I actually read them. Today's had a story called "8 Things You Didn't Know Siri Could Do". I was curious, so I checked it out, and found that if you ask, "What's above me?", you get a list of aircraft and their details. Interesting if you'd like to know what types fly in your area, or would just like to identify that little dot way up there. It's powered by something called Wolfram Alpha. Here's screenshots of what I got when I tried it.

**Texman** · #2 08-19-2017, 09:30 AM

Im in Arkansas, and tried it. I got the exact same screens.

Me thinks it doesn't work..

**Texman** · #3 08-19-2017, 09:33 AM

Hmm, now its different. The second try got different results. Including a sky map.

**Scott K** · #4 08-19-2017, 09:39 AM

Oops, meant to say "What planes are ovehead". And I guess I should have tried it more than once, since I'm still getting the same result too. I
think I'll just look up WoframAlpha next.
edit;
I still can't seem to get anything but those same results. Maybe because it's an old i4s, and I can only use it in wifi? Don't know. Wolfram itself should work better, but I found it's a paid app, so didn't continue. If anyone find a way to make it work with Siri properly, let me konw. Otherwise, sorry for the waste of time.

**Texman** · #5 08-19-2017, 09:59 AM

Not a waste of time Scott. You introduced me to something new.

My next try was "what flights are above me". That got a much better
result.

**Scott K** · #6 08-19-2017, 10:10 AM

Ray, I still get the same result, but with a new plane at the top of the list. I poked around a bit, and found something even more interesting. Looks like it's another paid mobile app, but they also have a conventional website. Planefinder.net. I went to it, and it gives you a world map of every aircraft in flight, apparently in real time! Yikes! That's a LOT of planes!

**Texman** · #7 08-19-2017, 10:19 AM

Flightaware is another cool site for tracking aircraft.

**Richschindler** · #8 08-19-2017, 02:51 PM

Hey, that Siri is a pretty smart lady. Compared it to flight tracker and she's right on.
Thanks for the heads up about asking Siri.

**Don Boose** · #9 08-19-2017, 03:40 PM

Not having an iPhone, and thus, no aps, I use this on my computer:
https://flightaware.com/live/
https://flightaware.com/live/airport/N94

Also this for ships: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...39.251/zoom:12

Don