I love to use my Apple product to set timers , usually while cook . I use my Apple Watch for this all the time , farm my mussy work force up to tell Siri to start a timer . My HomePod is another favorite , for the same grounds – when I ’m cooking , touch my phone mean getting gunk all over it .
I have a Nest Hub in the kitchen , and that ’s my go - to for timers for two cause . One , it has a display so it ’s really utile to glint over and see how much time is pass on ( a situation my Apple Watch also work out , but not easily with multiple timers conk out ) . But the other ground I care to expend Google ’s product to manage timers is that it offers a dead - simple-minded , table - interest feature that Apple still has n’t cater after all these years : the power to add time to a timekeeper .
How did Apple miss this?
The year is 2018 and Apple is about to discharge the original HomePod . In the press tour , we ’re given the summing up of its capabilities in each room of a rental house : playing medicine in the bedroom , triggering the kettle in the kitchen , play medicine in the living elbow room … ( play music was a liberal part of the pitch ) .
In the kitchen demo , when set a timer , I postulate about multiple - timekeeper support . It ’s something I use all the time , after all . I involve to put the alimentary paste in the water in 10 instant , the lettuce will be done in 12 , and the roast vegetable in 15 . The Apple repp looked at me as though she was expecting the question . I got a well - prepare , atomic number 59 - speak answer about how it ’s “ not available at this time , ” which is always a fun way to say that a ware does n’t have a feature .
Apple eventually corrected this oversight in a software update about six months later , making HomePod the only Apple product with multiple timer support forfive yearsuntil iOS 17 and macOS 14.2 ( it did n’t even make it into the initial macOS 14 vent ) .
I commemorate thinking : How does this product that ’s by far more expensive than its contender , not have this cardinal feature ? Did n’t you have a bunch of Apple employee test this before exit ? Would n’t a caboodle of them remark the unfitness to determine more than one timekeeper , and how every competing product ( Alexa and Google Home products ) provides this coarse , utilitarian , simple feature article ? We all cognise a smart speaker unit from Apple would be hamstrung by Siri ’s deficiencies ( it was far behind the rivalry in 2018 ) , but it ’s not as if setting multiple timers is reliant on AI .
I just want to add time to a timer!
Here we go again … My joint veggies have 5 minutes left on the timekeeper , but when I check on them , they ’re definitely going to take a little more time . With my Nest Hub , I can just say “ Hey Google , add together 4 arcminute to the timer ” and I ’m done . With any Apple production , whether I ’m using Siri or the screen , I have to either wait for the timer to stop and then start a new 4 - minute timer or cancel my current timer and make a novel 9 - second one .
It ’s a pain , especially when I ’ve got several timers going in a kitchen bustle with natural action . Alexa and Google Assistant have had this project out foryears . Google even has a quick “ tote up one minute ” release aright there at the top stage of the timekeeper port in its default Clock app . It ’s the equivalent weight of the “ tally 30 seconds ” button on a microwave oven , and just as utilitarian . It ’s something we ’ve all done since before the days of digital timers by simply picking up the bollock timekeeper and zigzag the dial to correct the remaining time .
get ’s get this done , Apple . This couldeasilybe part of iOS 18.2 . You already have the power to set multiple timer and give them names , simply total an arbitrary amount of time to one ca n’t possibly be more than one week of development work for a undivided engineer . If you had three or four people working on it you could even give us the ready to hand “ add a minute ” button in the clock user interface .
