tnet-primary

applesauce007 said:

Amazon echo is over rated.  I think it will fade in time.
Amazon people who have never used voice assistance will be impressed for a while with Alexa.
Time will tell.

As a user of both the Echo (I have three) and Siri, I can tell you that the hardware and language recognition is far superior in the Echo.  Granted, the hardware is much larger, but the fact that I can speak at a normal volume from across the room is impressive.  

As the AI piece notes, Amazon may not have the market share, but they sure have come to market with a strong offering.  

This really is a rather dramatic and head scratching conflict.  At virtually every media event, Cook almost breaks into tears as he dramatically professes Apple’s core values around the right to privacy.  He goes so far as to fight the US government to access someone’s personal device.  

And yet, in China, a communist nation that oppresses individual rights, including privacy, Cook is more than willing to sway to the will of the oppressive government.  

I like Apple products, but I don’t want to hear about Apple’s values.   If they’re not universally applied, they’re not values.  They’re sales tactics.

crowley said:

iadlib said:

FUD.

It's a private method for comparing an image hash against a specific database of image hashes.  

No indication that it'll become a generic API, or a feature for anyone else to use.
No indication that there will be any way for it to be hijacked, short of rooting the entire phone, in which case all bets are off anyway.
No indication that it could be used to search for anything other than images, or more specifically the hashes of those images.
No indication that it couldn't be shut down any time Apple wanted to shut it down.

”No indication” seems kind of naive.  Just because there’s no indication now, doesn’t mean this doesn’t change in the future.

Bloomberg says that guests presenter were kept away from President Xi, by bodyguards who sat near him. Reportedly, the guests were served "a menu of seasonal vegetables in a champagne vinaigrette, black Angus flat iron steak and vanilla custard tart, from approaching him."

One more reason to look down and stare at my phone for minutes at a time!   Hooray!   

equality72521 said:

Cost savings like this are how Apple manages to keep its prices so low…

This was the comment of the year.  Outstanding and well done.  

You clicked the article, champ.  

There is literally no reason for this to be an article on AI.  Because he used the term “iCloud” in his argument?   And the last three paragraphs of the article - general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests - have been covered, ad nauseam, in other pieces.  

Stay out of politics, please.

Haven’t seen Stephen do a video before.  Really nice job, sir.  Appreciated the honest perspective and use case analysis.  Considering one for my mother.