...but does this Slack have a product or are they just blowing smoke?
Irrelevant. Apple has a product and it blows. Apple is worryingly slipping back to its years of releasing directionless and costly software projects. The CEO of Slack has it right; Apple has a slack CEO. SJ rebuilt Apple from ruins. Unfortunately, it became so vastly elevated the atmosphere at the top is too thin for proper brain functioning.
I'm well spoken and enunciate clearly; even so, Siri cocks up 75% of my requests for assistance. I've not tried Google's efforts and although I have Windows 10 I've yet to switch on Cortana.
I call BS on this. I use Siri every day on my watch. Not once has Siri been befuddled with what I asked it.
I hope that is not simply the ability to speak the time or continuously whisper "tick-tock" to remind you that you have purchased a very expensive Casio knock-off.
Irrelevant. Apple has a product and it blows. Apple is worryingly slipping back to its years of releasing directionless and costly software projects. The CEO of Slack has it right; Apple has a slack CEO. SJ rebuilt Apple from ruins. Unfortunately, it became so vastly elevated the atmosphere at the top is too thin for proper brain functioning.
I'm well spoken and enunciate clearly; even so, Siri cocks up 75% of my requests for assistance. I've not tried Google's efforts and although I have Windows 10 I've yet to switch on Cortana.
Why hasn't Siri come to the desktop OS X?
I have to agree on some of your points.
I also wondered why Siri is not available on the desktop yet. In terms of computational power and internet connectivity they should beat an iPhone/iPad anytime.
And I keep asking myself if and what is Apple doing to improve Siri. I have in all honesty no clue how hard that field is. Certainly it is one of the harder ones out there. But still, not even anything, not the smallest answer when no internet is available? Come on.
Regarding the overall software strategy, yes I tend to agree as well: So we are into office? Really? So why we don't make it a more powerful suite? Or will you deprecate it next year, like other software and I should better save all as MS compatible files? Same with the Media suite (Audio/Video/Photos). Yes, it is there, but where is it heading? Can a Pro rely on it? iTunes.... no comment.
I don't know how SIRI is where you gentlemen are, but here in Japan it stinks to the highest heaven on my iOS 8 iPad3. And no, it does NOT get better with time. It won't even respond most of the time unless my room is pin-drop quiet or I put my mouth up against the mic. Even then it doesn't understand me most of the time, and when it does understand it says it can't help me most of the time. It still can't figure out who my wife and kids are, despite my attempts at training it, and despite they are in my contacts. It's also brain-dead at helping me find things locally. It is truly "useless." Even my kids hate SIRI, and they have more patience than me.
Forstall was fired for Apple Maps. But who gets the axe over SIRI?
SIRIously, it won't get better until the top guy (or gal) responsible gets replaced with someone who knows what they are doing.
And to think, Woz and Musk think that AI and robots will soon take over the world.
"Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I've never heard of Slack before this article -- and now, I know I haven't missed much."
My thoughts as well. I went to the Slack website to figure out what they do and I'm sorry but I was working on most of this type of stuff 20 years ago. Nothing new here. The only real new part is cloud connection of the collaboration stuff. Geez, I'm really getting sick of this stuff.
Read the article. It gives an example where the Bot knows what people are working on and where they're stuck and who's out of the office. So you could query the bot for a status update, instead of having a status update meeting, playing e-mail tag, or worse yet have a meeting to realize the important people aren't there.
Here's an example where Slack really works. We had a face-to-face meeting recently which we agreed on a list of tasks. The guy taking notes was supposed to assign us all the tasks in the project management system. Guess what never happened? Spent a half day trying to track down what I was supposed to do, because guess who was also out of the office? Slack integration lets you assign these tasks in the chat room, where everybody can see.
Here's a thought. Why didn't you just assign the tasks in the meeting? Why have a meeting in the first place if the result is to assign tasks later? Most meetings are a waste of time in the first place (basically make work for those that don't really do work). Also, if this guy's job was to assign these tasks and it wasn't done, why is he in charge of doing this? Sounds like a job for someone not really needed if you're talking about replacing what he does with a piece of software. This crap really gets old after a while.
Butterfield's comment is, to use his own words, "f-ing idiotic".
Siri understands loads of languages quite well. That's an amazing feat in itself. The more you use it, the more it learns how you speak and can understands you better. I use it in three languages, and it works 99% of the time quite perfectly. Dictation is amazingly accurate, so much so, that I hardly use the keyboard anymore. If you learn the commands and apps that Siri works with, it really really works well.
Why unlock phone->open message app->select new message->search for contact->write message->Send message, when you can simply say "Siri send message to 'Contact' Hey 'Contact', please bring the reports this afternoon" and she creates the message for you, repeats it back to you, and asks if you'd still like to send it. It's so much faster and efficient, especially driving, or while doing other tasks.
I think the adverts skewed people's perspective as to what Siri was actually capable of, but if you look at Siri carefully, it can actually do a hell of a lot more than most people think, and in loads of languages, including complex tonal ones like Cantonese. It can even understand a large number of English accents. Spread that on your "airy" vapor Mr Butterfield!
A classic case of Product versus Promises. Until Slack delivers a real product that is good enough to displace Siri they are blowing smoke out their backside.
I find the speech recognition quite impressive. Even if it initially gets a word wrong, it will often correct it later in the sentence based on context. But let's not kid ourselves, it's clear that you're not talking to any kind of "AI" e.g.
"Siri, How many litres does a 1 litre bottle hold?"
Here's what I found on the web...
"Siri, what is Barack Obama's last name?"
Here's what I found on the web...
"Siri, all cars are green. What colour is my car?"
There are thousands of techie in world working on natural language processing with AI angle including at MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Google, IBM, etc but none has come up with the prefect technology because it is evolving process. This f* guy thinks he can do better than show us. Talking is cheap and thrashing some one with some short of solution is even cheaper when you are not their yet.
I call BS on this. I use Siri every day on my watch. Not once has Siri been befuddled with what I asked it.
I hope that is not simply the ability to speak the time or continuously whisper "tick-tock" to remind you that you have purchased a very expensive Casio knock-off.
Some day, you'll figure out what the Watch does and does not do.
In my profession, I routinely dictate letters and summaries of events, etc. to a transcription service. It does not feel strange to dictate (for example), "Mister Smith then said comma quote I don't remember exclamation point unquote" Siri is pretty darned good at transcribing this kind of thing. It's surprising how good it is, really.
I've also noticed that over the last couple years, either Siri has gotten *much* better at understanding me, or I've gotten better at avoiding words/phrases that confuse her (or both), because most of the previous dictation errors are gone. It's also possible that Siri "learns" the particulars of my speech and so gets better with use. The first hurdle of a "natural-speech" automated assistant is understanding what you say, and Apple is getting this figured out. From there, it's just back-end work, and that will come.
Beyond dictation, I don't use Siri for much. But the potential is there.
If Apple bought this company and pulled everything in & took over all the work, why would they then do any/all of the above?
Has Apple ever sold a purely business, purely non-hardware service before? That relies on heavy third party integration? Along with all the bits and pieces that enterprises require? Apple would destroy the company if they bought it.
Now Microsoft could. Just look at Office 365: it already talks to Cortana. Only a matter of time before Cortana is smart enough to pull in data from Sharepoint, Exchange,Yammer and Skype for Business...
Microsoft has no focus. They hemorrhage money at a problem, make a little progress, the write-off that section of their business. Cortana is just Microsoft Bob's older sister.
Oh, and when Microsoft *does* gain a little focus, the CEO bails and Mr. New Guy upends the entire structure. Microsoft is slowly bleeding to death.
Read the article. It gives an example where the Bot knows what people are working on and where they're stuck and who's out of the office. So you could query the bot for a status update, instead of having a status update meeting, playing e-mail tag, or worse yet have a meeting to realize the important people aren't there.
Here's an example where Slack really works. We had a face-to-face meeting recently which we agreed on a list of tasks. The guy taking notes was supposed to assign us all the tasks in the project management system. Guess what never happened? Spent a half day trying to track down what I was supposed to do, because guess who was also out of the office? Slack integration lets you assign these tasks in the chat room, where everybody can see.
Here's a thought. Why didn't you just assign the tasks in the meeting? Why have a meeting in the first place if the result is to assign tasks later? Most meetings are a waste of time in the first place (basically make work for those that don't really do work). Also, if this guy's job was to assign these tasks and it wasn't done, why is he in charge of doing this? Sounds like a job for someone not really needed if you're talking about replacing what he does with a piece of software. This crap really gets old after a while.
Comments
...but does this Slack have a product or are they just blowing smoke?
Irrelevant. Apple has a product and it blows. Apple is worryingly slipping back to its years of releasing directionless and costly software projects. The CEO of Slack has it right; Apple has a slack CEO. SJ rebuilt Apple from ruins. Unfortunately, it became so vastly elevated the atmosphere at the top is too thin for proper brain functioning.
I'm well spoken and enunciate clearly; even so, Siri cocks up 75% of my requests for assistance. I've not tried Google's efforts and although I have Windows 10 I've yet to switch on Cortana.
Why hasn't Siri come to the desktop OS X?
One of the massive information to know about that how these kind of technologies worked and how its proper structure of it.
http://www.theappforpc.com
I call BS on this. I use Siri every day on my watch. Not once has Siri been befuddled with what I asked it.
I hope that is not simply the ability to speak the time or continuously whisper "tick-tock" to remind you that you have purchased a very expensive Casio knock-off.
I have to agree on some of your points.
I also wondered why Siri is not available on the desktop yet. In terms of computational power and internet connectivity they should beat an iPhone/iPad anytime.
And I keep asking myself if and what is Apple doing to improve Siri. I have in all honesty no clue how hard that field is. Certainly it is one of the harder ones out there. But still, not even anything, not the smallest answer when no internet is available? Come on.
Regarding the overall software strategy, yes I tend to agree as well: So we are into office? Really? So why we don't make it a more powerful suite? Or will you deprecate it next year, like other software and I should better save all as MS compatible files? Same with the Media suite (Audio/Video/Photos). Yes, it is there, but where is it heading? Can a Pro rely on it? iTunes.... no comment.
Is I Sir yet able to play an album without automatically shuffling it? I have never found a way to play a requested album unshuffled via I Sir.
I don't know how SIRI is where you gentlemen are, but here in Japan it stinks to the highest heaven on my iOS 8 iPad3. And no, it does NOT get better with time. It won't even respond most of the time unless my room is pin-drop quiet or I put my mouth up against the mic. Even then it doesn't understand me most of the time, and when it does understand it says it can't help me most of the time. It still can't figure out who my wife and kids are, despite my attempts at training it, and despite they are in my contacts. It's also brain-dead at helping me find things locally. It is truly "useless." Even my kids hate SIRI, and they have more patience than me.
Forstall was fired for Apple Maps. But who gets the axe over SIRI?
SIRIously, it won't get better until the top guy (or gal) responsible gets replaced with someone who knows what they are doing.
And to think, Woz and Musk think that AI and robots will soon take over the world.
Yeah right!
"Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I've never heard of Slack before this article -- and now, I know I haven't missed much."
My thoughts as well. I went to the Slack website to figure out what they do and I'm sorry but I was working on most of this type of stuff 20 years ago. Nothing new here. The only real new part is cloud connection of the collaboration stuff. Geez, I'm really getting sick of this stuff.
Read the article. It gives an example where the Bot knows what people are working on and where they're stuck and who's out of the office. So you could query the bot for a status update, instead of having a status update meeting, playing e-mail tag, or worse yet have a meeting to realize the important people aren't there.
Here's an example where Slack really works. We had a face-to-face meeting recently which we agreed on a list of tasks. The guy taking notes was supposed to assign us all the tasks in the project management system. Guess what never happened? Spent a half day trying to track down what I was supposed to do, because guess who was also out of the office? Slack integration lets you assign these tasks in the chat room, where everybody can see.
Here's a thought. Why didn't you just assign the tasks in the meeting? Why have a meeting in the first place if the result is to assign tasks later? Most meetings are a waste of time in the first place (basically make work for those that don't really do work). Also, if this guy's job was to assign these tasks and it wasn't done, why is he in charge of doing this? Sounds like a job for someone not really needed if you're talking about replacing what he does with a piece of software. This crap really gets old after a while.
Siri understands loads of languages quite well. That's an amazing feat in itself. The more you use it, the more it learns how you speak and can understands you better. I use it in three languages, and it works 99% of the time quite perfectly. Dictation is amazingly accurate, so much so, that I hardly use the keyboard anymore. If you learn the commands and apps that Siri works with, it really really works well.
Why unlock phone->open message app->select new message->search for contact->write message->Send message, when you can simply say "Siri send message to 'Contact' Hey 'Contact', please bring the reports this afternoon" and she creates the message for you, repeats it back to you, and asks if you'd still like to send it. It's so much faster and efficient, especially driving, or while doing other tasks.
I think the adverts skewed people's perspective as to what Siri was actually capable of, but if you look at Siri carefully, it can actually do a hell of a lot more than most people think, and in loads of languages, including complex tonal ones like Cantonese. It can even understand a large number of English accents. Spread that on your "airy" vapor Mr Butterfield!
Just pondering...
A classic case of Product versus Promises. Until Slack delivers a real product that is good enough to displace Siri they are blowing smoke out their backside.
I find the speech recognition quite impressive. Even if it initially gets a word wrong, it will often correct it later in the sentence based on context. But let's not kid ourselves, it's clear that you're not talking to any kind of "AI" e.g.
"Siri, How many litres does a 1 litre bottle hold?"
Here's what I found on the web...
"Siri, what is Barack Obama's last name?"
Here's what I found on the web...
"Siri, all cars are green. What colour is my car?"
Here's what I found on the web...
This idiot can't even secure his own server/s!!
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/slack-admits-hacked-enables-2-factor-authentication/
There are thousands of techie in world working on natural language processing with AI angle including at MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Google, IBM, etc but none has come up with the prefect technology because it is evolving process. This f* guy thinks he can do better than show us. Talking is cheap and thrashing some one with some short of solution is even cheaper when you are not their yet.
I totally agree Siri SUCKS and is nearly useless. Hope iOS9 will improve things.
Some day, you'll figure out what the Watch does and does not do.
Until then, please shut up and move along, troll.
In my profession, I routinely dictate letters and summaries of events, etc. to a transcription service. It does not feel strange to dictate (for example), "Mister Smith then said comma quote I don't remember exclamation point unquote" Siri is pretty darned good at transcribing this kind of thing. It's surprising how good it is, really.
I've also noticed that over the last couple years, either Siri has gotten *much* better at understanding me, or I've gotten better at avoiding words/phrases that confuse her (or both), because most of the previous dictation errors are gone. It's also possible that Siri "learns" the particulars of my speech and so gets better with use. The first hurdle of a "natural-speech" automated assistant is understanding what you say, and Apple is getting this figured out. From there, it's just back-end work, and that will come.
Beyond dictation, I don't use Siri for much. But the potential is there.
You failed to follow the conversation.
If Apple bought this company and pulled everything in & took over all the work, why would they then do any/all of the above?
Has Apple ever sold a purely business, purely non-hardware service before? That relies on heavy third party integration? Along with all the bits and pieces that enterprises require? Apple would destroy the company if they bought it.
Now Microsoft could. Just look at Office 365: it already talks to Cortana. Only a matter of time before Cortana is smart enough to pull in data from Sharepoint, Exchange,Yammer and Skype for Business...
Microsoft has no focus. They hemorrhage money at a problem, make a little progress, the write-off that section of their business. Cortana is just Microsoft Bob's older sister.
Oh, and when Microsoft *does* gain a little focus, the CEO bails and Mr. New Guy upends the entire structure. Microsoft is slowly bleeding to death.
Read the article. It gives an example where the Bot knows what people are working on and where they're stuck and who's out of the office. So you could query the bot for a status update, instead of having a status update meeting, playing e-mail tag, or worse yet have a meeting to realize the important people aren't there.
Here's an example where Slack really works. We had a face-to-face meeting recently which we agreed on a list of tasks. The guy taking notes was supposed to assign us all the tasks in the project management system. Guess what never happened? Spent a half day trying to track down what I was supposed to do, because guess who was also out of the office? Slack integration lets you assign these tasks in the chat room, where everybody can see.
Here's a thought. Why didn't you just assign the tasks in the meeting? Why have a meeting in the first place if the result is to assign tasks later? Most meetings are a waste of time in the first place (basically make work for those that don't really do work). Also, if this guy's job was to assign these tasks and it wasn't done, why is he in charge of doing this? Sounds like a job for someone not really needed if you're talking about replacing what he does with a piece of software. This crap really gets old after a while.
You have apparently never worked in government.