FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Disinformation. Propaganda. These are tools of psychological warfare. They are also in widespread use throughout our culture, whether it is in the service of a company or a regime. This is the underbelly kept so long in the dark. This is the cancer attacking all that is healthy.
What is most frightening about this tool is that those affected/infected far too often refuse to acknowledge that they’ve been victimized. People simply don’t like to admit they’ve been duped, because it makes them look less than intelligent. And sadly, the object of so many of these attacks are the young and thus the most impressionable.
That is why sites like this, and people like DED and PED (ped30.com), are so essential to the continued health of all that we hold dear. They are warriors against the rot.
If you read this site, you need to consider what it is really doing here. It is fighting the good fight. It is keeping alive the other side, the side of objective and courteous discourse, the ripping off of the blindfolds, the letting in of air and sunlight to the fetid cesspools of lies and deceipt.
Good on us! And good on DED, PED, and all their fellow fighters against the rot!
It could be a massive disinformation campaign, a campaign agreed even by generally favourable Apple reviewers. That or Alexa is better than Siri in the home. For now.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Disinformation. Propaganda. These are tools of psychological warfare. They are also in widespread use throughout our culture, whether it is in the service of a company or a regime. This is the underbelly kept so long in the dark. This is the cancer attacking all that is healthy.
What is most frightening about this tool is that those affected/infected far too often refuse to acknowledge that they’ve been victimized. People simply don’t like to admit they’ve been duped, because it makes them look less than intelligent. And sadly, the object of so many of these attacks are the young and thus the most impressionable.
That is why sites like this, and people like DED and PED (ped30.com), are so essential to the continued health of all that we hold dear. They are warriors against the rot.
If you read this site, you need to consider what it is really doing here. It is fighting the good fight. It is keeping alive the other side, the side of objective and courteous discourse, the ripping off of the blindfolds, the letting in of air and sunlight to the fetid cesspools of lies and deceipt.
Good on us! And good on DED, PED, and all their fellow fighters against the rot!
It could be a massive disinformation campaign, a campaign agreed even by generally favourable Apple reviewers. That or Alexa is better than Siri in the home. For now.
DED’s brush was broader than Siri, and so was my response.
As regards Siri, there’s clearly a tradeoff going on between personal privacy/security and “better” responsiveness. I’ll take the privacy side any day over a tad more convenience.
For this to work, Apple needs to make the acquisition of compatible home automation devices as easy as buying a song on iTunes was back in the day. Leaving it up to the cacophony of the open marketplace is a no-go. For example, I if there were even a tool that I could take a pic of my ceiling tungsten halogen low voltage ceiling light fixture’s lamp, and it would return a list of HomeKit compatible bulbs, by wattage, and a button to order . . . . In other words, make it convenient and idiot-proof to adopt. Otherwise it’ll just be toys for geeks for a long time while others pass Apple by.
"leaving it up to the cacophony of the open market is a no-go" is certainly true, but one of the reasons that Apple appears behind the others is that Apple required certification of the controller chips that would support HomeKit. A device maker has few choices, but near guaranteed security.
Why would that be?
Except that the security chip certification has been nixed for HomeKit. Apple no longer requires that every HomeKit product contains an Apple-approved security chip and as of iOS11 will allow companies to authenticate their devices entirely using software, just as Amazon and Google do AFAIK.
Apple still requires self-certification, they do not require the chip. That is, it's easier than ever to make a product HomeKit compatible, but you have to send a sample to Apple and pay a royalty fee for the license to use the HomeKit logo on your packaging. It's a part of the MFI program. https://mfi.apple.com/MFiWeb/getFAQ.action#5-3
What you are missing, or refuse to acknowledge, is that Amazon and Google are not selling smart speakers -- these are loss-leaders that enable the user to avail themselves (buy) the products they (and their advertisers) sell... That's where their profit is!
Your point about Amazon and Google using these speakers as loss leaders is something that finds an echo in Jean-Louis Gassee's recent article. To quote him:
"With Google, we don’t pay for the product, We Are The Product and we pay with our data. With Apple, we pay for the product and get to keep our data. Now, with Amazon, we pay for the product or content, and surrender our data".
His recent article on IoT and Amazon is as perceptive as always.
Essentially, though, the article could be summarized by.... 'even if Siri sucks, it still has a much bigger install base.' It's hard to argue with that, I guess. But, Windows had a much bigger install base than Mac, too, which said little about quality. And, if we step back a couple decades, not many would expect Microsoft to be in the position they are now in, nor Apple.
Too big to fail now has some credence in regard to Apple. But future Apple might not look anything like the Apple we once loved, or even the Apple of today, if they aren't careful.
No that's incorrect. The point of the article is that Apple isn't trying to rival Alexa/Assistant as a voice platform because: - Apple (unlike Amazon or Google) isn't desperately trying to create a valuable/useful platform. It already has THE mobile platform that makes money and matters. - Voice is of limited utility. useful for some things, but often just a gimmick. It is not a huge priority for Apple because it is not the most useful thing to deliver for users. - For this reason, voice is of limited value commercially. Amazon is establishing that the value of a voice-centric WiFi mic is around $50 - The bullshitter tech media has contrived a false narrative that says the future is 100% voice. This is obvious bullshit, just like the last narrative about bots.
If you actually read this article and didn't catch any of that, I pity you. Try opening your brain up to facts rather than just repeating nonsense you've heard a pundit say.
Apple isn't too big to fail, but neither are Amazon and Google. The fact that you can only imagine Apple failing when it's really Amazon and Google that have failed most spectacularly in delivering things people actually want to buy, says a lot about the insight and value of your comments and explains why you so contemptuously dismiss actual facts when they're laid out in front of you.
I agree with much of this, but that brings us back to my statement. Even if Siri isn't as advanced in terms of voice assistant (i.e.: sucks), it doesn't really matter in the big picture, as there are WAY more iPhones, iOS devices, etc. out there making Amazon, Google, etc. installed base relatively insignificant.
But, yes, the whole idea that voice assistants are the future is also baloney. I didn't repeat that as it should be fairly obvious.
And, yes, the more main-stream media is all over voice assistants, self-driving cars, AI, and anything else they think is cool but don't really understand.
Even if Siri worked perfectly, I'd still interact with my devices primarily in other ways. When Siri can help me avoid having to pull over to the side of the road to do the most simplistic things I assumed it could when I bought my iPhone, I'll let everyone know. We're a long, long way off of StarTrek, even ***if*** that is some kind of desired outcome (which I don't think it is).
ABiteaDay said: My bet is that most of the “SiriSucks” whiners are either samsung users or part of the Apple ecosysytem but want it o be something different.
... i agree with some of the whiners that Siri could use a tune up as well. But, who amongst us Apple users are really unhappy.
Well, which is it? I don't expect Siri to be some uber-intelligent personal assistant. I do expect Siri to be able to do things like answer a phone call or play a playlist while I'm busy driving. I have no idea if other devices can do that or not. All I know is that until Siri can, it sucks.
Even if Siri worked perfectly, I'd still interact with my devices primarily in other ways. When Siri can help me avoid having to pull over to the side of the road to do the most simplistic things I assumed it could when I bought my iPhone, I'll let everyone know. We're a long, long way off of StarTrek, even ***if*** that is some kind of desired outcome (which I don't think it is).
ABiteaDay said: My bet is that most of the “SiriSucks” whiners are either samsung users or part of the Apple ecosysytem but want it o be something different.
... i agree with some of the whiners that Siri could use a tune up as well. But, who amongst us Apple users are really unhappy.
Well, which is it? I don't expect Siri to be some uber-intelligent personal assistant. I do expect Siri to be able to do things like answer a phone call or play a playlist while I'm busy driving. I have no idea if other devices can do that or not. All I know is that until Siri can, it sucks.
Yes, I'd imagine so. That was more in response to the idea that we 'Siri-sucks' people must be Samsung users.
(As a long-time Apple user, I guess I'm used to brilliantly designed products that seem to lack basic functionally in some insanely obvious way. It's one of the very frustrating aspects of Apple.)
It seems to me, though, that many reviewers are comparing (sorry) apples and oranges. As stated elsewhere (and in the smarter reviews), HomePod is a superb audio system first, a vocal assistant for anything beyond music second.
Survey after survey of actual users show that what smartspeaker users use the vocal assistant for, 90-plus percent of the time, is a) controlling music playback and b) asking about the weather/time/similar simple questions. Siri on the HomePodcan handle those sorts of questions, so what the big deal is I'm not quite clear on.
While I do expect Apple will add some additional Siri-oriented features to HomePod over time, I don't expect them to ever offer navigation (for example), because who asks for directions to something when they are sitting in their living room? You ask Siri on your iPhone for directions as you get in the car, duh.
To date, I've yet to read a review that compares the HomePod version of Siri's music knowledge to that of the other systems, such as "who's playing drums on this song" or "play Clash songs from 1979", et cetera. I'd really like to know how HomePod Siri stacks up when it comes to things I expect I will actually ask it. Also under-mentioned in the reviews: apparently HomeKit works great with HomePod, but you wouldn't know it because reviewers either don't have any smart-home stuff, or they have seven different systems of smarthome stuff to try and coordinate that aren't fully compatible. And don't even get me started on security and privacy issues.
Comments
As regards Siri, there’s clearly a tradeoff going on between personal privacy/security and “better” responsiveness. I’ll take the privacy side any day over a tad more convenience.
"With Google, we don’t pay for the product, We Are The Product and we pay with our data. With Apple, we pay for the product and get to keep our data. Now, with Amazon, we pay for the product or content, and surrender our data".
His recent article on IoT and Amazon is as perceptive as always.
But, yes, the whole idea that voice assistants are the future is also baloney. I didn't repeat that as it should be fairly obvious.
And, yes, the more main-stream media is all over voice assistants, self-driving cars, AI, and anything else they think is cool but don't really understand.
Even if Siri worked perfectly, I'd still interact with my devices primarily in other ways. When Siri can help me avoid having to pull over to the side of the road to do the most simplistic things I assumed it could when I bought my iPhone, I'll let everyone know. We're a long, long way off of StarTrek, even ***if*** that is some kind of desired outcome (which I don't think it is).
Well, which is it?
I don't expect Siri to be some uber-intelligent personal assistant. I do expect Siri to be able to do things like answer a phone call or play a playlist while I'm busy driving. I have no idea if other devices can do that or not. All I know is that until Siri can, it sucks.
(As a long-time Apple user, I guess I'm used to brilliantly designed products that seem to lack basic functionally in some insanely obvious way. It's one of the very frustrating aspects of Apple.)
It seems to me, though, that many reviewers are comparing (sorry) apples and oranges. As stated elsewhere (and in the smarter reviews), HomePod is a superb audio system first, a vocal assistant for anything beyond music second.
Survey after survey of actual users show that what smartspeaker users use the vocal assistant for, 90-plus percent of the time, is a) controlling music playback and b) asking about the weather/time/similar simple questions. Siri on the HomePodcan handle those sorts of questions, so what the big deal is I'm not quite clear on.
While I do expect Apple will add some additional Siri-oriented features to HomePod over time, I don't expect them to ever offer navigation (for example), because who asks for directions to something when they are sitting in their living room? You ask Siri on your iPhone for directions as you get in the car, duh.
To date, I've yet to read a review that compares the HomePod version of Siri's music knowledge to that of the other systems, such as "who's playing drums on this song" or "play Clash songs from 1979", et cetera. I'd really like to know how HomePod Siri stacks up when it comes to things I expect I will actually ask it. Also under-mentioned in the reviews: apparently HomeKit works great with HomePod, but you wouldn't know it because reviewers either don't have any smart-home stuff, or they have seven different systems of smarthome stuff to try and coordinate that aren't fully compatible. And don't even get me started on security and privacy issues.