I suspect it is similar to the Amazon Fire's Silk browser implementation:
1) A single, efficient, relatively low-speed connection from the device to the company's proprietary servers -- as opposed to multiple, inefficient low-speed connections to target servers.
2) The single request can minimize HTTP and XML overhead in the transmitted packet -- it does not need to be human-readable or conform to any, but the most basic TCP/IP protocols.
A single request to a target server usually involves multiple connections -- to download JavaScript scripts, CSS definitions, images, ad banners, animations, Flash, Flash Content, etc. Say, each image results in a single request-response connection that takes 1/2 second or more to turn around -- over and above the time to download the requested image. A web page with 10 images can easily waste several seconds in turning around request/response connections.
3) The company's servers communicate with the target servers via high-speed/bandwidth backbones.
4) The company's servers can cache frequently-requested data and avoid many requests of target servers.
5) The company's servers can aggregate the information from its caches and from requests to the target servers, then create and send an efficient data packet to the device. Again, there is no need for XML or HTML overhead.
So the device and the company's servers have a single, very efficient request/response connection.
The company's servers do all the heavy lifting (as efficiently as possible) gathering, caching and aggregating data from multiple target servers.
The net result to the user is that sometimes Siri takes a moment, or so, longer to do what you ask. But it is not significant enough to degrade the UX.
In fact, Siri usually warns/notifies you of the extra effort: "Let me think about that", "I think I have an answer for you", etc.
You could say that Siri, Silk and the like give the user the "Best of the web" (speed and content) and eliminates the "Worst of the Web" (slowness, ads, distractions, click-bait, etc.).
It will be interesting to see how monitization of the web changes as a result of this change.
And, I suspect that people, who wanted to, could ask Siri: "Show me the New York Times web page" (in all its current glory).
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
They won't sell the gathered data anymore than Google sells it, but agreed that they'll certainly use it. If you don't like Google gathering personal and identifiable information about you, I don't think Apple's Siri Assistant feature will make you any more comfortable. I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago to pay attention to permissions.
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
It is called an Activity Indicator!
Quote:
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
It does not necessarily follow that when the activity indicator is displayed that it is using the network. Consider:
1) they wanted to show unusual system activity (Siri processing), and this is the proper place to put the indicator -- whether that activity uses the network or not.
2) this was an important higly-visible, live demo -- they may have used the network to a local WiFi Apple server to duplicate processing on the phone, compare results, and override if necessary,
3) Siri is in beta, and as a beta product it is logging activity to Apple's servers -- to detect errors and to learn how Siri is being used -- for tuning and expansion of capabilities*
4) That, as you say, it is using the network for every Siri request -- at this point in time.
* at one point in his "hands-free" demo Scott seemed a little surprised that Siri did not "read back" what it had done -- so the user could "verify" it without looking at the screen -- an obvious bug.
Quote:
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
I suspect that Apple will be data mining Siri requests for many reasons -- including monitoring Siri usage and performance.
However, this does not mean that Siri must go to the network to perform simple tasks that can be accomplished on the device, alone. The data from these requests could be cached on the device, then uploaded to Apple servers at some later time when a server request is needed (or as a pull request to an idle device).
We should learn more on the 14th -- with the device in our hot little hands, And, maybe, Apple will be more forthcoming as the beta progresses -- and eventually ends.
I suspect, at some time, the Siri APIs will be open to 3rd-party developers.
For those who smell fish (or smell like it), consider this:
Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been unabashed admirers of Steve Jobs, well before Jobs was sick. The respect they have for the man may be equal to that of most Apple fans. Despite Steve Jobs' reported anger toward Google and particularly Eric Schmidt, Schmidt has said nothing but kind words even well before Jobs' death. In some ways, the GooglePlex has lost a hero too, a source of inspiration.
Of course, we will never know anyone's true motive. But, in the absence of certainty, why not choose the more positive scenario and be happy? Being a cynic whenever possible does not make one more intelligent. It just makes you more cynical.
I agree with you on this one. Yes, it is a smart move both politically and logistically, but I have heard Schmidt say nothing but kind things about Jobs ... and I think it is still a respectful move. Kind of like putting off a big sporting event ? sorta? either way I say well played
Are you suggesting the people in charge at Google and Samsung (who have worked closely with Mr. Jobs for years and have in some cases been mentored by him) weren't affected by his passing?
i think it is highly likely that Steve Jobs really did proclaim: 'They want to kill the iphone...'don't be evil' is a load of crap.'
anyone who believes this 'oh steve was my mentor and hero' rubbish from the google camp is just dim. they didn't give a rats about steve and apple.
For those who smell fish (or smell like it), consider this:
Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been unabashed admirers of Steve Jobs, well before Jobs was sick. The respect they have for the man may be equal to that of most Apple fans. Despite Steve Jobs' reported anger toward Google and particularly Eric Schmidt, Schmidt has said nothing but kind words even well before Jobs' death. In some ways, the GooglePlex has lost a hero too, a source of inspiration.
Of course, we will never know anyone's true motive. But, in the absence of certainty, why not choose the more positive scenario and be happy? Being a cynic whenever possible does not make one more intelligent. It just makes you more cynical.
are you kidding me? this type thinking is why usa gov is so messed up. silly voters believing all the sugery dumb s*** and voting quacks into office.
Other than, of course, twice the processor cores, 7 times the GPU performance (which with Apple software can be used for general purpose computing tasks) and probably more RAM.
Clearly, the 4S is far more powerful than the 4.
And your argument that it is being done at Apple's computer farm is absurd. It apparently works even when there's no internet connection.
Sorry, but Apple states clearly on their site but Siri only works with internet connectivity. So apparently you are mistaken.
Sorry, but Apple states clearly on their site but Siri only works with internet connectivity. So apparently you are mistaken.
That can be read in two ways. One, that all aspects of Siri are server-side, or that because the full use of Siri does access Yelp, Wolfram-Alpha et al. that they make a blanket statement about needing an internet connection. Apple has done blanket statements about requirements in the past that weren't true for every situation.
Comments
I suspect it is similar to the Amazon Fire's Silk browser implementation:
1) A single, efficient, relatively low-speed connection from the device to the company's proprietary servers -- as opposed to multiple, inefficient low-speed connections to target servers.
2) The single request can minimize HTTP and XML overhead in the transmitted packet -- it does not need to be human-readable or conform to any, but the most basic TCP/IP protocols.
A single request to a target server usually involves multiple connections -- to download JavaScript scripts, CSS definitions, images, ad banners, animations, Flash, Flash Content, etc. Say, each image results in a single request-response connection that takes 1/2 second or more to turn around -- over and above the time to download the requested image. A web page with 10 images can easily waste several seconds in turning around request/response connections.
3) The company's servers communicate with the target servers via high-speed/bandwidth backbones.
4) The company's servers can cache frequently-requested data and avoid many requests of target servers.
5) The company's servers can aggregate the information from its caches and from requests to the target servers, then create and send an efficient data packet to the device. Again, there is no need for XML or HTML overhead.
So the device and the company's servers have a single, very efficient request/response connection.
The company's servers do all the heavy lifting (as efficiently as possible) gathering, caching and aggregating data from multiple target servers.
The net result to the user is that sometimes Siri takes a moment, or so, longer to do what you ask. But it is not significant enough to degrade the UX.
In fact, Siri usually warns/notifies you of the extra effort: "Let me think about that", "I think I have an answer for you", etc.
You could say that Siri, Silk and the like give the user the "Best of the web" (speed and content) and eliminates the "Worst of the Web" (slowness, ads, distractions, click-bait, etc.).
It will be interesting to see how monitization of the web changes as a result of this change.
And, I suspect that people, who wanted to, could ask Siri: "Show me the New York Times web page" (in all its current glory).
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
They won't sell the gathered data anymore than Google sells it, but agreed that they'll certainly use it. If you don't like Google gathering personal and identifiable information about you, I don't think Apple's Siri Assistant feature will make you any more comfortable. I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago to pay attention to permissions.
I rewatched the Siri demo of the special event. Everytime a request is made, even if it's something that is currently done locally with Voice Control or something one might think is completely local the spinning lines (not sure what to call it) appears next in the Menu Bar next to the network.
It is called an Activity Indicator!
That clearly indicates that it's using the data network which I find surprising for many of the mundane requests that Voice Control in iOS 4.x seems to handle well so it is looking like Silk, a low-overhead server-side service.
It does not necessarily follow that when the activity indicator is displayed that it is using the network. Consider:
1) they wanted to show unusual system activity (Siri processing), and this is the proper place to put the indicator -- whether that activity uses the network or not.
2) this was an important higly-visible, live demo -- they may have used the network to a local WiFi Apple server to duplicate processing on the phone, compare results, and override if necessary,
3) Siri is in beta, and as a beta product it is logging activity to Apple's servers -- to detect errors and to learn how Siri is being used -- for tuning and expansion of capabilities*
4) That, as you say, it is using the network for every Siri request -- at this point in time.
* at one point in his "hands-free" demo Scott seemed a little surprised that Siri did not "read back" what it had done -- so the user could "verify" it without looking at the screen -- an obvious bug.
That would also mean that Apple will be data mining real world requests that I think could be more valuable than the data mining Amazon and Google do with their search engines. I don't think Apple will sell this information, but they will certainly use it to their advantage. I wonder if this will become a big scandal like the anonymous location tracking.
I suspect that Apple will be data mining Siri requests for many reasons -- including monitoring Siri usage and performance.
However, this does not mean that Siri must go to the network to perform simple tasks that can be accomplished on the device, alone. The data from these requests could be cached on the device, then uploaded to Apple servers at some later time when a server request is needed (or as a pull request to an idle device).
We should learn more on the 14th -- with the device in our hot little hands, And, maybe, Apple will be more forthcoming as the beta progresses -- and eventually ends.
I suspect, at some time, the Siri APIs will be open to 3rd-party developers.
The spinner in the toolbar is always and only a network activity indicator.
Up until now... ...Doesn't mean it always will be. Apple, sometimes, violates their own HIG.
For those who smell fish (or smell like it), consider this:
Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been unabashed admirers of Steve Jobs, well before Jobs was sick. The respect they have for the man may be equal to that of most Apple fans. Despite Steve Jobs' reported anger toward Google and particularly Eric Schmidt, Schmidt has said nothing but kind words even well before Jobs' death. In some ways, the GooglePlex has lost a hero too, a source of inspiration.
Of course, we will never know anyone's true motive. But, in the absence of certainty, why not choose the more positive scenario and be happy? Being a cynic whenever possible does not make one more intelligent. It just makes you more cynical.
I agree with you on this one. Yes, it is a smart move both politically and logistically, but I have heard Schmidt say nothing but kind things about Jobs ... and I think it is still a respectful move. Kind of like putting off a big sporting event ? sorta? either way I say well played
Are you suggesting the people in charge at Google and Samsung (who have worked closely with Mr. Jobs for years and have in some cases been mentored by him) weren't affected by his passing?
i think it is highly likely that Steve Jobs really did proclaim: 'They want to kill the iphone...'don't be evil' is a load of crap.'
anyone who believes this 'oh steve was my mentor and hero' rubbish from the google camp is just dim. they didn't give a rats about steve and apple.
For those who smell fish (or smell like it), consider this:
Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been unabashed admirers of Steve Jobs, well before Jobs was sick. The respect they have for the man may be equal to that of most Apple fans. Despite Steve Jobs' reported anger toward Google and particularly Eric Schmidt, Schmidt has said nothing but kind words even well before Jobs' death. In some ways, the GooglePlex has lost a hero too, a source of inspiration.
Of course, we will never know anyone's true motive. But, in the absence of certainty, why not choose the more positive scenario and be happy? Being a cynic whenever possible does not make one more intelligent. It just makes you more cynical.
are you kidding me? this type thinking is why usa gov is so messed up. silly voters believing all the sugery dumb s*** and voting quacks into office.
Other than, of course, twice the processor cores, 7 times the GPU performance (which with Apple software can be used for general purpose computing tasks) and probably more RAM.
Clearly, the 4S is far more powerful than the 4.
And your argument that it is being done at Apple's computer farm is absurd. It apparently works even when there's no internet connection.
Sorry, but Apple states clearly on their site but Siri only works with internet connectivity. So apparently you are mistaken.
are you kidding me? this type thinking is why usa gov is so messed up. silly voters believing all the sugery dumb s*** and voting quacks into office.
You should really stay off the bottle, my friend.
Sorry, but Apple states clearly on their site but Siri only works with internet connectivity. So apparently you are mistaken.
That can be read in two ways. One, that all aspects of Siri are server-side, or that because the full use of Siri does access Yelp, Wolfram-Alpha et al. that they make a blanket statement about needing an internet connection. Apple has done blanket statements about requirements in the past that weren't true for every situation.