Many of us who buy Apple products regularly have been surprised by some of the things Apple has turned out. Steve & Co. worked very hard to keep it that way. Respectfully, I disagree with the view that Apple customers are "dumb", and instead I just think that it can be very smart for a company to not telegraph their every move publicly.
Nice try.. but the people I was calling dumb are people that were fooled when someone asked Steve Jobs, essentially: "are you working on a secret video iPad/phone/whatever project -- then are surprised when he doesn't reveal Apple's secret project plans...
Whether they are Apple customers or not has no bearing on their gullibility to believe a stupid answer to a stupid question... this is obvious to even the meanest intelligence.
On Android you can already say "Text Joe, I am going to be late. Sorry bud. Send." and it'll send. With Siri, you can now say "Hello Siri. How are you? Please text Joe that I will be late. Sorry bud."
Yeah, it's cool in demos and when you get your shiny new toy. But what's the longevity on that? Unless you like the sound of your own voice, you're going to learn to optimize Siri to do what you want quickly. And do you know what that will sound like?
If you honestly think that, let me know. I'll add you to my ignore list
Many have downplayed Siri as something weird... Why would you be ashamed to put the phone to your face and speak to it? Isn't that what talking to someone looks like? lol
I guess some people still perceive difference between talking to someone and talking to something.
I see a lot of folks trying to say Siri isn't ready or Siri isn't much use. I think you're wrong. This really happened in my garage just moments after getting her phone setup:
Wife (a professional musician running late to a gig--as always): Asks me, "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Me: "Just ask your phone"
Wife to Siri: "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Siri shows map with push pin.
Wife touches push pin
Phone displays address of Blah House in Dallas
Wife punches address into GPS and screeches out of the driveway.
Folks, give it up. My musician wife is in love with the thing.
However I suspect upon further teardown of the 4S we will see some suspicious enhancements to the microphones and more importantly, exploitation of the A5 for enhanced audio processing to enhance Siri's recognition capabilities.
It has been reported that teardowns show that Apple did away with the dedicated noise-cancelling chip present in previous iPhones, and has moved that functionality to the A5. I am guessing, knowing Apple, that they have improved the algorithms which enhances Siri functionality.
It is probable that this is one of the reasons for the limitation to the 4S.
But, you (from your device, location, IP address, cookies, etc.) won't make the request to Google -- Siri will, through Apple's servers... Google will not know who you are or be able to mine your data!
NCDC is going to get a lot of advertising spam.
By using Siri, we are deputizing her to protect our privacy!
I was referring to Google's voice recognition. Google will find a way to monetize it.
I was referring to Google's voice recognition. Google will find a way to monetize it.
Yes... And that will make Siri more appealing -- because Apple will be selling services to the user... And Google will be selling the users' data to advertisers.
I don't believe that Google or MS will have anything comparable to Siri for at least 2 years.
As you know, Siri is much more than simple voice commands or web searches... Those who want help getting things done will select Siri...
Everyone is so smug in their satisfaction that Apple hit another homerun and the other guys are badmouthing it because they are scared.
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Microsoft, in particular, is in a good position to compete with its TellMe product. All it really needs to do is beef up its command set, add a dollop of natural language processing and a more detailed state machine, and it will be able to compete toe-to-toe with Siri. Actually, it will be better than Siri because it will have much more voice sample data to draw from (TellMe is used all over the place... Kinect, Microsoft Auto, call centers, in Windows 7, and on and on) and it will have a lot more content to draw from; where Apple has to rely on partners like Google, Yelp, Wolfram Alpha and so on to get its data, Microsoft has Bing and Google has... well.. Google.
That's not to say Siri is a bad product, because it isn't. But let's not count out Google and Microsoft yet, shall we. Apple may have scored the first hits in this new battle, but Microsoft and Google have much more potent weapons than Apple may suspect.
Everyone is so smug in their satisfaction that Apple hit another homerun and the other guys are badmouthing it because they are scared.
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Microsoft, in particular, is in a good position to compete with its TellMe product. All it really needs to do is beef up its command set, add a dollop of natural language processing and a more detailed state machine, and it will be able to compete toe-to-toe with Siri. Actually, it will be better than Siri because it will have much more voice sample data to draw from (TellMe is used all over the place... Kinect, Microsoft Auto, call centers, in Windows 7, and on and on) and it will have a lot more content to draw from; where Apple has to rely on partners like Google, Yelp, Wolfram Alpha and so on to get its data, Microsoft has Bing and Google has... well.. Google.
That's not to say Siri is a bad product, because it isn't. But let's not count out Google and Microsoft yet, shall we. Apple may have scored the first hits in this new battle, but Microsoft and Google have much more potent weapons than Apple may suspect.
Show me a competitive product with 25 million users by Jan 1, 2012... Then we'll talk!
This game is already over!
Sorry... My prediction is that Siri wins... First/best to market, and all that!
Show me a competitive product with 25 million users by Jan 1, 2012... Then we'll talk!
This game is already over!
Sorry... My prediction is that Siri wins... First/best to market, and all that!
That's what people said about iPhone. And now Android devices outsell iPhones by a considerable margin.
TellMe already has (by my estimation) many millions of users, when you add up everyone who has bought a kinect, a Ford car equipped with Sync or a Windows Phone. All of those products already offer highly robust voice recognition, some natural language processing and fairly robust command sets.
That's what people said about iPhone. And now Android devices outsell iPhones by a considerable margin.
TellMe already has (by my estimation) many millions of users, when you add up everyone who has bought a kinect, a Ford car equipped with Sync or a Windows Phone. All of those products already offer highly robust voice recognition, some natural language processing and fairly robust command sets.
Watch and learn...
They have rather simplistic voice recognition and no context-sensitive conversational dialog.
It ain't in the speach-to-text software, or the simple command language offered by MS and Google... It's the whole infrastructure.
Siri is the pinch-zoom gesture of 2011... Wait and see!
I agree with most of it I suppose. Apple's purchase of Siri was a great decision. Especially the deep integration it has. I however would not use this in public, and would probably laugh / shake my head at anyone who does when I finally see it happen.
Have you used the "lift to speak" feature yet? It looks like you are making a phone call, and your conversation remains just between you and Siri.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaroonMushroom
Everything else that Siri has is usually just a glorified Google search.
Not true. Not true in the slightest. You have not explored Siri, but you are placing your opinion out there anyway.
You can ask Siri things like, "What is the least common multiple of 12 and 18?", "What is the greatest common factor of 36 and 45?", "What is 3456.23 times 234?", "Why is the sky blue?", etc. One service that gives you back the answers there is Wolfram Alpha, which is far more than a "glorified web search". Other queries are just as cool and use other services, such as OpenTable. In fact, the only time a web search gets involved is when Siri fails to get a satisfactory answer for you. She is teaching us that to fall back on Google = to fail. What a great way to position the business case!
Everyone is so smug in their satisfaction that Apple hit another homerun and the other guys are badmouthing it because they are scared.
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Well, going by experience in the last decade, we should compare this innovation to:
1. iPod and the click-wheel interface (nothing really all that different there from other music players)
2. iPhone and capacitive multitouch (nothing really all that new here - touch has been around for a long time, and a stylus is almost the same)
3. iPad and a new type of tablet (almost uniformly panned by very serious people - just a giant iPhone)
When Apple tells me they have incorporated a game-changing innovation in a new product, even if I can see similarities to products on the market, I am now giving them credence.
I don't think they would risk their reputation and track record by pulling the wool over my eyes.
Comments
Many of us who buy Apple products regularly have been surprised by some of the things Apple has turned out. Steve & Co. worked very hard to keep it that way. Respectfully, I disagree with the view that Apple customers are "dumb", and instead I just think that it can be very smart for a company to not telegraph their every move publicly.
Nice try.. but the people I was calling dumb are people that were fooled when someone asked Steve Jobs, essentially: "are you working on a secret video iPad/phone/whatever project -- then are surprised when he doesn't reveal Apple's secret project plans...
Whether they are Apple customers or not has no bearing on their gullibility to believe a stupid answer to a stupid question... this is obvious to even the meanest intelligence.
I can only imagine where this is going
Wife (a professional musician running late to a gig--as always): Asks me, "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Me: "Just ask your phone"
Wife to Siri: "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Siri shows map with push pin.
Wife touches push pin
Phone displays address of Blah House in Dallas
Wife punches address into GPS and screeches out of the driveway.
Folks, give it up. My musician wife is in love with the thing.
Instead of punching in the address on her GPS, she could have simply asked Siri, ?How do I get there?? and it would have set up a route on the iPhone.
I thank you for your help in locating that information although my worst case scenario has now been confirmed to be true.
Melodramatic. Try reading the sentence before: "It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services."
On Android you can already say "Text Joe, I am going to be late. Sorry bud. Send." and it'll send. With Siri, you can now say "Hello Siri. How are you? Please text Joe that I will be late. Sorry bud."
Yeah, it's cool in demos and when you get your shiny new toy. But what's the longevity on that? Unless you like the sound of your own voice, you're going to learn to optimize Siri to do what you want quickly. And do you know what that will sound like?
If you honestly think that, let me know. I'll add you to my ignore list
LOL - seriously. What Jobs said was true, not just some pathetic dig at another company.
7" tablets failed.
Mobile flash fails.
What 7" tablets..?
Nook Colour is doing well, to my knowledge.
Amazon Fire, I'd be surprised if it doesn't do well.
Many have downplayed Siri as something weird... Why would you be ashamed to put the phone to your face and speak to it? Isn't that what talking to someone looks like? lol
I guess some people still perceive difference between talking to someone and talking to something.
What 7" tablets..?
Nook Colour is doing well, to my knowledge.
Amazon Fire, I'd be surprised if it doesn't do well.
Their primary function is to be a reading device, which is completely NOT what SJ was talking about....
I see a lot of folks trying to say Siri isn't ready or Siri isn't much use. I think you're wrong. This really happened in my garage just moments after getting her phone setup:
Wife (a professional musician running late to a gig--as always): Asks me, "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Me: "Just ask your phone"
Wife to Siri: "Where is Blah House in Dallas?"
Siri shows map with push pin.
Wife touches push pin
Phone displays address of Blah House in Dallas
Wife punches address into GPS and screeches out of the driveway.
Folks, give it up. My musician wife is in love with the thing.
But how many musician wives are around..?
I guess some people still perceive difference between talking to someone and talking to something.
But how many musician wives are around..?
These aren't up to your usual standard.
However I suspect upon further teardown of the 4S we will see some suspicious enhancements to the microphones and more importantly, exploitation of the A5 for enhanced audio processing to enhance Siri's recognition capabilities.
It has been reported that teardowns show that Apple did away with the dedicated noise-cancelling chip present in previous iPhones, and has moved that functionality to the A5. I am guessing, knowing Apple, that they have improved the algorithms which enhances Siri functionality.
It is probable that this is one of the reasons for the limitation to the 4S.
But, you (from your device, location, IP address, cookies, etc.) won't make the request to Google -- Siri will, through Apple's servers... Google will not know who you are or be able to mine your data!
NCDC is going to get a lot of advertising spam.
By using Siri, we are deputizing her to protect our privacy!
I was referring to Google's voice recognition. Google will find a way to monetize it.
I was referring to Google's voice recognition. Google will find a way to monetize it.
Yes... And that will make Siri more appealing -- because Apple will be selling services to the user... And Google will be selling the users' data to advertisers.
I don't believe that Google or MS will have anything comparable to Siri for at least 2 years.
As you know, Siri is much more than simple voice commands or web searches... Those who want help getting things done will select Siri...
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Microsoft, in particular, is in a good position to compete with its TellMe product. All it really needs to do is beef up its command set, add a dollop of natural language processing and a more detailed state machine, and it will be able to compete toe-to-toe with Siri. Actually, it will be better than Siri because it will have much more voice sample data to draw from (TellMe is used all over the place... Kinect, Microsoft Auto, call centers, in Windows 7, and on and on) and it will have a lot more content to draw from; where Apple has to rely on partners like Google, Yelp, Wolfram Alpha and so on to get its data, Microsoft has Bing and Google has... well.. Google.
That's not to say Siri is a bad product, because it isn't. But let's not count out Google and Microsoft yet, shall we. Apple may have scored the first hits in this new battle, but Microsoft and Google have much more potent weapons than Apple may suspect.
Everyone is so smug in their satisfaction that Apple hit another homerun and the other guys are badmouthing it because they are scared.
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Microsoft, in particular, is in a good position to compete with its TellMe product. All it really needs to do is beef up its command set, add a dollop of natural language processing and a more detailed state machine, and it will be able to compete toe-to-toe with Siri. Actually, it will be better than Siri because it will have much more voice sample data to draw from (TellMe is used all over the place... Kinect, Microsoft Auto, call centers, in Windows 7, and on and on) and it will have a lot more content to draw from; where Apple has to rely on partners like Google, Yelp, Wolfram Alpha and so on to get its data, Microsoft has Bing and Google has... well.. Google.
That's not to say Siri is a bad product, because it isn't. But let's not count out Google and Microsoft yet, shall we. Apple may have scored the first hits in this new battle, but Microsoft and Google have much more potent weapons than Apple may suspect.
Show me a competitive product with 25 million users by Jan 1, 2012... Then we'll talk!
This game is already over!
Sorry... My prediction is that Siri wins... First/best to market, and all that!
Show me a competitive product with 25 million users by Jan 1, 2012... Then we'll talk!
This game is already over!
Sorry... My prediction is that Siri wins... First/best to market, and all that!
That's what people said about iPhone. And now Android devices outsell iPhones by a considerable margin.
TellMe already has (by my estimation) many millions of users, when you add up everyone who has bought a kinect, a Ford car equipped with Sync or a Windows Phone. All of those products already offer highly robust voice recognition, some natural language processing and fairly robust command sets.
That's what people said about iPhone. And now Android devices outsell iPhones by a considerable margin.
TellMe already has (by my estimation) many millions of users, when you add up everyone who has bought a kinect, a Ford car equipped with Sync or a Windows Phone. All of those products already offer highly robust voice recognition, some natural language processing and fairly robust command sets.
Watch and learn...
They have rather simplistic voice recognition and no context-sensitive conversational dialog.
It ain't in the speach-to-text software, or the simple command language offered by MS and Google... It's the whole infrastructure.
Siri is the pinch-zoom gesture of 2011... Wait and see!
I agree with most of it I suppose. Apple's purchase of Siri was a great decision. Especially the deep integration it has. I however would not use this in public, and would probably laugh / shake my head at anyone who does when I finally see it happen.
Have you used the "lift to speak" feature yet? It looks like you are making a phone call, and your conversation remains just between you and Siri.
Everything else that Siri has is usually just a glorified Google search.
Not true. Not true in the slightest. You have not explored Siri, but you are placing your opinion out there anyway.
You can ask Siri things like, "What is the least common multiple of 12 and 18?", "What is the greatest common factor of 36 and 45?", "What is 3456.23 times 234?", "Why is the sky blue?", etc. One service that gives you back the answers there is Wolfram Alpha, which is far more than a "glorified web search". Other queries are just as cool and use other services, such as OpenTable. In fact, the only time a web search gets involved is when Siri fails to get a satisfactory answer for you. She is teaching us that to fall back on Google = to fail. What a great way to position the business case!
Thompson
Everyone is so smug in their satisfaction that Apple hit another homerun and the other guys are badmouthing it because they are scared.
Hardly.
Apple is a bit of a johnny-come-lately to this, and while Siri is definitely crowd pleasing, it really only does one thing new: maintain more detailed state, allowing it to remember more things about you and use that information to help it respond better. That is certainly a decent innovation, but it's not some sort of massive revolutionary leap, nor is it a massive threat to Android or Windows Phone.
Well, going by experience in the last decade, we should compare this innovation to:
1. iPod and the click-wheel interface (nothing really all that different there from other music players)
2. iPhone and capacitive multitouch (nothing really all that new here - touch has been around for a long time, and a stylus is almost the same)
3. iPad and a new type of tablet (almost uniformly panned by very serious people - just a giant iPhone)
When Apple tells me they have incorporated a game-changing innovation in a new product, even if I can see similarities to products on the market, I am now giving them credence.
I don't think they would risk their reputation and track record by pulling the wool over my eyes.