Apple is a $2tn company. It really needs to stop introducing so many "magical" next best things and then abandoning them. That's what startups do when they haven't the man power. Apple definitely has the manpower.
Alternatively, Apple should continue innovating and listening to the market to see if what they've done is worth further investment.
Not sure Apple has "continued innovating" with Siri. People liked the HP, but Siri and the price let it down.
I've had two HomePods in different rooms for a few years and have enjoyed their sound quality. I recently moved them into the same room and configured them as a stereo pair connected to an Apple TV 4K and was absolutely blown away by Dolby Atmos content and the increase in bass that seems exponentially greater than the sum of two HomePods.
A HomePod mini replaced one of the HomePods in its original location. Unfortunately, the HomePod mini doesn't sound much better than my 4th generation Echo Dot speakers despite being twice as expensive.
I'd gladly buy more HomePods if Apple hadn't discontinued them, but I doubt I'll be buying anymore HomePods minis.
And, while Siri may be okay for music, I find it much less intelligent than Alexa when it comes to non-music interaction such as adding items to a shopping list which Siri frequently misunderstands and Alexa hardly ever does.
Always remember: Amazon's primary objective with smart speakers was to increase impulse shopping on Amazon. How often do you hear anyone praising the Echo for enhancing their shopping experience on Amazon? Almost never. So Echo and the like have always been failures in that regard.
Always remember: Amazon's primary objective with smart speakers was to increase impulse shopping on Amazon. How often do you hear anyone praising the Echo for enhancing their shopping experience on Amazon? Almost never. So Echo and the like have always been failures in that regard.
I'm not sure that's the objective.
Personally I believe Amazon's goal is to make voice control of systems and services and learning ubiquitous. They're using the data gathered from the use of millions of Echo devices to make their Alexa system friendly, very reliable, useful, time-saving and, above all, simple.
There's probably no one with more voice samples/data than Amazon. They probably understand inflection and tone and not just raw voice commands better than anyone else. With voice fast replacing buttons and switches and keyboards, Amazon will be positioning themselves at the forefront, an integral part of all future "smart" devices and included with computers and operating systems. That's when Alexa will be monetized.
Examples of where Siri fails and Alexa excels for me:
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken enchiladas to the shopping list." Siri adds "chicken inch a lot of".
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken parmesan to the shopping list." Siri replies, "Okay - I've added those two items" and adds "chicken" and "parmesan" as separate items.
"Hey, Siri. Play Groove Salad on SomaFM." Siri says she can't do that.
"Hey, Siri. Play [my local public radio station]." After a long pause, Siri often responds that there was a problem playing the content. Alexa has no problem playing it.
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken piccata to the shopping list." Siri adds "Chupacabra".
"Hey, Siri. Add Albert's hot sauce to the shopping list." Siri adds "Albert f**k off". Really, Siri?
"Hey, Siri. Add toothpaste to the shopping list." Siri adds "toupees". Thanks for the reminder, Siri.
Half the time, when my brother tells Siri to "turn on the lights" using his HomePod, she plays some profane hip hop song that has no apparent connection to the request.
I use my voice professionally, so I'd like to think that I'm pronouncing these items correctly.
Alexa understands each of these requests correctly. I prefer using Siri for my shopping list because it's easier to use on all my Apples devices, but Siri's relative lack of intelligence makes the decision more difficult.
Examples of where Siri fails and Alexa excels for me:
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken enchiladas to the shopping list." Siri adds "chicken inch a lot of".
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken parmesan to the shopping list." Siri replies, "Okay - I've added those two items" and adds "chicken" and "parmesan" as separate items.
"Hey, Siri. Play Groove Salad on SomaFM." Siri says she can't do that.
"Hey, Siri. Play [my local public radio station]." After a long pause, Siri often responds that there was a problem playing the content. Alexa has no problem playing it.
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken piccata to the shopping list." Siri adds "Chupacabra".
"Hey, Siri. Add Albert's hot sauce to the shopping list." Siri adds "Albert f**k off". Really, Siri?
"Hey, Siri. Add toothpaste to the shopping list." Siri adds "toupees". Thanks for the reminder, Siri.
Half the time, when my brother tells Siri to "turn on the lights" using his HomePod, she plays some profane hip hop song that has no apparent connection to the request.
I use my voice professionally, so I'd like to think that I'm pronouncing these items correctly.
Alexa understands each of these requests correctly. I prefer using Siri for my shopping list because it's easier to use on all my Apples devices, but Siri's relative lack of intelligence makes the decision more difficult.
Its even worse for me using Siri to play music (on iPhone, not HomePod, I'm not spending a penny on a HomePod until Siri works).
"Hey Siri play Master Of The House" "Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music" "What, no, hey Siri, play Master Of The House from Les Miserables" "I couldn't find that in your Apple Music Library" "For fucks sake, hey Siri, play Les Miserables" "Which one, [proceed to list off a bunch of films]" "For fucks sake, hey Siri, play the album Les Miserables" "Which app do you want to listen to that on?" "Apple Music!" "Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music in Apple Music" "Fine"
I'm not even cherry picking, this sort of crap happens with all sorts of music. Siri is garbage.
Examples of where Siri fails and Alexa excels for me:
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken enchiladas to the shopping list." Siri adds "chicken inch a lot of".
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken parmesan to the shopping list." Siri replies, "Okay - I've added those two items" and adds "chicken" and "parmesan" as separate items.
"Hey, Siri. Play Groove Salad on SomaFM." Siri says she can't do that.
"Hey, Siri. Play [my local public radio station]." After a long pause, Siri often responds that there was a problem playing the content. Alexa has no problem playing it.
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken piccata to the shopping list." Siri adds "Chupacabra".
"Hey, Siri. Add Albert's hot sauce to the shopping list." Siri adds "Albert f**k off". Really, Siri?
"Hey, Siri. Add toothpaste to the shopping list." Siri adds "toupees". Thanks for the reminder, Siri.
Half the time, when my brother tells Siri to "turn on the lights" using his HomePod, she plays some profane hip hop song that has no apparent connection to the request.
I use my voice professionally, so I'd like to think that I'm pronouncing these items correctly.
Alexa understands each of these requests correctly. I prefer using Siri for my shopping list because it's easier to use on all my Apples devices, but Siri's relative lack of intelligence makes the decision more difficult.
Its even worse for me using Siri to play music (on iPhone, not HomePod, I'm not spending a penny on a HomePod until Siri works).
"Hey Siri play Master Of The House" "Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music" "What, no, hey Siri, play Master Of The House from Les Miserables" "I couldn't find that in your Apple Music Library" "For fucks sake, hey Siri, play Les Miserables" "Which one, [proceed to list off a bunch of films]" "For fucks sake, hey Siri, play the album Les Miserables" "Which app do you want to listen to that on?" "Apple Music!" "Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music in Apple Music" "Fine"
I'm not even cherry picking, this sort of crap happens with all sorts of music. Siri is garbage.
Siri can't even do the most basic things with timers. I have asked it to add 5 minutes to my 15 minute timer, and it resets the 15 minute timer to 5 minutes... It's so basic. Mac OS 9's speakable items worked better in many cases. There must be no one at Apple working on improving Siri at all. For how much they talk about how brilliant AI is, Siri seems conspicuously absent from AI related (or any) improvements. The only time anyone pushes any changes to it is when a new action (that Alexa has been able to do for years) is half-assed and gaffer-taped on. It really is a joke.
I've had two HomePods in different rooms for a few years and have enjoyed their sound quality. I recently moved them into the same room and configured them as a stereo pair connected to an Apple TV 4K and was absolutely blown away by Dolby Atmos content and the increase in bass that seems exponentially greater than the sum of two HomePods.
I never understood why anyone needed more than one smart speaker to control a network of cheaper speakers (& probably wifi mesh-network them too). Even an AppleTV providing the smarts for the ‘drone’ speakers would have worked.
Comments
Personally I believe Amazon's goal is to make voice control of systems and services and learning ubiquitous. They're using the data gathered from the use of millions of Echo devices to make their Alexa system friendly, very reliable, useful, time-saving and, above all, simple.
There's probably no one with more voice samples/data than Amazon. They probably understand inflection and tone and not just raw voice commands better than anyone else. With voice fast replacing buttons and switches and keyboards, Amazon will be positioning themselves at the forefront, an integral part of all future "smart" devices and included with computers and operating systems. That's when Alexa will be monetized.
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken enchiladas to the shopping list." Siri adds "chicken inch a lot of".
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken parmesan to the shopping list." Siri replies, "Okay - I've added those two items" and adds "chicken" and "parmesan" as separate items.
"Hey, Siri. Play Groove Salad on SomaFM." Siri says she can't do that.
"Hey, Siri. Play [my local public radio station]." After a long pause, Siri often responds that there was a problem playing the content. Alexa has no problem playing it.
"Hey, Siri. Add chicken piccata to the shopping list." Siri adds "Chupacabra".
"Hey, Siri. Add Albert's hot sauce to the shopping list." Siri adds "Albert f**k off". Really, Siri?
"Hey, Siri. Add toothpaste to the shopping list." Siri adds "toupees". Thanks for the reminder, Siri.
Half the time, when my brother tells Siri to "turn on the lights" using his HomePod, she plays some profane hip hop song that has no apparent connection to the request.
I use my voice professionally, so I'd like to think that I'm pronouncing these items correctly.
Alexa understands each of these requests correctly. I prefer using Siri for my shopping list because it's easier to use on all my Apples devices, but Siri's relative lack of intelligence makes the decision more difficult.
"Hey Siri play Master Of The House"
"Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music"
"What, no, hey Siri, play Master Of The House from Les Miserables"
"I couldn't find that in your Apple Music Library"
"For fucks sake, hey Siri, play Les Miserables"
"Which one, [proceed to list off a bunch of films]"
"For fucks sake, hey Siri, play the album Les Miserables"
"Which app do you want to listen to that on?"
"Apple Music!"
"Ok, playing music like Apple 1 Music in Apple Music"
"Fine"
I'm not even cherry picking, this sort of crap happens with all sorts of music. Siri is garbage.