ihatescreennames

I’m fine with password management for now and really have no issues with it. What I’d prefer is not having to provide an email address everywhere and then get unwanted junk e-mail. I use hide my email but that’s still something I have to manage. 

williamh said:

I tried an Amazon Alexa device when I was out house hunting a couple weeks ago.  Note to home sellers: I could have ordered a bunch of stuff for you. The general idea behind these devices is pretty good.
...
I surely don't use all the capabilities but it's hard to know what the capabilities are.  Check that.  I asked Siri "What can Siri do?" and got a list of things I mostly don't want Siri to do.  There are a few more uses for Siri I ought to try.  Siri doesn't seem to work that intelligently.  I never use it on my Mac. 

My friends have an Echo and I'm not particularly impressed by it.  It sits in their kitchen and is basically useless outside of there.  Music sounds decent through it and it seems to "hear" fairly well.  But when they were demoing it for me it didn't work well.  It managed to give tomorrow's weather and the score of the previous day's game but when they asked it to play music it kept playing the wrong artist or incorrect genre.  And it got really confusing when they would both accidentally speak to it at the same time.  Currently, Alexa is less capable than Siri in a number of ways, like follow-up questions and more detailed answers.

If you have an iPhone you can also invoke Siri, not say anything and then get a continuously updating list of what Siri can do.

I have found some uses for Siri on the Mac.  I find it very convenient to say to Siri "Show me photos of (my daughter) from May 2015" and Photos opens and shows me my daughter's photos.  Super!  I'm mildly disappointed that Mac Siri cannot currently handle HomeKit requests, even though it is apparently aware that I'm making a HomeKit request and is aware that it can not follow through.

I'm also curious why in your experience Siri doesn't work intelligently.  I use Siri daily on my iPhone and Watch and for what I do it's great.  Here's a brief list of things I request: Play music by (artist)
Set a timer
What is the current temperature
Set the bathroom to 30%
What date is 60 days from (any day)
What is $199 plus 6.25% (sales tax, also good for tipping)
Turn on the stereo
Goodnight
Goodmoring
Give me directions/how long will it take to get to work

Again, these are things I use daily or quite frequently (the tax and tipping less so) and work every time.  Siri also works great on the follow-up questions (like, who is the President of the United States? How old is he? Does he have children?) but I do those types of things less frequently.

I'd like to know what it is you try to use Siri for that doesn't work to your satisfaction.

AppleInsider said:

"Basically [now] the main points of differentiation of AirTags vis a vis Tile, are [unique] to platform capabilities that we don't have access to," he said. "Seamless activation [is an example], and another is Ultra Wideband."

Prober says that Tile has been pressing to get developer access to Apple's U1 Ultra Wideband processor, "and have been denied."

"Apple does not need to take advantage of its monopoly position, the App Store and the iPhone, [or] enable advantages that only they can partake in," continued Prober. "They can make those [platform] advantages available to all companies so we can compete on a level playing field."

Perhaps the CEO of a product that competes with AirTag is completely unaware of this:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/04/07/apple-announces-find-my-network-for-third-party-accessories

Here’s the quote I’m referring to from that linked article: “ Alongside the announcement of the program, Apple says it will be launching what it calls a draft specification for chipset manufacturers. Due out "later this spring," the specification will allow third-party firms to utilize the more precise location technology, Ultra-Wideband technology in U1-equipped Apple devices.”

If he is truly unaware he should be looking for new engineers.

Chipolo also makes a competing product to Tile and AirTags. Where is all of the complaining about unfairness coming from Chipolo? I haven’t seen any. In fact, what I do see is Chipolo is making a product that explicitly works with Find My. Maybe this Tile guy should take a few pages from the Chipolo playbook instead of running to the government for help.

williamh said:

winstoner71 said:

I liked the white one better. Shrug. 

I expect a lot of people like white. I didn’t even consider it because it would tend get dingy over time.  A speaker will tend to stay in place catching dust. 

For me it’s the opposite. I have a white and a space gray HomePod. The space gray one shows the dust much more than the white one does.

MacPro said:

I agree with the two posts above.  I'd love to see more functionality unleashed both in iOS and macOS.

Me, too. I use Siri every day and for the most part don't have any complaints. It does what I want almost every time and I don't know why people have complaints and compare it to Google Assistant negatively. I love that it has been integrated into Apple TV, as well, and that I can use my Siri Remote to turn on lights, etc. 

However, I'm very confused as to why only some of Siri's functions work on my Mac. On my Mac if I ask Siri to turn on some lights, for instance, I get a response saying HomeKit isn't supported on the Mac. So, it's smart enough to realize what I'm asking but can't follow through. Weird. 

Meanwhile…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpK-GBOz9A

I don’t have any Tile products (or AirTags) but I would like to see someone do this same thing with a Tile and see what the results are.

JP234 said:

If you can't tell what bandwidth you're getting from your USB cable/device, you probably don't need to know.

My iPad Pro uses a USB-C cable for charging. My wife’s M1 MacBook Air uses a USB-C cable for charging. The iPad cable doesn’t work for charging the Air (and maybe vice versa). I can’t tell by looking at them which one works with which device but we obviously need to know or at least one device won’t be charging when we think it is. 

avon b7 said:

How did mother nature not mention water consumption in manufacturing when it is one of nature's most precious resources? 

Did you really watch it? There was a specific call out to using less water that was hard to miss. Lisa Jackson tells Mother Nature that Apple lowered it by 63 billion gallons, Mother Nature says, “63 million?” then LJ repeats and emphasizes “billion”. 

michelb76 said:

The EU accounts for a quarter of worldwide sales. It will come to the EU at some point. 

Are you sure about that? I think “Europe”, as defined by Apple accounts for about 25% of sales, but that includes more than only the EU. If I remember correctly “Europe” in Apple financials included Africa and parts of the Middle East, for example, which aren’t included in the EU. 

Xed said:

Does anyone here use or know anyone that uses the Journal app?

I have nothing bad to say about the app — because I've never used it — but it's not app that seems to get any mention in my circles.

I use it. Not every day but very often. I’m not particularly prolific but there are times when I like to enter a summary of the day’s events, maybe with some photos/videos or maps or workout results. I like it.