rs1919

peterhart said:

Herbivore2 said:

Here's hoping for a 7 nm SoC in the next version of the watch. 

So...over time, the nanometer build process has gotten smaller by number each year. Being unfamiliar with what that is, what happens when the number is down to 1? Is anything smaller?

When you hear the nanometer build process, it's defining how precisely a chip is manufactured and how small it is.  A nanometer is 1X10^-9 meters or .0000000001 meters.  To help give some perspective, a single hydrogen atom is about .1 nanometer and an electron is roughly 1x10^-16 or .1 femtometer.   Essentially, the smaller the architecture of the chips, the less power and better performance it'll achieve.  To be grossly over-simplistic, this is because the electrons don't need to travel as far and are more tightly packed when going through the transistors.  

While there are many tasks that Siri doesn’t answer on the HomePod that it should, I think the lack of what it can do is overstated. For example, Alexa can order items from Amazon, the HomePod can’t... but if you’ve tried asking Alexa the Deal of the day you get item after item said to you, and it takes 10 minutes to hear. Then you need to order very specifically... yes, Alexa can do, but it’s a pain in the ass and going on the phone and ordering it is sooo much easier. Try changing the volume on Alexa. “Alexa, volume to 60%,” it doesn’t understand, so you left with needing to say, “Alexa volume up... Alexa volume up... and so on till it finally gets to a desired level. HomePod you say, “Hey Siri, volume to 20%” and it’s instantly turned down to 20%. A long rant short: Yes Alexa can do more, i’ve had mine for about a year now and while it can do a lot, I primarily use it to listen to music and control my smart lights. I am in the Apple eco system (already use Apple Music since release), so the things I use a smart speaker for are where the HomePod excels. So while Siri can’t do everything (and I’d argue there’s a lot of functions that Alexa and Google home can do, but shouldn;t because the process and experience aren’t suited for a smart speaker), the main things it does do, it does extremely well.

Soli said:

Grimzahn said:

No, it is just bad coding on Ubers Side. Like regular apps there are more cases where an extension gets ewoked. Requesting permissions when you need them and not allways. Hire real senior davs if neccesary and not kids fresh from school.

How is it Uber's fault that Apple only has a Never, While Using, and Always option, the later of which indicates the last 24 hours? They've been clear that they're only trying to see the next 5 minutes to better understand where people go after exiting their ride. Maybe they are lying, but to what extent and why? 5 minutes or even 10 minutes sounds reasonable for what the company does.

Having the three options is necessary for clearness and simplicity for consumers.  Having a gray area of keeping track of your location for five minute or an hour after the app closes creates some ambiguity of when and how much your location is being tracked.  The simple options of never, while using, and always makes it clear cut.  

Additionally, tracking user's locations for an additional five minutes is an invasion of one's privacy.  It's essentially the equivalent of you going into a store and then having somebody follow you for the next 5-10 minutes after you leave.  Just because it's digital and you don't have an actual person following you, doesn't make it any more acceptable.

Every article that talks about the HomePod brings up how it’s not able to accomplish a task like buying food online. I’ve tried ordering things with Alexa, and I found it to be a pain in the ass and is a much better easier experience to do on my phone or computer. ‘Siri also lacks that ability to check flights times” Right... because I always have the exact flight number in the top of my head and don’t need to look it up in an email where I’m already on the computer and can just click the link.... Ultimately, from my experience the places smart speakers are useful, convenient, and not cumbersome/clumsy to use are for HomeKit type task, setting timers, setting quick reminders, and playing music. Other things it;s generally quicker and easier to take the phone out of your pocket and use it. The HomePod is perfectly capable with all these tasks (“but.. but, only one timer”, really?) and the sound quality is amazing, which is where it really really shines and what a SPEAKER is generally used for.

I've tried Disney Infinity and the menus are so cluttered and expansions so expensive, that I say good riddance. The gameplay was ok on the demo, but not worth the price.

In these phone reviews I often see the reviewers be hyper critical of Apple's phones and any errors are concentrated on. The Galaxy reviews on the other hand are focused on any aspects that it outperforms the iPhone and brush over the drawbacks. This makes sense though. Think about if you are going into a movie that you've been told is the best movie ever. You're more likely to be critical and have high expectations not met, I mean you were told it was the best. On the other hand, if your told a movie is pretty good, you come in with lower expectations, so if there are a few areas where you were blown away, they're a bit more memorable. Go back to Galaxy S6 and S6 edge reviews or prior and you'll see a very similar narrative from many reviews. User experience polls on the other hand tell a dramatically different story.