canukstorm

DAalseth said:

I don’t think I’m alone in not being in any hurry to see them overhaul Siri. It does what I want. I don’t want to carry on a conversation with my phone. I ask it to do something, it does it. I ask it a simple question, it gives me the info. I really don’t want any more than that. 

mjtomlin said:

Regarding the Ultra…

Not sure why people think the Ultra variant is so important as far as release schedule? The Ultra variant will always be the last and be released much later than all the others. They are extremely expensive in cost and are used in the lowest volume systems. Production runs are usually limited when it comes to new processes. Using those limited runs to produce an SoC that takes much more space on a platter and can possibly have many more defects early in production, before all the kinks can be worked out, is a waste of time and money.

As far as the UltraFusion technology Apple used to produce the first two Ultra generations… I’m guessing it’ll be dropped; the volume of sales for the Ultra-based systems did not make it cost effective over just producing a monolithic design. As fast as the CPU’s are in the M4 generation, Apple doesn’t need the 2x CPU performance to create an Ultra variant that stands out from the Max. I would think Apple will sacrifice space for several CPU cores to add more GPU cores to the SoC.

CPU core count will top out at 24, which 8 more performance cores than the Max, while the GPU core count could reach as high as 96, which is more than double the Max. This would bring the Ultra more in line with top end of an x64/Nvidia combination.

nubus said:

bulk001 said:

Unless it is a chip swap and camera bump, Apple seems incapable of delivering anything in any sort of a reasonable time frame. Apple Watch Ultra they were able to come up with a new color and not even a better chip. 

Indeed! Apple delivered the Mac, iPod (developed and launched in less than 12 months), and iPhone... all under the same CEO. For a decade the next big thing was going to be Car and AVP. Concepts copied from Musk + Zuckerberg. One didn't ship and one shouldn't have. Apple upgraded AirPods Max, keyboards, trackpads, and the "charge on back" mouse to USB C thanks to EU but let everything else stay unchanged.

I don't want to see Musk near Apple but someone should review project management and product development before Cook is going full Copland/Taligent on us. From Siri and iPadOS to not being focused on AI and still not delivering. Dell is shipping Tandem OLED in laptops and Asus (Asus!) is delivering Pro displays with tech Apple might use in 2026.

TTURNER007 said:

I would say the bigger question is are they doing this via a chip upgrade/spec bump to the current model, ie: should anyone be buying it this year if they are upgrading it later this year or early next year….

dewme said:

charlesn said:

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

I don't disagree with what you are saying. About the only explanation that I can come up with to rationalize Apple's pokey progress is that Amazon had a very strong motivation to use their voice assistant to help them increase sales. Apple's motivation was probably more around making the iPhone and eventually other devices more attractive to buyers by helping users with search, information retrieval, and automation. It was also a novelty when it first arrived. 

Retrospectively, neither Apple nor Amazon really achieved what they set out to do, in my opinion.

Apple failed to move Siri along fast enough and failed to improve its accuracy and effectiveness for its intended purpose. Amazon's Alexa very quickly zoomed past Siri on nearly every measurable metric. At the same time, Amazon distilled its device aspirations down to simpler and less complex devices that never tried to compete directly with Apple and its iPhones and iPads. Amazon could ship devices that were "good enough" but nowhere near the stellar appearance, functionality, build quality, usability, and most importantly, unwavering respect for the privacy of its users that Apple maintained. Apple insisted on preserving its reputation and product quality of its core hardware and software, which probably didn't include Siri to the same extent as other features. At the same time,  Amazon likely had very slim to no margins on a lot of its "smart" speakers, especially the Dot. 

Amazon wanted Alexa to stimulate its legions of shoppers to buy more stuff on Amazon. In that respect it failed from an ROI standpoint. But at least they reached a point where Alexa was very good and demonstrated general usefulness. The game is not over by any means and it's likely that Amazon will find a way to leverage their investment going forward. They will have to continue to invest in Alexa because the AI landscape is evolving relatively quickly. Fart skills weren't the pinnacle of Alexa's capability. 

Apple wanted Siri to improve the customer experience on its slowly expanding portfolio of products that Siri supported. It's really hard to say whether it made a meaningful difference in device sales. Based on my usage patterns, I use Siri quite rarely and mostly for simple things like music requests and voice texting while driving. Just like Amazon, Apple will have to make some serious investments to bring Siri to a higher level of relevance.

If Apple cannot make Siri a cornerstone feature of Apple Intelligence I believe the acceptance of Apple Intelligence will be significantly muted. The iPhone and smartphones in general are now the personal computers for the masses. Memojis, Genmojis, or MojiMojis, or whatever moji de jour you prefer, are fun AI toys, but reaching the point where humans and computers can interact using the most common and immediate form of interaction and communication, vision and speech, has to work as flawlessly as possible to achieve the level of human-machine connectedness that AI promises.