franklinjackcon

ManyMacsAgo said:

Mac sales return to growth in Q1 amid continued PC market decline

 I thought the Quarter ending March was Apple's Q2, not Q1? I guess they are talking about fiscal Q1 as comparison point for all the companies listed.

OK, so what happened about the fact that Apple's Q1, which was "low" (YoY) and from which Apple's Mac sales have now "returned to growth" (YoY), was a week shorter than it's 2017 Q1?

There was a bit of discussion about that on Apple-centric sites right after the "disappointing" unit results last quarter, but not much since, and certainly not on WallStreet it seems. Apple had a week less of sales during Q1, which is arguably why it went down in unit sales YoY. Especially since the iPhone X came online later and supply was constrained. That week could have made all the difference.

How does this even work, that you get a quarter shorter by a whole week than the year previous? How often does it happen? What if they split that week between last quarter and this quarter, so that Q1 had 3.5 days extra (and thus several million more iPhone unit sales), and last Quarter had 3.5 days less?

randominternetperson said:

Soli said:

randominternetperson said:

gatorguy said:

randominternetperson said:

friedmud said:

genovelle said:

So, what commands are you using on these other devices that makes them more useful. I’m really curious here. I’ve seen lots of claims but no proof. In fact when Siri has been compared I feel it is more useful in real use situations. 

A few examples that Google Home gets right and all other smart devices (including Alexa) fail:

Me: Hey Google play my Morning Tunes playlist
Google Home: Plays _my_ Spotify Morning Tunes playlist

Me: (while Spotify is playing) Hey Google add this song to my library
Google Home: Ok, I added that song to your Spotify music library

My Girlfriend: Hey Google play my Morning Tunes playlist
Google Home: Plays _her_ Spotify Morning Tunes playlist

Me: Hey Google what's on my calendar today?
Google Home: What's on _my_ personal calendar

My Girlfriend: Hey Google what's on my calendar today?
Google Home: What's on _her_ personal calendar


I could keep going... but I don't need to.  Apple completely forgot that many people in this world are not single people living by themselves.  They also completely forgot that _Millions_ of people like Spotify...

Now that you reminded them, I'm sure they'll fix it in the next update.  Unless, Apple didn't "forget" those things at all.  

Remember is another of those simple yet really helpful commands. "Remember I put the spare spring in the top drawer of the old toolbox". I can ask "Where did I put the spare spring" months from now, and it will remember and tell me. 

That's a cool example, but I expect that 99% of the time it wouldn't work in practice.  First you have to remember to ask your device to remember every random thing (which personally I would be very unlikely to do) and then you have to phrase things the same way you will "months from now."  Then when you (or someone else) actually uses that thing, you have to remember to tell your device about it again.  No thanks, but if it works for you, that's cool.

People put effort into finding a s piece of string, cutting it, and then tying it  around a finger to remember things, so I think that having a thought and then stating that thought outloud the exact same way you'd ask someone to remind you to do something later isn't going to need any additional brain power or training.

Hell, I've been doing this with Siri since it came out and even before then with my Notes app on my iPhone—I think of something, I write it down or dictate it into one of many Notes itms that are then sectioned off with various groupings which themselves are often categorized further. If you use a Reminders app or the Timer you're already doing that. You've never once put change into a parking meter, saw how much time it gave you and then said, "Hey Siri set timer for x-minutes"?

The closest I've come to this is taking a picture of the parking sign when I park in long-term parking at the airport.  How would this work if I did it verbally?  "Hey siri remind me that I parked at green 16."  How would I retrieve that information?  "Hey siri, where did I park?"  Would that work?  And next trip when I say "remind me that I parked at Blue 12" what happens to the green 16 reminder?  I suppose I just don't trust AIs enough to do these flawlessly, so I don't bother trying.

maestro64 said:

Does this imply that the Google product would tell a person in your house about your meeting or to-do items if you not home. I like the fact the someone could not ask the Siri to tell them what my schedule looks like, I may had date with my girlfriend and would not want my wife to know about it.

In all seriousness, this is stuff Google does not think about, they through so much at a wall and wait to see if it stick or falls off. They apologies when they screw their customers, ops sorry I meant to say product since we are their product not their customer.