rs1919

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.

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.

"That's strange because Mastercard, Visa, and other companies that handle transactions take 2 percent or three percent of the revenue." 

Yes, because that’s an accurate comparison.  It’s just like when you go to a store and buy something, the only money from the purchased that doesn’t go to original manufacturer is the 2-3 percent that visa or MasterCard takes. The store itself doesn’t take anything at all. That’s why Nordstrom, Walmart, Target and all the others are non profit charities just providing a place for us to purchase manufacturers goods...

Clearly this notion is ridiculous. All stores take a cut of the products they sale. I think it is important to question what it the proper amount to take for various aspects, but 5-6%. When Apple provides the store, financial aspects, development tools, syncing with CloudKit, a huge amount of storage for free (TBs if you have enough users), a secure environment where hacks to get free IAP are far less prevalent, and so much more.  When you take into account all that Apple provides for developers and account for what the cost would be by finding third parties to do this, I think the 30% isn’t too bad.  

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.

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.