sagan_student

Disclaimer: I didn’t read the article. I’m just commenting on the title. 

I would personally much rather be taking things slow with all of this new artificial intelligence than blindly following the race to the first without ever thinking about the potential consequences. 

That aside... whatever we we may say about who is first and who is best. Majority of people still don’t even talk to their assistants. 

radarthekat said:

Benchmarks, schmenchmarks.  In the real word every friend of mine has an Android phone, because I’m living in the Philippines where almost nobody, including most of the expats here, can afford an iPhone.  And what I see in everyday use is that the simplest action taken on those Androids compares horribly to my iPhone 6. And what action is that?  It’s something that people do many times every day.  The simple action of pinching to zoom a photo.  Seems like there’s something either amiss in the touch controller or somewhere deeper down, but I constantly see Androiders pinching two and three times before a picture will start to zoom, and then it suddenly zooms too far and they’re pinching back the other way.  On every iPhone I’ve had it’s buttery smooth.  What is it about the Android universe where this simple action can’t be nailed?  

I’ve totally noticed that too but never really thought about it. They were using an android device and every time they would show me a picture they did exactly as you say. Thanks for that. 

dick applebaum said:

Looks like a great deal to me...  If we judiciously use it as a tool instead of it using us:

This is something that I have been telling my high school students for a good 2 years. Are you using your device or is the device using you! 

This is one avenue in which all other tech companies are either falling behind on or don't understand what Apple is doing; which is to say that Apple appears to be really establishing themselves as a culture. This, in my opinion, would definitely help prevent it from becoming the next has been and keep it around for the long haul.

jbdragon said:

Echo a hit? It's doing OK, but a hit? No! Go Google selling numbers and it's around 9 million sold to date. That's since it's been released. Apple sold over 12 million Apple Watches last year alone. My Apple Watch is a better Echo!!! It's not tied down to a single location because of a power cord so it's everywhere I am. I don't have to touch my watch, just say Hey Siri and a command. It actually works quite well other then it's a little slow. It is the Original Apple Watch.

For example just now from seeing other comments on things like Joke with Echo, so I asked my watch, Hey Siri, Tell me a Joke. It was doing a number of different ones, I liked this Classic, "How many Apple Watches does it take to screw in a bulb? Two: one to screw it in and another to watch. Get it? Watch! Haha!"

From setting reminders, and timers, and asking questions like When to the S.F. Giants play, and it shows me right on the screen. There's Homekit support, though I haven't tried it yet as I don't have any of them devices yet. I'm always learning how to do new things.

I'm not sure why Apple really needs a stand alone device like a Echo and Google's Copy of the Echo. The Sales numbers doesn't really show a huge demand. How about Apple releasing a Kinect type device that plugs into a Apple TV4? They do have a USB3 port on the back that's generally never used. You could plug into that and now you can have Facetime support on your TV which would be kind of cool, and Siri support always on without having to hit a button on the remote and talk into that. Other then that, I don't really see a big need to copy the Echo.

I wonder if I can open and close my Garage door using Siri? I can control it on my Apple Watch by starting the app and hitting the door open button, but I wonder if Siri would work also? I'm going to have to try that.

I've had a very similar experience. I personally haven't used either google home or alexa, but Siri has been improving. It does appear that she is improving too slowly for my liking, however my biases would lead me to the expectation that Siri should be far more advanced then she already is. But everything people as saying they do with these other services, I do with Siri. (Save maybe order me a pizza from Domino's). I am able to control my lights and room temperature with her via my watch and pretty much most other things that people are claiming that the others can do and often am finding new things I can ask. Watching my 7 year old communicate with her too is quite fun. Turning on the subtitles to sing along with the cartoons he watches is one of his favourite things to do right now. While I don't deny that she may be lacking in some forms relative to the other services, I am okay with that as Apple doesn't profile me with the information that she gets; which is the biggest limiting factor on her growth. I have little doubt that if apple handled personal information like amazon or google does it would be at par or better than their offerings. It's simply par for the course, greater privacy = less data = slower learning AI. Which is why I'm happy that they've finally joined the ranks of being open with their AI research.

The other big differentiating factor between Siri and the other offerings is that of purpose. Apple is about technology as a tool to be used for you when you want. With Amazon and Google, you are the tool that technology is using, which is why they would much rather personalise the AI to the extent that it is able to predict your every move and want to offer ITS menu of choice before you even ask. 

Bottom line, Siri is good, could be better, and will undoubtedly be improving. In the mean while, I'm comfortable with how privacy is being handled. Even if it is at a cost of being a little behind.