schwabsauce

Personally I'm extremely skeptical that 3D Touch would be deprecated.

Apple has always had interface paradigms that languished in obscurity for years before picking up.

For example, most of my friends still don't know about tap-to-click on the trackpad. I couldn't live without it. And another example is how the gyro was largely never used until the current crop of AR applications have needed it. Well, raise-to-wake has been around for a couple years but that's still a decade of dormant gyros prior to that (if not 2 decades).

This video is a gem. I field a lot of questions about Steve on Quora (they are endless) and this video largely answers them all. I hope it becomes well-known.

This proposal is fine, but the time may not be now. Apple has been seeding the tools for users to get healthy. The screen can dim at night to reduce blue light. Apple Watch encourages fitness. Meditation apps have completely run away with the awards and features in the App Store. And with AirPods and HomePod, we're moving away from screens gradually. The most logical timing for a feature like this is after these trends have had a bit more time to take hold.

This plan likely would have unfolded regardless of the tax reform bill (which will only pay for about 1/20th of this) -- but this should be an effective way to make Trump a fan.

VRing said:

Do you mind clarifying what Apple is doing different and/or better?

HomePod does a quick analysis to determine the shape of the room and how the walls reflect sound. Then it points the audio in different directions to create a resonant chamber. Since different wavelengths will resonate in different patterns, it also splits the EQ band into several channels that are individually thrown around the room, which makes it sound like the vocals, for instance, are coming from a particular spot.

If two HomePods are together, they team up to enhance this technique. I'm not sure if adding more at that point would activate different patterns, but it's quite possible, and if this type of software is pursued in the future it could create totally fabulous effects. I think this would be great for professional DJ performances in small venues, for instance.

The Google tech is basically just changing the volume when it gets loud in the room.