Apple Behind The Times?

[Neil]

Hi Guys!

Have you checked out the specs of the new iPhone 4S?

Is it just me, or is Apple suddenly behind the times? I mean...Voice control?!?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO_Tt30K214[/youtube]

Regards,
Neil

[cybereality]

Yeah, I've got voice control for Google on my Android, but maybe this Apple thing is better.

[Fredz]

Voice control has existed for some time on iPhones already, but this new voice control system is extended and now integrated into the iOS system with the 4S release. And although this 4S update is quite minor compared to the previous version, it won't prevent iPhones to keep their leading position in cell phones sales.

[Aeroflux]

It's actually worse. Siri requires an internet connection so it can send your voice recording to its servers, analyze it, and return it to your phone in text form. Just combine that with AT&T and watch the lag drive people insane.

[Fredz]

Siri doesn't require a network connexion for day-to-day voice functions, which is quite logical. That would have been dumb from Apple to need an Internet connexion when simply saying "Read my latest messages". The already existing voice control feature from previous models didn't need an Internet connexion either. But it can be used to access external knowledge databases to enhance its capabilities, as has been shown for the German language.

It's funny to see that anti-Apple stance again. It's so much similar to the general anti-3D stance that it's really disturbing, especially on this site...

[Neil]

I'm not anti-Apple. Not at all!

It's an iPod Touch that got me into this whole smartphone craze, and my wife still uses hers religiously (because there is only one LG to go around ). I just think that Apple's branding has outweighed its actual functionality, and they need to start innovating again beyond speed.

Regards,
Neil

[tritosine5G]

Hell, it's a good thing to know "temporal integration" is not Joe Blow's ordinary "android" app, but an onging scientific research topic for the next X years. Good direction apple took, of course, this is the future.

[Fredz]

I'm not anti-Apple. Not at all!

Ah, sorry if I misinterpreted then.

I just think that Apple's branding has outweighed its actual functionality, and they need to start innovating again beyond speed.

I think they've never really innovated, they've only made products work as they should, ie. much better than anyone else.

All what they've created already existed before (Apple II vs personal computer, Mac vs GUI, iPod vs MP3 player, iPhone vs mobile phone, iPad vs tablet PC), so I don't really expect any real innovation from them, just quality, which the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 targeted spot on.

[Neil]

I think they've never really innovated, they've only made products work as they should, ie. much better than anyone else.

That's where we differ. If you compare the Apple version and Android version of the same application, the Android version tends to have more functionality and features compared to the stripped down option with Apple. Sure, it may seem polished and easy to use on Apple - but there are definite tradeoffs that people just don't know about until they try the other version.

Regards,
Neil

[PalmerTech]

I don't think he is talking about software, though. I mean, smartphones certainly existed before the iPhone, but it offered a quantum leap forwards in ease of use. It was well built, had good software, and was one of the first consumer devices with a capacitive touchscreen.

[Okta]

Apple have been very good at making existing tech usable for the "mums and dads"

[android78]

That's where we differ. If you compare the Apple version and Android version of the same application, the Android version tends to have more functionality and features compared to the stripped down option with Apple. Sure, it may seem polished and easy to use on Apple - but there are definite tradeoffs that people just don't know about until they try the other version.

Regards,
Neil

sorry, I have to weigh in here. I am an Android user, mainly because I like to write my own little apps for it. More functionality doesn't mean better quality.
I like the open nature of the Android OS, but talk to people and ask how often they have to reboot their phone because of slow down or crashes... iPhone is almost never whereas Android is every few days to once a week.
I don't mean to sound like an apple fanboy, because I don't use them. but the main reason I don't use them is because they don't have all the functionality I use, not because quality.

[Chiefwinston]

The company I work for has bought me an Iphone 4S. I'm currently using a temp unit until my number gets switched over. I'm hoping this week. But based on my use of the voice recognition software it is a major leap forward in this tech. At least the Siri functionality. Its not perfect yet. But it is amazing. It really doesn't look like many of you have a true grasp of what apple has done and is doing with this tech.

cheers

[cirk2]

apple has never realy been ahead of the time. The Ipone wasn't a real revolution after all. Their sucess is based on a, it may sound rude but it is, idiot proof gui; (forced) confomity of all applications; reliable BSD Kernel and good marketing.
Apple only feels so smooth and seamless because they enforce us of their GUI guidlines and only let had aproved apps into the system.

In a sense apple was behind the times at all times, Dictatorship and cencoring isn't state of the art since 1945.

[android78]

I'm in two minds.
I think that Apple is more evolutionary then revolutionary. The difference being that they are taking existing technology and making it easy for the masses.
It's hard to think of any modern "invention" that hasn't been based off existing technology. If you look at the microprocessor, for example, this is just an integration of integrated circuit technology with the processing technology that was being used in the valve computers. So it is a clever use of existing technologies, but undeniable as very useful.
If you compare that with Siri... There have been voice recognition software solutions that have been evolving so that they can recognize words as well as Siri. There have been search engines and intelligent solutions (wolfram alpha) around too. So these are existing technologies, but when you combine the two, you do get something very useful.

This seems to be what Apple does really well. It takes the best of technologies and packages it for their own devices and then charges too much for them.
The problem is that they then lock them down, and prevents others from expanding on them and innovating with them, in the same way they have 'innovated' on the existing technologies that they have used.

For the consumers though, this is both good and bad:
Good- because it means that they will only get a certain flavor of solution, so they no what to expect. It will be easy to use and streamlined. They also avoid (mostly - let's not mention the iphone 3 upgrades) the possible of inferior products that will ruin the 'user experience' that apple likes to push.
Bad- because they potentially will be missing out on innovative and competitively priced alternatives.

Is it a dictatorship? Maybe, but I tend to think that it is more about policing. Can you imagine living in a large 'democratic' city that didn't have any laws or police? Even in a democracy you have rules. The problem with rules in the digital domain is that it is global and covers many different legal jurisdictions, all with different laws, so until society is able to create a legal entity to determine universal rules, it is probably better to err on the side of restriction, even if this seems to some as a restriction of their freedoms.

[Chiefwinston]

Equating Apple with dictatorship, censoring and loss of freedoms and using analogies referencing governments that fell in 1945. Well guys, that's the funniest sh-- I've read all weekend. I actually thought I was going to shoot pop out of my nose I was laughing so hard.

And yeah I spoke to my phone and Siri typed this entire message.

Though I did do a couple of post edits. Can you figure out where?

enjoy