Perhaps Apple finally realized that Siri is nowhere close to being reliable enough to be the primary way to control a device. If I had to control my iPhone solely with Siri, it would work properly probably 30 percent of the time. The other 70 percent would be corny responses, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that”, and web searches.
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Apple Says HomePod is Delayed Until Early 2018
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Hahaha...
Like Apple ever said prices needed to be a “more reasonable level”.
I like their stuff, I have a bunch, but they never said this.
If they didn’t announce it then MacRumors forums would probably be filled with people screaming about why Apple isn’t coming out with a speaker.
Unfortunately, just about everything they release is behind the times. Is there no one at Apple recognizing this? And then, they will say it is perfected. You got to produce more than talk. Time to get the old guys off stage and bring in the new.
Also, who is making the requests. What if you want to set a reminder or check a calendar? It can only query the information from one ID at this point, right?
I mean if you asked people here you would get the answer.
I have Hey Siri on both my iPad and phone. They both activate but one gets deactivated and the other gets the query. It seems like it knows based on noise which device is closer to you. I'm sure this device with acoustic tuning will have this feature.
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
No, I love my Apple Watch. I think it's a big success. I never doubted it honestly (day one preorder). I know some say it's a "flop" compared to iPhone/iPad, but like you say it took the wearables market. I just think Google home and Alexa just have Apple beat on this one. Beat on price, functionality, and market penetration. Apple's might have slightly better sound (but with recent additions the gap will be much smaller), but really all apple has is the ecosystem. And I know first hand that even though I have a MBA, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV... The echo devices work just fine despite being entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.
Honestly I love Apple but they are late on this home stuff. Amazon is destroying them with this “ future home “ aspect. Low price point = money to buy those smart home peripherals.
( I work for amazon , so I understand the bias , but I think this is one area Apple gets beat in the next 3 years. I own plenty of Apple products but fact is fact.)
( I work for amazon , so I understand the bias , but I think this is one area Apple gets beat in the next 3 years. I own plenty of Apple products but fact is fact.)
Delayed? They said "later this year" for Amazon's app. Did 2017 end already? Did I miss Thanksgiving, the Winter Solstice, Christmas, and New Years Eve?
I agree, look at the genuine success of the AirPods. An example is BANG&OLUFSEN BeoPlay that release products on the market early and are truly plagued by fault after fault. I'd rather Apple take their time and release something that makes its customer truly happy.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
It's one of the worst pieces of vaporware I've seen in a while.
First, it can be made with existing parts—the same ones already in their other shipping products.
Second, vaporware is usually aspirational. This was Apple saying, "We can do the exact same thing as Amazon and Google, but it's going to have really good speakers." Well, there already are Echos and really good speakers out there.
Third, it's a product that doesn't play to their strengths. The heart of one of these "AI" speakers is the assistant, and Siri hasn't had a meaningful upgrade in utility and voice recognition quality in a long time.
Fourth, it (through its firmware) divulged all the secrets that were to unveiled at Apple's last iPhone event, and keeping those secrets are one of Apple's best assets (hence the title of this web-site). Not only is this at this point crappy vaporware, it has so far been a train wreck in terms of impacting how they wanted to launch their other products.
First, it can be made with existing parts—the same ones already in their other shipping products.
Second, vaporware is usually aspirational. This was Apple saying, "We can do the exact same thing as Amazon and Google, but it's going to have really good speakers." Well, there already are Echos and really good speakers out there.
Third, it's a product that doesn't play to their strengths. The heart of one of these "AI" speakers is the assistant, and Siri hasn't had a meaningful upgrade in utility and voice recognition quality in a long time.
Fourth, it (through its firmware) divulged all the secrets that were to unveiled at Apple's last iPhone event, and keeping those secrets are one of Apple's best assets (hence the title of this web-site). Not only is this at this point crappy vaporware, it has so far been a train wreck in terms of impacting how they wanted to launch their other products.
Oh you mean the days before a couple million Chinese manufacturing workers gladly moonlighted as first-hand accurate leakers? Those days are gone.
If they’re all running ios11, even though they’ll all activate and listen, only one would actual respond to the command.
I currently have an iPad Pro and iPhone in my bedroom and only one will actually action my request unlike in ios10 where they’ll all talk back to me all at once.
Much better sound quality? I didn't realize you had a HomePod already at home. That's awesome!
I think he is saying that new echos have better sound quality than earlier echoes.....
Takes extra time to teach Siri to put "eh" at the end of each reply.
I wasn’t planning on buying anyways but too bad for those that wanted one.
I mean how hard could it be to design one of these anyways !
I mean how hard could it be to design one of these anyways !
Things big and small that arguably came later than they should have (and many of which still aren't here)...
- Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus
- AirPods
- eGPU support in High Sierra
- Apple Pay Cash
- Messages in iCloud
- 3D Touch multitasking in iOS 11
- Apple Music over cellular for the LTE Apple Watch
- Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ and Hermès
- AirPower charging mat
- HomePod
- iMac Pro (probably...)