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Apple Working on Amazon Echo Competitor, Opening Siri Up to Developers

NocEdit said:
apple has become a "ME TOO" company. They are so boring lately.
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And users have become "ME TOO" posters. Hey, if I throw a bit of generic Apple hate wherever possible, I'll get lots of lovely likes. For goodness' sake, look at when you joined this forum. I've got food in the freezer older than that.

I'm beginning to question if people are paid shills, trolls, or actually join this forum for a positive purpose. We're all entitled to be dissatisfied from time to time, but this is taking the proverbial.
 
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And the second we find out its the worse between Amazon and Google Tim will hit us with that "privacy" excuse.
 
Rogifan said:
How many countries and languages does the Amazon Echo support?
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I believe US English is the only supported language.

And the Echo will technically work outside the US... but I think you have to set it up using a US Zip Code. And you'd have to phrase your questions as if you were inside the US.
 
I sold my old school stereo setup a while back, and have just used my headphones ever since. This might be the wireless speaker I've been waiting for! I just hope sound quality will be high on the priority list.
 
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It's about time!
Siri is next to unusable now. I currently only use him (I prefer a male voice) for my homemade homekit main gate opener. First of all, in German, you can't say open my main gate. For siri it's a garage door, no matter how you call it. It will answer 'the main gate is now open', you can even ask 'is my main gate open' and that works, but it won't understand if you say 'open the main gate'. A bug, if you ask me. In English, it works as expected.
Furthermore it's so damn stupid. All I say to him all day is 'open my garage door' and 'close my garage door'. Yet, half of the time, it understands the most incredible things. I don't like to say, but google now is 100x cleverer. Haven't had the chance to use alexia yet.
 
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Really excited to hear this. Have been researching smart home and echo/home systems for a while now. Just hope that Apple bring it to the uk at the same time as the USA. An open Siri api and wider use of HomeKit would hopefully mean a Siri Speaker (Tm) would be able to control most of my home automation kit. First party integration of my iTunes library would also be fantastic, not going to copy everything to Amazon music just for playing through echo.
 
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Siri SDK, if confirmed, is fantastic news, albeit the morons will focus on the "me too" nature of an unannounced product.
 
BeSweeet said:
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I was going to mention this.
 
It will also go a long way towards providing a new vector to bypass the secure lock screen
 
I think Siri first needs to be completely overhauled and significantly improved before Apple tries to sell it as a standalone product. However, if Apple figures out a way to make Siri into what she was supposed to be in the first place – an actual virtual assistant – I think then we would have an amazing product. It could actually really break through to a whole new level of AI. But at the current moment not Apple nor Amazon are capable of making this happen. So basically the Siri speaker will be useful in like 5 years.
 
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Jeff750 said:
I can unambiguously say Apple is the ONLY manufacturer of such a product that I would trust to listen to everything going on in my home 24/7. The others are simply not trustworthy.
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I certainly wouldn't describe Apple as trustworthy these days. For them, privacy and security are simply another marketing ploy. Look behind the marketing hype and their image, and they are an extremely untrustworthy and unpleasant company. Some of their behaviour borders on that of white collar crime (their tax evasion strategies are a good example of this). Other areas include their false claims about their products, some of which border on fraud (they claimed, for example that iOS 9 would speed up phones, when it had the opposite effect).

If Apple were actually serious about security, they would bring in universal client side encryption ON EVERYTHING they produce. The fact they haven't done this speaks for itself. Apple aren't any better than than the alternatives at all, they just pretend to be, like they pretend to make better hardware and software, and they pretend to be innovative. The very nature of their entire business is a huge lie.

Apple, once you get behind the image, has a lot in common with criminal organisations who portray a respectable image in order to be able to continue with business as usual.
 
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Jeff750 said:
The article said Apple's been working on it since before the Echo was even released. As usual, Apple takes the time to get the product right and then releases it. When I tried an Echo, I was unimpressed. I hope to be impressed by another Apple product.
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Smart phones existed before the iPhone, MP3 Players existed before the iPod, Computers existed before the Macintosh, the Graphical User Interface existed for the Macintosh System software.
 
To be honest Siri has become so useless on my phone I would be very reluctant to even try something like this. This wouldn't even be able to search the web, something siri likes to do for every other request!
 
Re: marketing what others are already doing...

I think Tim Cook is kind of like the Hindmost, leader of Pierson's Puppeteers. So it's okay that Apple comes later. It's safer for both him and Apple :)

Jeff750 said:
I can unambiguously say Apple is the ONLY manufacturer of such a product that I would trust to listen to everything going on in my home 24/7. The others are simply not trustworthy.
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Of course, none of them are listening 24/7, except locally for a wakeup phrase.

njy02 said:
And the second we find out its the worse between Amazon and Google Tim will hit us with that "privacy" excuse.
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Apple's insistence on not keeping personal data is why their products won't come close to being as intelligent and useful a companion as they could be.

It'll be like hiring a new personal assistant who knows nothing about you, every single time you asked a question... unless they start storing it locally, which unfortunately means the knowledge can't follow you to another device. Centralized knowledge is the key.
 
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Competition is good. Competition with successes is very good. Light that fire!

robjulo said:
Really? Do you really still believe they do not release things until "they get it right" schtick? I point to you "Notifications" and "Maps" as two examples where, they came to the party late and which pale in comparison to the competition.
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Don't confuse facts with the halo or rose-colored glasses through which "we" view the Apple.

rudychidiac said:
I don't get why would apple make a special hardware for siri, it's already on my iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch and soon (hopefully) on my macbook... I personally wouldn't need an extra hardware that has siri on it
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What do pretty much all of those products have in common? Hint: one word, 6 letters, starts with M ends with E and a big town in Alabama is named the same. Once you figure that out, think about households with more people than just 1 single person, living alone. Put both thoughts together.

Mactendo said:
Please, please, please, let it have some good speakers for music listening!
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Beats speakers of course. Quote: "The stereo active 2-way crossover system creates an optimized sound field for dynamic range and clarity across all genres of music. Tweeter and woofer separation uses the same acoustic mechanics found in professional recording studios around the world." So there you go. Speaker perfection.;)
 
I mentioned this the other day in the Google Home thread but I'm quite excited about these personal assistants.

The example i use is sitting on the sofa and remembering you need to add something to a list. Being able to say 'hey Siri/OK Google' etc is much easier than getting your phone out saying 'Hey Siri ...'.

What they do need to do though is give you a way to identify what you're talking to. I have a 6S and iPad Pro. When I say 'hey Siri' both spring to life and usually whatever I say gets lost in the two devices arguing with 'I didn't get that', 'sorry' or some other automaton domestic.

Oh, and UK as well please!

- D
 
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