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Apple's Echo-Like Smart Speaker With Siri and AirPlay Could Debut as Early as WWDC
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True but when you're talking about good distribution you need to gain share in non-english speaking
countries. So you need Spanish, Mandarin/Cantonese, Portuguese, Japanese in addition to your French/German/Dutch.
I don't think Amazon expected the Echo line to take off ...they are undoubtedly working on scale. The forthcoming battle will be nice
We are people constantly so negative? Do you think they fired all of their AI engineers and decided to release this on a whim?
In the last years almost any "service" Apple launches is either dead or turns dead due to tons of money grabbing or severe restrictions.
Ohhh, nice feature, we removed your app "terms you know" and then launches their own stuff. Can't have duplicate stuff.
Homekit, "needs certification" and you can't do that.
Healthkit, dead, can't sync between device, no-one really wants to inter-share data though healthkit, they co-operate with each-other instead due to restrictions and rules.
SIRI only if you are Apple, in bed with Apple or use a very limited subset of commands for very specific use cases.
NFC, payments, transit systems.... no no no, only if you pay Apple, can't have developers use that for innovative stuff!
Ping, Ping2, carpool...
Limited support or even totally non-starters for services outside the US and even in the US you better live in a big high density city. Meanwhile google is everywhere in tons of languages. Maybe they don't have a big pile of money sitting around, because the actually pour money into expanding outside the US.
Ohhh, nice feature, we removed your app "terms you know" and then launches their own stuff. Can't have duplicate stuff.
Homekit, "needs certification" and you can't do that.
Healthkit, dead, can't sync between device, no-one really wants to inter-share data though healthkit, they co-operate with each-other instead due to restrictions and rules.
SIRI only if you are Apple, in bed with Apple or use a very limited subset of commands for very specific use cases.
NFC, payments, transit systems.... no no no, only if you pay Apple, can't have developers use that for innovative stuff!
Ping, Ping2, carpool...
Limited support or even totally non-starters for services outside the US and even in the US you better live in a big high density city. Meanwhile google is everywhere in tons of languages. Maybe they don't have a big pile of money sitting around, because the actually pour money into expanding outside the US.
I don't believe Siri has to be "Successful" to be in the home automation market. It's obviously a trend at this point, but Amazon is paving the way with expanded products and services. That said, no matter what Apple does, it will be testing the waters per se how their version with a smart speaker fits in this niche market at the moment.
Its going to be very interesting who is market leader in say 5 years time.
Four major players, Facebook no doubt are looking at their options so it may be five.
We've been here before with VHS, Betamax and Phillips 2000 video,
Blue ray and HD DVD.
I wouldn't write Alexa off though.
Erm? It's because Siri is crap to be honest. And waaaaaaaayyyyyyy behind Alexa and Google.
I'm actually surprised that Apple is behind on this concept, like they didn't see this coming, particularly when they first started designing HomeKit? How the !@#$ did they think people were going to interact with HomeKit? Did any of the nerds over there at 1 infinite loop ever watch Star Trek?
I'm still not certain they're going to release something like this, and even if they do, you know it's going to be panned as a "me too" product. I fear that "vision" died with Steve.
...and while this may sound hypocritical based on my above comments, if Apple does come out with one, there's a good chance I'll be buying it.
I'm still not certain they're going to release something like this, and even if they do, you know it's going to be panned as a "me too" product. I fear that "vision" died with Steve.
...and while this may sound hypocritical based on my above comments, if Apple does come out with one, there's a good chance I'll be buying it.
Siri was a novel product when it was released, but Apple let it stagnate. Too this day, Siri's abilities are very limited, barely have any third party integration worth mentioning, and are not even deployed on the right platform. This product should have been released along side the iPhone years ago.
Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa (and Google Home) are completely open for third party integration, features home automation ability that does not require HomeKit authentication IC's (Hue Bridge v1 vs v2 fiasco), can respond to just about anything vs. Siri's "do you want me to search the web" response to 99% asked, and has much more impressive voice recognition capabilities.
Unless this product features a massive expansion of Siri's capabilities, it will remain a sorely needed, limited and late to the game play by Apple in a space dominated by players who actually have a quality product. This isn't Palm Pre vs. iPhone 1 or anything.
Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa (and Google Home) are completely open for third party integration, features home automation ability that does not require HomeKit authentication IC's (Hue Bridge v1 vs v2 fiasco), can respond to just about anything vs. Siri's "do you want me to search the web" response to 99% asked, and has much more impressive voice recognition capabilities.
Unless this product features a massive expansion of Siri's capabilities, it will remain a sorely needed, limited and late to the game play by Apple in a space dominated by players who actually have a quality product. This isn't Palm Pre vs. iPhone 1 or anything.
The thing about these types of products is that there's no brand continuity. For my Echo, I can purchase relatively cheap smart lights. I ask about the weather each morning and set alarms. With how Siri is now, I can only imagine the nightmare of trying to tell it to turn off my bathroom lights 3 times before I give up.
Are you really comparing SJ's Apple to this empty, cynical shell which is Apple now? Please.
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What do we have to base positivity on? Trashcan Mac Pro? Touchbar MBP? iPhone which has been the same for the last 3 years? Are you seriously surprised at the negativity?
Why not echo dot then? It's $35 on sale and can do all of things that you mentioned.
It's completely unconfirmed that they're not making routers anymore. Everyone reports this as fact without confirmation from Apple, along with the "out of the standalone display business" nonsense. Neither of those stories were confirmed, and the display story was especially egregious since it was based on a tweet about a response from an Apple PR person that was countered by other Apple pundits.
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Especially Apple Music, huh? /s
C'mon Apple. Build a few good monitors and accelerate the rebooting of the trashcan. Stop tinkering with dumb gimmicky toys.
Homekit - requires encryption which previously was expensive as it wasn't native to the SoC that vendors were purchasing. This year almost every IoT SoC has encryption built in that is HomeKit compatible so the cost of future device will be negligible
HealthKit - Apple just hired Dr. Ricky Bloomfield from Duke last fall. How does that signify a dead service. It's obvious to anyone remotely familiar with healthcare. It's called HIPAA
Siri - it'll be a long time before there is a universal voice recognition platform.
NFC - Developers don't need access to NFC they simply use Apple Pay SDK and Apple Pay JS
Apple's services are actually doing very well which is why you struggled to come up with anything substantial. I'm excited for the next version of CloudKit, SiriKit, HomeKit, Apple Pay and more.
What's Siri going to do, search the web to find out what google says?
UGH!
UGH!
Apple is widely rumored to be working on a Siri-based smart home device with a speaker, and Australian leaker Sonny Dickson has shared new details about its possible design and features on Twitter and with MacRumors.
Apple's smart speaker could take design cues from the Google Home
Dickson said that Apple is currently "finalizing designs" for the Amazon Echo and Google Home competitor, which he expects to be marketed as a Siri and AirPlay device. "It is believed to carry some form of Beats technology," he added, while noting that the device will run a variant of iOS software.
Dickson later told MacRumors that the device, allegedly codenamed B238 internally, will feature a Mac Pro-like concave top with built-in controls. His source, which he told us is "someone inside Apple," described the device as "fat" like the Google Home with speaker mesh covering the majority of the device.
Dickson was told Apple's smart speaker could be unveiled at WWDC 2017 in early June, but as always, the company's plans could change.
In September 2016, Bloomberg reported that Apple's smart home device had entered prototype testing, including both a larger and a smaller model in line with Amazon's current Echo lineup. However, at the time, the report cautioned that Apple's early efforts do not guarantee that a finalized product will be released.
The report said Apple's smart home device would be able to control appliances, locks, lights, and curtains through Siri voice commands. It added that some of the prototypes in testing include facial recognition sensors, backed by an earlier CNET report claiming the device could have a built-in camera for facial recognition.
Dickson is best known for leaking various iPhone and iPad parts from overseas sources, such as these iPhone 5c rear casings in 2013, but his latest information supposedly comes from a source directly within Apple, an area where his track record is less established. His sources have proven incorrect at times.
Article Link: Apple's Echo-Like Smart Speaker With Siri and AirPlay Could Debut as Early as WWDC
This is because you don't understand the architecture of Siri. It was never designed to have 3rd party integrations that are front facing for the user. It was designed to access Structured Data using a domain system. This domain system is where you add the logic in for 3rd party. This is prevents the situation where I must say utter a specific command to access certain features. The need to download and evoke Alexa Skills is primitive.
Every HomeKit device must operate without traversing a WAN. What you propose as a superior solution is requiring a cloud connection for Home Automation. That is the silliest thing I've read.
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/28/14765042/amazon-s3-outage-causing-trouble
Do you want your systems functionality hampered by AWS going down?
Apple already acquired Vocal iQ nearly 2 years ago which improve Siri in many ways. . Google is your friend. No one hides this information.
I guess I am. Half the people here arguing for Macpros want them and don't really need them. The majority of people are happy and it shows in Apple's earnings.
