Apple's New Memoji vs. Samsung's AR Emoji

[EdT]

Various thoughts, in no particular order:

Computers are not much of a profit center for any company anymore. The technology isn’t improving by leaps and bounds every year so people and companies aren’t buying except when they need to. Some company needs to develop some dramatic improvement that obsoletes current technology before computers become a real money maker again. I don’t have any idea what that breakthrough should be, or if any company is working on something that will do this.

From the article:
“Not to be outdone, Apple in iOS 12 introduced Memoji, a new version of Animoji that can be customized to look just like you.”
I have, more or less, spent my whole life looking just like me. My phone has had the capacity to FaceTime for years. What is the attraction of a cartoon version that looks ‘just like you’ have over something that is me? I, and probably anyone forced to look at me, would prefer something that looks much better than I do.

 

[bbednarz]

Various thoughts, in no particular order:

Computers are not much of a profit center for any company anymore. The technology isn’t improving by leaps and bounds every year so people and companies aren’t buying except when they need to. Some company needs to develop some dramatic improvement that obsoletes current technology before computers become a real money maker again. I don’t have any idea what that breakthrough should be, or if any company is working on something that will do this.

From the article:
“Not to be outdone, Apple in iOS 12 introduced Memoji, a new version of Animoji that can be customized to look just like you.”
I have, more or less, spent my whole life looking just like me. My phone has had the capacity to FaceTime for years. What is the attraction of a cartoon version that looks ‘just like you’ have over something that is me? I, and probably anyone forced to look at me, would prefer something that looks much better than I do.

I think it has to do with people being self conscious about their appearance. They can create something that looks like themselves without the imperfections. Or in the case of the animojis something that looks entirely different than themselves. I think Craig talked about it when they first introduced it at the iPhone event last year.

 

[EdT]

I think it has to do with people being self conscious about their appearance. They can create something that looks like themselves without the imperfections. Or in the case of the animojis something that looks entirely different than themselves. I think Craig talked about it when they first introduced it at the iPhone event last year.

My point was the article saying it would look just like me. If it looks better then I do then I can understand it. The whole idea of what used to be called ‘Avatars’ is a lot older than any ‘moji’ and probably a lot older than any electronic device. Painted portraits were probably altered in most cases so that the subject looked better in the painting than they did in real life.

 

[Martius]

I see memoji / animoji as a demo of what you can do with such a small device. The tech behind Face ID could also be used as a cheap (but still very impressive) way to capture & animate you own characters inside Blender or other 3D software. The problem is that while we desperately waiting for some Mac updates / issue fixes and other hardware / software improvements, Apple is wasting time developing this.

 

[bluespark]

Does anyone really care about animated characters? No. So why the hype. How many people/resources is Apple employing on this that could be far better utilised elsewhere?

I believe lots of people care about this. I recall the same types of criticisms at the time Apple modified the Messages app to allow for balloon and fireworks effects, etc., and I now receive messages with these features regularly. My retired mother and her friends consistently use Bitmoji and related apps. They will be all over this feature. And kids, apparently through college age, use "fun"-oriented messaging features frequently. I've even seen fireworks, etc., in purely professional contexts, for example celebrating landing a big account. I have also seen more than one article mentioning Apple's fun messaging features as a key reason one might choose iOS over Android. These are all anecdotes, of course, but they run strongly counter to your assertion that no one cares about this feature. My guess is that Apple has solid research showing that people do.

Also, while you didn't specify the "elsewhere" you would prefer these Apple employees to be working, Apple is not generally viewed as having a scarcity of resources. My guess is that the people who should be working "elsewhere" generally are.

 

[EdT]

I see memoji / animoji as a demo of what you can do with such a small device. The tech behind Face ID could also be used as a cheap (but still very impressive) way to capture & animate you own characters inside Blender or other 3D software. The problem is that while we desperately waiting for some Mac updates / issue fixes and other hardware / software improvements, Apple is wasting time developing this.

I’m not saying that those issues aren’t important I’m saying it’s not going to make as much money for the company. Apple isn’t alone in this, Dell, HP, Sony and most other computer manufacturers are all putting out poorly designed or manufactured computers today. Animoji’s sell phones, that’s why Apple and other smartphone providers are concentrating on them. They make a good return on investment. Computers don’t.

 

[EdT]

Here’s a moji I’d like to see: Your face animated in the style of Picasso, or Monet, or Ruben or Van Gogh.

I’d say Seurat but that would be pointless.

 

[slimtastic]

Samsung's AR Emoji is creepy as ****

 

[Pearse Carberry]

Samsung's AR Emoji is creepy as ****.
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Who's to say that everything everyone does has to help the human race?

Agree with this.
I'm a long time Apple fan, have bought so many products I honestly can't recount exactly how many, but I really like this sort of Animoji thing. Its frivolous, it's fun, I'll enjoy Animoji Facetime calls with my seven year old daughter, she loves pretending to be the unicorn and the lion animojis.

It doesn't all have to be about "the next big technological advancement", a new Mac, or a new [insert product name here], sometimes it's just about a bit of immature fun for the sheer hell of it. Its not hurting anyone and lots of people who are a as big an Apple fan as many of the posters here are love it!

 

[slimtastic]

Agree with this.
I'm a long time Apple fan, have bought so many products I honestly can't recount exactly how many, but I really like this sort of Animoji thing. Its frivolous, it's fun, I'll enjoy Animoji Facetime calls with my seven year old daughter, she loves pretending to be the unicorn and the lion animojis.

It doesn't all have to be about "the next big technological advancement", a new Mac, or a new [insert product name here], sometimes it's just about a bit of immature fun for the sheer hell of it. Its not hurting anyone and lots of people who are a as big an Apple fan as many of the posters here are love it!

Agreed and agreed!

Nothing wrong with adding features that the next generation will enjoy using throughout their childhood.

 

[AnthonyHarris]

USB C to 'insert connector type' cables dont cost the earth. Nobody 'has' to live like this.

Sure
View attachment 765975

 

[Weaselboy]

Moderator Note:

Quite a few off topic or non-interest posts have been removed. If you are not interested in the thread or topic, please just skip the thread. There is no need to post to tell us you don't care or are not interested. Thank you.

 

[RealMonster]

This isn’t actually true. Animoji and Memoji do not use the TrueDepth camera that powers FaceID. This can be proved both by covering up the TrueDepth camera (Animoji still work) or by trying to use them in low light (doesn’t work but would if using TrueDepth). It is highly likely that Animoji could work on something like the iPhone 8 but Apple simply chose to make it an iPhone X exclusive feature.

Yes it does. https://www.imore.com/yes-animoji-uses-truedepth-camera-system-iphone-x

The IR camera only fires periodically. It doesn't need to be on the whole time for the system to work.

 

[jdmachogg]

Knowing that this 'feature' seems to be one of the most important things for Apple now makes me physically sick.

 

[Zwhaler]

Lol the AR Emoji snippet in the very beginning of the video reminds me of the Goldeneye 64 characters...

 

[RealMonster]

Does anyone really care about animated characters? No. So why the hype. How many people/resources is Apple employing on this that could be far better utilised elsewhere?

At the risk of repeating someone else, since I haven't read all the comments: Animoji and Memoji are Minimum Viable Products. They are less ends in themselves and more to demonstrate the base level of application you can make with this sort of system. They HAPPEN to be amusing and enjoyable to some people—Apple wouldn't have bothered, otherwise—but the real goal is to show developers what's possible with the system.

Just from Memoji you should note that the phone has excellent eye and lip tracking. That's not a small deal. Despite the fact that this is a kind of whimsical end product, this is technology that used to cost a lot more than $1000 to get access to, and take up a lot more space than the tiny notch in your phone.

Apple does this all the time. This is why they were banging on about the Stocks app during the keynote. How many people REALLY use the Stocks app? But it's a way for Apple to dogfood its own external APIs and show off how easy it's going to be to port iOS apps to the Mac. The app itself is secondary to the fundamental frameworks its demoing.

 

[MistrSynistr]

Because the public in general loves it even if you don’t. Do you realize how many flagship iPhones they’re going to sell because people want to send Animoji and Memoji to their friends and family? It isn’t insignificant like you claim.

The general public does NOT use these. They are a party gag one uses once or twice then completely forgets about them.

 

[peterdevries]

Knowing that this 'feature' seems to be one of the most important things for Apple now makes me physically sick.

It isn't
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The general public does NOT use these.

Can you back that assumption up with some facts that go beyond “none of my friends and family use it”?

 

[pika2000]

Did you know that you can make face id without pouring money into animoji? There are other more interesting technology avenues to pursue. Just because animoji is a waste of time doesn't mean that the alternative is to make "boring PC boxes". For instance, Google is kicking apple's but in all things AI. It's not even close.

Then use Google's product. Why are you so mad at animoji then?
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Does any one of you actually use animojis? i mean on a daily basis!
really not caring for memoji.

Do you use photo booth on a daily basis?
Didn't stop Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall from developing, demoing and having fun with it.

This is actually why Apple is Apple.

 

[Defthand]

I can't see adults using them once the novelty becomes passe. How many bother to use the stickers and other animations that already existed? Of course, it's a gimmick that's ideal for kids, but who wants to buy their 12 y.o. a $1,000 phone?

I'll bet these Memoji were conceived for another purpose. Apple opened up iMessaging for business customer relations. I can see a customer service rep or chatbot using a Memoji to make the conversation more "lifelike". However, it won't happen until the Mac has the same hardware.

 

[charlituna]

The reason folks are frustrated with this article is that you can't help but wonder what resources Apple spend on this crap? Yet, we can't get a simple update to the MacBook Air or Mac Mini. We can't get mouse support for iOS on iPads even though jail breaks have existed since iPad launch in 2010.

There are multiple development groups within the company

And you will likely never get mouse support on iOS because Apple views that as a Mac OS item. Ios is a touch based system so you don’t need a mouse cause you have fingers.

 

[falainber]

For those wondering, this is NOT a factor in why you don’t have _____ thing you want from Apple.
[doublepost=1528840101][/doublepost]Say what you want about the features, but Samsung’s looks like an absolute creepy joke in comparison to Apple.

The tech and software Samsung uses is not even on the same planet as Apple.

Lord, it’s bad on the Samsung.

Some may argue that what Samsung is doing is better. They give this feature the proper amount of attention it deserves.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Samsung suck so badly it’s embarrassing. No, really. Each to their own of course, but I’d rather learn how to use smoke signals than buy a piece of Samsung electronics. Nasty insidious junk.

 

[falainber]

Samsung suck so badly it’s embarrassing. No, really. Each to their own of course, but I’d rather learn how to use smoke signals than buy a piece of Samsung electronics. Nasty insidious junk.

iDevices are full of Samsung electronics. I am surprised you are buying them. I suspect that you even prefer them to be using Samsung electronics (as opposed to, say, electronics from LG).

 

[MacBebe]

Do adults even use this? Mass stupidification...

What made you think that adults would not use it? How about adults that would like to have fun with their small kids?