Gene Munster Shares WWDC Predictions: Beats Product With Siri Integration, Improvements to AI and AR

[old-school]

What we really need is a Siri update. Proper threaded conversations, expansion to 3rd parties and more intelligence about what you’re asking for. Using AirPods is woeful using Siri. What would be great is AirPod connections authenticating with the phone to deliver info to you without repeatedly unlocking the phone too.

Would love to see Siri interpreting data usually on a screen and delivering it intelligently via voice.

 

[wizard]

Siri will go down as one the highest profile botched leads by any company. It reminds me of Microsoft with IE and search as well as Sony losing portable player market share forever to Apple after decades of the Walkman, Discman and Minidisc.

In 2011 Siri was revolutionary. It left everyone else scrambling to bring an assistant to their devices. 7 years later even Amazon who entered the game years later has made Siri a laughing stock. And Scott Forstall was fired for Maps? While it had a disastrous launch, Maps is actually a great product today.

It is hard to say what Forstall was actually fired for. In any event I have to agree with the idea that Maps is great as it worked for me since day one, Siri though is such a pain I never bothered with it. It is pretty obvious that Siris team is lacking leadership because they certainly have purchased enough talent over the years. This leads me to believe that team work is not happening with respect to Siri.

Of course we can hope that they have been working in silence and have an impressive upgrade to roll out at WWDC. I'm reluctant to believe that.

 

[George Dawes]

Is he the guy who's always prattling on about the Apple Tv set ??

Next year , ok next next year , ok next next next year then...

 

[Soccertess]

I think this is a safe bet.

Apple has been taking a beating in the news and in every tech forum about Siri. Only some die hards on here still defend apple on it.

Health functionality - I can see it, but the true features will be released when the Apple watch S4 comes out. I would think a hardware upgrade would be necessary.

And I wouldn't hold out for any hardware updates. Tim Cook is in charge, so expect another snooze fest!

 

[crsh1976]

This is lining up to be an event about lifestyle gizmos and extending the iPhone-centric ecosystem to gizmo devices and uses.

Meanwhile, if you're on stand-by for a new Mac, you can eat dirt and buy last year's hardware at tomorrow's prices (and pray you don't end up with quality issues like a faulty keyboard).

 

[recoil80]

Siri on Beats? This doesn't really make sense to me. I don't even think people really associate Beats with Apple. Beats has their own following independent of their parent. One of the reasons Apple keeps the brand running. Siri's kind of an albatross. One that I wouldn't want hanging around my neck if I'm Beats.

I think you have a point, and my guess is they'll introduce a Beats speaker with AirPlay2 support but without Siri.
A cheaper version of HomePod would have a market, but I think it would be Apple branded, like HomePod mini.
[doublepost=1527664057][/doublepost]

Are the new iPad Pros supposed to come out at WWDC?

They could be announced next week or in September alongside the new iPhone.
Since they updated the iPad with pencil support I guess they'll introduce new Pro's soon, but you never know...

 

[44267547]

I see a lot of the comments referring to Siri and the much needed changes, and I think it’s evident that Siri very is capable of certain things with in iOS tasking, but it’s severely struggles past that. I don’t think these changes are going to be here anytime soon, likely next year, especially now that they acquired Googles VP of artificial and intelligence recently, I would say Apple is _Hopefully_well aware of what needs to be addressed.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/03/apple-hires-google-ai-chief/amp/

The reality is, Siri has so much potential and others know that, they’re just fatigued of how stagnant it’s been for so long and changing the voice is not something that most are intrigued by giving it needs to produce more relevant search results, improve with dictation and deciphering, speed, accuracy, ect.

 

[Bacillus]

Apple has done nothing to position the HomePod as a home assistant. That's not the market they're going after at all. Did you bother to watch the Keynote or look at the HomePod page on the Apple website? If you had, you'd have noticed that they talked about music for 90% of the presentation. It wasn't until the very end that they quickly mentioned some Siri pieces. If you go to the website, you see the exact same thing. 90% of the webpage is devoted to music and sound quality. It's not until the end where they mention Siri.

It's very clear that Apple is not marketing the HomePod as a home assistant. It's about music first and foremost. Yes, it has Siri capabilities but it's not at all meant to be used in the ways the Alexa and Google Home are. Apple hasn't positioned it that way at all.

So much spin to rephrase a missed opportunity

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Beats is the batsignal of bad aquistions by Apple. Things went downhil for Apple music....sorry, iTunes store, around then and has not yet recovered.

 

[Piggie]

Wow, I almost spat my coffee out with laughter when I read this headline !

Beats speaker (renowned for the ultimate in sound quality and great value pricing)

Combined with:

Siri (renowned for being the best AI system there currently is)

Put them together for the ultimate combination..... Oh dear god, you could not make it up could you!

 

[markgpearse]

Ahead of next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster today shared his predictions for the features and services that Apple will unveil during the event.

Munster expects Apple to debut new Siri, AR, AI, and Digital Health functionality, including a Beats-branded accessory (presumably a speaker) that includes Siri integration, much like the HomePod. Some of Munster's predictions have been previously covered in rumors shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, but Siri integration in a lower-cost Beats product is a new prediction.

According to Munster, Apple may be planning introduce a $250 Beats-branded product that will offer Siri integration similar to the HomePod, allowing Apple to "advance its digital assistant ambitions" with a more affordable option. Apple currently sells a Beats Pill+ speaker for $179.95, and the device has not been updated in some time.

Apple is going to announce a new "Decade Collection" at WWDC according to a Best Buy leak, but that collection is limited to existing headphones in new colorways and does not appear include new products or a new speaker. It's possible that Apple does have a new Beats product ready to unveil, and a recent somewhat sketchy rumor did suggest that Apple's "low-priced" HomePod would be under the Beats by Dre branding.

That rumor would make some sense if Apple is indeed planning on introducing a Beats-branded speaker product that includes Siri integration. Siri competitor Alexa is available as an option on many speakers outside of Amazon's own, and Apple could be planning to follow in Amazon's footsteps. Obviously, though, it's not clear if the rumor and/or Munster's prediction are accurate.

Munster has several other predictions for features and services coming at WWDC. Specifically, he expects Apple to introduce new Siri domains, with support for "things like navigation and email" and integrated Spotlight Search to better improve Siri's performance compared to Alexa and Cortana, the AI assistants used by Amazon and Microsoft, respectively.

Munster also believes Apple will introduce new domains for CoreML, the machine learning SDK that Apple introduced with the launch of iOS 11. Munster doesn't offer details on what the new domains might be, but at the current time, CoreML offers features for developers like real time image recognition, search ranking, text prediction, handwriting recognition, face detection, music tagging, text summarization, and more.

Previous rumors have said Apple plans to introduce support for multiplayer augmented reality games, and Munster believes Apple will also introduce "subtle new developer tools" to improve AR development and lead to more compelling AR apps.

Similarly, rumors have indicated Apple is working on a Digital Health tool that will let parents better monitor the amount of time children are spending on iOS devices. Munster says Apple could also include additional features that notify users when data is being shared with developers and new device management features aimed at curbing "screen time and digital anxiety."

Munster's full range of predictions for WWDC can be read on Loup Ventures, and our iOS 12 roundup contains all of the other iOS-related rumors that we've heard thus far.

Article Link: Gene Munster Shares WWDC Predictions: Beats Product With Siri Integration, Improvements to AI and AR

 

[WatchFromAfar]

"Siri integration with Beats."

Finally. The WWDC we've all been waiting for.

"Siri integration with Beats." AKA HomePod Mini.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

$250 is a more "affordable" Siri speaker? On what planet? The HomePod is a mere $100 bucks more. Yes, $250 is less, but it's not "great I can outfit my entire home with Siri speakers" less. 4 rooms would be $1000. So I'm not buying that this is intended to be a low-priced Siri speaker anymore than Beats X buds are intended to be lower priced AirPods.

The true differentiation between a Beats Pill Siri and HomePod would be portability (AC/DC), not price. But not sure of the need there. I mean if you have a iPhone you already have a portable Siri device that can send music to any BT speaker. Is Airplay that much more energy efficient than BT LE? Other than ease of hookup with W1 what other advantage is there and is it worth the premium? Acceptable portable BT speakers can be had for about $100-125 and passable ones for $50.

 

[Dave245]

So just like past WWDC's then, the focus will probably be on software, i do wonder if we will see new Mac's mentioned and possibly new iPad Pro's the only reason i say about Mac's is because it will have been a year since they were last updated (WWDC 2017 saw updates to iMac, MacBook Pro's and the MacBook) also the iPad Pro update was announced at WWDC 2017 and with them adding Pencil support for the 2018 iPad i think they need more to make the iPad Pro stand out.

 

[DevNull0]

Hopefully there's more than this!

Apple has been a little shy when it comes to product releases lately

Hey cut them some slack here. Timmy tells us his product pipeline is full of awesome, practically magic new products. Obviously he's so full of it that his product pipeline is clogged. That will make anyone shy about releasing product.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

W

How about Mac updates! You know, the platform that runs Xcode which developers use to develop.

What do you want them to do? Every time Intel puts out new chips, the Mac is updated. And there working on a Mac Pro, and the iMac pro is a thing now, and all of there Macs are very new and usable.
So I ask again, what do you want them to do? And please don't say "Put a touch screen on a Mac," because thats just stupid
[doublepost=1527682087][/doublepost]

Hopefully there's more than this!

Apple has been a little shy when it comes to product releases lately

Yes, Airpower, AirPods wireless charging case, iPads with Face ID, iPhone SE. That would be good.

 

[doctor-don]

Maybe someone will explain how that new Mac Pro is coming along in its development.
It's been 1202 days (3.2 years) since the last 'new' release (according to MacRumors), although it has really been 6 years for the real Mac Pro (2012 for the 5,1).

 

[Dave245]

Maybe someone will explain how that new Mac Pro is coming along in its development.
It's been 1202 days (3.2 years) since the last 'new' release (according to MacRumors), although it has really been 6 years for the real Mac Pro (2012 for the 5,1).

The Mac Pro is next year Apple confirmed this earlier this year.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Might be exciting if Siri was remotely useful. Right now I’d rather be trapped in a room with all of my exes than try to talk with Siri.

While Siri is terrible compared to Alexa and Google, she is far, far, far better than whatever Samsung was trying to do with Bixby. I mean, I am kind of an Apple fanboy, and I enjoy almost all of there products. But I still see where they mess up. However, I also respect the competition. I like Samsung phones, but... Bixby... My God is it terrible. You think Siri is bad, but Bixby can't do a thing. It has problems with simple math equations.

 

[DevNull0]

What do you want them to do? Every time Intel puts out new chips, the Mac is updated. And there working on a Mac Pro, and the iMac pro is a thing now, and all of there Macs are very new and usable.

That is self-contradictory. Every time Intel puts out a new chip, the Mac is updated. Yet in over 10 years, the only Mac Pro release was the hideous flop of a trash can. Apple is working on a Mac Pro? How does it take Timmy's Trillion Dollar Miracle Company 6+ years to design a Mac Pro? Every other workstation computer vendor in the world has multiple updates per year.

And all Macs are very new and usable? My 6 year old 2012 Mac Mini is a vastly superior machine than Apple's current crop of garbage (and it's worth more than a I paid 6 years ago for a "vintage" computer). Not only do I have a faster CPU, I've got dual user swappable drive bays and user upgradable memory. All gone in the slower "modern" turd Apple is pushing. And 'modern" is still 4 years old.

My 2011 MBP is flat out superior to my 2017. It even seems to be snappier and perform better. The keyboard is a reliable pleasure and I've never had a problem with the 2011. The 2017 has already been to the repair shop.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Sadly I’m not expecting to see anything exciting announced at WWDC.

I think iOS 12 and macOS will be good. But lately Apple hardware updates don't excite me as much as they used to. And thats not just for Apple. No company really has revolutionary products anymore, everything is just evolutionary.
New Macs with updated Intel processors... Yea
iPhone with new A12 Processor and a 6.5 inch display... WowZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Apple has been taking a beating in the news and in every tech forum about Siri. Only some die hards on here still defend apple on it.

I think that is a bit harsh. Agree Apple has ignored Siri for way too long considering it was the first to integrate voice command into hardware. Siri, for sure needs work, more uniformity among devices (Homekit and Apple alike) and OSes, & ability to parse complex sentences, rather than a 2 year old's capabilities.

BUT I am hardly a "die hard," I use Siri daily, mostly in conjunction with Homekit devices -- lamps, locks, occasionally thermostat, though that is mostly set it and forget it. I summons Siri on nearly ever type of Apple device -- iPhone, iPad, AW. Does the job. Siri should be a lot better, but it's not horrible. But also I'm more confident it's not collecting my data to sell to an advertiser or create an unwanted "recommended for you" list & it's not passing my conversations on erroneously to someone in my contact list.

Honestly, the worst thing about Siri to me is that Apple limits its usability by limiting products that incorporate it. Where is the sub-$100 Echo Dot-like puck I can drop in any room in the house and not feel guilty for splurging. I mean I can bark commands at will inside my car, but not my home. That's kind of silly. The other problem I have is that it's not homesharing compatible and on that I'm getting kind of sick of Apple bastardizing product it sells and markets but almost grudgingly so.

On whole though Siri is not nearly as terrible as you suggest. It takes a "beating" as you say because Apple in general has become a tech whipping boy. The irony is that Android isn't nearly as "open" as it's supporters make it out to be because many features are version specific and updates often depend on whether the h/w maker pushes that out. An Amazon isn't a walled garden. It's more like tech's version of the Tower of London.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

While I think it’s important, I think the whole “device usage health” thing is a very convenient excuse to distract Apple from advancing Siri (but probably have separate resources dedicated to it). I think they’ll overdo it (45 minutes of the keynote dedicated to it) and backburner Siri.

Just don’t make it another emoji thing where it sucks up all the attention.
[doublepost=1527642563][/doublepost]
What irks me is the “developer” part of WWDC is slowly being erased in favor of product announcements, political gatherings, etc. Let’s see some serious improvements to iOS, Mac, etc like back in the Jobs era (you know it’s true). WWDC literally sets the stage for Apple’s future innovation. If they can’t get WWDC right, then there’s a problem.

It’s a *developer* conference not a tech social gaggle party.

Why do people keep complaining about emojis. Sure, Apple talked about them during the iPhone X unveiling, but they kind of had to. I remember them talking about the redesigned Messages app in iOS 10, and talking about them. But thats it. Usually they add new ones with a iOS X.1 or X.2 update. And they just update them to stay up to date with other phones. So its not that big of a deal.

 

[DevNull0]

While Siri is terrible compared to Alexa and Google, she is far, far, far better than whatever Samsung was trying to do with Bixby. I mean, I am kind of an Apple fanboy, and I enjoy almost all of there products. But I still see where they mess up.

What a colossally silly thing to say. While Oculus Rift is terrible compared to the vision in Ready Player One everyone is wishing for, it still far, far, far better than google cardboard.

So based on your previous post, the iTrashCan(tm) is not a mess up. The 2014 Mac Mini Gimped Edition that is inferior to the previous model yet still sold as new after 4 years is not a mess up. The orphaned touch bar is not.a mess up. The uncomfortable and defective keyboard in the MB and MBP lines is not a mess up. iMac refreshes every 1-2 years through 2009 and then nothing at all since 2012 is not a mess up. So what is a mess up?

 

[Rogifan]

Sadly I’m not expecting to see anything exciting announced at WWDC.

You do realize that WWDC is a software developer conference not a consumer hardware event, right?