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Google's Gemini for Home Starts Rolling Out on October 1
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That's the benefit of being in the ecosystem.
Really looking forward to this.
I have a LOT of Google Home smart speakers and they have gotten considerably worse in many ways over the years.
There are some simple things they need to fix to put many issued right, so hopefully this might be the start of the long awaited fix they all need.
I have a LOT of Google Home smart speakers and they have gotten considerably worse in many ways over the years.
There are some simple things they need to fix to put many issued right, so hopefully this might be the start of the long awaited fix they all need.
When I’m watching a film and say ‘Siri, pause’, every Apple device in the room lights up, then Siri decides I meant the iPhone, where nothing’s playing. And it confuses itself, the Apple TV keeps rolling while Siri pretends the one device actually making noise doesn’t exist.
They can't keep any of their big shot employees in that department. They must be doing something wrong, right? The commas in their bank statement don't make a difference here.
So does this work with current Google home speakers etc? Is this something one needs to subscribe too?
Years ago I got a Google Assistant speaker for super cheap, maybe even free with purchase of something else, but it quickly went in a box because Alexa was better at doing device control like lights and switches. That was a long time ago, though. Maybe I should dig that speaker out and give it a try, but only while I wait to convert to something that doesn't rely on the cloud (for home control).
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Can I introduce you to Copilot? It makes Gemini look like the best AI ever invented.... 😄
That's absolutely true when it comes to apple hardware products.
But software and especially web services have been apple's achillees heel for a long time. I struggle to think of a mature market in the software space that apple has come in and completely disrupted like they did for mp3 players, laptops and phones. At least in the last couple decades.
Closest i can think of off the top of my head is icloud followed by the app store, but that's piggybacking off the success of their devices. But in examples where their products are not part & parcel with their hardware devices, e.g. music, video streaming; they're just one of the followers.
This wasn't always true, mac itself is a great example, so was itunes of industry changing software/servicies. I haven't seen any of that magic for a long time sadly.
Apple already spent a big money on (re)designing emoji, memoji, genmoji etc. --> So, no money for AI and in-house LLM
Same here, when the HomePod first debuted it was seamless throughout my home, now I can't say that any more. Siri has no idea who I'm speaking too (homepods haven't moved so it's not a proximity issue) and everything else that used to be so "integrated" in the Apple ecosystem isn't anymore.....I've moved off of a lot of Apple products for this very reason, samsung/android/gemini have really really stepped up their game.
On my pixel, at least, it is slower with more errors. I would describe it as "death by a thousand paper cuts."
Some examples:
- Voice dictation, which I use instead of typing, just stops working mid sentence about 2/3 of the time. Used to be my most loved feature.
- When voice dictation DOES work, a new bug! The dictated text may double or triple in the input field, or remain in the input field AFTER I hit send on a reply, requireing me to manually clear it out.
- Failure to add things to a grocery shopping list. I mean COME ON, this was so handy!
- Even simple things like "hey google, weather report" have resulted in reports for wrong cities. I get a lot more "i didn't catch that" and I'm having to be a lot more specific.
- I work at home, so sometimes at lunch, I tell my phone "set an alarm at 2:59" for a meeting at 3pm so my old ass doesn't forget. Then my alarm goes off at 3am, all because I didn't specify AM/PM.
- "Set a timer for 10 minutes." "OK, I set a timer for 10 minutes. It will go off at X:XX." Nothing happens. I always have to confirm.
- Other times, it feels like it has to connect to the internet while driving, so basic controls like "play" or "pause" don't kick in because the signal isn't consistent. This used to be INSTANT with google assistant.
- I used to be able to use Google assistant to ask my phone any weird thing while driving. Who was the lead actor in "X movie." and it would answer it. Now it simply doesn't try since I got Gemini installed. "Sorry, I didn't understand that." YES YOU DO. If I ask the phone while not connected, you understand.
My pixel uses the google assistant voice in the car. I don't think Gemini is supported. but since Gemini rolled out I can't ask my car random trivia anymore. A minor inconvenience, to be sure, but a downgrade for my pop culture addled brain. - I ask it to play a song/artist on spotify while driving. It will then launch it on my TV at home. I don't know if that's related or not, but I swear it started when gemini became a thing. I have no proof other than my frustration.
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I feel like the commas in Meta’s compensation packages could be a deciding factor regardless if Apple was doing everything right: Up to $100 million is rumored.
Do I think Apple is doing everything right? I like the idea of a completely private, on device LLM but surely there was a way to implement a middle ground over the last decade.
Thanks. I was not expecting all of that. Yes that screenshot is hilarious. Google’s LLM it’s certainly better than Apple’s at the moment (it exists) but I guess it’s not all sunshine and rainbows all of the time.