Is anyone else bothered by Apple's adjustment to the "best smartphone" Siri query?

[lordofthereef]

I'd be willing to counter bet that. A cloud based AI (what Siri emulates) would be well suited for mobile devices. We are talking first in consumers product though, right? Though I wouldn't want to be testing first/second/third gen AI on anything that is critical.

No, we are talking first as in you will hear about it in some other form before you hear about it on your smartphone. It doesn't exist yet (maybe ever?), hence it is a pretty silly thing to want. Throw it right in with wanting your phone to be a teleportation device and/or transform into a plane for quick travel.

 

[b24pgg]

Maybe for the same reason that you haven't returned your iPhone on principle, and developed your own mobile device with a software platform that is free of any and all carrier and vendor influences.

After all, if briantaylor619's opinions are invalid because he doesn't decisively act on them, what does that say about your stance on Apple's "censorship" if you're unwilling to act just as decisively?

I don't own an iPhone. I use an Android device with a custom ROM free of all carrier and vendor influences.

Nice straw man attempt though.

 

[Rennir]

I realize it's a relatively benign question with subjective answers, but does anyone else feel like this sets a bad precedent? I'm not a fan of the whole "if you don’t like it, censor it" approach that was taken.

(If you're not familiar with this story, I'm referring to this)

Okay, but if you ask any other smartphone manufacturer out there what the best smartphone is, you think they would mention any other phone than their own?

It's not a legitimate query because best is subjective and anyone asking Siri has obviously decided that it is the best phone for them and is only asking the question in jest or in order to see how Siri interprets and what criteria Siri uses to answer the question...unless they bought the 4S just so they could find what the best phone is?

It's like asking a clearly biased source what the best product is in a particular industry, when the source is also one of the competitors in said industry. Would you call that source claiming its own product as the best censorship?

 

[derickdub]

Apple is a piece of the pipe from you to the internet, just like a carrier. We expect carriers to uphold net neutrality and not censor, so what about phone makers?

If a carrier manipulated search results that passed through it, what would your reaction be?

For example, what if whenever you searched "What is the best carrier?", the carrier you were on inserted itself as the result in a cutsy message? Would that be okay? And where does this stop?

What it boils down to is whether or not you expect Siri to be a gateway to real search results. If not, then it's not a bother. If so, then it is.

Best carrier, best phone, etc. are all opinions. There's no way you can actually measure being the "best". It's way to vague of a term and can no way be backed up fact.

It's like asking a blonde what the best hair color is, and she answers blonde. It's irrelevant and not factual in anyway. Being offended by the answer just makes you look silly.

 

[lordofthereef]

Best carrier, best phone, etc. are all opinions. There's no way you can actually measure being the "best". It's way to vague of a term and can no way be backed up fact.

FWIW this thread has taken on a bit of another life. I believe the person you are responding to is actually speaking of the censorship of the word "jailbreak". That was not the original topic of the thread, but it seems to have come to that.

 

[derickdub]

FWIW this thread has taken on a bit of another life. I believe the person you are responding to is actually speaking of the censorship of the word "jailbreak". That was not the original topic of the thread, but it seems to have come to that.

Well their "best carrier" analogy made me think they were referring to the Siri "censorship".

I don't think Siri saying the iPhone is the best is in anyway censoring anything. It's just giving you an other opinion. Opinions are all you would find if you Googled "what's the best smartphone".

I look at the jailbreak thing differently though. I for one don't know why they would censor any words on the iTunes store, whether it be derogatory or not.

 

[lordofthereef]

Well their "best carrier" analogy made me think they were referring to the Siri "censorship".

I don't think Siri saying the iPhone is the best is in anyway censoring anything. It's just giving you an other opinion. Opinions are all you would find if you Googled "what's the best smartphone".

I look at the jailbreak thing differently though. I for one don't know why they would censor any words on the iTunes store, whether it be derogatory or not.

Well, kids do browse iTunes and Apple is all about wholesomeness it seems. They won't REALLY let any adult material on the AppStore after all. But I can see where you are coming from. I think we overly censor things without any proof that there are positive effects on society as a result.