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Is it not a bit insane to think that wireless "hey Siri" is only possible because of a unique chip?

S

shenfrey

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 23, 2010
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Ok Google seems to be on every phone, it even works on my PC and even on the iPhone. What makes this chip so special and why have they only decided to incorporate it now, into these newer and more expensive phones? I guess Apple Watch also has this "specially designed chip" also.

I am not trying to be sarcastic, I just don't understand how something so simple requires construction of an entirely new processor.
 
I don't think ok google is on every phone, at least not when off the charger. It takes a special chip because it needs to be listening all the time. Without the special chip it'd be using the cpu to do that which would be a huge battery drain.
 
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zhenya said:
I don't think ok google is on every phone, at least not when off the charger. It takes a special chip because it needs to be listening all the time. Without the special chip it'd be using the cpu to do that which would be a huge battery drain.
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It is on every android phone since 2010 I believe. I am not disputing your rational however, it is completely plausible. However I don't see why software couldn't have been more developed for such a feature, as opposed to designing new hardware.
 
It's not surprising that they had to engineer a new chip to stop the battery drain of constantly listening. OK Google working on your PC is very different as it has a much bigger battery if a laptop, or is plugged in all the time.
 
I had it on my 6 (jailbroken) battery drain wasn't bad at all. I'm sure with apples touch they could have made that battery drain a lot less.
 
shenfrey said:
It is on every android phone since 2010 I believe. I am not disputing your rational however, it is completely plausible. However I don't see why software couldn't have been more developed for such a feature, as opposed to designing new hardware.
Click to expand...

the always listening ok Google feature is not on every phone. The Moto x started it and was really fun. However the Moto g which was the budget model didn't have the always on ok Google. This difference was because of the chip differences just like how Apple needed a new chip. My android expirence is limited to Motorola so I cannot speak for Samsung lg or htc
 
shenfrey said:
It is on every android phone since 2010 I believe. I am not disputing your rational however, it is completely plausible. However I don't see why software couldn't have been more developed for such a feature, as opposed to designing new hardware.
Click to expand...
It's been in the GOOGLE NOW app - not always listening. It does not always listen on all phones. Moto X was the first.
 
shenfrey said:
Ok Google seems to be on every phone, it even works on my PC and even on the iPhone. What makes this chip so special and why have they only decided to incorporate it now, into these newer and more expensive phones? I guess Apple Watch also has this "specially designed chip" also.

I am not trying to be sarcastic, I just don't understand how something so simple requires construction of an entirely new processor.
Click to expand...

It's about battery life. Apple could have done it, but they didn't want to take the battery life hit by always listening and having to process all that looking for the "Hey Siri" command. So they modified the chip to process it and now can turn it on without a tangible decrease in battery life.

I also have a Note5 and OK Google only works if the phone is awake. So there is something to Apple's decision that must make engineering sense.
 
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chrf097 said:
Google Now didn't even exist when the Nexus 4 came out...
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I wasn't sure if lolly pop (or whichever OS it came with) enabled the access.

Thanks for all your replies guys, makes sense to me now why they did it :)
 
To answer your ridiculous clickbait question, yes it is a bit insane to think that Hey Siri wouldn't affect the battery to some degree without a dedicated chip to continuously listen.
 
You can use wireless hey siri on previous iphone if you jailbreak. Thing is it will drain battery like hell
 
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