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Last Siri Co-Founder, Tom Gruber, Retires From Apple
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Who should take over?
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Essentially. But I suppose you can customise your own workflows so there’s the potential to make Siri more personalised.
She will offer some wiki links for you to click and check out for yourself, negating the need to actually use her.
I cant find the link anymore, but I distinctly remember the other Siri co-founders being disappointed with Apple's direction. Having their hands tied, so they left.
I get the point that you are trying to make, but yes, the MacMini does suffer from being out of date and woefully underpowered because of a few guys.
The strange thing with Siri, as opposed to a lot of hardware that Apple seems content to not update is that voice control is where a lot of devices are moving towards and not away from. An argument can be made that personal computers and hardware are being bypassed and made irrelevant by cloud based processing, thus explaining Apple’s long times between computer upgrades and unspectacular specs in their computer lines when they do announce new models but voice control is what consumer devices are trying hard to integrate into their systems. No company has really taken an insurmountable lead in this field, although it’s obvious that Amazon and Google are putting a lot of resources in this area. But except for die hard fanatics I don’t think anyone would say that Apple is anywhere near the top, and with a 2 or 3 year head start they should be.
This is fine. Siri needs to evolve and become something much different than it started out as. I am glad we have strong resource in charge now and I am optimistic that Siri, with minor tweaks, can become better than the competition while still keeping our data private.
Yes, but Apple will also be analyzing the shortcuts that are created, helping Siri "learn" them and become smarter over time. This sort of interaction and data set is something that Apple has needed for a long time as they haven't had the luxury of mining their users' data for years.
It’s an advancement due to Apple’s stance on data. Now they don’t have to aggregate and collect granularly what people are doing with Siri. Instead, we provide them our workflows, so that one day it may be a native feature in the ecosystem.
On one end it’s a lazy cop out, but on another it’s pragmatic given their ongoing Siri troubles.
My bet, knowing how sr management works, is that Siri was left to wilt due to lack of funding. Nobody leaves the baby they created to die of neglect. The first two guys saw it right away, the last guy, tried to work in the system and failed. Now Apple has to get new blood because it makes a better marketing story.
From what I understand reading about this online over the years, they were hamstrung by Apple leadership upon arrival. It probably didn't help that things were a bit crazy at Apple around that time with Steve being sick and then passing away the day after Siri launched on the iPhone 4s. They wanted to take Siri in a different direction and that ended up being the wrong idea.
That was very well said! I'm much more optimistic now. I think that Cue was somewhat lucky in the early days of the iTunes store and that luck has run out. He hasn't been able to get the deals together for Apple's TV thing over the years and let Siri fall apart. Out of all the execs that go on stage I feel like he fits in with Apple the least. Craig is a really smart guy who doesn't need luck and knows how to do things properly. You're likely quite right that once he took it over he could better wrap his mind around what the problem is and hopefully it's mostly sorted now and we can all move forward with a powerful virtual assistant in upcoming revisions. I think they're on the right track.
iOS 12 is already a great start and a much better direction for Siri to be heading in by integrating all these third party actions and shortcuts. I feel like Apple is going to leverage differential privacy to analyze common tasks and patterns that people build in shortcuts and use that data to train Siri to be more intelligent in future iterations. They'll likely leave Shortcuts around for power users and expand it's capabilities over the years but also make more standard Siri requests more accurate by allowing her to better chain together sequences of actions to complete tasks and collect the info someone needs.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Actually my poke was a guy blaming some employees as if some weak attempt to redirect any blame away from their employer. IMO Apple, not 3 Apple employees, is to blame for Siri slipping from first to wherever one considers it now vs. other "smart" assistant competitors. Again IMO, Siri is a great example of squandering a (first) lead. And if it was about a few lazy employees, why is Apple only now addressing a need for a new point person(s) on that team? Siri rolled out in 2011. Alexa and Cortana 2014. Google (varies depending on which incarnation one considers most equivalent to Siri but IMO) 2016.
Same with Mac Mini: it's certainly not a few lazy engineers to be blamed for how far out of date it's been allowed to become. Any such blame should be entirely on Apple. If a few employees were at fault there, they should have been replaced way back when the Mini platform was already getting a bit- as we often say around here- "long in tooth." Now that the teeth are so long they've fallen out of that mouth, any redirects by about anyone at a few employees, Intel, etc seem- IMO- incredible... though there is never a shortage of at least a few guys around here who would try anything to redirect an Apple gripe to anyone or anything else.
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Could be but what a concept: lack of funding vs. "$2XX Billion in the bank can't be wrong" and "...but who makes the most profitable..."
IMO, it IS just neglect... like Mac Mini, iPad Mini, much of the Mac line, etc. Perhaps Apple is just putting enormous focus on the most profitable iDevice(s) or maybe Apple has grown too big for a few decision-makers at the top who can't delegate decisions they really don't need to personally make. Else, lack of money, human talent or other resources just make no sense to me given the amount of money Apple makes every quarter.
Note to the ADF on both of my posts above: Not trying to cause an ADF riot or anything. Both are just my opinion... that Apple deserves blame for allowing Apple offerings like Siri and Macs to languish. Feel free to redirect it at "a few guys" or Samsung/Microsoft/Google or Intel or cheap Chinese chargers or the weather, etc. but, IMO, the relatively small number of products that the massive Apple makes should all be about as up-to-date as they can be. With an AAPL hat on, I fully get the argument of focusing on the most profitable thing but all this Apple stuff is profitable and Apple is not exactly pinched for cash to be able to assign others to take care of updating Apple stuff that those who most care about the most profitable product would rather ignore and/or can't make the time to do much thinking about those products.
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Jonny won’t leave. His goal for world domination with the islate is too strong. Islate is the most advance Apple product ever, with no port, no screen, no bumps, dips, and is the most sexiest slate of polished aluminium ever! It also cost 10,001 to start, slightly higher than the Apple Watch gold.
I meant departmental funding. Just because Apple has lots of money, does not mean that Sr. Management allocated people and resources (that require funding) to Siri.
One of the reasons Apple's products get so out of date is that once a product is released, unless it conquers the world, a majority of the resources move on to the next big thing wannabe, to the next big problem exposed in the media, or to the next big hit from Apple's competition.
Apple wants desperately to be a leader, but the problems exposed by the media, the progress by the competition, the failure to wait for good engineering in products, and the abject failure of the next big thing have relegated them to be a simple follower always trying to play catchup.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I think the ultimate goal/play is to ship an empty box with spin about making it so thin one cannot even see it.
Then sell an Apple electron microscope as an accessory to help consumers try to find what they bought.
Then sell an updated version of the empty box that would require a quantum microscope accessory.
Then, thin away the box too so that we are eventually paying a lot of money for an illusion that we are actually buying something.
All
To a
True, with the major hurdle Apple has with Siri, third party integration. Take Amazon for example. They integrate Logitech Harmony Remote into Alexa. Thus, instantly they get the years of experience Logitech has, with very little engineering required. Alexa, turn on PlayStation, OK. Who did the heavy lifting, Logitech. Logitech Hub turned on the TV, set the HDMI port, turned on the PlayStation, turned on the sound system, set the volume, all done. All Alexa had to do was send the commands. Apple, well they are reinventing the wheel, because of their integrated echo system. Thus, time consuming engineering. Not saying Apples approach a bad thing, a significant reason Siri integration development slow.
True, with the major hurdle Apple has with Siri, third party integration. Take Amazon for example. They integrate Logitech Harmony Remote into Alexa. Thus, instantly they get the years of experience Logitech has, with very little engineering required. Alexa, turn on PlayStation, OK. Who did the heavy lifting, Logitech. Logitech Hub turned on the TV, set the HDMI port, turned on the PlayStation, turned on the sound system, set the volume, all done. All Alexa had to do was send the commands. Apple, well they are reinventing the wheel, because of their integrated echo system. Thus, time consuming engineering. Not saying Apples approach a bad thing, a significant reason Siri integration development slow.
At this point I'd give the janitor a shot. Whatever it takes to get Cook to walk out the door and never come back to Apple.
Dudes at his level have ****-you money as soon as their first round of stock vests. I'm sure he's sick of the infighting and territorial squabbling, and doesn't feel like having another new boss with whom he won't see eye to eye. And now he doesn't have to.
Apple should just drop the troublesome strategy of protecting customer privacy…. and allow Siri full ability to collect and aggregate useful customer data. If they do that, Siri will catch up to par with Alexa and Google in no time since both Google and Amazon use the same data collection strategies to make "smart assistants".
How about ‘No’.
There already exists plenty of options if you want your data to be available to anyone who’s willing to pay a relatively small sum.
I’m not certain that Apple is the knight in shining armor that they and most users portray them to be, but I know that Google, Microsoft, Amazon and any Chinese phone maker is a lot worse.
If you don’t care you already have a lot of choices.
Seems the web is just ruthless in forums - mostly from those that don’t fully research the subject at hand. Or just to win likes from insult I’ve or funny posts; usually.
Giving respect where due, have a good read or watch the Ted video:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/tom_gruber
He stayed with his baby long pst any obligation. The other two co founders/developers/innovators left years ago.
Having made a decent sizeable income in a very short time and being able to follow his dreams, passions, without anyone you’ve worked with crying fowl from what you’ve done ... this is a lesson to be learned. This IS Winning!
I’d normally be inclined to think this as well since the new executive announcement and that’s how The Verve media is playing this up. Yet the blurb about going into completely different fields (which maybe could benefit from a form of AI). Most likely not. You normally don’t wish to get rid of such a knowledgeable employee when they’re useful ~ especially on a service that defined you as a company and needing bad upgrades.
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I’m incline to think a major overhaul will occur.
Yes let’s be straight. It hasn’t been years for Siri being under Cue ; more like less than 3 if that.
The issue with stagnation was how Siri was originally created and all the small add-ones since then. With all of what Siri can do it’s also made Siri too reliant on said features and nobody really had the expertise to complete overhaul while it was used by millions in production. Recall only 1 founder remained after 2012.
Placing this under a web management is an issue with upper management- Cook! That was THE dumbest move ever not Cue ever being at fault.
Secondly Cue takes care of a LOT more than any other director and has been very good at it since Apple had a presence on the web back in 1988!
I’m inclined to think Siri will have a major overhaul ~ we’ll know after about a weeks worth of no response failed responses all over and none functioning. In the USA first, Canada and Mexico and Europe.
There have been numerous reports of Apple having difficulty in increasing Siri’s potential. Likewise, federighi and team really slowed down iOS and macOS ... the latter a major feature is ... dark mode! Lmao this should’ve occurred 4yrs ago.
Federighi never had the experience to work on siri and should’ve rejected this since.
Giving respect where due, have a good read or watch the Ted video:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/tom_gruber
He stayed with his baby long pst any obligation. The other two co founders/developers/innovators left years ago.
Having made a decent sizeable income in a very short time and being able to follow his dreams, passions, without anyone you’ve worked with crying fowl from what you’ve done ... this is a lesson to be learned. This IS Winning!
I’d normally be inclined to think this as well since the new executive announcement and that’s how The Verve media is playing this up. Yet the blurb about going into completely different fields (which maybe could benefit from a form of AI). Most likely not. You normally don’t wish to get rid of such a knowledgeable employee when they’re useful ~ especially on a service that defined you as a company and needing bad upgrades.
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I’m incline to think a major overhaul will occur.
Yes let’s be straight. It hasn’t been years for Siri being under Cue ; more like less than 3 if that.
The issue with stagnation was how Siri was originally created and all the small add-ones since then. With all of what Siri can do it’s also made Siri too reliant on said features and nobody really had the expertise to complete overhaul while it was used by millions in production. Recall only 1 founder remained after 2012.
Placing this under a web management is an issue with upper management- Cook! That was THE dumbest move ever not Cue ever being at fault.
Secondly Cue takes care of a LOT more than any other director and has been very good at it since Apple had a presence on the web back in 1988!
I’m inclined to think Siri will have a major overhaul ~ we’ll know after about a weeks worth of no response failed responses all over and none functioning. In the USA first, Canada and Mexico and Europe.
There have been numerous reports of Apple having difficulty in increasing Siri’s potential. Likewise, federighi and team really slowed down iOS and macOS ... the latter a major feature is ... dark mode! Lmao this should’ve occurred 4yrs ago.
Federighi never had the experience to work on siri and should’ve rejected this since.
I come from both sides. I was young and hungry in my innovative days, now older, and enjoy just providing good feedback for those that are doing the real work. And I'm enjoying having a few spare bucks laying around.
I bet you don't know the difference between wikipedia and Siri, furthermore Siri can also be a man