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I would appreciate it relinquishing privacy for better services and more accuracy.

You've been duped. Google and Amazon tell you that they need to invade your privacy to deliver better results (though they say it in a nicer way!) because their business model is 100% based on selling your personal data to advertisers, which they can't do otherwise. This is not the case for Apple, and it is their absolute competitive advantage that Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter etc have no way of competing with. It is entirely to Apple's advantage to protect your privacy, for real, in everything they do. It may mean that it makes Apple's job harder, but correspondingly, it's not something they can afford to undermine either.
 
I'll take Apple's approach every time.

I give as little of my personal information to Google - aka the Digital Proctologist - the company that needs to be all up in people's rear ends to be a profitable business.
 
Don't personally see much need for Amazon Echo or Google Home type devices when my phone is always within a few metres.

But will be interesting to see if Apple enters that space with Siri.

Agreed. I know Amazons Echo is doing well, now with the introduction of the Dot. I personally just see the need for these. My iPhone executes in the same fashion and is with me all the time, which is hands free with Siri. The only issue I have with Siri is she struggles with dictation and deciphering.

But I am interested to see where Apple takes artificial intelligence.
 
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More mullarkey from Tim. Apple's privacy stance is precisely what's been holding Siri back from being useful in any meaningful way. I get far more accurate results with Google Now/Assistant & Amazon's Alexa than I ever have using Siri. At this point Siri is more of a hindrance than a useful tool.

I don't understand when people make this argument. Siri has trouble answering a litany of general questions like, "How old is Michael Phelps." It seems to me there is tremendous room for improvement without impinging on anyone's privacy.
 
Google uses things like all the search and email data that they have, prior requests, contacts, basically everything that they can possibly pull and links it together (albeit 'anonymized') to provide the results they do. Apple doesn't do that. Maybe you're okay with blithely handing over everything about you for the profits of Google's coffers, but some of us aren't and I appreciate Apple being willing to give those of us in that camp an option. If they didn't then we'd have no options at all.

And as a result you get much better services, plus Apple makes 30% from every in app purchase and whilst they promote those 'freemium' games, those 'freemium' game makers data mine the hell out of you and collect masses of data in you that they then sell on...

So don't for a second think Apples platform isn't somehow gathering data on you in some way.

Here's your proof before you ask from an interview on Touch Arcade, which is a mobile games site owned and ran by Arn who owns and runs this MacRumors site:

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/

Plus all your data is recorded anyway, in the UK everything you do is kept for 2 years for security purposes, then you have Facebook that would sell your soul if it could get it and tells you they own your photos.

When you sit back and look at the world you live in, it's pretty naive to shout that privacy argument.

And let's not start about Apples rubbish iCloud security.
 
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Not sure how Siri communicates with the Apple Servers. Amazon Echo has a dedicated connection to Amazon servers. The reason I know this, tech support asked me one day if my Echo was connected to the network. I said yes, not your Wifi but our network. Me ???. Look on back of device, is the white light on? Yes, then it is not only connected to your Wifi but a dedicated connection to our servers. Wondering if Siri uses some dedicated connection when you request something? Seems like a good idea if in fact it works as I was told.

Cobblers. There is no separate physical connection because they have no control over that. They could be using a VPN, but I would expect they are simply using a regular HTTPS API, though I've not seen evidence either way.
 
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Doesn't Siri need a internet connection? What is this doesn't phone home nonsense
Siri connects to their server to translate your voice to a search command that can be done locally. All voice systems that work well do this same thing however I don't believe the searc
And customers like me thank him for it and stick with Apple because of it because we value our privacy more than a digital assistant.




Google uses things like all the search and email data that they have, prior requests, contacts, basically everything that they can possibly pull and links it together (albeit 'anonymized') to provide the results they do. Apple doesn't do that. Maybe you're okay with blithely handing over everything about you for the profits of Google's coffers, but some of us aren't and I appreciate Apple being willing to give those of us in that camp an option. If they didn't then we'd have no options at all.

All of these systems connect to their cloud backend to translate the audio you are speaking into a command a computer can use to perform a search. Without that translation our voice driven systems would be more like the ones you find in automobiles where the system teaches you how to say commands.

The big difference between Apple and others is where the search of your personal data performed.
 
And as a result you get much better services, plus Apple makes 30% from every in app purchase and whilst they promote those 'freemium' games, those 'freemium' game makers data mine the hell out of you and collect masses of data in you that they then sell on...

So don't for a second think Apples platform isn't somehow gathering data on you in some way.

Here's your proof before you ask from an interview on Touch Arcade, which is a mobile games site owned and ran by Arn who owns and runs this MacRumors site:

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/

Plus all your data is recorded anyway, in the UK everything you do is kept for 2 years for security purposes, then you have Facebook that would sell your soul if it could get it and tells you they own your photos.

When you sit back and look at the world you live in, it's pretty naive to shout that privacy argument.

And let's not start about Apples rubbish iCloud security.

Why are you starting off with the assumption that I think that Apple collects NO data about me? I didn't say that at all. I just said that I prefer Apple's approach, which is far more minimalistic than Google, which basically mines everything it can get its hands on. I'm not sure what freemium developers have to do with it, they're not Apple and Apple is not them. I don't even play many of those games.

I actually used to love Google when they first launched, but over the years I have come to dislike their approach and their stance on issues like this.

The rest of your argument is extremely weak imo. Other companies being greedy for data doesn't mean that Apple has to follow in their footsteps. If you don't like it, then you have the choice to switch and that's what's truly important. Doesn't mean that Apple has to change their ways in the meantime.
 
Doesn't Siri need a internet connection? What is this doesn't phone home nonsense
Before Siri we used to have a basic iPhone assistance that requiered no internet.

---------------------------

Is because they will buy someone that already has done so instead. Is either that or be left more behind in the game.
 
Is there any way Siri can become more contextual like Google Assistant? I have to admit that I like the features of Google Now/On Tap/Assistant more than Siri. I very rarely use Siri because its no where as useful as Google now. Since Apple is allowing developers more access, do u think apple will give Google access to Siri to make Siri more useful?
 
Google uses things like all the search and email data that they have, prior requests, contacts, basically everything that they can possibly pull and links it together (albeit 'anonymized') to provide the results they do.

They've pretty much given up on the pretence now. As of last week, Google doesn't even anomymise it; Personal data is now handed straight to advertisers. You can opt out, of course.
 
You've been duped. Google and Amazon tell you that they need to invade your privacy to deliver better results (though they say it in a nicer way!) because their business model is 100% based on selling your personal data to advertisers, which they can't do otherwise. This is not the case for Apple, and it is their absolute competitive advantage that Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter etc have no way of competing with. It is entirely to Apple's advantage to protect your privacy, for real, in everything they do. It may mean that it makes Apple's job harder, but correspondingly, it's not something they can afford to undermine either.

Erm nope. You are the duped one. You live in a country where EVERYTHING you do online is recorded and kept for two years. As requested by the government, and I don't get hammered with adverts, plus it's no different to websites like this monitoring user activity, recording it, selling it, passing it onto the advertisiers that support this site.
Privacy is a myth if you use online for anything that has duped people such as yourself. Apple are ONLY interested in your money, it is a marketing myth to believe Apple 'cares' about your privacy when they don't, if they did they would have made iCloud a damn site more secure.
 
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"People are constantly moving from home to work and to other things they may be doing." -- elegantly said and what an astute analysis of the lifestyle of average Joe, Tim!
An analysis that Amazon and Google don't appear to have done. Why would I bother getting an Echo or Google Home which don't move from home to work and to other things I may be doing?
 
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More mullarkey from Tim. Apple's privacy stance is precisely what's been holding Siri back from being useful in any meaningful way. I get far more accurate results with Google Now/Assistant & Amazon's Alexa than I ever have using Siri. At this point Siri is more of a hindrance than a useful tool.

While I agree that Siri is behind, I don't agree that it's far off at all. See the recent results from Brownlee's review of Siri vs Google Assistant. Siri is actually holding its own even with differential privacy.
 
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Why are you starting off with the assumption that I think that Apple collects NO data about me? I didn't say that at all. I just said that I prefer Apple's approach, which is far more minimalistic than Google, which basically mines everything it can get its hands on. I'm not sure what freemium developers have to do with it, they're not Apple and Apple is not them. I don't even play many of those games.

I actually used to love Google when they first launched, but over the years I have come to dislike their approach and their stance on issues like this.

The rest of your argument is extremely weak imo. Other companies being greedy for data doesn't mean that Apple has to follow in their footsteps. If you don't like it, then you have the choice to switch and that's what's truly important. Doesn't mean that Apple has to change their ways in the meantime.

Because Apple vets every app it has in its store, it gets 30% of the revenue from those apps so it is supporting data mining of millions of users. It's in its best interest to, it's a farce to somehow believe Apple cares about security.
I'm not saying anything about liking it or not, just highlighting how it's daft to think Apple is any different, or that you somehow have privacy these days if you go online.
 
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"to the best of our knowledge, we've shipped more assistant enabled devices than anyone out there."​

Uh, Samsung has shipped a lot more phones with Google's assistant than Apple has shipped iPhones with Siri, no?

IDK, I don't pay attention, but I thought all Android phones had Google's assistant?
 
Cobblers. There is no separate physical connection because they have no control over that. They could be using a VPN, but I would expect they are simply using a regular HTTPS API, though I've not seen evidence either way.
I suspected a vpn but could not verify. Might be total BS but a good idea none the less.
 
Because Apple gets every app it has in its store, it gets 30% of the revenue from those apps so it is supporting data mining of millions of users. It's in its best interest to, it's a farce to somehow believe Apple cares about security.
I'm not saying anything about liking it or not, just highlighting how it's daft to think Apple is any different, or that you somehow have privacy these days if you go online.

They care about it enough to forego the easy route of taking all my data and emails to shove into Siri and everything else, so. Obviously they care about it somewhat. Google links to and makes money off of search engines and advertising on all sorts of shady and awful sites but I don't see people saying that they support all of those things.

I get that some people like you would be happy to give up what's left of your privacy, but people like me and others are not. You at least have a choice of another provider to go to, we wouldn't.
 
Tim is right -- this time.

Tim Cook is simply spinning why Apple is so late to the game.

iPhone sales are already flat and as Chinese brands move upscale, Apple will need a new wonder-product. Alexa/Echo's sales are exploding, with 1 million sold the first quarter of 2016.

As to where people talk to their gadgets, home seems to be the place, despite of what Tim says:

"Amazon's move to build a voice-controlled virtual assistant for the home was apparently a wise one: That's the place where more voice control users (43%) talk to their gadgets than any other location (the car was a close second, at 36%), according to Meeker's report."
 
This is total spin. Who cares that they've shipped the most AI enabled devices. Apple is behind the game in AI and in-home assistance. That's just a fact. They will no doubt have a Siri-esque device - but it's at least a year out so for now it will be the we won't release something until we're ready - and then attack privacy/security - until they "crack" it.

As I've said below - with Apple's money and resources, there should be no reason they couldn't/shouldn't be more advanced than even ViV.
 
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Uh, Samsung has shipped a lot more phones with Google's assistant than Apple has shipped iPhones with Siri, no?

IDK, I don't pay attention, but I thought all Android phones had Google's assistant?

Google Assistant is exclusive to Pixel. Even Nexus phones didn't have it.
 
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