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The title seems poorly worded to me. I read it as "Why Siri underlies Google Assistant and Alexa," as if Siri were the backing technology. Should say something more like "Why Siri is lagging behind Google Assistant and Alexa."
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This is strictly anecdotal but a friend of mine is an exec at Facebook and we were recently discussing phones. He had an iPhone for a few years and has now had an Android for a couple years. He said that by far the most drastic difference between the two platforms is Siri vs. Assistant (or whatever Google's assistant is called in the phone). He said it is no contest how much more useful and functional Assistant is, c…
Obligatory question is why? What usefullness or functionality made that much of a difference to him?
Unexpectedly, this can sometimes be a positive too. "Hey siri, turn my lights " has on multiple occasions been interpreted as "Hey siri, turn my lights", which then results in the lights being turned off. This is hugely entertaining when you're demonstrating your new Philips Hue bulbs over FaceTime, and the person on the other end now just sees your camera go black instead.
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"but of an arse" is pretty generous for behavior that would cost him his job today.
What behavior are you talking about that would cost him that position today? Jobs wasn't physically assaulting employees. It isn't illegal to be mean or rude to people. At worst it might cost Apple a few workplace lawsuits/settlements.
The no-poaching collusion between Apple et al probably cost Apple a nine-figure sum to settle (I'm not sure what the exact breakdown between the defendants was): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
Both of these were quite serious issues, in my opinion.
Something always make me scratch my head. Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? Or is the leadership only designed by autoproclaimed experts and funky ad-hoc metrics? I totally confess that I use Siri for only 3 things: -Desactivating all wake up alarm during my morning poo -Setting timers while baking -Sending a « I’m coming » text to my loved one before ridi…
I hear now there's an unofficial bridge (runs as a NodeJS service) called Homebridge which might get Harmony working with Siri, and Lutron has newer lights not using Z-Wave that are Homekit compatible, but when I was shopping for all this stuff several years ago Siri /HomeKit support was abysmal.
It also helps that Echo's microphones and speech recognition is much better at far distances, with background noise, than "Hey Siri" (and assuming I don't have my phone in my pocket). At this point, I pretty much only use Siri when I'm in the car, and that's the environment where it seems to perform the worst (long delays to start listening, frequent misunderstandings, request failures).
Team dysfunction seems to be a part of it. The 'head' guy for Siri, Dag Kittlaus left Apple to start Viv Labs in about a year since Siri was released. Their assistant Viv, looked pretty okay[1], and was since acquired by Samsung[2]. I feel if he had stayed on, Siri would have been better. Samsung seems to be trying pretty hard to get people to use it[3]. It's relatively new so I'm interested to see where it goes, esp…
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> - Reminders (remind me to do X when I get home) One thing it can't do is 'remind me to do X when I leave work'. Can siri?
Yes and it can also remind you to do something when you "get in the car" or "get out of the car", if you have it paired to your Bluetooth in your car.
Something always make me scratch my head. Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? Or is the leadership only designed by autoproclaimed experts and funky ad-hoc metrics? I totally confess that I use Siri for only 3 things: -Desactivating all wake up alarm during my morning poo -Setting timers while baking -Sending a « I’m coming » text to my loved one before ridi…
So far unmentioned in this discussion is the only reason I use Android voice assistant: Android Auto. When I'm driving my car I obviously can't type on my phone, so I use my voice for everything: changing the navigation destination, calling for music to be played, dialing the phone and sending text messages, amusing children by asking it stupid questions, etc. I carry an iPhone on my person but I use Android in my ca…
I tried again just now, this is what I got: Me: "What time does Ike's sandwich close?" Siri heard: "What time does Eichs sandwich close" Siri responded: "Hmmm... I don't see any hours for Rick's Sandwich Shop on Elkins St, Boston"
Things like this is why I've all but stop using Siri.
> "It was slow, when it worked at all," Williamson said. "The software was riddled with serious bugs. Those problems lie entirely with the original Siri team, certainly not me." Wow. It those were his original words, I don't doubt a bit that this guy should be responsible for Siri being left behind.
Honestly, I don’t know the full details, but I still hold that Forstall took the fall for the poor execution of Williamson in the Maps debacle.
> "It was slow, when it worked at all," Williamson said. "The software was riddled with serious bugs. Those problems lie entirely with the original Siri team, certainly not me." Wow. It those were his original words, I don't doubt a bit that this guy should be responsible for Siri being left behind.
As an engineer who reported to Williamson, I’ve got to say I was far more intimidated by him than I ever was of Forstall. He rarely smiled in a meeting and his old school heavy handed management style always took the fun out of the work. Honestly, I don’t know the full details, but I still hold that Forstall took the fall for the poor execution of Williamson in the Maps debacle.
Well that's not true because Eddy Cue fired Williamson [1]. Maps might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but Forstall was fired also because he couldn't work well with Bob Mansfield (who came back out of retirement after he was gone [2]) and Jony Ive.
[1] https://www.cultofmac.com/203032/apple-svp-eddy-cue-fires-ri...
[2] http://allthingsd.com/20121101/behind-silicon-valleys-un-ret...
It's sort of sad to read a story about a story, and not be able to figure out which problems were created in the source vs. the retelling. Mashable: "Right now, it looks like Siri won't be blown up and a [sp] rebuilt". Yeah, well, that'd most likely be a huge mistake[1] depending on your definition of "blown up" and "rebuilt", and also Siri's already been rebuilt twice.[2] The Information: "One of Apple’s original pl…
Regarding building a speaker without Siri, the origin story I read from Bloomberg was that the idea of a great-sounding speaker that would adapt to room acoustics was dreamed up by Mac audio engineers, before Echo was even announced, so a speaker with a smart assistant built-in probably wasn't even on their radar at that point. I didn't necessarily interpret it as a lack of faith in the Siri team to deliver.