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Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

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Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#41

Post by AlotOfReading »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #14
ayewo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any photos of these slick vehicles you could point to?

Unfortunately no, and I should mention a cursory search turns up known driverless startups active in Mountain View - so I think unless any other HNster has better evidence, treat me as hearsay. I also shouldn't oversell them, the ones I've seen look 'slick' in that they are similar to other well-polished LIDAR test vehicles that aren't just a bunch of sensors bolted to a roof rack, and they're 'mysterious' in that th…

For context, this is what Apple's autonomous vehicles look like: https://dmxvlyap9srmn.cloudfront.net/article/pictures/8e1f6d...

They're Lexus' with mattresses on the roof.

Ghost has a weird pattern and their name on the sides of the vehicle. Nuro is uses Prius' mostly. Woven planet/Toyota tends to have slicker looking vehicles. They're the right vehicle in this picture:

https://thelastdriverlicenseholder.files.wordpress.com/2023/...

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#43

Post by readyplayernull »

seatac76 wrote: post #2

Wonder what they are cooking ? - AR Glasses would be one but they still feel like a decade away - Whatever happened to the Apple Car? - Apple Watch with more sophisticated medical sensors for sure must be in there. Wonder what else?

They've been working on an EV since several years ago, wonder what happened to that project:

https://i.redd.it/2npa5ztl1o751.jpg

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#44

Post by MBCook »

tambourine_man wrote: post #34

In absolute values, not percentage. IIRC, Apple was a ≈200b dollars company back then. It’s a 2 trillion dollars company now.

No, as a percentage.

They’ve always been spending more than last year. It goes up every year.

What’s new, as the graph in the article shows, is that as a percentage they back to spending the level they used to before the iPhone.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#45

Post by CharlesW »

master_crab wrote: post #15

I don't think it's anything as sexy as some world-shattering AGI, etc. Remember they are doing a lot of building and research on things other companies already do: cellular modems, microled, etc. This is probably where a large portion of these costs go: the refinement of production ready devices and the manufacturing processes/plant needed is incredibly expensive.

> I don't think it's anything as sexy as some world-shattering AGI, etc.

AGI is a moonshot, and Apple doesn't talk about their in-development moonshots until very late in the product development cycle. There's evidence that ChatGPT lit a fire under their butt¹ as it did the rest of the tech industry, so I'd be surprised if whatever they're working to launch this year didn't have tendrils reaching years and decades into the future.

¹ https://www.macrumors.com/guide/apple-gpt/

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#46

Post by MBCook »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #30
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> name the thing of this caliber they did in the 2010s AirPods. It’s a category-defining product, and in pure Apple tradition, a refinement of an existing one.

AirPods are earbuds. They're nice earbuds, but it's hardly the next iPhone.

Why weren’t there tons of earbuds that looked like AirPods before the AirPods came out? Two independent things that weren’t linked with a wire that you could put in a charging case?

I seem to remember there was one other similar looking device at the time, I think from Samsung. But it wasn’t as small and got terrible battery life.

There was absolutely nothing like them at the time in the category.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#48

Post by CharlesW »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #30
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> name the thing of this caliber they did in the 2010s AirPods. It’s a category-defining product, and in pure Apple tradition, a refinement of an existing one.

AirPods are earbuds. They're nice earbuds, but it's hardly the next iPhone.

They literally were the next iPhone. Apple mainstreamed the wireless earbuds product category in 2017 and then proceeded to dominate it. (Note that Apple owns Beats as well.)

https://www.statista.com/chart/26791/most-popular-headphone-...

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#49

Post by mjamesaustin »

amanj41 wrote: post #32
jedberg wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> name the thing of this caliber they did in the 2010s. Well, you had to wait for the 2020s, but Vision Pro. It's an entirely new computer, meant to be your primary device. It's similar to how the Mac came out when PCs already existed, but were just different. Just wait 10 years until the market realizes it.

The Vision Pro is hardly differentiated from the top end Meta VR model. There are a few UX enhancements, and I think they'll take the lead in the space eventually. But I wouldn't say this is a big innovation in the VR space from what I've seen.

The iPhone was hardly different from other touch screen phones at the time, except for the UX enhancements. And it turns out good UX changes the world.

Pay attention to how people talk about the experience of using Vision Pro vs other headsets. The eye tracking interface is widely praised and described by third parties (not just Apple) as feeling like magic.

I haven't used it yet, but I can imagine what using a computer would be like if I didn't have to actually point my mouse anywhere and instead it could effectively read my mind about where I want to click. IMO this is the interface revolution that will become ubiquitous over the next 5-10 years, and Apple is once again leading the charge.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#50

Post by micromacrofoot »

jwells89 wrote: post #18
mustacheemperor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty much confirmed: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-22/what-i... >the company built its own large language model called Ajax and rolled out an internal chatbot dubbed “Apple GPT” to test out the functionality. The critical next step is determining if the technology is up to snuff with the competition and how Apple will actually apply it to its products. >Giannandrea is overseeing develop…

If this next-gen LLM-based Siri is built to take advantage of local documents/data with all processing happening on-device, I think it could be more useful than incumbent LLMs in some ways even if it’s technically not as smart simply because it has far more relevant context by default. It being local-first could also help assuage privacy concerns and make users less reluctant to use it.

I'd be happy if they used an LLM interpret the command so Siri could better understand what to do without specific wording or requiring multiple separate commands.
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