I think Tim Cook should be changed. Wasn't he the one who had software that made older iPhones run slower so that people would buy new ones, then publicly lost that lawsuit which confirms they did it in bad faith, and then stayed CEO. How is this possible?
Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
471–480 of 581 posts
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#472John Giannandrea (JG) was running the Google Assistant when I was there. That didn't go so well. (Pre-LLM assistants as a category have done badly - Alexa/Siri did _ok_ but presumably everyone working on them had higher hopes.) I remember being surprised when JG seemingly "failed up" to become head of Apple AI. It's been many years and it's hard to point to anything that's gone well in that category. Seems like there…
Plenty of examples. The problem isn't JG. It is Tim Cook. He is exceptionally poor at judging character. And I have been saying this for 10+ years. John Browett, CEO of Dixons. Anyone from UK have said WTF at the time. Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, the two together Apple has literally stopped expanding their Retail store despite having 10x as much customers. Rolled out many "changes" to Apple store when nearly ev…
> Promote Craig Federighi, after all these years I am still not convinced he is the right person for the job
Yeah I wonder about Federighi. He doesn't seem to catch much criticism from the Apple pundits—I assume because he's one of the few SVPs that seems like a real human in interviews and videos and not a stilted robot like the rest of them. But Apple's software, and macOS in particular, seems to be rotting from the inside out. Changes ship and everyone says "boy this is a step backwards, I hope they iterate quickly" and then it sits, almost entirely unchanged, for years on end. e.g. new Settings in macOS, Stage Manager on the iPad.
With how much the hardware team has been knocking it out of the park since the ARM transition it's really starting to feel like the software is the weak link. This rumoured massive redesign this year has me feeling very anxious.
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, I’d counter with Jobs picking Jony Ive. Ive made gorgeous, lustworthy art objects that sucked as computers. The nadirs for me were iPhone 6’s bendgate and the 2015 MBP. Damn the functionality, we’ll make these suckers so slim you can shave with them! No one was begging for a MBP so thin it had to have compromised keyboard switches. Also consider the mouse that couldn’t charge while you use it, and the tra…
Don’t forget the Touch Bars.
The real problem with the Touch Bar was that they never made an external keyboard with it. So I could never actually build it into my habits, since it was only actually available to me half the time.
(I'm demonstrably willing to spend money on fancy Apple external peripherals! I have the touchID keyboard, and think the convenience of it was worth the kinda silly price. I'd absolutely have wound up getting an external Touch Bar keyboard...)
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
that being said, Ive was important in asking why physical form factors should make sense in human terms. Big computers w/ a lot of ports make sense to comp sci/ee ppl in the lab but people in the real world have priorities more in line with Ive. Without Ive challenging the design, Apple wouldn't have even tried.
Who's responsible for designing the trash can Mac Pro? > “I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner, if you will,” one of Apple’s top executives reportedly said. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/4/15175994/apple-mac-pro-fai...
I kinda wonder how that design would play nowadays, after the Apple Silicon transition. They were stuck because of Intel's thermals, but their own chips seem to be a lot better in terms of performance/watt...
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterpoint - Google maps has been fine for me, my only annoyance being that iPhone often defaults to Apple Maps and I have to manually switch over. Nonetheless, your comment convinces me that I should try Apple Maps more seriously. Maybe I’m missing out.
I was a defender of Google Maps last week. Then I had to drive some roads I was unfamiliar with at the weekend to get to a familiar funeral. Google Maps gave me instructions to turn off a junction right at the turn off, resulting in me missing it. Worst still, it did this not once but twice. And the detour was via road works. Google Maps added a considerable amount of time onto what was already a 3 hour journey. Than…
I've had a similar experience as well. I had sort of hand waved it as being better due to tighter CarPlay integration (i.e. that there is usually, IME, higher-detail UX - which ostensibly leaves less room for interpretation).
> It will be a long time before I rely on Apple Maps for satnav again.
I assume you mean Google Maps :)
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, I’d counter with Jobs picking Jony Ive. Ive made gorgeous, lustworthy art objects that sucked as computers. The nadirs for me were iPhone 6’s bendgate and the 2015 MBP. Damn the functionality, we’ll make these suckers so slim you can shave with them! No one was begging for a MBP so thin it had to have compromised keyboard switches. Also consider the mouse that couldn’t charge while you use it, and the tra…
Iphone 6, 2015 MBP, thrashcan where all under Cook. To me this precisely shows Cook did not have Ive under control.
With all this talk about reining Ive under control, I can’t help but be reminded of that CollegeHumour skit implying Ive is a HAL9000-esq robot holding Tim Cook hostage[0]
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
It might be wrong but it's not braindead. The idea was to prevent non-techy users from using it plugged-in all the time, which would look stupid. They wanted to accentuate the wireless nature and easy connectivity of the mouse. Essentially a marketing decision. I disagree with this take but it's worth remembering that it's marketing that turned computing from a niche activity to what it is now (which, by the way, is…
This is ugly. User behavior modification as a product goal. The reverse of how you should build products. You need to start with "The user wants to do X." rather than "I want the user to do X." Who is Apple to dictate the "correct" way for me to use a mouse?
I don't know how much users "want" to have a cord dangling off the mouse and doing nothing.
If your starting premise is "the user wants to use the mouse and have a good experience", you can see how a designer can get from there to a feature that causes/encourages an unplug. Even if you disagree, they're not going backwards.
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, what's the advantage here? People are going to unplug the mouse anyway when it doesn't need charging because it feels much more natural. _Forcing_ people to stop using the mouse to charge is a braindead decision
It might be wrong but it's not braindead. The idea was to prevent non-techy users from using it plugged-in all the time, which would look stupid. They wanted to accentuate the wireless nature and easy connectivity of the mouse. Essentially a marketing decision. I disagree with this take but it's worth remembering that it's marketing that turned computing from a niche activity to what it is now (which, by the way, is…
No, it's utility that turned computing from a niche activity to what it's now. Apple is a fashion statement and it's okay for them to market to that effect, but don't credit the growth of computing to Apple's aesthetic but oft-ill-designed stuff.
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#479My Google Maps experience has gone downhill over the past two years. It has gotten bad enough that I started using Apple Maps. I was blown away by the difference, not just from how far they have come along since launch, but that how the navigation gives directions in a way that matters to me while I am driving. I don't know why Siri has had a bad user experience, but if there is one company that can do a better job a…
I find Apple Maps to be a much more pleasant app to use, though that's at least partially down to it being permitted to do things Google aren't on iOS (nav on the lock screen, syncing with the Watch etc.)
In my experience it also has more accurate lane guidance and, as you say, better delivery of audible driving directions ("go through these lights then, at the roundabout, take the first exit"). Google Maps also has an annoying habit of choosing the quickest route at all costs which, in certain parts of the country, involves going miles down single-track country lanes (which legally have a speed limit of 60 but more than 30 would put you through a hedge or into an oncoming tractor) when a dual carriageway A-road would be only 2-3 minutes slower. I can't say Apple Maps doesn't do this, but anecdotally it seems to do it less.
However the business info is still way behind Google, particularly regarding things like temporary closures.
Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
#480My Google Maps experience has gone downhill over the past two years. It has gotten bad enough that I started using Apple Maps. I was blown away by the difference, not just from how far they have come along since launch, but that how the navigation gives directions in a way that matters to me while I am driving. I don't know why Siri has had a bad user experience, but if there is one company that can do a better job a…
I think Siri has had a bad user experience because it hasn't been a priority for the company, at least since launching it the day before Steve Jobs died.
It has been more than a decade of them kicking the can down the road, so I don't expect Apple to provide a good user experience with Siri any time soon.