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The iPhone's Last Stand?

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Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#81

Post by nl »

QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #7

i was under the impression that the 2024 apple intelligence rollout was something of a victory: Apple realized that the majority of people don't actually want this stuff forced on them at the os level, and the ai maximalists all used apple anyways via clawbot (including purchasing an additional apple device, the mini!) because of apples non-ai-specific commitment to phone computer interop. Certainly the copilot butto…

Whether or not consumers wanted it, Apple failed to deliver. And that wasn't because they were listening or anything - they just couldn't deliver.

Apple doesn't leak much but there has been coverage of this:

https://spyglass.org/apple-ai-fail/ (April 2025)

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-fumbled-siris-... (paywalled)

https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/06/07/one-fateful-meeti... (2 days ago)

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#82

Post by jazzypants »

mg wrote: post #25

you will be surrounded by an ecosystem of devices, none of which stand alone, but are more like portals to interact with your agents I would be really happy with my phone + headphones as the device I use most. But only if I could use Gemini (or ChatGPT or Grok or any other chat agent) in voice mode and say "SSH into my GitHub Codespace soandso and implement feature soandso.". And it replies "Did it. I told copilot (o…

> Yes, it finished. It changed chart.py and styles.css. Do you want me to tell you what specific changes it made to the files?"

A verbal diff sounds practically useless. Does it first read out the entire left-hand base, and then read out the entire right-hand target? Does it say loudly "REMOVING ... ADDING ... "? How would it read out something like Struct->Field? This seems lower fidelity than a visual confirmation, and I just don't think that voice commands make sense with this kind of work.

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#83

Post by matwood »

derwiki wrote: post #72
wett wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s kind of a meme https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/my_brother_in_Christ

I heard it with the voice of Macho Man Randy Savage

That's the only way I hear it. I wonder if that gives away our age?

When I was a teenager WWF came to my town. The day before the event a bunch of the wrestlers randomly showed up to my local gym to get a workout in. None of the guys, and especially Macho Man ever broke character the entire workout. They were super nice and after a bit of handshakes with us there we all just went back to our workouts.

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#84

Post by thraway3837 »

Not sure why the article is titled the way it is. Ben’s take on Siri AI being just good enough for the vast majority of consumers makes sense. The iPhone is the most consumer facing product because it’s a consumption platform. Some folks use it to create stuff, but most people use it to consume media or interact with another human.

iPadOS also did not receive any product specific updates because I think Apple understands that device well: it’s also a consumption device with a bit more productivity capability. They know they can ship a full macOS on iPad, as witnessed by the lower performance A18 chip in the Neo running the full OS, but what’s the point? Using a desktop UI with a touch interface is terrible. So you’d need a mouse and keyboard. By the time you get that accessory, you’ve already exceeded the cost of a Neo or MacBook Air. There’s also no size, weight or space difference between a fully accessorized iPad and MacBook Neo, Air or 14” Pro.

I think Apple will be fine regardless of whether this new Siri AI stuff actually works well or not. I think deep down they don’t really care because they don’t have to. All of their devices are perfect clients that can interact perfectly fine with cloud inference. And their devices are such a joy to use. That’s what Apple is good at.

Now the confusing part is the new Microsoft hardware project. Is Solara a laptop? Tablet? 2-in-1? Phone? They already have a great hardware run with Surface, so I wonder if this new project is a more powerful local inference push?

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#85

Post by debugnik »

imglorp wrote: post #23
wiseowise wrote: post #2

iPhone's last stand? More like Microsoft's last stand. Nobody wants their garbage hardware and software outside of enterprise shmucks more interested in filling their pockets with fat contract money than delivering value. > The reason is obvious when you think about it: enterprises are paying for their employees’ time, so of course they are willing to pay for tools that make those employees more productive Is that wh…

I think Microsoft does have a point here: hosted services and thin clients are going to make money. (1) Their main focus is selling services, selling you, selling your data, and showing you ads. Children are being raised to think that asking chat to add two numbers is normal; they will enter the workplace in this state. Everything for MS is a service: this is going to work for them. And (2) because those hosted servi…

I still can't get over people calling ChatGPT "chat" instead of it referring to a stream chat.

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#86

Post by mg »

jazzypants wrote: post #82
mg wrote: post #25

you will be surrounded by an ecosystem of devices, none of which stand alone, but are more like portals to interact with your agents I would be really happy with my phone + headphones as the device I use most. But only if I could use Gemini (or ChatGPT or Grok or any other chat agent) in voice mode and say "SSH into my GitHub Codespace soandso and implement feature soandso.". And it replies "Did it. I told copilot (o…

> Yes, it finished. It changed chart.py and styles.css. Do you want me to tell you what specific changes it made to the files?" A verbal diff sounds practically useless. Does it first read out the entire left-hand base, and then read out the entire right-hand target? Does it say loudly "REMOVING ... ADDING ... "? How would it read out something like Struct->Field? This seems lower fidelity than a visual confirmation,…

It would tell me about the changes like a human would.

"It changed the plot function so it takes another parameter called linewidth. It also added an input field in the stylecontrols section where the user can ...".

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#87

Post by analogpixel »

grvdrm wrote: post #73
alsetmusic wrote: post #61

I've valued Ben Thompson's opinions less over time. He was super into goggle-like devices and remote meetings. I own Apple Vision Pro. It's a technical achievement, but not compelling beyond immersive video (too bad). He harps on Dems trying to clean up monopolies (Lina Khan during Biden, who had good principles but didn't get much done; probably blame her boss) and is quiet through republican bullshit (T2). He seems…

I recently canceled my Stratechery Plus subscription. Don’t miss it to be honest - once a week free is plenty.

I canceled mine; I thought it would be a good way to stay updated on tech news without having to read other news, but then they over-extended the service to a bunch of other things instead of just focusing on the one news letter.

I don't care about a twice a week podcast about the NBA and national parks, or the other 5? podcasts about random stuff.

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#89

Post by throw310822 »

deltarholamda wrote: post #78

After the blowout success of the Macbook Neo, I'd think the bet would be on a cheap iPhone. Maybe not, as so many people finance their expensive phone through their carrier, but I suspect a $300 iPhone would eat the mid-range Android market.

Not sure about this- Windows laptops have been a disaster for a decade- consumers have basically no clue of what they're buying and how it will work- will it be a piece of cheap, creaky plastic; will the basics actually work (e.g. audio in and out); will the speed be acceptable, will its fans constantly sound like a jet taking off, etc. A well made cheap laptop with guaranteed quality is a godsend.

The case of smartphones is completely different: Android is actually a good OS and there's plenty of excellent devices and high quality brands in the mid range.

Re: The iPhone's Last Stand?

#90

Post by bushwart »

thunky wrote: post #47
cultofmetatron wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What a callous view of people. Who's your benchmark? TikTok addicted kids? brother, we are all walking around with a supercomputer in our pocket thats capable of accessing the sum total of human knowledge and yet we're still stuck with people who think the earth is flat.

> brother, Why am seeing "brother" a lot recently?

It enters your vocabulary three weeks into growing a handlebar mustache.
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