For all the folks lamenting Siri: that was likely just the prototype. I'd bet good money that Apple is working on something far better than a personal assistant for the home—that's just how they got their feet wet while staying competitive. Siri is going to be a robot in your home one day—not just a bubble on the credenza. In order for that to happen, their best talent needs to be focused on that.
John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
141–150 of 244 posts
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#142Lots of comments about improving Siri here. This is interesting to me for several reasons I won't address, but I will ask this: Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything? From a purely functional standpoint, they seem super awkward to me. I like buttons that click and reassure me of every input. I like to feel confident my actions won't be misinterpreted. I like that no one else near me will get weirded…
Voice commands are useful if you are having conversation with friends and a question comes up that group wants an answer to. I find it more social to ask a phone with a voice command than to open the phone, type a query into google, and search for an answer.
Of course Siri defaults to an incorrect google search on nearly every question, so this often doesn't work in practice...
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#143It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…
I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.
Sales have already tapered off and Apple stock fell off a cliff when they announced their most recent production numbers.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. How? The improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year, while the prices are going up. The company recently stopped reporting iPhone sales numbers. > Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category. Are they, though? Aren't Mac sales insignificant compared to iPhone sa…
> improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year [citation needed] > Haven't the latest Macbooks suffered from significant feature regressions? No.
So dongle mania and crap keyboards aren't an issue for you?
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#145Lots of comments about improving Siri here. This is interesting to me for several reasons I won't address, but I will ask this: Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything? From a purely functional standpoint, they seem super awkward to me. I like buttons that click and reassure me of every input. I like to feel confident my actions won't be misinterpreted. I like that no one else near me will get weirded…
Have you tried Google assistant? I find it to be much more useful than Siri.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shifts in computing paradigms are incredibly rare. The smartphone is unlikely to be replaced for a long time to come. There will be plenty of head fakes along the way no doubt (smart speakers and voice bots come to mind), but the smartphone is simply too good and has too much utility to be easily challenged. And you also have to make a bet that Apple won't come to dominate that area as well (even if they aren't first…
> Shifts in computing paradigms are incredibly rare. They've only happened every decade so far: 1960 (IC), 1970 (DARPA), 1980 (PC), 1990 (GUI), 2000 (Internet), 2010 (smartphone).
Point of order: the last 3 transitions have been layering versus actual shifts.
Text-based computing -> GUIs was a shift. Broadly speaking, there is no market today for consumer-facing computers where text is the only input capability.
The most profitable company in the PC era also has the most profitable PC unit today. The Internet runs on top of the GUI layer. The smartphone is (in much of the world) an "also" not an "instead."
(One could argue that the original MSFT goal of being on every desktop was centered on work. By that metric, most smartphone usage falls into a separate category of consumer computing that largely is distinct from business computing, where desktops & laptops still rule.)
A grandparent(-ish) post compares the iPhone to the Google Home. Much like the iPhone did not replace my laptop (which did not replace the server in the datacenter), voice-driven devices will not replace mobile phones. All Excel (ahem) at different use cases.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#147Lots of comments about improving Siri here. This is interesting to me for several reasons I won't address, but I will ask this: Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything? From a purely functional standpoint, they seem super awkward to me. I like buttons that click and reassure me of every input. I like to feel confident my actions won't be misinterpreted. I like that no one else near me will get weirded…
20% of Google searches are made by voice. https://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queri...
That number is probably a little outdated now. But it’s definitely not targeting a niche audience.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#148Lots of comments about improving Siri here. This is interesting to me for several reasons I won't address, but I will ask this: Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything? From a purely functional standpoint, they seem super awkward to me. I like buttons that click and reassure me of every input. I like to feel confident my actions won't be misinterpreted. I like that no one else near me will get weirded…
There are some use-cases where voice is a better interaction method. Driving alone in a car is one -- so you can keep both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road.
Another one is in the kitchen. My hands are often full/busy/messy when I'm cooking -- which is a pain when I need to set a timer on my phone. Being able to say "Alexa - set a timer for 12 minutes" is great. The novelty of the Echo has faded almost completely beyond Timers, spotify and weather. Beyond that -- it's a novelty. But I do love those timers.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
> improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year [citation needed] > Haven't the latest Macbooks suffered from significant feature regressions? No.
So dongle mania and crap keyboards aren't an issue for you?
Crap keyboards are an issue (they may have fixed them, but I think we need another ~9 mnoths to really say that for sure), but I really don't get the complaints about dongles.
Well, let me rephrase that: sure, I get that dongles are annoying, and there are capital-I Issues with USB-C that need to be worked out. But the alternative to dongles is "never change hardware connectors." Unless you make the leap to USB-C by replacing every single peripheral and cable you own, you will probably need an adapter. And you may say that now is not the right time, and you might be right, but again: unless the entire market shifts virtually overnight, there is going to be a period where using a new connector is annoying, and is going to require dongles.
tl;dr: I'm happy to be a homesteader in Dongletown, baby.
Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
#150Lots of comments about improving Siri here. This is interesting to me for several reasons I won't address, but I will ask this: Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything? From a purely functional standpoint, they seem super awkward to me. I like buttons that click and reassure me of every input. I like to feel confident my actions won't be misinterpreted. I like that no one else near me will get weirded…
> Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything?
Siri plus shortcuts have made many mundane tasks easier. When I get in my car to come home from work I say "Hey Siri, heading home." That causes my phone to text my wife my arrival time and starts the last podcast I had playing.
It's a simple thing, but is so much easier than texting and then thumbing through the podcast player to start where I left off. I have others like logging my water intake or weight, but it was really adding shortcuts to Siri that made these possible.
Playing music or TV shows is also much easier/nicer. "Hey Google, play The Office on Netflix".
Timers. Another simple thing that is so much easier when you can use your voice when cooking.