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John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

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Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#201

Post by wpietri »

Despegar wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #16

It'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.

If you two would actually like to bet, I'm happy to shepherd that bet through the process here: http://longbets.org/

We've been going 16 years at this point, and we have bets out to 2150: http://longbets.org/11/

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#202

Post by pier25 »

rglover wrote: post #141

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.

that's just how they got their feet wet while staying competitive

Siri is nowhere near the competition.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#203

Post by huehehue »

matwood wrote: post #188
pmart123 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am skeptical when technologists say voice assisted systems will become the dominant interface at least in countries with a high rate of literacy. I just look at TV vs radio, texting versus calling, or audio books versus written content. I believe most studies indicate that people are better at visual comprehension versus auditory: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140312-audi... I know scientists lov…

I agree with your skepticism about voice becoming generally dominant, but it’s already very useful. It may also become the dominant form of usage for some systems.

It's also hard to imagine sound as a dominant interface because all we have are mediocre examples. We have to work within clunky command boundaries, rephrase commands, be in a quiet environment, not have an accent, etc.

I'm glad we're making progress, but I'll be a skeptic until I can give voice requests as naturally as I'd give them to a human. IMO there's no limit from there.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#204

Post by scott_s »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #192
scott_s wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say "Wake me up at 7" and "Turn off my alarm" every work night and work morning. If I'm ever timing something (like how long to let my French press steep), I say "Set a timer for x minutes."

You can set an alarm once for M-F, etc.

I prefer to do it every night before going to bed. I like to feel like I'm choosing to get up at that time, as opposed to being under a pre-ordained schedule. (Which, of course, it is, but perception matters.)

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#205

Post by GeekyBear »

skizm wrote: post #122

Lots 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…

I think you're more likely to use a smart assistant as their ability to understand and respond correctly improves.

Hiring away Google's head of AI seems to have made a material difference in how well Siri performs in an annual head to head comparison of how well various smart speakers responded to 800 sample requests.

>Google Home continued its outperformance, answering 86% correctly and understanding all 800 questions. The HomePod correctly answered 75% and only misunderstood 3, the Echo correctly answered 73% and misunderstood 8 questions, and Cortana correctly answered 63% and misunderstood just 5 questions.

>Note that nearly every misunderstood question involved a proper noun, often the name of a local town or restaurant.

https://loupventures.com/annual-smart-speaker-iq-test/

A 22% increase in correct responses over last year's performance.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#206

Post by randycupertino »

skizm wrote: post #122

Lots 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?

I was recently getting a dental procedure done and the Periodontist kept using Alexa while he was treating me. "Alexa, play the Eagles!" "Alexa, skip this song!" He seemed super impressed like he was really excited to show it off... I thought it was annoying. I think voice command stuff is lame. I have siri permanently disabled on my iphone and apple watch.

I've heard some people like using siri with the apple watch, but I never got into it- I would always accidentally set it off when I was weightlifting.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#207

Post by ams6110 »

roganartu wrote: post #154
yaseenk wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find this absolutely fascinating when I compare it to my personal experience. It begs the question: how frequently does the average person Google something compared to power users? I consider myself to have above average googling skills, and I'm a developer so there's obviously a lot of documentation searching regularly, but even excluding all of that I surely perform a good 10-20 non-programming searches a day and…

I rarely use google outside of work. At home, I have a few regular sites I keep up with, I know the URLs and I just type them in.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#208

Post by ams6110 »

gregorymfoster wrote: post #129
skizm wrote: post #122

Lots 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…

Being able to hold up my watch and say “set a timer for 30 minutes” is significantly better than fumbling through menus.

In the kitchen, I use a real mechanical timer. Twist, set, done.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#209

Post by ronilan »

zjaffee wrote: post #158
whatusername wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 com…

That's the thing though, given how cheap they an echo dot is, especially during promotions, there's very little reason not to get one. They're the perfect small gift. Virtually every other hot gadget from the last decade has been far more expensive at this stage to the point where it slowed down the adoption rate (smartwatches, certain cameras), or made it absolutely never go anywhere near what the hype train lead us…

> given how cheap the echo dot is ... they’re the perfect small gift.

At the Real Canadian Superstore you get a gift when you spend over $300. It changes weekly. Sometimes it’s a box of cereals or chocolates. Sometimes it’s houseware, a plant or a lawn chair. At thanksgiving it’s a frozen turkey. That one time it was 2kg of bacon. Last week it was an Echo Dot.

Based on popularity within the family, and compared to the alternatives, it’s far from being the perfect gift. That said, it does seem to be cheap.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#210

Post by ams6110 »

skizm wrote: post #122

Lots 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…

I dislike voice commands.

I have tried using speech-to-text for text messages and emails, and I usually spend more time correcting the mistakes than it saves.

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