jclardy

Definitely won’t be iPhone 4G. Enough “normal” people have already told me about the iPhone “4G” when the iPhone 4 came out.

Also they would have 4, 4S, 4G which would make no sense to most people, especially with the AT&T 4S having “4G” as well.

Two things.

1. If people don’t use it, it will not be improved. Apple/Samsung can see common questions that people ask that don’t get answered or are responded incorrectly. They can then improve the server side and add more functionality, which is the main issue with Siri right now. The problem is after asking a few questions and not getting what you want most people will stop using it as it is wasting their time. The key is to actually be able to respond to everything, which we are a ways out from at the moment.

2. I don’t see why people wouldn’t talk to their phone…it is a phone after all and one of its intend uses is voice. With Siri you can just raise the phone to your ear so if you are walking down the street it is actually quite discreet, unless you are paranoid that people listen and care about your phone conversations (They don’t.) Then there is also plenty of time when I am not around other people and have no issue using it when I have a simple task (calendar, reminders, alarms, timers, etc.)

You won’t see people using it in a coffee shop or a library, because they are intended to be quiet places and everything you do with Siri can be replicated quietly using the screen. The point is to be able to input data when talking is not taboo and it can get something done faster than inputting it by hand (Like adding a calendar entry – you can set the title, date, time and location all with one sentence, versus entering 4 fields of data.)

The advantage is that it doesn’t interrupt your thought process – when unlocking your phone you will be inundated with other inputs – emails, tweets, texts, reminders. Using Siri you can skip all that and just get done what you need to do and not have to bother with those at the moment.

Agreed. Both have a long way to go, but I use Siri for simple stuff and it works out. Checking the weather for later today without looking at the screen, creating reminders, setting alarms/timers and creating calendar appointments are all faster than going into my phone and typing them out by hand.

But for other stuff you either end up with a Wolfram result which is OK…or just a web search.

What would be nice is if there could be third party functionality added on to both of these. Sort of like plug-ins that can handle specific requests. For example, looking up movie showtimes at a theater near you (Which for whatever reason Siri can’t do.) Of course that depends on how much processing is done server side…I know the voice is transcribed into text by the server, but does it also determine the intent? Or does it just return a text string that the phone processes locally. Hopefully it is the latter as that will allow easier modification.

The Air Preview thing was quite annoying. I am usually using a PHP framework and running MAMP on my local machine, I was hoping to be able to tunnel it through AirPreview rather than opening ports on my mac.

Also I was expecting iCloud sync to work across iPad/mac, but apparently not. Also would be nice to have the database editor on the iPad.

One other thing, I couldn’t find a way to upload files to the server in Diet Coda, other than creating new text files. It would be nice to be able to create images on the iPad (In another app) then upload them to the server, maybe that will come in the future.

It would be, but I see it as more of a third input to compliment keyboard and mouse/trackpad.

The gestures seem to be made in the air above the device, so the range would be less than a foot in front of your monitor so I don’t think accidental input would be a huge issue.

I have to agree, the line then becomes quite arbitrary. I’m sure physical newspapers today use the internet to transfer photos and articles, but that is OK since it is printed? People’s digital photos are uploaded to shutterfly, then printed copies are sent back. Can he look at those? Someone bought their music through iTunes but it is now stored on their computer…can he listen to that?

I feel it is fine if a person is showing you something as long as they are not showing it to you at your request. If someone obtained something from an internet service (Streaming music, photos, etc.) he should be able to see/hear it, as long as it doesn’t cause him to request another song, which would be requesting someone else to use the internet.

Wolfram is a “poorer service”? It is completely different.

Searching Google for the best smartphone ever means that you have to aggregate the results of all the links your self, Wolfram attempts to do the aggregation for you and give you a decent response. In this case not really the best, but in many other cases it works quite well.

But Siri is not an answer engine (like Wolfram Alpha) or even a search engine.

It is a “personal assistant”. That means that Apple controls what it does and does not do, and why many queries end up with “would you like me to search the web for …” Its primary purpose is to let you manage your phone hands free, checking your schedule, reading texts, sending emails, setting reminders and alarms. Answering random questions was just Apple’s way of making Siri seem “more human”, and these responses were created by Apple for that purpose.

If you intend to search for something you just prepend your question with “search for …”

The thing is the red minus actually impedes phone performance. It acts the same as “force quit” on a mac, which means that every time you open the app it restarts from square one. So I don’t think Apple will ever implement a “clear all” button.

Most people have certain apps they use often. Facebook, Twitter, notes, Instagram…whatever. First time you open them they have to load resources off the disk (Which is fast because of flash memory…but RAM is faster.) If the user doesn’t force quit the system will keep the app active in unused RAM. That means you tap its icon and it is open instantly.

So basically hitting the red minuses wastes time both in pressing the buttons and in app launch times.

But I can understand some peoples urge to keep the tray empty. Maybe Apple could implement a time limit…so if you don’t use an app after an hour or so it is automatically removed from the tray. That way when you put your phone away it will be clear of apps you haven’t used in a while, but when you are actually switching between apps then they will continue to stay active…

Why do you think that?

This is only shown when the user intends on switching apps…which means the current app is disabled unless you tap on it again.

I like this a lot. You might as well use a second row as the scrolled up app is unusable in this state.

My only suggestion is to use grayed out icons for the the settings page. If all radios are off you wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at it as white doesn’t typically designate an “off” state.

Flash is terrible on mobile. I go to a site on my Blackberry Playbook that has a YouTube video embedded. I press play, and now I have to tap a tiny 5 pixel tall button to go to fullscreen mode. And the YouTube player is one of the better ones. At my local news website I can’t even fullscreen the video when using flash, even on the desktop.

On my iPad the same video is loaded with the HTML5 video player. I click the standard play button. I have the standard size fullscreen button. Simple and easy to use.

The ultimate problem with Flash is that people expect it to work on Mobile out of the box. It “works” but when flash video players and other content were designed they were made with a mouse and keyboard in mind. You have to design differently when you are looking at both a super accurate click of a mouse cursor versus the comparatively inaccurate finger touch.

So does Google give you an option to use Foursquare or Facebook location on built in maps? Or only Latitude.

If only there were more options…

Shows printed tax return – “You know I’m not using photoshop”

I think the problem is that Android device manufacturers are starting to hit a wall. You can continue doubling cores, doubling RAM, increasing pixel density, increasing screen size, improving the camera, and changing the body but in the end the differences year to year will become marginal.

There hasn’t really been any “true” hardware innovation in quite a while. The real innovation will happen in software, but Android OEMs don’t control that, and that is their problem. So basically they are left with no way to really get an edge on a competitor, unless they resort to skinning, which most users don’t want as they typically end up worse than the default user experience.

So I guess my point is that the only companies that will really be amazing us with anything new will be Apple/Google/Microsoft, as they are the ones that control the software, the true, day to day experience of all smart phones.

Yeah, this really makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

On a physical keyboard you have arrow keys, but most people use a mouse/trackpad for text selection. On an iPad your keyboard can also double as a virtual trackpad simultaneously.

The main problem would be the fact that you would have to be shown how to do this as there aren’t any visual cues. But it would mainly be for “power” users who do a bit more typing on their iPads.

I think it will be interesting, but I don’t think it will be year-long interesting. I mean come on, this is the internet. Trends only last for a month at most.

I am more interested in what happens when it is over. Since the internet is constantly changing, I imagine “reconnecting” could be a strange experience. And maybe he won’t even want to…

Yes, but the subscription is 2 years, so you would have to buy 2 years of XBL to equate.

The difference is you aren’t paying up front. Might be nice for next gen consoles in the beginning, as when buying new they are around $400. With current gen ones it doesn’t really make sense as their prices are continuously dropping, and will be even lower by the holiday season.

It came out overseas a week earlier than US.

On iOS you just double tap space bar to insert a period and type a space.

But equivalent Windows hardware is similarly priced, and includes a W7 license.