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This is what happens when you get pressure to please shareholders instead of customers. Historically, Apple has been good about revealing and delivering at the same time. But caught with their pants down during the AI hype, they fell into the trap so many other tech companies do. (Tesla is the undisputed heavyweight champ here)
Now that they’ve been burned by all this, here’s hoping they learn from it and return to form.
Historically, Apple has been good about revealing and delivering at the same time.
I'm not so sure about that. MobileMe, iTunes Ping, Vision Pro, and AirPower (their wireless charging pad) come to mind.
"You're holding it wrong"
All of these things except the AirPad were released at about the same time they were announced. That’s what I was getting at.
While they did get released when they said, they didn't get released in the state that was stated/indicated though.
Apple has had so many misses recently. The current AI stuff, Vision Pro and maybe the 16e (too early to tell) form stuff that has released. But also this Siri AI, Air Power wireless charging pad, Apple Car project.
The Apple Watch is probably the last hit they had (the M series chips are good but not really new products, but maybe that’s me being overly harsh)
The whole industry is a shit show right now with the "AI race"
I don't want to be a software developer anymore because it's become a permanent deathmarch toward the next buzzword.
Marketing over promising and making it developments problem. A tale as old as time.
they should embrace it and be the anti AI tech giant
Hell, if they genuinely do that, I might even consider switching sides.
does anyone buy a product for AI or Assistant features?
Some people bought scam pins/portable assistant that is actually a butchered phone thing, so, yeah.
Tech bros and "influencers" don't count. We're talking about real people. All of those devices failed because no one other than those seeking to ride the bleeding edge of technology actually are interested. The most anyone want Siri or Google Assistant to do is set alarms, set appointments, and pick-up/hang-up the phone when you're on speaker. Sometimes it's nice to ask it to do a search but the original versions of these did that fine until they started "improving" them with "AI".
Siri is so useless. All these years and I use her to basically set timers and reminders.
Sure, here's a station just for you.
SIRI CANCEL
I’ve added limes to the grocery list
A) No executives anywhere are taking personal accountability for anything
B) I upgraded from the 12 to the 16 for Apple Intelligence and I have yet to see it offer value. A substantial portion of hey Siri voice requests return with “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” even when using the voice transcription feature gets the words right
I don't fucking want AI in my phone, so take it out and be done with it.
This whole thing is a textbook example of how bad shady marketing today and can really cause you a lot of pain tomorrow. If Apple had not been so quick to let PR write checks their ass was not ready to cash the conversation around Siri would still just be the casual jokes about it sucking, and not more serious public blackeyes.
Apple Intelligence hasn't been much better than old Siri on unsupported devices.
For a third of the time, she has a hard time recognizing the trigger word the first time (usually "Siri" rather than "Hey Siri"), and not perform my commands when all I want her to do is act as a voice-activated light switch.
What exactly is the trillion dollar company struggling with here?
Honestly I don’t really want a smart context-aware Siri, I just want something I can give simple, straightforward voice commands to, and get predictable, reliable results.
How is this bad news? Dire situation?? They are not where they want to be with this “feature” so they delay it. Sounds like a smart move. Probably second best option to just dropping it
Biggest issue is they had a huge marketing campaign based on all these things Apple Intelligence could do, with dates saying when it will come and that you needed to buy the newest iPhone for them to happen. Those dates have come and gone and still no signs of it. If the next iPhone comes out and they still haven't released it, they risk a huge lawsuit of mis-advertising. It doesn't matter whether users use the feature or not, it was advertised, and very directly.
Normally, Apple is cautious/careful how they phrase things about their devices so they could back away if something doesn't go right or doesn't do what was suggested/implied. But they can't this time.
There, now Siri can see your screen. Why can’t Apple accomplish this? Why are megacorps so inept?
Spend 5 minutes creating a bash script
Spend 5 billion dollars on an overly complicated summarizer
Why the fuck would I wanna write bash
Yeah let's keep it POSIX
This is the most defensible point. Designing APIs to determine what content on your screen is ok to send to a third party (Apple offers ChatGPT integration) is a decent amount of work.
Terrible voice assistant. I preferred Google assistant, but even that is becoming slow.
They neutered Google Assistant because it was costing too much money. Now it's ass.
They're likely also winding down development in favour of their new LLM, which certainly isn't going to help matters.
Ok… this is what it is I suppose, every business wants to be on the AI train, but, this seems like an opportunity to make the next iPhone, or at least a version of it, without AI as a selling point.
I’d be very happy indeed to have an option that was entirely devoid of, and incompatible with, any form of AI and I know I’m not alone in that. Sell it as prioritizing privacy or respecting consumers desire to opt out, whatever the marketing folks come up with. But that would be my next phone in a heartbeat.
these features to malfunction up to a third of the time
That's "ai" for you lol
AI isn’t the answer. Plain and simple.
LLMs aren't the answer. *
LLMs are the question, "no" is the answer.
"Taking personal accountablility", but not a paycheck.
I don't want that on my phone. I just want a dumb program that sets alerts and schedules, I don't want it interpreting information and I doubt most people really need that function on a phone.
Anyone who isn't completely high from huffing AI brainfarts saw this coming.
AI is overrated in almost every implementation that isn’t scientific research. The buzzword stock hype machine fake growth cycles are going to kill the tech industry.
A while ago I set up a Siri shortcut that opens ChatGPT in voice mode. Now I can just say “hey siri, ask the demon” and in a moment start talking to ChatGPT with no further commands and zero buttons pressed throughout. It answers in voice mode.
This is pretty useful for things like doing units conversions while my hands are sticky during cooking, or just doing simple information lookups while my hands are busy. I use ChatGPT responsibly, never trusting it for things that aren’t one-dimensional information retrievals and summarization. It works great for me for like 50-60% of the things I used to Google. Internet search is, once again, just for finding websites, like it should be.
What’s my point? We don’t need Siri Apple Intelligence to ship. There’s already something better. And it runs on my iPhone 14, which isn’t even compatible with Apple Flatulence.
I’ve never used Apple intelligence and Siri alone has done a fine job for unit conversions, info lookups, and most any other things. No need to fire up chat GPT for those basic uses
