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"Insanely good ideas"? With the months of nonstop and over-the-top hype of "Apple Intelligence" these all seem underwhelming. Even in the idealized world of d
by panarky 2y ago
"Insanely good ideas"?
With the months of nonstop and over-the-top hype of "Apple Intelligence" these all seem underwhelming.
Even in the idealized world of demoware there's no killer feature, not to mention that none of it is even available to real customers yet.
I was expecting something only Apple could do with their vast ecosystem of IP and partnerships, the must-have cool new thing that would stimulate a leap in demand for iPhone.
It's hard to see how any of this is enough to trigger a new upgrade cycle instead of just waiting until battery life goes to shit or the screen cracks so you have to upgrade.
- teaearlgraycold 2y agoSemantic search was always going to be the killer feature of this AI boom. But it’s just a cherry on top of existing software and requires training users to expand what they think is possible.
- wwweston 2y agoAs far as I can tell, AI is one of several features that have actively made search worse. There are a handful of novel things it does well enough, but I'd rather engage those in their own LLM sandbox than have the facilities formerly available in a searchbox replaced with a guessbox.
- teaearlgraycold 2y agoWhat kind of search has it made worse? I’m not talking about Google search. I’m talking about searching your personal collection of emails or photos or text messages.
- jimbokun 2y agoI would guess is you're probably in the minority with that opinion.
- swyx 2y ago1) i am as ready to shit on apple and siri as the next guy, but imo the HN cynicism is overbearing here. apple isnt building to impress internet neckbeards like us. they are building for the normies. features they understand intuitively and cannot fuck up. maybe wait til it gets in the normies hands to judge. ~none of us here know what its like to work on a hardware/software platform for >1 billion? people. 2) i actually do think dedicated visual intelligence button IS a killer feature. suddenly phone is ai's view into the world. yes probably v1 today will disappoint. but 5 years from now the kids will laugh when we say we had to take photos and upload them to an app back in our day. or manually enter in any information from the real world into our calendars and emails and texts.
- tsunamifury 2y agoHighly doubt normies give a crap about any of this.
- consteval 2y agoWhat? How could you possibly say that? They can take a picture of something and then auto make a note, or a reminder, or an email, or find out what it is. Normies struggle with the nuance of devices. They understand what they want, they don't understand steps, like start here then do this, then go here and copy this, then go there. This SKIPS all the steps. This is huge for them, but (probably) just mildly convenient for others.
- hobermallow 2y ago>find out what it is Google Googles did this 13 years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Goggles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Goggles It remains interesting to me how much we have been able to do, already, with technology. But discoverability, walled gardens, and <hand waving>marketing/positioning/hype</hand waving> have obscured awareness/adoption.
- tsunamifury 2y agoThis is really really old tech that normies definitely do not care about.
- afavour 2y ago> With the months of nonstop and over-the-top hype of "Apple Intelligence" these all seem underwhelming. None of that was coming from Apple, though. I don't think they can be held responsible for hype that gets put on them. IMO these are all solid moves into AI integration without getting carried away by hype and doing things that will have very middling results.
- DidYaWipe 2y agoTrue. All the whining was coming from lazy "industry observers" who never mustered up an example of what, exactly, they expected Apple to be doing with "AI."
- refulgentis 2y agoYeah all of that annoying whining was from them. No one other than "lazy" ""industry observers"" were expecting "so-called AI" stuff from Apple.
- refulgentis 2y agoWe just watched an Apple event where they discuss Apple Intelligence. My understanding is people knew Apple Intelligence existed before this event. Is it accurate to say Apple wasn't involved at all in touting it? All external parties? Sounds wrong to my ear
- falcolas 2y agoIt was brought up in their software yearly event - WWDC. It was actually a pretty big part of that keynote, even as it was light on details.
- swyx 2y agoidk if its that light on details tbh: - https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-talaria-apples-new-mlops-superweapon-4066/ https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-talaria-apples-... - https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-apple-intelligence/ https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-apple-intellige...
- ricardobeat 2y agoI think you're seriously underestimating the impact of actually-useful and reliable AI features at your fingertips. This is what everyone imagined computers would be, since I don't know... the 80s?
- manquer 2y agoNice to have sure, enough to consider spending upwards of $1000 on upgrade? don’t think so.
- acdha 2y agoSure, but this isn’t one of those AI startups like Humane where you’re expected to drop $800 on a brand new thing. Most people aren’t buying the top end models and they probably aren’t paying full price due to promos, trade-ins, etc. That means Apple has a much simpler problem: they don’t need to convince you that AI as a concept is worth hundreds of dollars, they just need to convince you that the hundreds of dollars you were already going to spend on a smartphone should go to them instead of Samsung or Xiaomi.
- manquer 2y agoAre you sure ? People do not move in significant numbers from Android anymore, a lot of people just do not want to learn a new interface and workflows and happy with their ecosystem. Anecdotally I tried to get my dad to a iPhone 14 and shift from Android, he basically kept using his Android and never switched,so my mom is using that device now(along with an Android) not too happily just cause no else one is using it and will switch back to Android fully next upgrade. There are plenty of people who simply prefer the Android interface or by now so used to it that don't want to change and vice-versa. I myself use and need both and cannot imagine exclusively committing to one ecosystem.
- acdha 2y agoInertia is real but that would make it all the more important not to lose existing users or appear behind to new buyers.
- concinds 2y agoThey showed up the full Apple Intelligence featureset at WWDC months ago. This was a shorter recap.
- gffrd 2y agoThanks for noting this. I was surprised how little it featured into today's announcement, so this fills in the picture.
- wlesieutre 2y agoTechnically it's an iOS 18 feature rather than a phone feature, except the only previous phone model with the hardware for all of it is the iPhone 15 Pro, so it doesn't really feel like an iOS 18 feature
- DidYaWipe 2y agoLike what? People have been whining "where's the innovation" for years about phones, totally ignoring the fact that this is a mature product category. Where's the innovation in word processors? At this point, we're often talking about regression. Apple removed the audio output from its best-selling music player. It removed TouchID. It removed the SIM slot. You know what would be "innovative?" Making a goddamned phone that can withstand being used for its primary purpose. The failure of the iPhone's design has been confirmed by millions upon millions of people, who have concluded that they must bury their "thin, elegant" phones in bulky, tacky cases. You have to shake your head at Apple's breathless announcement of NEW COLORS!!!! when the vast majority of them will never be seen. Then there's the fact that Apple ignores an entire market: men who don't wear cargo pants all day every day. Maybe some of us don't want to look like a schlub with a TV tray jammed into his pocket (again, made even worse with a dumb case).
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y agoThe moment you think a portable electronic system is a mature product category is the moment you become ‘old guard’. Edit: and currently, that looks to be you and the entire iPhone engineering team
- DidYaWipe 2y agoOh really? I already provided some suggestions on what they could do. Where are yours?
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y agoI mean ‘could do’ is subjective. The ROI that apple receives on R&D is substantial, so on that basis, include a portable projector in phones such that I can replace my tv with my phone - not being able to use my phone while watching tv wouldn’t be nice, so add anti-shake gyroscopes such that as long as my phone is pointing in vaguely the correct direction, the projection stays stable. Possible with current tech? Hell no. But within the realms of reality for handhelds to do this in the next 15 years? I think so. Probably less valuable over health and other potential device functions, I don’t think about these things and so I wouldn’t know. Thus, we are not at a point where portable computers should be considered ‘mature’ from an innovation standpoint, even if current innovation is slow.
- gffrd 2y ago> there's no killer feature You know when you go to a restaurant and the menu is like 3 different cuisines, it's 12 pages, and each page has 20+ items? The Intelligence section of the presentation felt a bit like that. Generally, I was surprised how lightly Intelligence featured into the keynote: it wasn't a standalone talking point, nothing on the Apple site talks to it directly. It's conspicuous, given that they've dedicated hardware real estate to it ... and the hype cycle.
- unshavedyak 2y agoDidn’t it have a pretty large thing on the keynote where it was actually announced?
- canucker2016 2y agoNo, Apple Intelligence is worse. I go to a restaurant and look at the menu/see a commercial on TV, I can usually order the item now (other than films). Apple Intelligence - certain feature(s) (can't recall now) are US-only in November, rolling out to other English-speaking countries in December. No idea when non English-speaking countries will get that feature. Who knows what Apple Intelligence features are in the device on day 1?
- influx 2y agoI thought you were going to say the iPhone would be able to load the QR code for that menu, summarize it, sort it by ingredient or calories and give you a recommendation without you having to read it... Now I'm kinda bummed out.
- gffrd 2y agoSee, now THERE's a FEATURE. Where were you when they were coming up with "when a friend texts a song name to you, remind them they can play it in Apple Music"??!
- stronglikedan 2y agoApple rarely ever innovates, so it's not surprising these new features seem underwhelming. What Apple does best is to perfect (others') existing ideas so that they work more much more reliably than the competition. The number one pain point of technology today is that hardly any of it consistently works correctly more than 95% of the time. But when Apple releases a feature, it works 99% of the time instead. That's their key differentiator.
- leptons 2y ago>But when Apple releases a feature, it works 99% of the time instead. "You're holding it wrong" - Steve Jobs
- conception 2y agoOn device and not shared with advertisers is the Only Apple can do part.
- jimbokun 2y ago> photos/album search now includes video understanding, which imo seems very good from the first 2 examples they showed. includes scroll to exact time of the moment you describe. This is a killer feature. Everyone can understand the usefulness of just describing the video moment you want to find. Digging through years worth of photos and videos looking for that one specific moment can be a huge chore when you want to show it to someone.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- NoLinkToMe 2y agoThe action button being prime real estate I think shouldn't be understated. It's a button that'll be in the hands and pockets of >1 billion people soon. Each press allows these billion people to connect with a supplier of Intelligence. Whether it's ChatGPT, Google's search, Apple AI or whatever supplier. Apple controls the hardware. Just think of Apple's contract with Google that nets them $20 billion a year in profit. For comparison, Walmart, Amazon, NVIDIA, Volkswagen, VISA, all had about 20 billion in net income in 2023. Or think of the appstore as an analogy. Apple controls the gateway between consumer and supplier, and gains from it. This action button will be no different.