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I'd argue that Apple makes it possible to create location-aware reminders, but not necessarily "very easy." Say I want to set up a reminder to pick up some dis

I'd argue that Apple makes it possible to create location-aware reminders, but not necessarily "very easy." Say I want to set up a reminder to pick up some dish soap next time I'm near my neighborhood grocery store. I could open the "Reminders" app and try to do it, but that only works if the store is in my address book for some reason or I know the address. Otherwise I have to search for the grocery store in Safari or Maps, copy the address and paste it into the "address" field for that reminder. So I've learned my lesson - next time I open the Apple Maps app and search for my neighborhood grocery store, thinking I'll add a reminder from there. But you can't. Software is super hard, and I get that, and I still love and use geofenced reminders every day. But this particular set of interactions is too complicated for, say, my mom - who just got her first iPhone (and smartphone) - to use, which makes it kind of a problem.

hnriot 14y ago
You really use geofenced reminders every day? I've found them useful once in a while but every day seems excessive. Maybe you were being sarcastic, it's hard to tell.
- jjjjjosh 14y ago
  I have one that reminds me to check-in to GymPact when I go to the gym, and then I set reminders like my example above a couple of times per week probably. I definitely wasn't intending to be sarcastic but probably could have expressed that better.
anotherbadlogin 14y ago
This is the kind of thing that Apple continually gets a free pass on. Sure, other companies make similar mistakes, but Apple gets lauded for its "elegance" when in fact it ignores real-world use. For example, my dad has dozens or hundreds of pictures on his iPhone. I made sure that iTunes was set to sync photos on his computer, and yet this function has never worked on ANY system I've tried it on. No photo is ever synced from the phone to the computer. I don't even know what tool Windows users are supposed to use to get pictures from their iPhones to their computers. On the Mac I wind up using Image Capture, but WTF does Apple expect most people to use? Total detachment from reality.
smackfu 14y ago
It's very easy in Siri: "Remind me to take out the trash when I get home." Arbitrary locations aren't easy, but the fixed "work" and "home" ones are... and for the purposes of this discussion, they all use the same battery life.

hnriot 14y ago

You really use geofenced reminders every day? I've found them useful once in a while but every day seems excessive. Maybe you were being sarcastic, it's hard to tell.

jjjjjosh 14y ago
I have one that reminds me to check-in to GymPact when I go to the gym, and then I set reminders like my example above a couple of times per week probably. I definitely wasn't intending to be sarcastic but probably could have expressed that better.

anotherbadlogin 14y ago

This is the kind of thing that Apple continually gets a free pass on. Sure, other companies make similar mistakes, but Apple gets lauded for its "elegance" when in fact it ignores real-world use. For example, my dad has dozens or hundreds of pictures on his iPhone. I made sure that iTunes was set to sync photos on his computer, and yet this function has never worked on ANY system I've tried it on. No photo is ever synced from the phone to the computer. I don't even know what tool Windows users are supposed to use to get pictures from their iPhones to their computers. On the Mac I wind up using Image Capture, but WTF does Apple expect most people to use? Total detachment from reality.

smackfu 14y ago

It's very easy in Siri: "Remind me to take out the trash when I get home." Arbitrary locations aren't easy, but the fixed "work" and "home" ones are... and for the purposes of this discussion, they all use the same battery life.