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I can see iWatches as a big market for a startup, or add-on for Nike - but not for Apple. The profits can't move their meter. The problem is input: Apple solv
by hyp0 12y ago
I can see iWatches as a big market for a startup, or add-on for Nike - but not for Apple. The profits can't move their meter.
The problem is input: Apple solved it for phones (touch screen). They tried voice-recog for shuffle iPod, but dropped it in the next iteration.
If they really are making a mass-market iWatch, I think they must have solved this problem in some other way. (Glass solves it, so maybe it won't be a watch...)
- thinkling 12y agoI find it interesting that voice-reco is a primary input mechanism for both the Amazon Fire TV and Amazon's scanner gadget for their Fresh grocery delivery service. The Fire TV is not on battery power, so it's not surprising there. But the scanner wand gadget presumably doesn't have much of a CPU in it, nor does it rely on a nearby smartphone.
- hyp0 12y agoYes, they claim their voice reco "really works" - I don't find it a credible claim... except that, when you have a confined univese of possible matches (e.g. grocery items), it doesn't so much have to recognise the word, as distinguish between the known candidates. For example, just counting the number of syllables can narrows it down (even identif it: yif expecting a digit, only "7" has two). And no verbs etc. Isn't the scanner online (so it can tell amazon what you ordered)? If so, I expect it uses servers, like siri and google voice. (Also processors are pretty small these days: the CPU in a phone takes up dramatically less space than the display or battery).
- gress 12y agoThey can back the voice recognition with mechanical Turk. If the recognizer has a lower confidence than desired they just ship the sample to a human.
- robgibbons 12y agoThey may have scrubbed voice recognition in anticipation of an iWatch-like product.