Siri May Have All The Answers (Someday) And Be Our Friend But It Won’t Be Intelligent Or Sentient

Answers, Yes But Siri Is Still Closer To a Toaster Than A Fully Thinking and Sentient Intelligence

It's what I've suspected the whole time but is unwilling to face.  Siri may have the answers but it isn't smart.  I think you know it as well.  What Siri, really is, is an app that has the full force of a cloud-based computing network that is trying to "serve" you as it is.  

Siri doesn't understand you.  It might look like it does at times because that is the brilliance of Apple.  It's trying to be "just works" mentality to Siri. And in doing so, Apple is hoping that we'll forget that Siri is really lines of programs with brilliant algorithms and, instead, treat it like a digital friend.

Don't get me wrong.  Siri is revolutionary and there is a lot to get excited about.  However, it's closer to Tickle-Me-Elmo than it is to Commander Data on Star Trek.  In fact, the Enterprise computer isn't so smart either.  

Right now, a lot of people are having fun with Siri failed to remember it's still in beta.  So for all of you who are new to Apple and its products, this is only the beginning.  And as impressed as you already are, be prepared to be blow away.

Not Updating iPod Touch Was A Push To Make People Buy iPhones

After some considerations, I think it's like that we are seeing Apple trying to get more and more mobile warriors to carry a device with them that is always connected to the Internet.  And the iPod touch, while a great mobile device, isn't the iPhone because it lacks the 3G or any other wireless connectivity other than WiFi.  And WiFi means you can't always be connected to the Internet.

It's probably why we might not see Siri on the iPod touch even if Apple does upgrade the hardware.  And this could help push users towards the iPhone 4S and future iPhone upgrades that require an always-on 3G/4G connection.  And this is where the money's at, not selling iPod touches for Apple.

And if you don't think Siri and not having an updated iPod touch goes hand-in-hand, consider this.  Had Apple upgraded the iPod touch, it would mean that there is no reason why the touch with the A5 dual-core chip cannot handle Siri.

And for those with the iPhone 4, Blackberry, Android, or another phone who want Siri, just buy an iPod touch.  That'll hurt Apple's iPhone sales for the Christmas quarter.  So, I imagine that to continue to drive sales, Apple could potentially update Siri every few weeks to remind folks that to take advantage of all that is iOS and Siri, the iPhone 4S is the only way to go.

The iPod touch, updated only with white, is for everyone else.

Would You Prefer an iPad Mini or iPod Touch XL?

There's talk this morning that Apple is looking at a sub-10" screen to add a new tablet to its line-up.  I've been asking for something like this since the original iPad.  No, I've been asking for this since the iPod touch.  Will we get it?

Patent War: Why Does Samsung Keep Doing This?

The patent war between Apple and Android device makers will last a while, giving folks on both sides a lot to talk about.  What's interesting in all this is that from time to time, Samsung will trip itself up.  Don't believe me?

Here, on Samsung Galaxy Player's webpage, an observant user saw this:

This is a screen shot that I captured myself.  So, yeah, it's still there.  According to Electronista via Daring Fireball, it's been since August.

And this isn't the first time.  A few months back when all the rage with the iPad 2 was the smartcover.  Well, just as things started heating up, Samsung started to sell their own smartcovers for the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

So, yeah, things don't look good for Samsung now.  Samsung needs to create a task force and go through all their marketing materials and projects they've outsourced and sent out a memos about all this.

Siri Struggling To Keep Up With Demand

I have read online that Siri was having some issues. Though when I gave Siri a try, it did not seem to have any issues. However, I did notice that it seems to have issues understanding what I am saying.

I think this is expected. Apple has sold over 4 million iPhone 4S. Even buy Apple standard, that is a lot of iPhones. So we have to keep in mind that maybe Apple did not expect this much traffic in the beginning. More than that, I don't think Apple realize why people were buying up the iPhone 4S.

Perhaps, Apple thought people were buying the iPhone 4S for the better camera, faster CPU, and people just upgrading in general. I think the powers that be at Apple totally underestimated the draw of Siri.

Furthermore, keep in mind that Siri is still in beta. I think there will is down to be a lot of growing pains. Furthermore Apple will likely increase capacity as well as Siri's abilities.

When I was demoing Siri for my coworkers this afternoon, they were very impressed with Siri's responses and the speed. Moreover, they were very impressed with the accuracy.

Let's see what happened over the over the next few days. Let's see if Apple is able to get Siri back online more consistently.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't dent in user enthusiasm for Siri. I highly doubt that it'll happen. Furthermore I can't wait to see Siri when he gets out of beta. Siri represents the potential for artificial intelligence and a new form of mobile computing.

Note: this post was dictated on the iPhone 4S.

RIM: First The Service Disruption, Then $100 For Apps? Talk About Kicking Customers While They're Down

RIM will compensate customers who were affected by the outage last week with a $100 and more apologies (via CS Monitors).  I don't know but I think the pain and trouble that customers went through was worth more than the $100.  I think RIM should have offered an additional month of service as well, to demonstrate that they are seriously apologetic.

They need to do more to show customers that they're serious about mobile and that they get it.  Right now, they're far from getting it.  And RIM making it too easy for Apple and Google to steal users away.

Way too easy.  More at Greenjava.

Siri And The Great Firewall of China

Siri rocks as far as its potential goes.  And while I'm not exactly sure of most of the details of how it works, I think we can safely say that it has a lot to do with servers in data centers that Apple maintains.  Query something and it gets to a gateway, gets crunched, and spits the answer back out to the user.

Okay, how would this work in parts of the world where the iPhone is very popular like China where there is a lot of censorship going on?  You know, the Great Firewall of China.

Most of our readers kind of take these things for granted.  Whether in China, Iran, any other place where free flow of information is frowned up, to put it mildly, how would Siri work?  To my mind, this could be the first time where Apple will have to decide if it has to clamp down on services or information to avoid getting on the bad side of Beijing.

One might say that Apple knows a thing or two about control information.  It does and it is quite good at it.  Walled ecosystem and corporate information lock-downs aside, Apple really has never not limited access to Facebook, Google, or Twitter.  Apple has been known to make things difficult for competitors but playing hard ball is something totally different from just shutting out information, which is what China does.

So, when the iPhone 4S launches in China, I get the feeling that Siri will not be available.  Not because Siri isn't available in most countries.  Rather, China will bar Siri from entering China altogether.