I really hope Apple watches what Google and Microsoft are doing with AI, specifically shoving it into their customers' workflow without invitation, and steers far away from that path.
Opting out of Siri is incredibly easy and there are no major features i care about that decision locks me out of. I think it has some impacts on CarPlay but it’s never stopped me from being able to put on music for my kids or whatever.
Frankly I forget I’ve opted out all the time because they never bug me to start using it.
But the difference here is, this iPhone was obviously already far along in development in 2005, when the BlackBerry 8700 was shipping.
In this case, due to their own announcement, we all know that Apple had intended to have LLM technology ready to ship in late 2024. We also know from the copious leaks that they eventually made massive, flailing pivots, and did major reactive internal reorgs to try to get back on track. They've had a lot of setbacks which push them later and later, and unlike in 2005 there is a great likelihood that their competitors can use the delay to significant advantage. (A chance. Of course, Google is the only other player in mobile and they seem sure to do mostly boneheaded things, like the subject of this article!)
But anyway, pretend we don't know any of that, pretend WWDC24 never even happened either. If the assertion is "Apple being at least 3 years late to the market for a major tech industry trend is in this case a sign that they are wisely taking notes from the sidelines, and will eventually pounce with a product that blows us all away, iPhone style" -- my reply is, from the outside and from this moment in time, isn't this also how it would look if they were repeatedly fumbling hard on the execution of this idea, with no clear path to shipping and no clear path to having a superior product to show for it?
Found a U2 album in my library. Familiar anyone?
The blog post sounds like Google is actively making AI work against their users.
Google, Apple, and Microsoft won't give you such control. It's going to be AI on terms terms and for their own benefit.
Yet I didn't buy the phone for the maps app. I have other choices for maps providers. It is perfectly acceptable to me that Apple charge me for additional services like maps.
What makes it superior in my eyes is the quality of the default app, the note app for instance of the reminder, both extremely powerful and 'free'.
Now if they are going to downgrade their app quality by putting ads in them, it loose it's edge over cheaper Android phone.