How Many Different Ways Can the Same iPad 3 Rumors Be Reblogged?
The iPad 3 is expected to build on the specs that debuted on the iPad 2.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com 
We know. You’re excited about the iPad 3. We are too. And so is just about everyone else who follows consumer tech hardware. Rumors about Apple’s upcoming tablet have been pouring in for months, and we’ve been following them just like everyone else.
But as the iPad 3 announcement day ticks closer — let’s just agree it’s Mar. 7 — the pace of rumor-mongering has increased. And there’s a curious element to the furious onslaught of “new” iPad 3 rumors: They’re all saying essentially the same thing.
The latest rumor, for example, is that the iPad 3 will have a 1080p rear-facing camera with image stabilization, a dual-core A5X processor, and Siri built in, according to Apple Insider, which picked up the story from a “Chinese microblogging site” called Apple.pro.
A 1080p camera? Check. A processor named A5? Check. Siri capability? Check. We’ve heard all this before. Let’s look at how these and other iPad 3 rumors first surfaced, and how they’ve evolved and been repackaged. You may be surprised by how much you haven’t learned.
The Display
Perhaps the most oft-repeated rumor concerns the iPad 3′s display. The basic scuttlebutt says Apple will include a super-high-resolution, Retina Display-quality screen.
The iPad 2 display compared to a purported iPad 3 display. Image: MacRumors
This rumor is about as tired as they come. It’s been rehashed in essentially the same form, plus or minus a few details, for about eight months.
We backtracked all the way to July 2011, and found that ThisIsMyNext, the progenitor of The Verge, was one of the first to report that Apple’s next iPad would sport a 2048×1536 display.
Now flash-foward to the first two months of 2012. Images of hardware reported to be the iPad 3′s display popped up on overseas sources like a Korean blog and a Japanese repair site. Both sites reported the screens were Retina Displays, but the claims weren’t substantiated. Then, last Friday, MacRumors says it got its hands on one of these far-eastern screens, and reported that its specimen features four times the pixels of the screen in the current iPad 2 — in other words, a 2048 x 1536 resolution across 9.7 diagonal inches.
So how many essentially identical — though completely untested — rumors do we need to read before concluding the iPad 3 will indeed include a Retina Display?
Don’t answer. That was a rhetorical question.
The Camera
With an HD-quality Retina Display, it would make sense for Apple to increase the quality of its onboard camera to HD quality, too. And so the rumors commenced. Late last December, Digitimes began reporting the new iPad would sport an 8-megapixel camera along with rumors that Apple would be debuting two iPad models: a high-end tablet and a mid-range version.
On Feb. 8, a blog called RepairLabs showed off images of what it reported to be the iPad 3′s rear chassis. Based on the chassis construction, the website drew the conclusion that the new tablet’s camera will be different from what’s featured inside Apple’s current iteration, but stopped short of declaring the new camera an 8-megapixel model.
The last camera rumor occurred on Feb. 19. A Hong Kong-based site called Apple Daily reported it had possession of an iPad 3, and using side-by-side photos, compared it to an iPad 2. The key takeaway? The iPad 3 (or whatever it was) had a bigger rear camera lens, so the publication deemed it an 8-megapixel model.
Once again, photographic evidence solves a nagging question. Just one problem: No one reblogging this story could substantiate Apple Daily’s photographic evidence.
LTE
Consumers have been itching for a 4G iPad since before the iPad 2 debuted, so this rumor has popped over and over and over again, making an original “source” nigh on impossible to pinpoint.
However, BGR recently found evidence, supposedly straight from an iPad 3 running a debug tool, that the new tablet will be available with LTE. Then The Wall Street Journal, of all sources, corroborated these 4G iPad rumors on Feb. 14, reporting that Apple’s next tablet will be available on both AT&T and Verizon’s LTE networks.
The Form Factor
The iPad 3 looks like it will be slightly larger and thicker than the iPad 2. Image: M.I.C. Gadget
No site or pundit has posited the next iPad will feature a dramatically different shape. Instead, the rumor mill has been forced to report on the likelihood that the next iPad’s form factor will remain essentially unchanged — maybe a bit thicker, maybe a bit thinner.
Back in November, iLounge said that the iPad 3 would be “modestly thicker” than the iPad 2, contrary to many rumors that it would be a wee bit thinner than its predecessor. A Feb. 9 report from The New York Times then quoted an unnamed Apple employee as saying the iPad 3 will be “essentially the same size and shape as the iPad 2.” From the looks of photos floated today on a blog called M.I.C. Gadget, the Times story would appear to be true.
Yes, it’s come to that. The lack of significant change is now worthy of rumor and speculation.
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Love Paper All Over Again With Two Adorably Tiny Printers
BERG's Little Printer (left); Adafruit's Internet of Things Printer
London design firm BERG and New York open hardware shop Adafruit are two of my favorite companies. Both trade in big and small ideas about the future, but their projects rarely converge.
BERG mostly does high-concept video thoughtpieces. Adafruit sells do-it-yourself hardware kits. But people at both companies love little networked devices. So maybe it’s no accident that each would try to rethink something as ordinary as the printer — turning a workaday utility of the desktop age into something mobile and whimsical.
Yes, both devices are the epitome of cute. So who really cares if their formats are so tiny, they’re really only useful for printing out tweets, haiku and daily affirmations?
BERG first announced what it calls its “Little Printer” in November. The firm has since been giving demos of the device, but have yet to announce its price or a release date beyond “2012.”
It’s BERG’s first gadget, built on what it calls BERG Cloud:
Little Printer’s brain isn’t on a chip in its body, but on the Web where it can reach out and touch other Web-enabled services, and where we can provide updates and improvements without you having to install anything.
In your front room, Little Printer wirelessly connects (with no configuration) to a small box that plugs into your broadband router. It’s this same box that will enable our other planned products in the BERG Cloud family. There’s no PC required, your phone is your remote control.
We think of BERG Cloud as the nervous system for connected products. It’s built to run at scale, and could as easily operate the Web-enabled signage of a city block, as the playful home electronics of the future.
Meanwhile, Adafruit’s “Internet of Things” Printer was just announced today. When I asked Adafruit’s Phil Torrone how he would compare the two devices, he replied, “Ours is shipping now and ours is open source.”
That’s not quite all there is to it:
It’s a $90 kit you build yourself. Forget plug and play; you solder this thing together. The Internet of Things printer doesn’t sync up wirelessly to the cloud; it attaches by an Ethernet cable to a computer where you instruct it to run code. Its brain really does live on a chip in its body, but one you completely control.
“We think this is a great way to learn how to a build a physical object that does something based on what you code/choose to trigger an action that’s online,” Torrone told me.
“It’s on my desk now,” he added. “I’m enjoying some specific tweets I want give to a friend later tonight.”
That’s what we might call a limited use case. Both printers are definitely still more adorable than directly useful. Who cares if we can’t precisely mark its value? It’s still hard to put a price on the ability to pull something out of the ether, hold it in your hands, give it to another person, and make them smile.
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Ubuntu for Android Turns Your Phone Into a Desktop Computer
With Ubuntu for Android, you can effectively carry a desktop computer inside your pocket. Image: Canonical
Cramming a desktop environment onto a smartphone is a fun project that promises very little actual usefulness. Smartphone screens are too small for desktop OSes, and connecting a keyboard and mouse is usually out of the question. But now Canonical’s Ubuntu for Android takes a different approach, surfacing the desktop OS only when it actually makes sense.
Canonical announced today that it will seamlessly integrate Android with the Linux-based Ubuntu distribution. A device running Ubuntu for Android loads Android during typical smartphone use cases, then switches to Ubuntu once it’s been slid into a dock that connects to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The installation basically gives you two devices in one: an Android phone while on the go, and a Ubuntu desktop when plugged in.
There’s no word on who’s manufacturing compatible docks, and what they will cost.
A phone that’s also a desktop computer isn’t new. The Motorola Atrix already does this via Motorola’s “Webtop” OS and hardware Lapdock. But in terms of actual usefulness, Ubuntu’s large installed base and open-source origins might make it a better choice for this type of application.
The system reportedly lets you share your smartphone’s contacts, media, and apps among both Android and Ubuntu. The Ubuntu environment also supports MMS/SMS and phones calls: a pop-up window appears when you receive a call, and you can simply mouse over and click to answer.
Using virtualization tools like Citrix and VMWare, Canonical says that IT departments could issue a single device that covers both the desktop and mobile needs of employees. The company also points to the lower latency of 4G as a good match for Google Doc use. Of course, non-stop 4G usage could lead to data-plan binging — and then data throttling — depending on which carrier you use.
Don’t go searching for an install just yet. Canonical says that Ubuntu for Android will be loaded onto phones by manufacturers, and phones will have to include USB and HDMI hardware support in order to utilize the OS. These devices aren’t yet available, but can be expected to land in late 2012. Canonical was mum on any partnerships with manufacturers they may already have.
[Canonical]
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Apple Announces OS X Mountain Lion for Mac Desktops
Image: Apple
Apple has announced its latest version of OS X for Macs — and like all iterations of its desktop operating system, the latest version is named after a big cat. It’s called Mountain Lion, and it will be more like iOS than ever, as Apple integrates various mobile services and moves to yearly OS updates across all its devices.
Mountain Lion is available for preview today in two ways. If you’re a consumer, you can read about the new features at Apple’s website. If you have a developer account, you can download and install the updated operating system. And anyone running OS X Lion can download and install the beta version of Messages, a new app that replaces iChat for instant messaging, and integrates iMessages, the Apple-only text-message replacement service for iPhone, iPad and now Mac.
Even the name “Messages” helps indicate Mountain Lion’s guiding philosophy. It extends OS X Lion’s “Back to the Mac” approach of pulling ideas and concepts from Apple’s mobile ecosystem into the desktop. There’s no more iChat, iCal or Address Book. You’ll soon be using Messages, Calendar and Contacts — the same names on all products, with no more of the outdated “i” in front of app names. AirPlay, Game Center, Reminders, Notes and Notification Center are all new to the Mac too, looking much like their iOS counterparts.
I, for one, welcome the new “i”-less naming conventions for basic utilities on the Mac. Apple simply doesn’t need that kind of iBranding for its software any more. (Although it would be either weird or brilliant to buy new software suites called “Work” and “Life.”)
Now, there is one big exception to the naming scheme: iCloud. Apple’s cloud service is everywhere in Mountain Lion; there’s even support for saving directly to the cloud right in the file system. Third-party cloud services get some love, too, just like in iOS: Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo and Gmail allow you to share media and integrate contacts across a range of services, not just Apple’s. For the Chinese market, a huge growth area for Apple, there’s also new support for popular search and social services like Baidu and Sina weibo.
Apple’s also approaching updates to OS X differently from now on, in two ways:
- The company plans on updating its desktop software every year, from 10.8 to 10.9 until the innumerate future, just like it currently does with iOS. It’s an incremental approach to steadily add new features, rather than rethink the OS from scratch. Until, of course, Apple needs to rethink the OS from scratch again.
- Apple didn’t send out invitations or hold a big event to announce this upgrade. It gave a handful of folks advance access to the developer preview and dropped it like a bomb early Thursday morning. Links to information about Mountain Lion aren’t even at the top of Apple.com — they’re tucked away in a corner.
After all, if you compare this announcement to, say, a brand-new iPad, a developer preview of Mountain Lion is mostly inside stuff. Even in our Apple-crazed times, for the average consumer, a new name for a new version of iChat isn’t setting the world on fire.
Still, it’s significant news for Apple and the Mac.
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Apple Plant Conditions Better Than Others, Auditor Says
Foxconn workers at a rally to raise morale. Photo: Kin Cheung/AP
The Fair Labor Association commented on Apple manufacturing partners’ labor practices on Thursday, recognizing their standards as “way above average of the norm.”
“The facilities are first-class,” FLA president Auret van Heerden told Reuters after visiting partner manufacturer Foxconn in Shenzen, China. “The physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.”
FLA’s recent audits of Apple partner manufacturers coincide with growing criticism of the companies’ manufacturing policies. The issue was especially brought to the forefront in light of a series of New York Times articles released last month, which reported harsh working conditions inside Foxconn manufacturing plants.
Moreover, unfair labor practice protestors took to the streets outside of Apple stores around the world, demanding that the company take actions to improve working conditions at the company’s partner plants.
Van Heerden “offered no immediate conclusions on the working conditions,” according to Reuters, “but he noted that boredom and alienation could have contributed to the stress that led some workers to take their own lives.”
Though van Heerden dismissed criticism that it might paint a “cursory and positive” picture of Apple’s suppliers, his positive remarks are unlikely to calm FLA’s critics who have called the FLA a “public relations mouthpiece” for big corporations.
Going forward, the FLA will investigate the rest of Apple’s top eight suppliers including Quanta Computer Inc, Pegatron Corp, and Wintek Corp, among others. An interim report of results of the audits will be available to the public this March.
[Reuters]
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Categories: Phone Skin Stuff Tags: Apple, Auditor, Better, Conditions, Others, Plant, Says, than
OS X Mountain Lion: 5 Most Exciting New Features
Apple’s Mountain Lion update to Mac OS X is an affirmation of just how important the cloud and iOS integration has become to anyone who uses a desktop Mac. More than 100 new features have been added to the operating system, and many emphasize Apple’s desire to create a single platform that integrates mobile, social and cloud features across multiple devices.
The message is clear: Whether you’re on a MacBook, iPad or iPhone, you’re working on an Apple product that’s directly linked to other hardware in the same ecosystem. The personal computer is no longer the primary device in your digital life — it’s a node in a larger ecosystem that encompasses the whole Apple family.
And device-to-device synergy is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve teased out five of the most important, most innovative aspects of Cupertino’s latest release.
Deep iCloud Integration
Mountain Lion is also about iCloud. You first sign into the OS using your Apple ID, allowing services like iCloud, iTunes, the Mac App Store and FaceTime to set up automatically. Accordingly, Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Messages and Find My Mac all easily sync once you set up iCloud.
Mountain Lion also gives you two built-in ways of storing files and documents: directly in your computer, or in iCloud. You can choose to store information in either place, freeing you from the tethers of localized storage. By all accounts, it should be a dead-easy implementation — and services like Dropbox can’t be too happy about Apple’s new built-in cloud features.
Mountain Lion will also include a feature called iCloud Documents, which lets you store documents in the cloud and sync document changes, a la Google Docs, to all your devices. You can also organize files into folders in iCloud, and share them through email, Messages or AirDrop with the click of a button.
A number of iOS carryovers like Notes and Reminders use iCloud to sync information and alerts across your Apple ecosystem, providing the closest thing to a completely unified cross-device computing experience that we’ve seen so far.
Notification Center
Notification Center was one of the major new upgrades made to iOS 5, and with Mountain Lion, the useful notification aggregation center is now on the Mac, too.
Notification Center looks almost identical to its mobile counterpart and normally stays hidden under the right side of the desktop screen. When you get a notification, it pops up on the top-right of your screen as a banner that disappears on its own after about five seconds. And when you get an alert, which requires user action before it disappears, an icon on the far right of the menu bar turns blue. Click it, and your desktop slides to the left to reveal Notification Center.
If you’re on a MacBook Pro or Air, or have a Magic Trackpad, you can also bring up Notification Center with a two-finger swipe from its right edge.
Gatekeeper
Privacy and security is a growing concern of app users (just look at the whole Path debacle). But while iOS privacy policies are a work in progress for Apple, the security of your desktop system is a front-and-center concern in Mountain Lion.
Now it’s true that Mac OS X has been largely immune from the malware issues that plague other operating systems like Windows and Android. The MacDefender malware scare in mid-2011 was an exception, and it looks like Apple now wants to stay one step ahead of the bad guys with a new feature called Gatekeeper.
Gatekeeper gives you the ability to control which sources you download applications from. For now, you can choose between the Mac App Store only, the Mac App Store and identified developers, or (if you like to live dangerously) from any and all sources. But with Gatekeeper set on a tight leash, you can ensure that you don’t accidentally download an app that has some malware secretly tacked onto it. The middle setting — the Mac App Store and identified developers — is the default.
Gatekeeper is a feature Apple is heavily working on, so the language in the screen shot and the areas you have control over could change by the time Mountain Lion ships later this year.
Unification With iOS 5
Mountain Lion delivers strong unification between iOS and Mac. For starters, Apple unified and simplified the naming conventions of many of its features (iCal is now Calendar, iChat is now Messages), paring down some of the “cruft,” as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber put it, that’s accumulated over the years.
Here are four ways Apple is bringing iOS and the Mac together.
Notes: Notes looks much like the iOS version of the app — a yellow, lined paper notebook — but with a UI tweaked for the desktop. It supports rich text, and also supports links and inline images. You can share notes via email or iMessage, and you also have the ability to pin it on the top of your screen like a Post-It. It syncs with iCloud, but can also sync with other services like Gmail or Yahoo.
Messages: What used to be iChat now integrates with iOS 5′s iMessage service, as well as FaceTime. Messages makes chatting seamless across whatever platform you’re chatting on, and whatever device you’re using. It combines text messages and instant messages (from sources like AIM, Google Talk, and Jabber) so you can access them and search through them on the desktop. And with iCloud, you can access iMessages on any device, whether it be your iPhone, iPad or MacBook. This feature is available as a free beta to current Lion users.
Calendar: Calendar replaces iCal, and keeps the same faux-leather design as it did in Lion. It has undergone a few slight tweaks, like the ability to turn off invitation alerts without turning off meeting reminders, and one feature, Reminders, has been removed.
Reminders: Removed from Calendar, yes, but it’s become its own standalone app, like it is in iOS 5. Reminders syncs with iCloud and across devices, as well as services like Google Calendar. It’s got the features you’ve come to expect from Reminders, like the ability to set priorities, make lists, and set alerts. One difference from the iOS 5 version is that there are no location-based alerts.
New Gaming Possibilities
Another iOS import, Game Center, is also coming to the Mac, giving you the ability to check out game titles your friends are playing, discover new friends, and view your leaderboard status, among other things. But the introduction of Apple’s new Game Kit API’s should also open up a whole new world of gaming.
Developers will now be able to create games that work across the Mac and all iOS devices. For example, you could create a multiplayer game with one opponent on an iPad, one on an iPhone, and another on a Mac. Suddenly, developers now have much larger potential user bases, and players have much larger potential opponent bases.
Games will be able to use enhanced Multi-Touch features like double-tap to zoom, so you can get a close-up look at onscreen action. Apple has also implemented a new graphics backbone that can enhance OpenGL apps.
The fact that a single game can be played across all manner of Apple devices now opens up interesting possibilities for multiscreen gaming. If a game can be played on multiple devices, it’s not a big jump for those devices to interact with one another in an individual game, which opens up some seriously cool options.
One example I envision is that you could play a game on your iPad, using your iPhone as the controller, then play that same game on your Mac, still using your iPhone as the controller. And then, when Apple finally outs that much-hyped television its reportedly working on, well, gaming will get even more creative.
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Foxconn Raises Pay of Factory Workers
Staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Photo: Kin Cheung/AP
Ever since Wired reported high suicide rates at Chinese iPhone manufacturer Foxconn in 2011, the company — and Apple — have been under public pressure to improve pay and working conditions at the factory. On Friday, Foxconn announced pay increases of 16 to 25 percent for its factory workers, with the exact amount tied to the workers’ performance in technical certification testing. And at the end of the month, the increases will leave workers with paychecks in the pay range of $286 to $349.
Following public protests and petitions of worldwide consumers, Apple engaged an auditing company, the Fair Labor Association, to look into working conditions at the factory. Though the FLA’s final report has not yet been published, Apple has consistently stated that Foxconn has some of the best working conditions in the industry, a claim repeated by the FLA in a preliminary comment.
Although 25 percent represents a significant pay increase for an earning level that’s already substantially above the local minimum wage, it does not address one of the primary criticisms leveled at Foxconn — that workers often spend up to 12 hours a day, six days a week on the assembly line. Foxconn also employs workers to build products for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
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Categories: Phone Skin Stuff Tags: Factory, Foxconn, Raises, Workers
Gadget Lab Podcast: Mountain Lion, Android Phones and a Scary Set of Knives
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This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, the gang talks about Apple’s latest software announcement, two new Android phones and a set of outdoorsy knives.
First up, products editor Michael Calore and staff writer Mike Isaac talk about the newest Mac desktop OS, OS X Mountain Lion. Currently available in a limited developer preview beta, Apple officially drops the Mac nomenclature in the release, and follows in the steps of last year’s OS X refresh, Lion. Mountain Lion brings with it a host of features once exclusive to iOS — like Notification Center and Reminders — as well as heavy iCloud integration. For potential Mac buyers who’ve previously only owned an iPhone or iPad, the new additions should make for a smoother transition from mobile to desktop.
Next, reviews contributor Billy Brown shows us a set of knives to fend off enemies (or just play realistic games of Cut the Rope) when the world supposedly ends later this year. Billy shows off the Survival Series Parang, the Camp Axe II and the Gator Machete Jr., sending some coconut pieces flying all over the place in the process.
Michael and Mike then provide a hands-on with the new Motorola Droid 4, which still packs a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for the BlackBerry and SideKick holdouts. Mike thinks it’s got the best keyboard in the Droid series yet.
To finish up the show, Michael shows off the super huge Samsung Galaxy Note. It’s a phone, but at 5.3 inches, its AMOLED screen rivals small tablets. It comes with its own stylus so you can take notes, write e-mails, or draw on it. Because of its size, it’s very difficult to use single-handed.
But wait, there’s more! Michael and Mike reveal the winning tweet that garnered its owner a new totally sweet iPhone case. But you’ll have to watch (or listen to) the show to find out what it was.
Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.
Or listen to the audio below:
Gadget Lab audio podcast #140
http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0140.mp3
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Why Apple Didn’t Include Siri in OS X Mountain Lion
Siri still lives on the iPhone 4S. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Apple’s latest OS X update, Mountain Lion, adds a slate of new features, nearly all derived from iOS 5. There’s one big omission, however: Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled virtual assistant, does not make the migration from mobile to desktop.
Now, technically, Siri isn’t a part of iOS 5. It’s marketed as the most game-changing feature of the iPhone 4S (which runs iOS 5), and Apple has remained mum on whether Siri will ever be ported to other devices — this to the pique of independent developers who’ve hacked the feature to run on everything from the iPod touch to thermostats.
Clearly, Siri is Apple’s most celebrated user feature. And, clearly, there’s interest to see it appear on other Apple devices. Indeed, companies throughout the consumer tech industry are exploring novel new user interface models, including voice-control and gesture-control.
But porting Siri to Mountain Lion desktops would pose several challenges. Apple was smart to leave it out of the latest desktop update, and here’s why.
Microphone Logistics
Microphone positioning on MacBooks and iMacs would present technical challenges for any Siri desktop port. The iPhone is designed to be held up to your face, and has a built-in mic that includes advanced noise reduction technology to ensure your voice is heard loud and clear, while street noise and the nearby guy shouting into his phone aren’t picked up. In part, this is accomplished by using two microphones: one near your mouth to pick up your voice, and another near the headphone jack to identify and cancel out background noise.
Yes, your MacBook Pro has an omnidirectional microphone built-in. It’s very convenient for using FaceTime in conjunction with the notebook’s camera, or for the speech recognition function built into Macs for OS control. The omnidirectional mic, however, doesn’t offer the same voice-processing sensitivity of the iPhone 4′s dual-mic arrangement. All told, Siri voice analysis would be far more challenging on a Mac computer, particularly when other voices or noises are in the room.
Granted, using an external mic, or even the mic on your throwaway iDevice earbuds, could provide a solution. But even though Siri is still considered a beta product, Apple wouldn’t resort to such an inelegant hack just to put Siri on Macs.
“Apple has been reluctant to put in features that require something like that,” Forrester analyst Frank Gillett told Wired. “It’s too fussy for what they like to do. Current speech-recognition products work pretty well if you wear a special high-quality microphone. What’s very clear is they need the mic on your face, right by your lips.”
Location Detection
Siri is all about location-awareness. She wants to give you directions, provide local weather reports, and locate the closest sources of exotic cuisine. But desktop computers don’t include native GPS.
“I think the main challenge [in bringing Siri to Mountain Lion] would be the lack of an accurate location being available,” said William Tunstall-Pedoe, CEO of True Knowledge, which has developed a Siri clone called Evi. What’s more, as Tunstall-Pedoe points out, desktop computers are relatively stationary devices, so a Mac version of Siri may not even need location-awareness, as a large portion of Siri’s talents would never be engaged.
All of which begs the question, If a good portion of Siri’s functionality isn’t even germane to the desktop experience, why even deliver a port?
While MacBooks don’t currently include GPS services, various web services (like Google Maps) can figure out your location by using either IP geolocation, or by triangulating your position based on WiFi networks around you. These strategies, however, deliver location accuracy limited to about 150 feet, whereas GPS can peg you within 10 feet of your precise position on the Earth. Future MacBooks could easily include GPS chip built-in for more exact positioning, but for now, laptop and desktop geolocation capabilities aren’t accurate — or even that necessary.
Hands-Free Voice Control Isn’t Needed
People tend to use Siri because their hands are tied, like when driving. Thus, “Siri, where’s the nearest gas station?” With Siri, you can find the answer quickly, and relatively safely, while keeping your eyes on the road. But these basic use cases just don’t transfer to the desktop.
“I think it is fair to say that the advantages that a voice-powered assistant give are stronger on a small mobile device,” Tunstall-Pedoe said. “PCs typically have a much larger screen and a keyboard and mouse.” Or, in Apple’s case, a trackpad or Magic Trackpad instead of a mouse, depending if you’re on a laptop or desktop.
Either way, hand-driven data entry is a familiar — and generally effective — method for using today’s computers. What’s more, as Tunstall-Pedoe points out, “PCs are also often used in environments where the use of voice would be awkward,” such as inside an open floor plan office.
Granted, if you’re disabled or injured, you could certainly make use of a hands-free feature. But in these cases, you would probably want a tool more robust than Siri. Which brings us to our next point:
Limited Use Cases
With Siri, you can do things like schedule reminders, look up restaurant and business information on Yelp, get information from Wolfram|Alpha, and ask general search engine-style queries. That’s not a large number of functions, and they’re not specifically suited to the desktop environment.
Indeed, why would you have Siri look up something when you can more quickly run your own Google search?
“On the iPhone, people want to do short things, like quick dictation and sending a quick text message,” Gillette says. The use cases would be different on a Mac, and not necessarily centered around short phrases. Siri’s capabilities would need to expand in order to handle these different functions.
Always-On Data
Lastly, Siri needs a constant data connection in order to interface with Apple’s servers. Until MacBooks include a built-in 3G, or more likely, 4G data connection, WiFi alone won’t cut it for consistent, high-quality network availability, Gillett says.
Gillett also believes Siri ties into unique hardware features that make chatter between one’s device and Apple’s data center more streamlined. “There seems to be special silicon within a special chip that has capabilities for voice recognition that a Mac wouldn’t have,” he said.
Gillett notes that Siri is sometimes able to analyze a query and provide a response extremely quickly, while other times, it takes 10 to 15 seconds of processing. “I think the chip does some pre-analysis, shrinks stuff it has to send, Apple’s data center gets a crunched answer, and Siri displays it on screen,” Gillett said.
“Apple may be working on Siri-enabling features [for Macs] in the future, but there will be some hardware enhancements to go with it,” Gillett said. “And they’ll think long and hard about the use case before they implement a voice feature in the Mac.”
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Must-Complete Projects for Every Hardcore Tech Geek
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Don’t underestimate that tech geek in the Weezer T-shirt and skinny jeans. He might look like a pushover at first glance, but inside he’s a seething mass of belly fire and competitiveness. He’s got the physique of a physicist, but the psyche of middle linebacker, and he’s intent on pushing his nerd skills to their natural limits.
In geek terms, this means making things, breaking things, and DIYing things to the hilt. It’s not just life hacking, it’s hardware hacking. It’s what tech nerds do best, and if you want to consider yourself a hardcore geek of the highest order, you’ll need to cross off every project in this list.
Build a PC From Scratch
First things first. If you’re realizing your full potential as a hardware geek, you’re probably doing all your desktop computing on a dual-booting PC — living in Windows for PC gaming and mainstream software support, and plumbing the depths of Linux for seedier exploits and world domination.
Sure, Macs are fine computers, but they’re not upgrade platforms. And they might be just a bit too, well, “pretty” for hardcore nerds.
So if you’re a tech guru of any experience and acclaim, you’re probably a PC user, and have built a number of machines from scratch. You’ve seated motherboards, thermal-pasted processors, inserted memory sticks, slotted videocards, caged hard drives, connected power supplies, and loaded OSes into comfy little partitions.
You’ve also troubleshot everything described above, because PCs are cranky, and very few PC building projects successfully boot the first time around.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com
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Categories: Phone Skin Stuff Tags: Every, Geek, Hardcore, MustComplete, Projects, Tech