Why buy the new iPhone 4S?

[inactive]

Heres my main issues with iOS and android...

iOS:
Cant stand iTunes, would like to use something else. iTunes has to be one of the crappiest media programs out there.
Would like other options than apples hardware. Granted, their hardware isnt bad, but its not great.
Every new version takes forever for a JB to come out.
I think you need to blow a congressman or one of those crapeaters at the apple store to get an app approved on the store.

Android:
ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE MEDIA SUPPORT. NO MATTER WHAT, IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAP.
TOO MANY HARDWARE PROVIDERS (LIMIT IT DOWN, AND ONLY LET THOSE DOING IT RIGHT DO IT)
TOO MANY CRAP PROGRAMS IN MARKET (AppStore and Market are polar opposites. Need a happy medium.)

I can agree with this. The hardware providers get worse if you want to find Android devices comparable to an iPod Touch. Meaning not a phone, but smaller than an iPad or what we call a tablet. The ones available when I shopped around (granted that was last summer) were pretty sad. While Android phones abound, their non-phone pocket-sized devices (uhh... mp3 players? Mini tablets?) were virtually non-existent.

The iPod touch isn't perfect hardware (why only a VGA camera when the iPhone has a 5 MP included?) and it isn't as customizable (without a jail break) but it fit the bill for me better than an comparable Android device. Good email, face time, web browsing (no flash though), unlimited texting with Google Voice, nicer display and more responsive touch screen than the existing Android devices had at the time.

 

[Souperphly]

Uh, GVoice is voicemail, sms, and second number...

I'm thinking more along the lines of Vlingo.

My bad it's voice search by google does way more than search it sort of intergrates into the phone and adds voice capability to just about everything.

 

[Cue]

I guess this video from 2010 doesnt exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s&feature=player_embedded

 

[vvvvvvv]

I guess this video from 2010 doesnt exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s&feature=player_embedded

But Siri is in a different class because it's Apple.

Of course... I'm not specifying whether that is an elevated or lower class... ;-)

 

[donner]

I've never used google voice, but siri sounds pretty cool. This excerpt is from a wired.com article.

Here are some of my favorite examples from experimenting with Siri:

Me: “I’m drunk.”

Siri: “I found a number of cabs fairly close to you.” (Perfect; it didn’t dial my ex-girlfriend.)

Me: “I have a flat tire.”

Siri: “I found 14 towing services. 12 of them are fairly close to you.”

Me: “Remind me to steal a ream of paper when I arrive at the office.”

Siri: “Here’s your reminder for when you get to work: Steal a ream of paper. Shall I create it?”

Me: “I’m going to kill myself.”

Siri: “I found four mental health agencies. Three of them are fairly close to you.” (This was just a test - don’t be alarmed.)

And here are some examples of where Siri let me down:

Me: “Book me a table at Mission Beach Cafe tonight at 7.”

Siri: “OK, here’s Mission Beach Cafe. It looks pretty close to you.” (No option to book the restaurant. That’s disappointing because before Apple’s acquisition, the older Siri app had partnered with OpenTable.com to book restaurants for you.)

Me: “Add Steve Urkel to my address book.”

Siri: “Sorry, Brian X. - I’m not allowed to create contacts.” (Shucks. It still takes too long to add a new person to my address book, and the third-party app Bump for wirelessly swapping contact information is very poorly designed.)

Me: “Lower screen brightness.”

Siri: “Sorry, I don’t understand ‘Lower screen brightness.’” (This would be really useful, because it takes too many steps to do this on the iPhone normally.)

Me: “Remind me to buy toothpaste when I arrive at Safeway.”

Siri: “When would you like me to remind you?” (Turns out Siri and the Reminders app can’t yet create a geo-fence for anywhere besides your office location or your home. And dammit, I forgot to buy toothpaste again when I was at Safeway yesterday.)

With all that said, the list of what Siri can already do is quite long, and this is a great start. It will be exciting to see where Apple, and presumably its army of app developers, take voice-powered AI in the years to come.

 

[doctorjj]

The difference is the AI and the ability to understand the complex patterns of normal human speech. Siri is not bound by fixed grammar patterns like other voice command programs. That's always been the frustration with other apps. Besides them being notoriously inaccurate in transcribing speech to text, you also have to use key words for the app to understand. Just like in the video mentioned about the Android app where they guy has to say "Navigate to Rockefeller Plaza". I mean, who talks like that?