The company is overhauling the digital assistant with its own large language models, an underlying technology behind generative AI. The new system will allow Siri to control individual features within applications for the first time. This won’t require any setup by the user or from developers, differentiating from existing features like Siri Shortcuts and App Intents. Instead, the iPhone’s AI will analyze what a person is doing and auto-enable Siri to help.
For instance, users could ask Siri to delete or forward an email. Or they could have Siri edit a photo, summarize a meeting or move a note to a different folder — all within the apps themselves. Today, Siri mostly lives outside of the app universe, controlling more general items like smart home appliances, music and system settings. Over time, this new feature will expand to allow multiple commands at once. For example, you could tell your iPad to write an email and send it to your spouse.
This movement is more than a flash in the pan, and Apple should have a plan for incorporating it across its operating systems. However, I think Apple has to move more carefully here than the likes of Microsoft and Google. The way Apple sees — and talks about — itself may hang in the balance.
Whichever path it takes, this will be a risky year for Apple, and the outcome of its experiments with augmented reality and AI could go a long way to determining its long-term success… or failure. I can’t imagine Tim Cook is enjoying the uncertainty. But it’s a lot more fun than just releasing slightly different versions of existing products.
Audio is Spotify’s entire business, and the company continues to increase its advantage with customers. The same logic applies in video, by the way, where Netflix is the clear leader. Spotify and Netflix both had first-mover advantage, and, after a brief moment of concern about competition, they are now extending their leads.
Rolling out on Android will undoubtedly help. But will Apple follow Netflix, Amazon, and Disney down the ad-supported lane? A few years ago, I would have said "no way". But this is a different time for Apple with Services now the lone revenue growth bright spot for the company. Plus, their move into more sporting events makes a push deeper into ads inevitable.
Since its launch in India in 2015, Apple Music has been considered a niche streaming service, used mostly by international music fans in big cities. That reputation is slowly but surely changing, with the DSP now forming an integral part of the release strategies of both major and independent labels in the country.
Adobe found itself in hot water this weekend after the Ansel Adams estate publicly scolded the company for selling generative AI imitations of the late photographer’s work. On Friday, Adams’ estate posted a screenshot to Threads showing AI-generated images available on Adobe Stock that were labeled as “Ansel Adams-style,” telling Adobe it was “officially on our last nerve with this behavior.”
The lesson of Google Reader is to not trust any Google services anymore… No, that's not the lesson to takeaway from the demise of Google Reader. (By the way, that's eleven years ago. Time flies.)
No, the other lesson is to not use a centralized service when a decentralized alternative is good enough. After the shut-down of Google Reader, I've switched to a different centralized service. But soon, as apps mature, I've switched to Reeder with its iCloud syncing for all my RSS needs. (NetNewsWire is also another good candidate, but I am not using that since I do enjoy using Reeder.)
This is also why I grew more and more uneasy with my choice of podcast player app. When I first started listening to podcast, I was using iTunes + iPod -- a truly decentralized service. When iPhone came along, I used Downcast, another decentralized app. But soon along, lured by all the more advanced features provided by centralized service, I've started using podcast players that will simply not work if the server-side component cease to exist.
Finally, this year, I've gotten more serious in looking for a different alternative. I've re-looked Downcast, which unfortunately remained more or less the same as I last left it, and it doesn't seem long for this world. I've re-looked Apple's Podcast, which doesn't seem power-user enough for my requirements.
But, I am sad to report, I didn't find a decentralized podcast player that I want to use. But maybe because of this search process, I'm noticing a lot of little bugs and frustrations that I am having with the podcast player that I am using. Death by a thousand cuts, they say.
And that's the story of why I have switched podcast player and trying out Pocket Casts for the week. So far, so good. If things continue to do well for the rest of the week, I'll be permanently switching over. (Where by permanently, I mean until I get tired of this centralized app and start to look for alternatives all over again.)
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Thanks for reading.