Dylan’s Desk: Siri is the grandmother of Marvin the Paranoid Android
In Star Trek IV, Scotty picks up a computer mouse and speaks into it, trying to get the machine’s attention. “Computer! Computer!” When nothing happens, someone tells him to use the keyboard. “How quaint,” is his bemused response.
You might feel the same way in 10 years, if someone hands you a computer without a voice interface. That’s because we’re on the verge of an explosion in interactive, interpretive computer voice control.
“The technology is just beginning,” said Norman Winarsky, the head of the venture arm of SRI, a legendary Silicon Valley think tank. “This is real artificial intelligence and real technology.”
Winarsky was talking to me about Siri, the voice-commanded assistant built into the iPhone 4S and the most impressive part of Apple’s product introduction on October 4.
Read the whole column: Dylan’s Desk: Siri is the grandmother of Marvin the Paranoid Android | VentureBeat.
Steve Jobs made a dent in the universe
Steve Jobs, the cofounder and former chief executive of Apple, has died. He was 56.
Jobs was a visionary leader who, more than any other single person, reshaped the face of consumer technology.
He was often quoted as saying “we’re here to put a dent in the universe.” He did exactly that.
From his earliest computers, co-developed with Steve Wozniak, to the smartphones and tablets that his company developed, Jobs showed a singleminded dedication to building products that were easier to use, better-looking and more intuitively useful than what had gone before.
He liked to say that Apple’s products were “magical,” and if that’s the case, he was the marketing and technology magician behind the curtain.
And if they weren’t exactly magic, Apple’s products were certainly a sufficiently advanced technology.
Read the story: Steve Jobs made a dent in the universe | VentureBeat.
It’s not the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S looks pretty amazing
Apple fans who expected an iPhone 5 today were disappointed.
Instead, all Apple unveiled was a phone that’s 2 times faster, with 7 times faster graphics rendering. It’s got a battery that’s good for a full day of talking, almost, and more than 3 solid days of listening to music. The camera is substantially improved, with a faster, f2.4 lens and an 8 megapixel sensor, and it records 1080p HD video. It’s a worldphone, meaning it will work on just about any cellular network around the world, both CDMA and GSM.
Oh, and you can talk to your phone, and it will answer your questions, thanks to a new feature called Siri.
Full story: It’s not the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S looks pretty amazing | VentureBeat.
More great coverage of the iPhone 4S launch from VentureBeat:
- Live at Apple’s iPhone 5/ iPhone 4S event
- So long iPhone 5, hello iPhone 4S: Same exterior, powerful new internals
- Apple is now shipping greeting cards (seriously)
- Apple debuts Siri, a voice assistant for iOS
- 10 things you need to know about the iPhone 4S
- iPhone 4S coming to Sprint, not an exclusive deal
- Apple updates iPod line with cheaper Nano and Touch
Steve Jobs’s most ambitious product: Apple Inc.
The list of iconic designs Steve Jobs made possible is long. But his most brilliant and ambitious design may be Apple itself.
Jobs, who announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO yesterday, is rightly hailed as one of the most design-savvy executives in the electronics industry. He’s also an impressive architect of business structures.
In the coming years, with Jobs out of the leadership role, we’ll see just how well-designed the company he spent 15 years assembling really is. My guess is that it’s very well put together indeed.
Jobs has been working on this “product,” Apple Inc., for a long time.
Full story: Steve Jobs’s most ambitious product: Apple Inc. | VentureBeat.
First iPhone in space to launch with last shuttle mission
An iPhone floats in front of the space station's cupola, in this rendering by Odyssey Space Research.
When the final space shuttle mission launches later this year, two iPhone 4s will be on board.
The iPhones will be running an experimental app called SpaceLab for iOS, designed by Odyssey Space Research. Once the space shuttle Atlantis docks with the International Space Station, crew members will use the iPhones to conduct four experiments, using the iPhones’ cameras, gyroscopes, and other sensors.
Full story: First iPhone in space to launch with last shuttle mission | VentureBeat.
more info
- Sad story: Micron CEO, who fought hard to keep U.S. semiconductor jobs, has died in a plane crash. http://t.co/VK3zOuCi by @deantak
- Via @fmanjoo: @mattyglesias has an excellent post on Zuckerberg's control over Facebook http://t.co/Tj8BWVgI
- OH at a video shoot: "This is a board meeting. With young people. And women. Phyeah."
interesting links
- The cookerless kitchen | Life and style | guardian.co.uk
- How to make a grilled cheese sandwich using a popup toaster
- The New Old Spice Ads Poke Fun At P&G's History Of Sexist Advertising
- TEDxBayArea 12/08/11-Kara Swisher-More - YouTube
- Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club « abovethecrowd.com
- Untitled (http://twitter.com/dylan20/status/165115699067502592/photo/1)
- Facebook's 'Letter from Zuckerberg': The Annotated Version
- Facebook's IPO: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA
- 'Huffington Post' Employee Sucked Into Aggregation Turbine | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
- Feet In Smoke: A Story About Electrified Near-Death
- How “The Hacker Way” helped propel Facebook to market dominance | VentureBeat