Top Bananas | Monthly Archives: December 2018

Measuring the Accuracy of Voice Assistants

Posted on December 20, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Loup Ventures recently tested the accuracy of voice assistants in smart speakers.

Siri started the voice assistant market but Apple let Siri lag behind rivals. Last year when Loup Ventures tested Siri, Siri could only accurately answer questions with a 52.3% success rate. This year when Loup Ventures tested Siri, Siri improved to 74.6% success rate, but that’s still lower than Google Assistant that answered with a 87.9% success rate.

The huge problem with voice assistants, especially on smart speakers, is that voice interaction is the only interface available. If a voice assistant isn’t accurate, that makes using the smart speaker frustrating.

Even worse, most voice assistants (with the exception of Siri) only understand a handful of languages. If you speak Arabic, Mandarin, or Greek, most smart speakers won’t understand you, which severely limits their market and usefulness.

Voice assistants should answer with over 90% accuracy for people to trust and rely on them. Until then, voice assistants are still amazing but still frustrating to use regularly. Siri and other voice assistants simply need to keep expanding language support and improving accuracy.

Until this happens, the smart speaker market will be a niche market much like early cellular phones were niche (and expensive) products until they became more popular with lower prices.

Give the smart speaker market another few years until they can reach the 90% accuracy rate. Until then, most people will simply ignore smart speakers or try them out and then ignore them afterwards. Smart speakers in the home are a novelty, not a necessity.

Until smart speakers solve a compelling problem in the home, smart speakers will likely be interesting luxuries that few people will rely on like they do with PCs and smartphones.

The iPad vs. the PC

Posted on December 15, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The meaningless debate about the iPad vs. a “real” computer continues.

If you read this ZDNet article by Adrian-Kingsley Hughes, you can read a comparison between the iPad and the Surface Go where Adrian concludes that the iPad can’t compare to the Surface Go because of its operating system. Adrian says that if the iPad only ran macOS, it would be the perfect tablet, so the essential argument is simply that the operating system is all that matters.

Now if you replace “iPad” with “PC” and replace “Surface Go” with “mainframe and minicomputers”, Adrian’s argument perfectly matches the early discussions of mainframe and minicomputer users that dismissed PCs as “toys” because they didn’t run a “real” operating system like UNIX.

Back in the early 80’s when IBM introduced the IBM PC, mainframe and minicomputer users dismissed “PCs” as toys because they couldn’t run the same programs as mainframe and minicomputers. So therefore the PC was useless. Notice the similarity with today’s argument about the iPad vs. the PC?

The iPad must be a toy because it can’t run the same programs as a PC. Yet as we saw with mainframe and minicomputers, the PC gradually grew in power while being more cost-effective and easier to access for individuals. Those advantages eventually killed mainframe and minicomputers.

Notice those same features are gradually pushing the iPad into PC territory. The iPad processor is faster than most laptop processors and will only continue to improve. The iOS operating system is getting more powerful and more companies are porting their PC programs to the iPad such as Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD, so pretty soon the iPad will run all important PC programs. The iPad is far easier to carry and use on the go than a laptop. Given all these advantages, it’s only a matter of time before the iPad takes over the laptop market. Remember, the iPad already killed the netbook so the laptop is going to be next.

For many people, the iPad may not replace a laptop, but it can still be useful anyway just like a smartphone can’t replace a PC completely, but people still have smartphones and PCs. Any time you see someone arguing that the iPad isn’t a real computer, that’s the essence of fear. That means they’re afraid of being left behind because they refuse to change, so they’re hoping to delay the inevitable by convincing people that their antiquated views are right, even though history shows that it is not.

If you don’t think an iPad can replace a laptop, then stick with a laptop and let other people use an iPad instead. Many people have found an iPad can replace what they used to need a laptop to do, and that’s fine. Many others have found that an iPad can’t replace a laptop and that’s fine as well.

What’s not fine is when people use questionable arguments to convince you that their point of view is absolutely correct. If you don’t think the iPad can do many tasks that a PC can do, just look for your favorite mainframe and minicomputer enthusiast and ask them how well their mainframe and minicomputer is holding up against today’s PC and why the PC will never replace mainframe and minicomputers. Provided, of course, you can still find anyone still claiming mainframe and minicomputers are superior to PCs.

Where to Look for High-Tech Employment

Posted on December 13, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple announced they plan to open offices around the United States.

You may not want a job working for Apple, but you do want to know where Apple is opening offices so you can see where the greatest opportunities lie. Because wherever Apple goes, you can be sure other companies will be there too, and that will just translate into greater job opportunities for anyone who wants to get into the high-tech industry whether as an engineer, programmer, or even public relations, marketing, or sales person.

If you look at the above graphic, you can see where Apple plans to open or expand offices. This is predominantly in the West Coast in cities such as Portland, San Francisco, and San Diego, but it also includes high-tech hubs such as Austin, Texas, Miami, Florida, and the East Coast around Boston and New York.

That’s not to say there won’t be high-tech jobs elsewhere such as in Michigan, Minnesota, or Virginia. It’s just that the greatest number of opportunities will be near where Apple opens offices. If you have a high-tech job in Minnesota, you’ll simply have a harder time finding another job in that same area than if you lived in Austin or Boston.

Comedian Woody Allen once said that most of success is simply showing up. So if you want a high-tech job, your best chances are to show up in the cities where Apple plans to open offices. That doesn’t mean you necessarily have to work for Apple, but where Apple goes, that’s where other companies will go as well.

Job opportunities are everywhere, but may not be where you are. So your choices are simple. Either move to where the job opportunities are or make the best out of your area right now. Either way can work, but it depends on what you want to do.

Generally, the best opportunities won’t come to you. You have to go to where they are. For many people, that means moving away but if the other option is to stay where you are and have no opportunities, that’s not really much of a choice at all.

The Apple Watches Detects Man’s Irregular Heart Beat

Posted on December 12, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

Ed Dentel recently got the latest Apple Watch and decided to play around with its electrocardiogram app. Strangely, the app warned him of atrial fibrillation. Since Ed exercises regularly and had no history of heart problems, he assumed the app was wrong and ignored its warning.

Each time Ed tried the apple Watch, it warned him of atrial fibrillation until he finally started to get worried and went to see a doctor. That’s when he learned that his Apple Watch was right and by seeking medical attention, he might have just saved his life.

No technology is useful unless it solves a problem. Cars solve the problem of transportation, telephones solve the problem of communication, and television solves the problem of viewing information over long distances.

So when people first criticized the Apple Watch, they couldn’t figure out why they might want or need one. Over time, the purpose of the Apple Watch has been made strikingly clear. Wearable computers like the Apple Watch exist to solve the problem of real-time health monitoring.

In the old days, the only way doctors could get medical information form a patient was for the patient to appear in the office and connect them to machines to measure their body functions. With wearable computers like the Apple Watch, individuals clan constantly monitor their health symptoms everyday far easier and more conveniently than going to a doctor’s office. The Apple Watch is for everyone interested in health and that includes everyone.

If you aren’t interested in your own health, feel free to ignore the benefits of technology like wearable computers. For the rest of us, the Apple Watch will only get more sophisticated, accurate, and convenient. Pretty soon anyone not wearing a computer like an Apple Watch will be seen in the same light as people who still refuse to use a computer or a mobile phone.

Now that the purpose of the Apple Watch is clear, Apple just needs to work on finding crucial uses for their other devices such as the Apple TV or HomePod. HomePod offers hands-free computing, but what is the crucial need for that? Apple TV offers the convenience of cutting the cord to cable subscriptions, but that’s not exactly a pressing need for many people when rival products do the exact same thing.

The Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad sell so well because they have a clear purpose. HomePod and Apple TV do not sell as well because their purpose is not as crystal clear. When Apple can figure out the purpose of hands-free computing (HomePod) or the Apple TV, then they’ll have another hit on their hands just like the Apple Watch.

Clinging to the Past (The Surface tablet vs. the iPad)

Posted on December 4, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Microsoft is comparing their Surface tablet with the iPad.

Microsoft’s latest ad pokes fun at the iPad as a “toy” that is no longer suitable for older children who really need a computer like Microsoft’s Surface tablet. While Microsoft’s Surface tablets are really ultraportable laptops, they can work as tablets although most people likely don’t use them exclusively as tablets. The real appeal of the Surface tablet is the ability to run Windows, which can run a variety of programs from Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Visual Studio to AutoCAD and Adobe Premiere.

Yet if you were around in the early 80’s, you might remember when mainframe and minicomputer users dismissed PCs as “toys” that couldn’t do what “real” computers could do. In case your memory is foggy, mainframe and minicomputer users were absolutely right in claiming PCs were simply underpowered compared to mainframe and minicomputers, and this state of affairs remained completely true right up until the time PCs were more cost-effective and good enough for most people. Then mainframe and minicomputers rapidly fell out of favor to the “toys” that were more powerful PCs.

Think the same thing won’t happen with Microsoft’s latest comparison of their Surface tablet to the iPad? Right now, laptops like Microsoft’s Surface tablet can run more variety and powerful programs than the iPad, but Adobe Photoshop is coming to the iPad along with AutoCAD. Apple even claims that the latest iPad is 92% faster than most laptops on the market today. Considering that the Surface tablet isn’t the fastest laptop around, the latest iPad’s processor is probably on par (or even surpassing) the power of the Surface tablet.

Wait another year or two and the iPad is rapidly growing in power and versatility while the laptop world of Windows and Intel (commonly known as WinTel) progresses at a much slower pace. That means the iPad will eventually surpass traditional laptops if not next year, then within the next two or three years. This is exactly the same trend that mainframe and minicomputer users fought against PCs and lost, and this is exactly what Microsoft is facing with the Surface tablet compared to the iPad.

In the long run, the Surface tablet is minimal tablet features but its biggest strength is its ability to run Windows. On the other hand, the iPad’s processing power is growing exponentially and as more apps appear on the iPad, it’s only inevitable that the iPad will soon equal and eventually surpass the Surface tablet.

So for Microsoft to compare a Surface tablet against an iPad is no different than mainframe and minicomputer users comparing their big iron machines against the “toys” that were called PCs. As we saw with mainframe and minicomputers, the PC eventually took over the computing market. That means if trends continue, the iPad will eventually take over the personal computing market despite being labeled a “toy” just like early PCs were dismissed as “toys.”

The future of computing is the iPad, which is advancing rapidly, and not the Surface tablet, which is hobbled by clinging to Intel and Windows. If you want a great laptop today, you might want a Surface tablet today. However, if you want a great computer tomorrow, chances are good it’s going to be an iPad.