Top Bananas | Monthly Archives: February 2019

Apple Acquires Voice Assistant Startup

Posted on February 17, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Programming, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple acquired Pullstring, a company that lets users create and publish voice-activated apps.

Siri sucks. Despite introducing the world to voice assistants, Siri has constantly lagged behind Amazon’s Alexa. Now Apple is working to fix Siri buy acquiring a company called Pullstring, which lets users create and publish voice-activated apps.

Pullstring’s website claims that their Converse program lets you “Build your conversation visually.” By defining conversation blocks and customizing them, you can define a user’s experience through your voice application.

Instead of dealing with code, Pullstring’s Converse program lets you focus on the overall picture while letting Pullstring’s program take care of the actual voice recognition details. Beyond letting people create voice-activated apps for Siri (and improving Siri’s popularity), Pullstring’s technology will also let developers (hopefully) add voice-activated features to ordinary apps as a supplement.

Right now, Apple offers SiriKit, which lets you add Siri to your apps, but SiriKit is limited to specific domains such as messaging or payments. You can’t customize Siri beyond a limited range of domains that Siri can understand.

Pullstring promises to avoid this and allow developers to creatively add voice recognition to any app simply and easily. This will allow developers to create games that allow voice control in addition to touch control.

For HomePod, Pullstring’s technology allows users to customize Siri on HomePod to allow voice control programming in a simple manner.

Pullstring’s technology likely won’t appear in Apple’s technology any time soon, but expect it to show up in around three years as Apple integrates Pullstring’s technology into their own software framework.

Pullstring’s acquisition is a major one much like Apple’s acquisition of Metaio, which introduced augmented reality. Pullstring will introduce then world to voice-activated programming and app development, and could be as important as Apple’s original HyperCard in letting people create custom programs.

All we have to do is wait a few years to see what happens, but when Apple introduces voice-activated coding, nobody should be surprised.

To learn more about Pullstring, click here.

How To Do Augmented Reality Wrong

Posted on February 16, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Vuzix is introducing smart glasses with augmented reality.

Many companies will try to release smart glasses following in the wake of Google Glass. The big problem all of them will face is that they solve no particular problem. Because they don’t solve a pressing problem, there won’t be a rush of customers clamoring to buy one.

Just look at the virtual reality (VR) craze that went nowhere, or the 3D TV fad before that. Technology that exists solely for its own sake will always be doomed to failure. Technology exists only to solve problems.

The Palm Pilot solved the problem of keeping track of details like contacts and notes, so it was far more convenient to use than lugging paper and pencil around.

The Palm Pilot morphed into a smartphone that offered the same features except with the added ability to make a phone call. The Palm Treo smartphone proved popular for a time, right up until Apple introduced the iPhone, which solved the problem of displaying a screen and controls by replacing both with a touch screen interface.

When you look at numerous companies introducing smart glasses, ask yourself what problem does it solve that can’t be solved by today’s technology? That silence you hear for an answer is what companies like Vuzix are failing to answer because they’re too busy rushing to develop new technology without once stopping to think what problem does it solve.

One common feature smart glasses keep trying to introduce is the ability to pair with a smartphone and receive notifications directly on the lenses. If you thought getting distracted by looking at your phone while driving could cause accidents, imagine driving while wearing smart glasses and getting email and message notifications directly on your lenses. Think that won’t cause more than one accident?

The huge problem smart glass makers are trying to solve is to morph a smartphone into smart glasses. That makes as much sense as morphing a smartphone into a wearable computer.

The Apple Watch isn’t succeeding because it mimics an iPhone on your wrist, but because it offers real-time health monitoring, which is clumsy to do with an iPhone.

Likewise, smart glasses won’t succeed because they duplicate the features of a smartphone but because they offer features that a smartphone does not offer. The real purpose of smart glasses is simply enhanced vision, replacing physical lenses with adjustable magnifying lenses through computational photography that’s already available in the iPhone camera. The only trick is getting the camera lenses small and light enough to fit within an ordinary eyeglass frame.

Vuzix’s smart glasses are simply a product in search of a solution, which means they’ll crash and go bankrupt shortly or give up their smart glasses altogether. When smart glasses offer something that today’s smartphones can’t offer, that’s when smart glasses will finally have arrived. Until then, we’ll have to wade through a parade of useless smart glasses pointlessly trying to mimic smartphones for no good reason at all.

Apple Appoints New Augmented Reality Leader

Posted on February 14, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple announced that Frank Casanova will be the Senior Director, Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple Augmented Reality.

Augmented reality is interesting but so far, it’s not a game-changer. The main problem isn’t the technical limitations but the human imagination in focusing augmented reality to solving a pressing need.

Technology only works when it can solve a problem better than existing technology can. Word processors replaced typewriters because they could make editing faster and easier. Mobile phones replaced landline phones because they’re far more convenient to have a phone with you at all times.

By promoting a corporate executive to lead Apple’s augmented reality marketing, Apple is showing they’re serious about pushing augmented reality. However, all the marketing in the world won’t do any good if people don’t see that augmented reality has a use.

That’s why Apple needs to focus on a single problem that augmented reality can solve, which is enhanced eye sight. Right now, the current technology to improve eye sight involves glasses, binoculars, microscopes, telescopes, and contact lenses. All are bulky and must be used together.

For example, eyeglasses help people see who have poor vision. If people with eyeglasses want to see far away, they still need to binoculars. Ideally, augmented reality will simply use computational photography) used in the iPhone camera) to make smart glasses that can adjust magnification. Now a single pair of smart glasses will replace eyeglasses, binoculars, and microscopes for seeing far, near, and ordinary distances.

Hiring someone to lead marketing for augmented reality is pointless unless Apple also focuses on using augmented reality to solve a simple but pressing problem that people can recognize immediately. Augmented reality is nothing more than enhanced vision and once Apple comes out with smart glasses that enhance vision, they’ll be well on their way to success.

To learn more about Apple’s latest corporate promotion in augmented reality marketing, click here.

HomePod’s Coming Improvements

Posted on February 8, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: HomePod is mostly focused on superior audio quality, but Apple’s latest patent shows the future of HomePod.

Right now, there’s little reason for most people to buy and use Apple’s HomePod smart speaker. HomePod works great as a speaker for playing music, but unless you’re an audiophile who demands the best audio quality, HomePod’s purpose is fairly limited for the price. That’s why Amazon’s much cheaper smart speakers are far more popular.

Right now, HomePod represents a first-generation smart speaker that offers hands-free computing through Siri. Beyond improving Siri to be more accurate along with the ability to detect emotions, Apple is proposing two major new features to HomePod that could help it break out from the crowded smart speaker market.

First is the ability to detect hand gestures. Right now, HomePod is mostly limited to voice control and limited touch gestures, but hand gestures would let you control HomePod from a distance through different hand movements such as raising your hand up or down to adjust the volume.

Since Apple acquired the company behind Microsoft’s Kinect that could detect motion gestures, this feature should be easy to implement in the next version of HomePod.

A second new HomePod feature will be providing visual feedback through colors in the mesh of the HomePod exterior. These colors could change to show when it recognized your voice or hand gesture, or they could display limited amount of text.

Today’s HomePod is an interesting start, much like the first generation of the iPhone was an interesting start. By adding hand gestures, emotion detection, and color visual feedback, HomePod could gradually become far more useful than just offering superior audio quality.

Apple still needs to define the main reason to use HomePod and hands-free computing. Right now the Apple Watch offers real-time health monitoring, which was impossible to achieve in the past. What can HomePod offer that offers a solution people will want that they can’t get through current technology? Until Apple figures this out, HomePod will remain an interesting but expensive toy to study as it gradually evolves into a useful product for everyone.

The Gradual Improvement of Apple Maps

Posted on February 5, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple Maps had a disastrous debut but has gradually been improving over the years.

When Apple introduced Apple Maps in 2012, it was nowhere as good as Google Maps. Yet Apple had little choice but to offer their own mapping app since Google wanted more money to improve Google Maps on iOS while they went ahead and added improvements to Google Maps on Android. Given a choice between being blackmailed by Google or developing their own mapping solution, Apple had little choice but to create their own mapping app.

Initially, Apple Maps fell far short of Google Maps, which only makes sense since Apple Maps was brand new while Google Maps had years to mature and improve over time. Fortunately, Apple Maps has also improved over time, adding transit directions and even indoor walking directions in malls and airport terminals around the world.

While many people still prefer Google Maps, Apple Maps has finally reached a decent and acceptable level of accuracy and reliability. Given enough time, Apple Maps should only continue to improve. Whether it will ever catch up or surpass Google Maps remains to be seen, but the fact is that Apple Maps is now worth using on a regular basis.

Apple Maps is just one more example of Apple avoiding being restricted by a single company. That’s why Apple shuns off-the-shelf components in favor of custom parts such as their own A-series processors and graphics processor for the iPhone and iPad.

Apple had to wean themselves off from their dependence on Google for their mapping app. Now other companies are becoming dependent on Apple.

Google pays Apple to insure that Google remains the default search engine in Safari. Qualcomm and Intel are fighting to sell chips to Apple for the iPhone and iPad.

The lesson is clear. Any company is better off without being overly dependent on any other company. If you can’t diversify your suppliers, then you better own everything so your suppliers can’t blackmail you.

Apple Watch Detects Man’s Fall

Posted on February 4, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple Watch detected a man’s fall and called for help.

67-year-old Toralv Ostvang fell in the bathroom, fracturing his face in three places. Fortunately, Toralv was wearing an Apple Watch that detected his fall and automatically called for help when it detected Toralv was not moving after the fall.

Emergency crews responded to the Watch’s alert beacon and said he would likely not have survived the night if he hadn’t received immediate help. That means the Apple Watch helped save one man’s life and its automatic fall detection feature will likely save many more lives in years to come.

Because of its fall detection feature and other health-related options, the Apple Watch is ideally suited for senior citizens. By providing help when the wearer is unable to do so, the Apple Watch can save lives.

While the Apple Watch is ideal for senior citizens, it can also be used for younger people to track their physical activity and urge them to stay active during the day. Sitting in one place is extremely harmful to one’s health so younger people can use the Apple Watch to monitor their physical movements.

The Apple Watch’s main purpose is simply real-time health monitoring, which can literally save lives. As the Apple Watch gains more features such as non-invasive glucose monitoring, it will continue offering health benefits that were too expensive or impractical to track with current technology.

The Apple Watch is a huge success simply because it has a clear purpose to monitor health. What Apple needs to do with their other products is define an equally important purpose.

Anyone know what’s the one compelling reason to use HomePod? HomePod offers hands-free computing, but beyond that, what purpose does it serve to solve a problem that other products can’t do as well? The lack of a clear answer is the reason why HomePod isn’t as popular or profitable while the Apple Watch continues growing in popularity and importance.

If you don’t have an Apple Watch yet, get one or something similar to track your health. A wearable computer like the Apple Watch could one day save your life.

To learn more about how an Apple Watch saved one man’s life, click here.