I founded omnes.tv, host the Device Drivers show and produce/engineer the Revelator show. With the little time I have remaining I delve deep into tech topics and publish my findings here on TenFingerCrunch.
Although we may be more familiar with the Think Different ads voiced by Richard Dreyfus, it turns out Steve Jobs lent his voice to one that never aired:
Steve Jobs passed away tonight. I knew this day would come, but I hoped that it never would.
I never knew Steve personally. It was only through his work that I came to understand who he was…a visionary. He had contributed so much to the tech industry, but most importantly he helped bring technology to the masses.
There is no denying his impact on our daily lives. He had the unique ability to not only know where the industry was heading, but to bring together and inspire others to help build that vision. Just one of his milestones would be enough to secure tech icon recognition, and yet he had contributed to so many:
Apple II
Macintosh
Pixar
iPod
iTunes Music Store
iPhone
iPad
Steve Jobs was 56. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
This is my next… has posted an editorial examining why Apple’s Siri personal assistant may just work. It discusses the pitfalls of existing command-based digital assistants, like Ford’s SYNC, and how Siri may over come their limitations.
The article does examine two issues they feel could be problematic for the new technology. The one that caught my eye:
My second problem is that from all the demos I’ve seen, there’s no way to input text into Siri — it’s voice only. Outside of the mere inconvenience of that (you’re in a loud place, you’re in a need-to-be-quiet place, you’ve been gagged by your kidnappers), it feels a bit like a vote of no confidence from Apple. If Siri’s AI is truly magnificent, wouldn’t it be the preferred method of input for most things, most of the time? The lack of text input implies to me that Apple only thinks Siri is an efficient way to get things done when you’re running or driving or folding laundry. So I wonder, is it really an efficient way to get things done at all?
I would think that typing in the question would take more time than simply opening the app yourself. This may be why Apple decided to limit Siri’s input to spoken language.
Samsung Electronics will file separate preliminary injunction motions in Paris, France and Milano, Italy on October 5 local time requesting the courts block the sale of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the respective markets.
Samsung’s preliminary injunction requests in France and Italy will each cite two patent infringements related to wireless telecommunications technology, specifically Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) standards for 3G mobile handsets.
The second paragraph plainly states this has to do with the RAND patents we’ve discussed before.
The iPhone 4S is scheduled to launch on October 14th for France, and October 28th for Italy.