At this point they don't have many options. Google seems determined to limit Assistant to their hardware.
That being said, I'm not sure the developer community has enough interest in supporting that many AI assistants on their apps (Siri, Assistant, Alexa, Cortana...)
Personally in this case I'd love for more competition. However I'll probably never buy a Samsung phone now between how awful their version of Android is, lack of updates, explosion concerns, and the fact that I don't think they will ever have an assistant that can rival Google.
They are good at hardware in ways Apple is not, but both Apple and Samsung are horrible at web integrated services like this compared to Google. I just don't think it's in their DNA.
Can we really still say they are good at hardware? Especially compared to Apple, I think the hardware as always lagged behind. It was closer recently, but the explosion issues makes it seem like there were taking big risks to keep up with apple.
They are good at hardware. For starters the S7 Edge is an incredible phone and they had been doing good things with the Note aside from the battery.
Further, they are good at selling hardware and the distribution side in ways Apple isn't. They are also prominent in several other important hardware fields.
So yes, I'd say they are objectively pretty good at hardware.
Yes, they are excellent at distribution. They are much better at making deals with carriers. I don't consider that hardware besides just managing more SKUs.
> Especially compared to Apple, I think the hardware as always lagged behind
No, they're ahead I think. You can argue that on the SoC front Apple is ahead, but compare the WQHD OLED screen of an S7 with the screen of an i7 (or even a Plus, which is larger). S7 is IP68 waterproof (you can make nice underwater videos, etc.), larger battery (and longer battery life, actually). It also has more built-in sensors (which you might call a gimmick, but still, it's not _behind_ Apple in any sense).
Aside from their screens, I have to disagree. Everything else in Galaxy phones is gloriously second-rate. The compass in my S4 and Note 4 never really worked properly. Their GPS is just slightly better than a wild guess. Their SOCs went from awesome in the exynos 4000 series when Apple was designing their cores to awful in the 5000 series when they had to do it on their own, and they've only recently started coming close to Apple again. Their external speakers are so bad that they've provided HTC and others with key market differentiation. They don't seem to be able to design an earpiece that doesn't sound like its playing through cheese-cloth. And the fit and finish of their phones is 'luxury-plastic' at best.
The only piece of hardware they seem to do really well is their screens, and that happens to be the most important component for smartphone users. But the rest of their hardware? If it wasn't for Samsung's dominance of OLED, the Android handset market would be much more balanced.
S7 is IP68 waterproof
The difference between IP67 and IP68 waterproofing is 50cm of immersion in water (1m vs 1.5m). It isn't rated for swimming or underwater photography. In practice, both an S7 and an iPhone 7 could probably be taken into a pool. But remember that the S7 still comes with water immersion detection stickers inside (or at least the Note 7 did). They'll know if you take it for a swim.
I feel like Samsung is preparing for the day they can leave the Google eco-system behind. But as of now, it's not viable. The lockin is strong. It's hard enough to build apps to work with both Google services and Amazon Fire services.
Their UI is pretty terrible. I wipe my devices and usually install a mod like Cyanogen or Omni. But I wish we didn't need mods; I wish we could just install stock AOSP on everything just like a base install of Windows (before MS started adding junkware to it in Win10). I wrote a post about this a while back: http://penguindreams.org/blog/android-fragmentation/
> "Samsung is preparing for the day they can leave the Google eco-system behind"
I think you mean "preparing for the day Google leaves them behind."
Google's path with the Pixel, if successful, puts them on more of an Apple trajectory. I saw a recent stat that 9/10 smartphones run Android, so they've dominated the industry already. The question though is whether that would still stay the same if Samsung wasn't in the mix.
Beyond that, the hardware is fast becoming commoditized as everyone realizes that at a certain point, the core features that make people buy a phone will be cloud-based and increasingly with wearable peripherals your fancy phone will be sitting in your pocket while the inputs are worn.
Those who can't differentiate on software and services will be relegated to low-margin commodity hardware providers. However those who own the ecosystem are asserting their control to build what will likely be an insurmountable moat.
I was about to say the same thing. The problem for Samsung is that they need Google and their ecosystem. The other problem for Samsung is that Google doesn't need Samsung anymore. That's not to say Google doesn't want Samsung as an Android partner, but if that day ever came and Samsung decided to switch to Tizen their impact on the Android landscape today wouldn't be as impactful as it would have been years ago.
As Google establishes their supply chain, carrier relationships and grows their hardware unit they'll soon have all of the pieces in place to become the only true competitor to the iPhone in terms of a unified software and hardware experience. Pretty much every review of the Pixel has raved about its performance, touch responsiveness and camera quality. If you're trying to decide which high end Android phone to buy then the Pixel is at the top of that list. Not bad for a first try that was made in only half the time of their competitor's phones.
People are hardwired to a small set of choices. Products or markets with network effects pressure those choices to become 2 or even 1 (though almost everyone agrees that a 1 is too low/risky, and thus we have things like regulation to ostensibly prevent those situations). Thus 2 is the lowest stable set that's agreeable.
One of the things I found interesting about Viv is their demos of 3rd party integration, which none of the other main players have really done a good job with.
AFAIK Alexa is the only one you can integrate with right now, and it's only in the most basic way you could imagine.
I don't know how it will play out with developers, but I think Samsung has a decent shot, particularly given their other consumer goods.
Google Now is not limited to Google hardware. And Google Now is itself way better than Siri, Alexa or Cortana. What is the difference between Assistant and Google Now?
Assistant has a little bit more conversational skills going by their Allo implementation, but otherwise the difference is mostly marketing. I assume that Google will eventually phase out (or stop supporting) Google Now voice commands in favor of concentrating on Assistant.
Does anyone _actually_ use these voice assistants regularly (other than when it first came out)? If so, what for?
I find most people just use Siri to ask questions to show it off and see if they can get some comic relief from the answers... and then curse the rest of the time when they accidently activate it.
I mainly use it in two ways (in order of usage):
1. To set reminders and timers,
2. To find quick answers, ie. I actually _just_ used it to find out what time sunset is and it answered fine. I might sometimes ask it a bit more complex things like "What time is the GSW game on tonight?", but anything research-related or more challenging questions, I leave to Google.
My biggest gripe with this whole voice assistant thing is is, when I think of a query, I usually _want_ to Google it because I enjoy going to Wikipedia (or some related article) and reading about it myself, picking out the sections I find interesting and reading about them, which sometimes leads me deeper into other areas of interest. I don't find that joy when an AI tells me what I want to hear. That's my biggest limitation to using these things. That and Siri never understanding me.
exact same usage. 90% of my usage is setting alarms/timers/location or time based reminders. Voice instructions are a lot easier than ANY interface for that stuff.
setting alarms in the morning without having to wake myself all the way up with that bright screen is the best. While it's plugged in, I can wake it up using just my voice.
In the car, I use it to open my music player, I just wish I could tell it to play too. I set reminders and calendar all the time, so I basically never forget stuff anymore.
Also weather, sports scores, looking up facts while talking to someone (so I don't have to get out of the convo and stare at the screen).
No, their limits are too apparent too quickly, and frankly I'm often using my phone in a situation where I don't want to talk to it. We need subvocalization mics for this kind of thing, because standing around talking out loud to our devices is going to get old in a hurry.
I use mine for one thing, and one stupid thing only: Locating my phone. If I shout "OK Google", the screen turns on, and if I shout "Turn on the flashlight" or "Play <music>", it lights up or makes noise anywhere in the house. That's about it for me.
For me, it's only these two. The last one is very useful, as I set the brightness to minimum to read in the dark. If I next try to use my phone in daylight, there used to be a catch-22 in which it's very hard to see anything on the screen before restoring brightness, but I couldn't restore it without seeing.
I use Siri for exactly three things - setting alarms and timers, asking what time it is and asking to play a movie/tv show (those last two only on the apple tv, the first of those being handy when I'm not wearing my watch and my phone is on the charger - i don't have any clocks anywhere in my apartment)
Edit: Amusingly the asking it to play a movie thing failed miserably when trying to get it to play "The Babadook". It insisted on spelling it "Ba Ba Duke", which obviously did not have the desired effect.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] threadThat being said, I'm not sure the developer community has enough interest in supporting that many AI assistants on their apps (Siri, Assistant, Alexa, Cortana...)
They are good at hardware in ways Apple is not, but both Apple and Samsung are horrible at web integrated services like this compared to Google. I just don't think it's in their DNA.
Further, they are good at selling hardware and the distribution side in ways Apple isn't. They are also prominent in several other important hardware fields.
So yes, I'd say they are objectively pretty good at hardware.
No, they're ahead I think. You can argue that on the SoC front Apple is ahead, but compare the WQHD OLED screen of an S7 with the screen of an i7 (or even a Plus, which is larger). S7 is IP68 waterproof (you can make nice underwater videos, etc.), larger battery (and longer battery life, actually). It also has more built-in sensors (which you might call a gimmick, but still, it's not _behind_ Apple in any sense).
Aside from their screens, I have to disagree. Everything else in Galaxy phones is gloriously second-rate. The compass in my S4 and Note 4 never really worked properly. Their GPS is just slightly better than a wild guess. Their SOCs went from awesome in the exynos 4000 series when Apple was designing their cores to awful in the 5000 series when they had to do it on their own, and they've only recently started coming close to Apple again. Their external speakers are so bad that they've provided HTC and others with key market differentiation. They don't seem to be able to design an earpiece that doesn't sound like its playing through cheese-cloth. And the fit and finish of their phones is 'luxury-plastic' at best.
The only piece of hardware they seem to do really well is their screens, and that happens to be the most important component for smartphone users. But the rest of their hardware? If it wasn't for Samsung's dominance of OLED, the Android handset market would be much more balanced.
S7 is IP68 waterproof
The difference between IP67 and IP68 waterproofing is 50cm of immersion in water (1m vs 1.5m). It isn't rated for swimming or underwater photography. In practice, both an S7 and an iPhone 7 could probably be taken into a pool. But remember that the S7 still comes with water immersion detection stickers inside (or at least the Note 7 did). They'll know if you take it for a swim.
larger battery (and longer battery life, actually)
Definitely not my experience. My iPhone 7+ is approaching 3 days of battery life. When new, my Note 4 could get about 1.8.
It also has more built-in sensors (which you might call a gimmick, but still, it's not _behind_ Apple in any sense).
None of which really seem to work very well. The GPS and compass in my Note 4 were really flaky.
Their UI is pretty terrible. I wipe my devices and usually install a mod like Cyanogen or Omni. But I wish we didn't need mods; I wish we could just install stock AOSP on everything just like a base install of Windows (before MS started adding junkware to it in Win10). I wrote a post about this a while back: http://penguindreams.org/blog/android-fragmentation/
Maybe they are changing again but it hasn't been their strategy as late as last year IMO.
I think you mean "preparing for the day Google leaves them behind."
Google's path with the Pixel, if successful, puts them on more of an Apple trajectory. I saw a recent stat that 9/10 smartphones run Android, so they've dominated the industry already. The question though is whether that would still stay the same if Samsung wasn't in the mix.
Beyond that, the hardware is fast becoming commoditized as everyone realizes that at a certain point, the core features that make people buy a phone will be cloud-based and increasingly with wearable peripherals your fancy phone will be sitting in your pocket while the inputs are worn.
Those who can't differentiate on software and services will be relegated to low-margin commodity hardware providers. However those who own the ecosystem are asserting their control to build what will likely be an insurmountable moat.
As Google establishes their supply chain, carrier relationships and grows their hardware unit they'll soon have all of the pieces in place to become the only true competitor to the iPhone in terms of a unified software and hardware experience. Pretty much every review of the Pixel has raved about its performance, touch responsiveness and camera quality. If you're trying to decide which high end Android phone to buy then the Pixel is at the top of that list. Not bad for a first try that was made in only half the time of their competitor's phones.
AFAIK Alexa is the only one you can integrate with right now, and it's only in the most basic way you could imagine.
I don't know how it will play out with developers, but I think Samsung has a decent shot, particularly given their other consumer goods.
But Assistant's conversational capabilities cannot be downplayed -- they are definitely leading the way there.
A. clueless about Android internals.
B. fanatic about UX above all else.
C. both
It's also why some people are peeved because the Google Assistant on the Pixel can't do some things that Google Now can.
Edit: yep, they bought Viv Labs Inc. on Oct 6th.
I find most people just use Siri to ask questions to show it off and see if they can get some comic relief from the answers... and then curse the rest of the time when they accidently activate it.
I do use voice-to-text quite often.
My biggest gripe with this whole voice assistant thing is is, when I think of a query, I usually _want_ to Google it because I enjoy going to Wikipedia (or some related article) and reading about it myself, picking out the sections I find interesting and reading about them, which sometimes leads me deeper into other areas of interest. I don't find that joy when an AI tells me what I want to hear. That's my biggest limitation to using these things. That and Siri never understanding me.
In the car, I use it to open my music player, I just wish I could tell it to play too. I set reminders and calendar all the time, so I basically never forget stuff anymore.
Also weather, sports scores, looking up facts while talking to someone (so I don't have to get out of the convo and stare at the screen).
I wish there was a way to spell out some uncommon proper names, though.
"Set brightness to maximum."
For me, it's only these two. The last one is very useful, as I set the brightness to minimum to read in the dark. If I next try to use my phone in daylight, there used to be a catch-22 in which it's very hard to see anything on the screen before restoring brightness, but I couldn't restore it without seeing.
Edit: Amusingly the asking it to play a movie thing failed miserably when trying to get it to play "The Babadook". It insisted on spelling it "Ba Ba Duke", which obviously did not have the desired effect.