This week on The CultCast: Apple’s secret Siri speaker is just around the corner — we’ll tell you everything (we think) we know about it. Plus: Why AirPods are the best product Apple’s made in years; and why Microsoft’s MacBook clone is actually great for Apple fans.
Finally, we’ll deconstruct and decode Tim Cook’s mysterious and quickly deleted accidental tweet, and you’ll be shocked at the truth!
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Episode
CultCast #282 – The Siri smart speaker is incoming Subscribe on iTunes
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This week’s links
Apple’s new Siri speaker could be revealed at WWDC
- Earlier this week, we heard the company is currently in the process of finalizing the design of its first standalone Siri device, which is expected to take on the Amazon Echo. Now we have an idea what it might look like and when it could be revealed.
- Apple’s Siri-based smart speaker and home hub has an “over 50 percent chance” of being announced at WWDC, according to our homeboy Ming Chi Kuo.
- Kuo said Apple’s smart home product will likely launch in the second half of 2017 and cost more than the $179 Amazon Echo. The device will supposedly support AirPlay with “excellent acoustics performance” from one woofer and seven tweeters. Kuo said its performance will be similar to the iPhone 6/6s.
Apple places orders for its Amazon Echo rival
- Digitimes is reporting that Inventec, the Taiwan company that makes Apple’s popular AirPods, received Apple’s order for the the Siri smart speaker.
Siri could soon recognize your voice for added security
- Apple is busy working on innovative tech like the ability for Siri to recognize individual users’ voices, according to a recently published Apple patent application.
AirPods get highest-ever satisfaction score for a first-year Apple product
- AirPods are the most beloved product Apple has launched in years, based on a new survey that found an astonishing percentage of AirPods owners are extremely satisfied.
- In a newly published study conducted by Creative Strategies and Experian, a total of 98 percent of AirPods owners said they are either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with Apple’s new wireless buds. Over 80 percent of customers said they are very satisfied.
Microsoft’s answer to the MacBook suffers one big flaw
- Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop, with its sleek design and a super-sharp display, might look like a worthy competitor to the MacBook.
- Starting at $999, the Surface Laptop ships with an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a battery that lasts up to 14.5 hours in between charges.
- Windows 10 S only runs apps downloaded from the Windows Store! But you can upgrade to Windows Pro for $50.
Twitter flips out over mysterious Tim Cook tweet
- Apple CEO Tim Cook set Twitter ablaze with speculation today — and all it took was a simple smiley face emoji.
- Cook sent out a tweet with just a smiley face emoji this morning. No other context was provided, and the tweet got deleted shortly later, leading Apple fans on Twitter to wonder what the most powerful man in tech was really trying to say.
Erfon Elijah is the producer and host of The CultCast. When not editing podcasts or watching Mrs. Doubtfire, you’ll find him on Xbox Live hunting CoD Ghosts foes like the Predator. Here are his tweets…
9 responses to “Will Apple’s Siri smart speaker suck? Catch the discussion on The CultCast”
Yes, the Siri speaker will suck, because Siri still sucks. She’s only useful for the most basic of requests, things that it’s still faster, easier, and more accurate to do (literally) by hand. Maybe if you often don’t have your hands free at home and maybe if you listen to popular music (I’ve tried to get her to play some of my music, or even things I’d like, and it never goes well) it would work for you.
Beyond that, the difference, compared to the Alexa, is that we don’t otherwise have access to the features it provides in a non-voice interface. There’s literally no comparison here. Everything Siri can do, I can do better on my own with the respective apps. There are no respective apps for Alexa.
I stopped earning a living at shopritte and afterwards now I am earning $75-97$ every hour. How? I am working on-line! My job didn’t make me pleasant and thus I chose to take an opportunity on something new…after just 4 years it wasn’t easy to leave my day work however right now I couldn’t be happier.>>> OKNO.UK/r/279jn
Apple is too late to the game on this one. I already own 5 Alexa devices for my smart home. Though I have the Apple ecosystem going on in my house, my smart home is Wink/Nest/Alexa/Canary driven – not HomeKit (which was also too late to the game).
I will say, you can say “Siri sucks” but she is WAY smarter than Alexa by way of answering questions.
I will not predict if the siri speaker will suck but I will tell you that I tried to embrace homekit using Siri, I have various wifi outlets, a fan, an Ecoboo, Blosom, Phillips HUE etc.
What a mess, I mean a serious mess. Apple has become so mediocre in the last couple years, the thought behind the design is really low at Apple. After having to reset homekit several times I gave up and ordered Alexa, who works far far better controlling my connected home stuff.
If Apple does not start over with homekit then having siri in a little box is useless to me, I have a phone I can ask what time it is or compose a text message on and I now own two Alexa’s in my house for all the imoprtant stuff.
This is not the first fail by Apple, Apple has been on a steady downward trajectory in the last years, the iPhone 7 with the extra connector that owners now have to lug around (or lose) just to use wired headphones and charge at the same time is a huge fail in my opinion.
This is just arrogance that Apple thinks we all want to use bluetooth, and then to charge us for an adapter that adds functionality that was previously part of the device.
How about the mountain of bugs in iOS, TVOS,MacOS?? I mean one after the next.
Here are just a few bugs that come to mind that upset me.
– Music sometimes continues to play when I answer a call on my iPhone.
– This weird call screen that is white that is not the call screen that I need to get to when I need to hang up a call or dial a menu number.
– No more call controls on the iPhone lock screen during a call, rather I have to authenticate to hang up or dial something?
– Hey Siri not responding even if my iPhone is facing upward or in my habd sometimes. I have replaced my phone 3 times to make sure it is not hardware.
– Apple TV forcing me to re-log into the iTunes store every 10-12 days and then multiply this by several apps, this is horrible.
– Homekit does not allow me to edit rooms to move devices around (as far as i can tell).
-Devices not responding with Siri but do respond with the native app. This is a HUGE FAIL.
Thats just a few.
I am a long time Apple customer and Apple is still far better than Android on phones and Windows on computers but the gap is closing and I am really dissapointed in the lack of care and thought Tim Cook appears to be demanding in the company.
If this next version of the iPhone is not really great im not buying it, PERIOD. If they still make me use this stupid headphone adapter IP8 better have something really great to make up for this, otherwise I will go another year with my 6S, and another and another…
I haven’t experienced any of the “bugs” that you’ve listed. Literally not one. I’m not saying your concerns don’t matter…what I’m saying is the attitude of “Apple is a mess because of my personal experiences” is not fair.
I have and honestly my expierence is the one that matters to me. Not taking anything away from your comment.
Amazon and Google are hands down the best in the voice assistant category. Siri is pure trash, messing up half the time I ask it something, or not giving me enough information. I wish Apple was so much better in this category, but that’s not the case at all.
Will the rumored Apple speaker suck?? Tune in to today’s episode of Nonsensical Predictions About Unreleased Products!
Patrick says that Google’s Google Home will be the winner.