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Technology

Technology

Speech Recognition

David Pogue on Siri and Android.

Unfortunately, Android has an Achilles’ heel — actually, more like Achilles’ entire leg. To issue spoken commands, you have to tap the microphone icon on the Google search bar. And it’s only on the home screen or the Google Now screen (swipe up from the bottom). So you can’t speak commands when your phone is locked, or when you’re in another app.

On the iPhone, you hold down the Home button or the clicker on your earbuds cord, so the voice command feature works when the phone is asleep or in any app.

In other words, to use an Android phone’s speech features, you frequently have to pick it up, and you always have to look at it, which defeats much of the purpose. The exception: Motorola’s new phones, like the Moto X, can be set to listen all the time.

I think Mr. Pogue wrote a thorough and well represented comparison between Apple’s Siri and Google’s Android speech recognition functionality. This is a very important feature for any “smart” devices right now and going forward. Both are relatively new and I am sure we all see vast and exponential improvements around the corner.

A very important key point is human-computer interaction. And right now I think Apple is doing it right.

UPDATE: Pogue has just released a 90-second video clip with the comparisons. Very informative.

2013/08/20
1355
Technology

Dropbox For Photo Management

Adam Dachis from Lifehacker has a fantastic article on using Dropbox for photos.

I  love snapping photos but I hate dealing with them after they come out of the camera. Edits take a really long time and almost nobody enjoys organizing a bunch of files. My method works great for me because I don’t like a complicated setup.

Personally, I really dislike using services such as Smugmug, Flickr and Zenfolio to store my photographs. Even though they now look great, I don’t like how anyone of them could change their privacy rules on the fly. This is why I am currently using Piwigo. I can install the software directly to my server and have full control.

This guide for using Dropbox looks like a very promising and is something that I will try out.

2013/08/19
1647
Inspirational, Technology

Jobs by Joshua Michael Stern

Jobs (2013) film

The film desperately needs some sort of unifying story. It jumps around in time too much. No part of the story really gets fleshed out so much that you care about it. I would much rather the film covered the launch of Apple as a company, say, rather than trying to cram 24 action-packed years into two hours.

Last night was the premiere of the Steve Jobs biopic featuring Ashton Kutcher. Despite the mixed reviews and negative backlash, I found it pretty refreshing, bold and honest. If I was someone who did not know about the history of Jobs, then I can see how one would see the film as a bit choppy. Many good points of his life were not fully represented such as his time at NeXT and Pixar. However, I think that Kutcher portrayed him pretty raw and accurate for the most part. We got to see the ups and downs of one of the most iconic innovators of the last century.

An extended version or even a part 2 is needed, as many want to see the story continue through the iPhone, iPad and his unfortunate death.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed the film on Bloomberg.  He stated that he found a lot of things wrong with “Jobs” but generally liked Kutcher’s portrayal of his long time friend and business partner. Woz is consulting on the Aaron Sorkin adaptation of the biography of Steve Jobs.

10 things I learned going it alone

Commercial success comes through that continual improvement, not by somehow “getting it right” first time around.

In the film, we saw how the Apple II was major revenue generator for the company. I believe that the first impression is worth a lot. However, a leader is a good one when they are able to quickly learn from their mistakes and see the cons of their business, work or service. And then improve the next version 10-fold.

2013/08/17
1511
Inspirational, Technology

Hyperloop

Elon Musk finally unveils prototype plans for the highly anticipated “Hyperloop”

The solar-powered system, which Musk previously described as a cross between a Concorde, rail gun and air-hockey table, would shoot as many as 28 passengers in each enclosed capsule through a low-pressure steel tube at up to 800 miles per hour, according to the 57-page design plan.

Musk is the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX. He has a track record of envisioning marvellous ideas and then actually bringing them into reality. If anyone is going to be able to pull off a brand new mode of transportation, it’s him. However, it is worth mentioning that Musk doesn’t actually intend to do it all by himself, hence why it is an open-sourced project. Who can blame him though? He is running multiple up and coming companies.

“Musk maintains that he has too much on his plate to deal with bringing the Hyperloop to fruition. “I wish I had not mentioned it,” he says. “I still have to run SpaceX and Tesla, and it’s fucking hard.”

I think it’s great that we have innovative and inspiring individuals  such as Musk in the world. There are just too many “arm-chair” CEOs and nothing actually gets done. The landscape of the world and technology is rapidly accelerating and we need help pushing the human race forward from all industries. We need people like him.

Musk talks about going from downtown LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes. But one of my dreams is to be able to travel from downtown Toronto to downtown Ottawa in around 30 minutes. Wouldn’t that be just awesome? Then, imagine the infrastructure of multiple hyperloops that would allow one to travel from one side of North America to the other with just 6 stops in about 3 hours. Thrilling.

2013/08/13
1488
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