A personal note:
This show was recorded just a day prior to the announcement of Steve Jobs death. I was extremely sadden to hear the news and debated on what to do about this episode. In the end I decided to release it as is with a special introduction. I think the best way to honor Steve and his legacy is to continue to use the amazing things he gave use to make our dent in the universe. The Maccast may be more like a ding, but I plan to continue to do just that.
Thank you Steve, we miss you already. apple.com/stevejobs
Download today’s show here! 
MC20111005.mp3 [44.1MB 01:31:28 64kbps]
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 369. On Tuesday Apple held their special “Let’s talk iPhone” event on campus in Cupertino. I invited David Sparks (Mac Power Users) and Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken) on the Maccast for some re-cap and commentary and as always it was a great conversation and a ton of fun, so enjoy.
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For us, Siri is gonna be the deal-maker. IF it works as well as it is shown in the Apple videos, then, even though we’ve only been in our iPhone 4 contract for a little under a year (and thus ineligible for an upgrade), we would pay full price to get an iPhone 4s. My girlfriend has been frustrated to no end with the current iPhone “voice recognition,” and it is an absolute necessity for us, being Californians, since our state now makes it illegal to handle a cellphone while driving.
The real test is going to be how well Siri is able to parse what you’re saying when you’re in a noisy environment (i.e. driving on a noisy freeway). But when iPhone 4s demo units start showing up at Apple Stores, I figure that that is the perfect test environment. If it can correctly parse out what I say while testing it in an Apple Store, then it should work pretty much anywhere, except maybe if you’re standing right next to a jet engine.
As far as Siri requiring an iPhone 4s, I suspect that there are things “under the hood” that do in fact require the extra processing power. For one thing, as Adam mentioned, there is text to speech. But more importantly, “the new Siri” is doing a lot more natural language processing, etc. It probably could work on the iPhone 4, but it would be sluggish and seize up at random, and Apple is all about the user experience. case in point: when multitasking first came out, they said that older iPhones and iPod touches wouldn’t be able to multitask. But the jailbreakers found a way to enable the multitasking code on older devices, and yes indeed it did work, but it was quite sluggish.
I’m wondering if Siri requiring an iPhone 4S has to do with the changes made to the antenna, allowing Siri to operate and not interfere with the iPhone sending/receiving phone calls and texts.
did you catch on the Pre-order page the unlocked 4s to be released in November at the same price points as the current iPhone 4 and is only GSM?
From the Apple pre-order page:
The unlocked iPhone works only on supported GSM networks, such as AT&T in the U.S. When you travel internationally, you can also use a micro-SIM card from a local GSM carrier. The unlocked iPhone will not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.
16GB2
$649.00
32GB2
$749.00
64GB2
$849.00
I just want to say that I have had this feeling over the last months and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. This last epode helped me figure it out.
I will be taking your podcast off my subscription list. It came to me that your commentary has to be ALMOST the most clueless where it comes to the Mac. I think only Paul Thurrot gets things wrong more.
Your conclusions about the technology and the reasoning behind it are so obviously colored by popular rumorisms that it makes the resulting punditry useless. Further even your guests on this last show were relying on de-bunked snark… I have no idea why people think we need to hear this.
We want informed, reasoned discussion about technology. Not stupid comments about antenna-gate that are not even accurate (read up on the antenna switching system before you use it to reference a nonexistent problem).
The sad part is I see this garbage finding it’s way in to all the tech podcasts. From yours to TWiT the prevailing attitude seems to be, un-informed snark is better than researched commentary.
Re: Tim Cook’s gulping and apparent nervousness.
I guess with the benefit of hindsight, I think we can ‘forgive’ him for his mood (given Steve’s passing).
I’m not an emotional person, but I cried for a two minutes when I saw the news. (I’m heterosexual, male). (I feel bad for mocking people who cried when Princess Di passed (I was like, how can you cry about someone you’ve never met)
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Adam – I think your intro to the show was perfect. Let’s continue to talk about, use the technologies that Steve bought us.
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Re: Siri.
I downloaded Siri several months ago, but it didn’t work in the UK (at the time). So, I’m itching to try it!
The accents in the UK are very diverse – from broad cockney to geordie etc. I really am curious to see how it handles it.
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No form factor change — I can live with it. I still marvel at my iPhone 4; beautiful design. I don’t understand people who just want a new form-factor for fashion reasons.
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Predictions – Not sure if you know the ‘Talk Show’ podcast with John Gruber? HIs prediction was fantastic! I’m now addicted to his podcast (along with yours, of course, Adam)
While I never like to see someone unsubscribe I respect your decision to do so. The thing I would like more though would be for you to add your voice to the conversation. This is a community and you should treat it as such. Send in a comment and I’d be happy to consider include it in the show. Your comment here seems to be a specific reaction to one comment about the antenna issues (or lack there of) on the iPhone 4. All I can say about that is that my iPhone 4 does lose signal strength and drop calls when held in a natural position in my hand under low signal situations. I’m not calling that “antenna gate”, but I do think Apple chose to address the antenna design on the iPhone 4S in part to better handle this type of situation. But that is just my opinion and I don’t feel that is “uninformed snark” as you put it. Also keep in mind that this episode was recorded in the hours after the announcement. It was a “commentary” on the announcements and never billed or presented as a technical evaluation of the iPhone 4S. I work hard to separate option segments from news or technical information. I have NEVER billed the Maccast as a “news” program. I work hard to be informed on as much as possible, but can’t always know everything. So please, share your opinion, insight, and knowledge with the community and we can all be better for it.
Steve’s death is sad an all but if I hear yet another blubbering podcaster’s monotone preamble ill probbaly puke.
Get over it already.
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