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Comment by sjg007 | Hacker News Reader

Apple really needs to double down on Siri and take voice interaction to the next level. Part of this means that apple really needs to get its own knowledge/sematic web solution.

The new Google interactive radar thing is neat. Apple needs to figure that out.

That the iphone/ipad can be a bigger compute device with external attachments could be a bigger development then we think (like the Samsung dock thing).. People don't buy laptops in the same sense anymore and that will help justify higher prices.

The Apple upgrade rent/lease program is basically a way to get higher prices over time.

Apple should have its own MVNO.

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I think Microsoft's Surface line is showing what computing can be about. Its lacking the one thing though that Apple is really leader, a phone.

I think Apple should look there to get some inspiration, they could easily bring that to the next level.

Its 2019 for instance and my MacBook Pro still does not have a touch screen, seriously? Which to me, coming from PC world, seems like I'm using a device from 6+ years ago. It has an interesting touchbar though. Ok.

And everything seems too expensive I feel also. I would never pay for a MacBook, my employer does.

Personally I did research end of last year and bought a Surface device and am very happy with that decision.

The Microsoft Surface hardware is not the problem. It’s the OS. Windows tries and fails to be both a desktop OS and touch screen friendly.

I have a work Dell with a touch screen. I never use it.

I also bought a Dell 2n1 and thought that it would serve as both my computer and tablet. Windows 10 is still a horrible experience as a touch screen and the 16x9 ratio just doesn’t work.

Still better than the 2n1 experience with either ChromeOS or any GNU/Linux variant, where one needs to rent a private cloud for any meaningful work.

I can't imagine every wanting a touchscreen on a laptop with a keyboard. I used to have one, and it constantly irritated me if I accidentally touched it.

Reading through documents, scrolling, and especially when having discussions or jam sessions with others a touchscreen really makes a difference. It's such a natural way to interact.

I have only noticed this now with the MacBook at work which I have to use and how limiting it is not being able to touch the screen and have it do things. It seems just a natural thing.

I can't imagine every wanting a touchscreen on a laptop with a keyboard. I used to have one, and it constantly irritated me if I accidentally touched it.

I don't own such a device, but I can easily imagine how it could be very useful for entering handwritten notes with a stylus.

Yeah Siri is limited in its ability to answer queries, and it also doesn’t handle multi-device situations well in my experience.

While holding my phone, I ask Siri to open Netflix. My HomePod in the next room responds that it cannot open apps. Impressive that it can hear me, but maybe consider that My iPhone is much closer to my voice and is able to do the thing I requested?

Just returned the HomePod, for various reasons including this (but mostly because paired HomePods cannot he used as the audio playback device on my Mac, except in iTunes).

What's the interactive radar thing you mentioned?

There was a story a few days ago about using radar for object recognition and gesture tracking (among other things).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18855337

2019 iPhone is rumored to have new Sony depth sensing (time of flight) camera on rear, for AR and normal photos.

Google also had Project Tango, which I believe used hardware IP they acquired through their brief ownership of Motorola. They scrapped that approach since current mobile processors are powerful enough to accomplish the same thing in software.

Occipital's Structure Sensor has been available for years, and uses an active scan along the lines of what the Kinect does.

Among the available options, I'm most interested in calculating depth from parallax relative to motion using scale heuristics and dead reckoning, like Tango. Particularly for outdoor applications.

The iPhone is so powerful now I don’t understand why they don’t sell a dock for it that runs a desktop environment. or a laptop enclosure where you drop it in as the trackpad. I’d be back on the upgrade cycle if they did.

The last iPad Pro allows you to hook it to external screens...

They could do it before too: the difference now is a direct usb c connection. But most apps don't support anything but mirroring. And the resolution only partly fills the monitor.

Iphones can connect to external displays too, with an adapter. But I don't see this being influential until there's a framework for the second dosplay, mouse support etc

>*They could do it before too: the difference now is a direct usb c connection

The main difference to me is that now it's officially sanctioned, and even mentioned on Apple's material (shown in the keynote, etc).

I agree, I think it's a very interesting change for the future, and we may see why it happened when ios 13 is released.

But as of now, very early days.

It would cut into Macbook sales.

To be fair this has been suggested, at Apple, so many times. Trying to get ideas through the exec team was always problematic.

I assume now the only growth is going to be found by increasing their market share, it'll be suggested again.

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