So my phone just updated to Jelly Bean, Android's new OS.
The good news... they didn't break anything.
The bad news... what's new?
Seriously, there's nothing really new over Ice Cream Sandwich.
There are two things though that I'll talk quickly about.
The first is the voice recognition system. I'll say this, it's definitely better (although still a bit buggy). When dictating an email, the system now is much more accurate and it types out the words as you are speaking them. So you can see if it's got something wrong and you need to stop and correct it.
The bad stuff though is that it doesn't always dictate in real time. Sometimes it doesn't show you the words as you speak them and you have to wait for them all to appear at once.
In addition, and this is a big negative, you can't give it a simple command like 'new paragraph'. I mean, how hard would it have been to add a voice command like that so you don't have to revert to the keyboard?
The second feature enhancement is the addition of Google Now. Basically it's the equivalent of the iPhone's Siri.
Once again, while it's neat, it's underwhelming at the same time. You can ask it something like 'where is the nearest subway?' and it pulls up locations for subway in your area. That's pretty impressive in that it doesn't get mixed up at all and think you are asking for a subway as in transportation.
But then you can ask it simple things like "Where do I live?" (I'm imagining one day having alzheimer's and how this would be useful) and it pulls up web hits for things like 'Where should I live?'
This is why I sort of laugh when people say that RIM is dead. Smartphones aren't 'smart' just yet, they just aren't stupid. But there are so many areas for innovation left to achieve in the smartphone market that whoever successfully does so can easily dethrone Apple or Google.
Will that be RIM and the BB10 OS? Hard to say.
We know RIM will have its own Siri-like system, so who knows. If it's 'smarter' than Google voice or Siri then that's a huge leg up.
Will RIM think to include things like being able to voice command a new paragraph in the email you are dictating?
If yes, then business users for sure will fall in love with RIM again. If no, then they will simply be the third option behind Google and Apple.
My point though is that there are so many feature enhancements possible in the smartphone industry that don't exist today. While everyone is so sure that Apple and Google will dominate until the end of time, I think that view is highly premature simply because they are missing features now that they should have thought to include.
So the 'user experience' is still up for grabs, which means the industry is as well.
The good news... they didn't break anything.
The bad news... what's new?
Seriously, there's nothing really new over Ice Cream Sandwich.
There are two things though that I'll talk quickly about.
The bad stuff though is that it doesn't always dictate in real time. Sometimes it doesn't show you the words as you speak them and you have to wait for them all to appear at once.
In addition, and this is a big negative, you can't give it a simple command like 'new paragraph'. I mean, how hard would it have been to add a voice command like that so you don't have to revert to the keyboard?
Once again, while it's neat, it's underwhelming at the same time. You can ask it something like 'where is the nearest subway?' and it pulls up locations for subway in your area. That's pretty impressive in that it doesn't get mixed up at all and think you are asking for a subway as in transportation.
But then you can ask it simple things like "Where do I live?" (I'm imagining one day having alzheimer's and how this would be useful) and it pulls up web hits for things like 'Where should I live?'
This is why I sort of laugh when people say that RIM is dead. Smartphones aren't 'smart' just yet, they just aren't stupid. But there are so many areas for innovation left to achieve in the smartphone market that whoever successfully does so can easily dethrone Apple or Google.
Will that be RIM and the BB10 OS? Hard to say.
We know RIM will have its own Siri-like system, so who knows. If it's 'smarter' than Google voice or Siri then that's a huge leg up.
Will RIM think to include things like being able to voice command a new paragraph in the email you are dictating?
If yes, then business users for sure will fall in love with RIM again. If no, then they will simply be the third option behind Google and Apple.
My point though is that there are so many feature enhancements possible in the smartphone industry that don't exist today. While everyone is so sure that Apple and Google will dominate until the end of time, I think that view is highly premature simply because they are missing features now that they should have thought to include.
So the 'user experience' is still up for grabs, which means the industry is as well.
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