I am going to say no. This post by Boris on TheNextWeb asks whether Siri is becoming just a gimmick. In the article, he also brings reliability into question.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a coworker that finally switched to the iPhone from a dumb phone after asking me questions and debating about it everytime we saw each other over the course of a year. He finally bought one when the 4S came out. He told me that he loved his iPhone, and couldn’t even imagine not having it. He then said, “I don’t really use Siri that much though”. When I asked him further, it turns out that while he doesn’t hold it up and ask questions, he does use it to dictate texts and emails many times a day. I do the same thing.
I was reminded of this conversation when I read the above article. I don’t experience any where near the downtime or reliability problems that are mentioned in the article or by Marco Arment in his response.
My most common use scenarios are:
Texting when my hands aren’t free
Listening to texts when I can’t look at my phone.
Sending short email messages
Starting timers
Setting alarms
Adding items to my calendar
Adding to-do items and grocery items to my list
I’m a bike commuter, so the hands free, eyes free thing is really, really useful every day.
Advertising works: Why do you think Americans are so fat and in debt?
-Stephen Marche from Esquire Feb 2012- A Short Prayer for Advertising
Speaking of technology in education- great post by Cringely
My kids go to the best public school in Sonoma County. I know that because I chose my house based on that research. But when Cole finishes his math problems in a quarter the time it takes anyone else in the class, his teacher has him insert a wait state by putting his head down on his desk. Conversely, when some other kid never quite gets the problem set finished, ever, well he/she never gets a rest and never masters the material, either.
The current system is unfair to both kids.
The only solution I can see is one teacher per student. And the only way something close to that is going to happen is through technology. And it’s coming.
1 teacher per student seems a little extreme (even if it is just a computer), but I could see how technology could perhaps helps fill in the gaps by tailoring the education to the speed of individual learners.
It is simply amazing to consider the sheer size of the numbers, let alone the growth of Apple over the last year.
37.04 million iPhones in the 4th quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
15.43 million iPads, a 111 percent unit increase 5.2 million Macs, a 26 percent unit increase.
15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline.
Here is some perspective courtesy of Daring Fireball
Apple broke its previous quarterly records for: revenue, profit, iPhones sold, iPads sold, and Macs sold. Their previous record for revenue was $28 billion; they almost hit 50.
So they’re doing OK.
I was in Las Vegas for a work conference last week and kept noticing that it seems like everyone and their dog has an iPhone. Of the 22 folks in my office, 9 have iPhones and 11 have iPads. From a sales, revenue and even market share perspective, I think we are seeing definite proof that they are doing something right.
-In the spirit of full disclosure I certainly have influenced the iOS adoption in my office over the last 3 yrs as it was just me when I started there 3 years ago.
This is just brilliant- and had me laughing for a few minutes straight.
Nicely put, Ben.
There is certainly an anti-Apple slant to this Fox News piece By Avram Piltch.
The cost of iPads, digital textbooks, and the infrastructure to support them will prevent most schools from offering this technology to their students, creating yet another sharp dividing line between the haves and have-nots. Instead of paying a Mac tax, educators should embrace open standards like EPUB and the price-lowering competition they bring.
And then this-
If educators support the EPUB3 format, students will have the option to purchase their textbooks from any number of online stores, giving them a wide range of book choices and the ability to find the best deals for their schools. There’s no need to pay a profligate textbook tithe to eBook Emperor Cook in Cupertino. Free your mind and the texts will follow.
What is clear is that the author doesn’t understand the nature of the textbooks Apple is going to be offering. They won’t be just text and pictures, but instead are a hybrid of the content in traditional textbooks and the graphic interaction of a computer application. In other words, EPUB compatibility would just be switching to digital versions of the traditional texts already in use. Apple is proposing something significantly different. Something different that I hope my children get to use soon.
Talking with my wife about it today made it clear that this may only be available to more affluent schools initially. That is usually how things work with technology though. Early adopters are almost always folks with more cash.
Of course “early adopter” and “initially” implies that there will be a larger market and broader adoption at some later date.
What I wonder is whether Apple will develop cheaper, more durable devices in order to get into more schools. While they have often catered to and offered attractive terms to schools it the past, this is different. These devices have to go home, get carried in backpacks and make it back in one piece. I can tell you from first-hand experience that the current iPad is unfortunately fragile.
Some feel that because of these limitations, it would be a much better fit for college students, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a correction in the first year or so. I like this article and this quote by MG Siegler-
If it does take off, I bet it does in colleges first. And that’s why it’s weird that Apple is starting off by focusing on high school.
Apple is in the business of selling hardware- and for the most part any content that they sell has been to that end. Making a cheaper iPad like device to move textbooks is a different business model and one that I’m not sure Apple has any interest in pursuing.
There is a lot to overcome here if Apple is to see wide spread adoption of their new iTextbooks in schools. What isn’t clear is how widespread the adoption has to be for Apple to consider it a success. If textbooks allow them to sell another 3–4 million devices, will that be enough?
