Re: [NTLK] [OT] New iPhones/iPhone OS 3.0

From: Steven Scotten <splicer_at_paroxysm.com>
Date: Sat Jun 13 2009 - 14:45:39 EDT

On Jun 13, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Reilly001os@aol.com wrote:

> To me basic features equals a basic electronic organizer not a PDA.
> There's a difference between a paper organizer/planner notebook and
> a live personal assistant just as there's a difference between an
> electronic organizer and a PDA. The difference to me is the newtons
> search and assist functions which modern "PDA"s and smartphones
> mostly still lack. I'm sure there's more intelligent features that
> really make it a PDA and not just an electronic organizer but those
> two are the stand outs for me. I look at my blackberry and iPod
> touch as electronic organizers because they lack some or all of
> these intelligent features for personally assisting me.
> Basic features = electronic organizer
> Intelligent features = PDA
>
> That's my humble view :-)

Can you expand on that? What makes Find or Assist "intelligent" in a
way that isn't also in a Palm device or an iPhone? Find is handy of
course, but Search is handy on the Palm as well. I never found much
intelligence in Assist. I never typed anything in that it could
recognize, with the exception of the eight or so items that it
provided as prefills.

I don't mean to be a hater here or anything (I don't know why I feel
the need to protest that I really am am a Newton lover), and it's
maybe unfair to compare a built-in feature like Assist with a third-
party add-on like Google's iPhone app. On the iPhone I can tap an
icon, hold the darn thing up to my face while walking down the street
and say something like "iphone take a photo" and get taken to
thousands of articles about taking photos with the iPhone. The
"intelligence" might live outside the device, but it's far more of an
intelligent agent than Newton ever was.

We're still a long way from any semblance of intelligent assistance.
I'm waiting for the day my wristwatch pipes up to tell me that my tie
doesn't go with my shirt. =^) In the meantime I'll just have to settle
for the ability to tell my phone "tie a windsor knot" and have it give
me relevant diagrams and youtube videos.

Steve

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Received on Sat Jun 13 14:45:47 2009

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