Tehknospace

Although it wasn’t a popular feature, previous generations of the iPhone offered Voice Control, a Siri-esque option that worked sometimes and allowed you voice dial and things like that. It worked, but again, not that well, and wasn’t very versatile, either. Still, I was a user, and I found Voice Control to come in handy when I had to make a phone call while driving or just didn’t want to flip through my seemingly endless contact book.

When Siri came out, I figured I’d try it out, but it just didn’t seem that magical right out of the gate. I think that’s one of the things about Siri that lots of people don’t really understand; you don’t know how convenient it is until you discover all of the opportunities.

For example, today I was working on an article for this site, then I had to go pick up my son at daycare. Since it was a nice day, I plugged in a set of headphones into my 4S and hopped on my bike with a toddler trailer attached, ready to take him for a ride. But before I left, I remembered that I needed to water the plants, which I usually do by setting a hose on this slope in the yard and letting it run in a trickle for about an hour. I hold down the home button and say to Siri, “Set a timer for 45 minutes.” Done.

As I started off, I held down the mic button on the headphones and said, “Play Death Certificate,” and next thing I knew, the 1991 Ice Cube classic was playing in my headphones. Halfway there, I realized that my wife might be on the way herself, so I asked Siri to “Find my wife,” a cue to open up Find My Friends. Turns out she was miles away, so I was good.

I’m turning into the daycare center and remember that I have to grab some tools out of the garage before I head out tomorrow, but I knew I was going to forget. “Set a reminder for 9 pm tonight.” Siri comes back with, “What would you like it to say?” to which I respond, “Grab the tools out of the garage before you go out tomorrow.” Bam — reminder set.

Off on the road with my son now, volume on the headset turned way down so I can hear him if he needs anything, I decide to give my folks a ring to see if we had dinner plans still. “Call my mother on her cell,” and of course, Siri makes that happen. After the call I made a Calendar appointment, and then continued my bike ride.

I did all this while riding a bike down the road, no problem at all.

Although there isn’t yet any way to integrate Siri fully into developer’s apps (at least not that I know of), there are some smart people out there who have figured out ways to work with the system.

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about OmniFocus and Siri, and how they can work together via iCloud. If they can figure out how to navigate the system, then maybe other people can as well. And if Apple does open up Siri to new commands from other apps, well that’s going to be huge. Frankly, I think we can consider that an inevitability, and should come out in iOS 6.

Now you may not think that Siri as an app is useful in itself, but how about its stealthy cousin, text dictation? Just pull up any keyboard on an iPhone 4S and you’ll see a little microphone to the left of the keyboard, taunting you to use it. For me, this comes in really handy with sending texts. I can say a whole paragraph faster than I can type it on the iPhone’s keyboard, and I can even do it using the headphones on a bike ride, like I was earlier today.

I do this same thing with emails at times. Again, I just pull up the on-screen keyboard, hit the mic and rattle off whatever I need to send. Facebook updates, Twitter posts — they all can be done by talking, and with as much typing as I do in a day, every little bit helps.

Apple has an interesting relationship with Samsung. They are Samsung’s biggest customer, buying up valuable components to power the successful iPhone and iPad lines. However, right now they’re suing Samsung’s mobile division for copying Apple’s intellectual property.

Samsung are, of course, the makers of the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets, all running Android, while Apple produce the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, all running iOS. The intellectual property specified in Apple’s case refers to both the hardware and software design aspects of iOS and the devices that run them.

Firstly, Apple has pointed out the design similarities in the hardware. Rounded rectangular product shape, substantial black bezels with roughly equal width (on iPad) or roughly equal width on parallel sides (on iPhone), and a front surface dominated by a screen are some of the claims Apple mades. In the software world, Apple is also keen to point out the similarity with a grid of icons and a separate row easily distinguished from from the others as they do not change as home screens are moved.

Apple also points out the design similarities in the packaging, with each coming in a rectangular box with a large front view of the product and an immediate presence of the product once the lid is removed.

In this case, the claims are, unfortunately, hard to ignore.

Another fairly obvious claim is similarities in the home screens. Apple points out the layout similarities, especially the 4 x 4 grid of icons with a dock at the bottom.

And then there are the icons themselves, which have an undeniable likeness. Take the phone icon, for example. An angled, light-coloured phone on a green gradient was the design choice of both parties when there are clearly other options.

Apple also notes their patents on a few iOS features, including the bounce effect you get when you scroll to the top of a list. Apple regularly touts its multi-touch technology and, of course, this is pointed out as an infringement here.

Well, when you put them side by side (see above) the devices do look similar. There’s no doubt that things such as the angled phone icon are not a coincidence, and it’s hard to ignore that one side has been influenced by the other.

Samsung seems pretty unique in this case with TouchWiz. Other Android skins don’t opt for the iPhone-esque app tiles and instead many have transparent icons, like those you’d use on a PC.

However, are you confused by the two? I’m certainly not. Sure, the similarities are there — but I doubt many walk into a store aiming to buy an iPhone but end up walking out with a Galaxy S oblivious to reality. Apple has ground with their various patents and trademarks, but the “consumer confusion” card can’t really be played here.

Naturally, since it’s Apple and Android, there are some fanboy views to be expressed. The biggest argument that the Android side has come up with so far is the image below.

The above image has since been debunked. The Samsung F700 was announced at Cebit 2006 but it wasn’t actually shown. It’s first public debut was actually after the iPhone was shown at Macworld 2007.  But it’s still a grid of icons with a central hardware button.

But don’t all GUIs form roots to the iPhone? Grid-aligned icons are something that I’ve used on my PC (and more recently my Mac) for a long time, so that’s nothing new. However, with Apple expanding the app home screen idea to Mac OS X this summer, I’m sure it’s something they want to protect as it’s soon to become such an important feature across their product lines. Even the tiny iPod nano uses the same layout, sans the dock of course.

When we look at the facts, Apple has a solid case. They’ve cited numerous patents in both hardware and software and even away from all the legal talk, the obvious similarities are evident. In fact, it seems insane that Samsung has went forward with such obvious design aspects, ones that were first being shown in iOS right from the start.

So what’s the likely outcome of this case? I’m not an IP lawyer and don’t claim to be. However, I reckon there’ll be some changes on Samsung’s part. I’m guessing they’ll opt to change the packaging and then roll out some new interface tweaks to avoid paying royalties to Apple. The real outcome will start to become evident once Samsung releases new devices. We’ll see whether Apple has had an effect on the design team at Samsung.

Source : http://android.appstorm.net