MIT Technology Review - mobile platforms en Let's Talk, iPhone <p>Could Apple be about to give iPhone users an AI personal assistant? And if so, will people like it?</p><p>Apple has popularized some revolutions in how we use personal computers in its time: the graphical interface, the mouse, and the touch screen, for example. Next Tuesday could see the company add to that list of milestones in man-machine interaction by letting users control a computer by having a conversation with it.<br /><br />Apple’s new boss, Tim Cook, will take the stage at the company’s California headquarters to announce the latest updates to the company’s products. Apple’s invite to the event says only “Let’s Talk iPhone,” but the Internet rumor mill has decided that Cook will announce two things: a fifth model of the iPhone; and a voice-activated “Assistant” for iPhone and iPad devices, based on an impressive app called Siri that was bought by Apple last year (see <a href="" target="_blank">here</a> for one of the more plausible predictions).<br /><br />We may well get neither of these, but of the two, the second is the most interesting. I may regret saying this, but there are few significant hardware upgrades that Apple could add to the iPhone 5. Some things will get incrementally better; more resolution (camera), faster (processor), or bigger (screen), but there’s not a lot left to throw in that makes sense.<br /><br />On the other hand, making it simple to set up calendar invites or find a nearby movie just by conversing with your iPhone or iPad would break new ground. It’s also the kind of achievable revolution that Apple is known for.<br /><br />The formula is simple: take a bunch of neat technology that has never lived up to its promise, rethink what it’s for, do some secretive hard work, and then release a natural, retrospectively obvious experience that redefines what computers can do. <br /><br />The iPad and iPhone interfaces are good examples of this. Touch screens, mobile browsers, and tablets existed already, but Apple rolled them together and altered the trajectory of personal computing.<br /><br />The shabby history of speech recognition, voice control, and virtual assistants (remember Clippy?) is perfect feedstock for this approach. All have been around for decades and have the potential to be so much better than poking buttons or a screen. Never has anyone come close to realizing that potential.<br /><br />When Siri debuted in 2009, it looked to be the best hope yet of changing that. It was the spawn of a DARPA-funded AI project and some smart thinking on integrating various tools such as maps, restaurant reviews, and movie ticket bookings, and we made it <a href="">one of our 10 technologies to watch in 2009</a>. A user could have back-and-forth conversations that begin with complex statements like, “I’d like a romantic place for Italian food near my office.”<br /><br />Siri contained several smart technical ideas, but crucially, it condensed them into an easy-to-understand, working conversational interface that was actually useful. Apple could take this a significant step further by making the technology more robust and integrating it with the iPad and iPhone operating system. If they do that, the humble app Siri would be promoted to the role of Assistant, a personal aide that you talk to in normal language and helps with most things you use your phone or tablet for. In essence, it would be your phone’s personality.<br /><br />As will be pointed out in many a discussion thread if this does come to pass, Google was (sort of) there first. The company’s Android operating system has a “<a href="" target="_blank">voice actions</a>” feature that allows users to press and hold a button and request directions to a local business, or dictate a text message. Yet it lacks the power to take actions beyond your phone, such as booking a restaurant. More importantly, it doesn’t have a smart conversational interface.</p> Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0000 digitalservices 425619 at Why Google Wants Motorola <p>Besides an impressive patent portfolio, Motorola will give Google greater control over the future of the mobile Web.</p><p>Google <a href="" target="_blank">announced </a>today that it has agreed to acquire the smart-phone manufacturer Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. <br /><br /> In a statement, Google said the deal was largely driven by the need to acquire Motorola’s patent portfolio, which it said would help it defend Android against legal threats from competitors armed with their own patents. This issue has come to the fore since a consortium of technology companies led by Apple and Microsoft purchased more than 6,000 mobile-device-related patents from Nortel Networks for about $4.5 billion, in early July. Battle lines are being drawn around patents, as companies seek to protect their interests in the competitive mobile industry through litigation as well as innovation.<br /><br /> However, as people increasingly access the Web via mobile devices, the acquisition could also help Google remain central to their Web experience in the years to come. As Apple has demonstrated with its wildly popular iPhone, this is far easier to achieve if a company can control the hardware, as well as the software, people carry in their pockets. Comments made by Google executives hint that Motorola could also play a role in shaping the future of the Web in other areas—for instance, in set-top boxes. <br /><br /> Motorola is by far Google’s largest acquisition, and it takes the company into uncertain new territory. The deal is also likely to draw antitrust scrutiny because of the reach Google already has with Android, which runs on around half of all smart phones in the United States.<br /><br /> Motorola, which makes the Droid smart phone, went all-in with Google’s Android platform in 2008, declaring that all of its devices would use the open-source mobile operating system.<br /><br /> Before his departure as Google CEO, Eric Schmidt had begun pressing Google employees to shift their attention to mobile. Cofounder and new CEO Larry Page seems determined to maintain this change of focus. In a conference call this morning, he told investors, “It’s no secret that Web usage is increasingly shifting to mobile devices, a trend I expect to continue. With mobility continuing to take center stage in the computing revolution, the combination with Motorola is an extremely important event in Google’s continuing evolution that will drive a lot of improvements in our ability to deliver great user experiences.”<br /><br /> Motorola engineers have extensively modified Google’s basic Android platform for its devices. For example, the company designed Motoblur, a user interface that pulls together Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites, into a single stream of data, and this has been a major selling point for  the company’s phones.</p> Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:46:00 +0000 digitalservices 425021 at Mozilla Wants a Browser to Control Your Phone <p>Engineers are creating a browser-based system that would make a smart phone’s operating system superfluous.</p><p>The makers of the Firefox browser are trying to create a mobile browser powerful enough to run your smart phone.</p> Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000 digitalservices 425011 at