this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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Yeah. They did exactly that

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Gemini is terrible. It gets so many things wrong, and is wrapped in all sorts of DEI bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I'd do unspeakable things to get Google Now and Now on Tap back.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Probably not the direction they're going, but having this run offline like most of Pixels "AI" features would be great. I think the hardest part is the dataset training though, just having an offline assistant that works would be a win even if it wasn't a LLM.

I'm trying to put distance between me and these data collection points and it's hard.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It's also so slow to answer basic questions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Only realized how Terrible Google assistant was when I started to use it with Android Auto.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Google removed “Ok Google with the screen off” (made the toggle disappear, replaced with the option to allow its use in apps) on my Moto Z Play via Play Services updates and later advertised it as a Pixel-exclusive feature. (this was when the Pixel 1 was new)

Their support threads were ended curtly with statements of the phone not supporting the feature which I guess was technically true now that they changed it. (but no, the hardware always supported hotwords)

Never got that feature back and I bailed. For the ups and downs, I’m glad Apple doesn’t do that, instead omitting or handicapping new features for older devices. Of course not the best but yeesh, at least I don’t have to worry about “Hey Siri” being pulled to promote the iPhone 20 yet…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

yeah Apple doesn't take away your features, it just slows down your old device altogether so you're forced to buy a new one

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Honestly I'd disagree. Past the iPhone 4S, my iPhone 8 was fine through it's life before being replaced with a 13 mini a year or two ago when it suffered a naked gravitational incident at my hands. My parent's generally had hand-me-downs or used models and dad's 6s is still kicking and performing alright and even got a security patch a month ago.

They had that battery snafu which I will absolutely fault their lack of transparency for (good ol' hide-the-workings-from-customers Apple) but I did encounter the issue it sought to trade performance for preventing in the past. (a worn battery causing random reboots on my 6s)

Now my BlackBerry Priv? I miss that phone but I did not miss it's combination of slowing down with age plus updates running out at 6.0.1. Worst of both worlds but I miss sliders and Blackberry's additions. (not the size though)

Similar in age (2015 models) but I doubt dad would be as tolerant of how it performed even a few years ago.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

that's generally how computers work though? Updated OS is more resource intensive and require upgrades after some time. My current iphone launched like 6 years ago and is running fine - yes there have been generation bumps that were rough for iPhone but is it supposed to last 10-15 years?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

that's generally how computers work though? Updated OS is more resource intensive and require upgrades

That's not how computers work unless you have an OS that intentionally creates that situation. Devices with Linux on them don't get any slower over the years. Sometimes an old device even gets faster with OS updates because the OS isn't being written by a corporation intent on driving you to new purchases incessantly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree with you,I use FOSS software and old hardware all the time. I should have specified better but my point is that this is something that generally happens in the consumer electronics world. it doesn't make sense as a dig against Apple in this context (comparing with competitors), given that iPhones don't have a particularly short life cycle against competitors

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I feel like that's just a longer way of saying "they all do it, so why bother mentioning it", which is a lot more defeatist than I think we ought to be. Pointing out anti-consumer behavior is worthwhile for more than merely a simple dig.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I'm not in disagreement with you, but I personally find dry "apple bad" takes to be a little overdone

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I have a deep hatred for companies that used to create responsive software pivoting info feature bloat over time. Discord used to be blazing fast. It proved that you could design software based on chromium without it being slow and unresponsive.

What happened? It's just as crappy as everything else nowadays. Every new feature that gets added reduces performance by less than 1% so nobody gives a shit?

Same for apple. They don't care that all those cool iOS additions keep making the phone slower. But I do and that's why I prefer custom OS. Nobody will decide that this feature is worth x amount of memory/battery/whatever but me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Android Auto used to be good. You can voice command navigate, send text, read notification, make a call and before it will read a basic Google search. Now even the navigation is <80% correct. The BMW voice assistant was so clunky compared to android auto but now they are racing to the bottom. At least BMW voice was consistent.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Enabling it completely breaks Reminders, btw. Or at least it has so far for me. It won't let me set a reminder and previously set reminders don't send a push notification. Other assistant things like timers and playing songs seems to hand off to Assistant correctly.

Edit: they seemed to have fixed this. Reminders function normally now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

thanks, that's 90% what I use assistant for

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