The thing that just makes me throw my hands up in exasperation is that Apple could have been early to the "home hub" game with AppleTV but they just didn't see it.
Imagine if, instead of Apple Watch, they had put those folks into building the AppleTV into a home hub based on Siri. I feel like Apple Watch was to be their "always available assistant" but I just don't see it succeeding in that market for most people.
(Siri isn't as good as Alexa or Google's thing but that's a separate issue...)
Imagine how so many Sony and then Microsoft fans feel. Either the Playstation or XBox could have been a wonderful device to centralize around in a home. Yet they constantly bungled it from generation to generation. Sony was promising when they had PS2 compatible with PS1.
The problem was they each always try to just extend their corporate wall around your home. Rather than giving an inviting place to encourage innovation in your home. Apple has the same "our way, on our time" mentality that stifles innovation by third parties. For a time, this was offset by the awesome innovations they were providing. That time seems to be ending.
Great point- and if I'm not mistaken there was voice recognition available on the XBox 360 and the PS3 through their add-on camera kits, which meant only some relatively small portion of installs had it. Then they both did the exact same thing in the following gen.
The XBox has Cortana, I think, but does the PS4 have a "smart assistant"?
Cortana requires a mic attached to Xbox or the controller. But I never use one. It would be nice to have a mic built into Xbox, which would act like Alexa or Google home.
My wife and I both use our Xbox One with Kinect and Amazon Echo daily. Alexa works extremely well, but Cortana works only 80% of the time and so slowly we usually pick up a controller, even just to pause Netflix.
but Cortana works only 80% of the time and so slowly we usually pick up a controller, even just to pause Netflix
That's why I unhooked the Kinect that was forced upon me when I bought a launch day box, and put it in the garage. That pile of garbage worked just often enough to trick me into trying to rely on it. But 80% isn't anywhere near good enough, IMO.
I've read speculation that the last AppleTV update was supposed to come along with a big content deal that didn't materialize. Of course, maybe the "old" Apple would have been able to wrestle the bargain.
Imagine if, instead of Apple Watch, they had put those folks into building the AppleTV into a home hub based on Siri. I feel like Apple Watch was to be their "always available assistant" but I just don't see it succeeding in that market for most people.
(Siri isn't as good as Alexa or Google's thing but that's a separate issue...)