Have you seen Smartphone magic yet?

[trainplane]

Ever since these "smart" devices have been released, we've been hearing about how "magical" they are from device makers and some gulible journalists. But to me, in reality, today's smart phone aren't really that smart. Our phones are a feat of engineering but not entirely a feat of invention. If 20 years ago, someone told you that we'd have PC power the size of a phone that has constant internet access, you would probably say "yup, expected". That's good, don't get me wrong, but not yet "magical".

For me, smart is being at work or school and your phone telling you to leave now to catch the train or bus. Smart is going to a the store and your phone telling you exactly where to look for the item you want to find. Smart is being downtown and your phone telling you the wait times of all the nearby restaurants. Smart is meeting up with a friend at a location and your phone telling you where he or she is and how long until they arrive. A lot of this takes infrastructure and work but that's when a smart phone feels smart. Have you found anything you would consider smart or magical, something that blows your mind, on your device (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or Blackberry)?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yup. Controlling my coffee pot from 25 miles away, because I couldn't remember if I turned it off, thanks to Home automaton.

 

[STARGATE]

Doesn't Google Now do some of those already?

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Doesn't Google Now do some of those already?

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!

To a small degree, yes. Not the extent the OP is referring to, but there is always room to grow.

From a Liquid Nexus 5

 

[trainplane]

Yup. Controlling my coffee pot from 25 miles away, because I couldn't remember if I turned it off, thanks to Home automaton.

That's a start. What if it were smarter and knew you were away from your home and turned it off automatically? To me smart means the computer has some intelligence. We're largely still at a point of telling our computers what to do. Something like the Nest, if actually worked, is where things would start to be interesting and almost science fiction. Some people have asked, what more can Google, Apple, MS Samsung do to innovate? I think we barely even hit the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Golfdriver97]

So you are after more artificial intelligence? No thanks.

 

[someguy01234]

Yes, but you have to know how to program Tasker and AutoVoice. Google, NSA and all other information brokers already know too much about me so I prefer the phone not to be too magical.

sent via nVidia Shield

 

[olympus2]

well yes i can say that i have seen some magic of smart phones,
i"m the person from the it field, and now i can do all my work on the my smart phone.

 

[trainplane]

well yes i can say that i have seen some magic of smart phones,
i"m the person from the it field, and now i can do all my work on the my smart phone.

That's process shrinking which is an amazing feat but it doesn't make phones smart. The word smart phone has largely been a misnomer until recently. Our current smartphones have really just been PC phones, not smart. But Google is starting to actually make our phones smart now. For instance, Google Now populates with what it thinks is important to you without your direct input. Some people might not like the word AI, but if you don't like AI, you might not like the future and present. Self-driving cars, Siri/Cortana, facial recognition (Facebook auto-tag), even auto-correction is all AI.

 

[STARGATE]

I've seen some magic. Not to the extent of Harry Potter but, if I had a person from the past here, watching what I can do with my phone. That person might think it's magic.
Just saying...

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[LeoRex]

Right.. I think the evolution of Google Now really shows a move to have a phone that anticipates a user's needs. It's not all the way there yet, but with the appointment/traffic updates, the travel alerts, weather, nearby events and search-related cards, they are really making great strides.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Brockly]

What we have now it mind blowing. Are phones today are so advance. What we had 10 years ago make the phone in my hand look like I jump off a space movie. But your all ways going to have those people that will not be impress.

If a alien craft touchdown on earth and talk to them. There those hand full of people would say. Oooooo I though you would have a bigger ship. And your not what I though you would look like. And you can't read my mind ?? That's a bummer

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[anon8380037]

Interesting. Ultimately though I don't want a device to think I am predictable, which would be the next evolutionary step before full artificial intelligence. (Heck my analyst thinks I'm artificial, or was that the wife.)