Schmidt: Google to sell tablet of the ‘highest quality’ within 6 months; Android can already do things similar to Apple’s Siri

“Google chairman Eric Schmidt in an interview with Italy’s Corriere Della Sera raised the prospect of a Nexus tablet,” Electronista reports.

“The search firm planned to sell a tablet of the ‘highest quality’ within six months’ time,” Electronista reports. “He didn’t mention the Nexus label by name, but Google usually hasn’t marketed anyone else’s tablet itself, even for the reference Xoom.”

Electronista reports, “A reference tablet would be an admission that Android tablets may be headed in the same direction as smartphones, where the stock interface becomes the rarity rather than the norm… In other comments, Schmidt wouldn’t comment on the rumored Majel voice command system, saying he wouldn’t comment on future, unannounced products. He insisted Google has long had the ‘best’ voice dictation system and could use it to do things similar to Apple’s Siri.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Vaporware and foolish, obviously incorrect comments. Great interview, Mr. Mole.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

51 Comments

  1. I don’t know If I agree with MDN on this one, google has been doing alot with voice recognition for a long time now! It is quite possible that they could have something comparable to Siri already. It’s really hard to say, I can remember in the early 2000’s with goog-411 and then in 2007 or 08 with the very first android phone! I think it’s wrong to under estimate google with anything, the have shown over and over that they are more flexible when it comes to shaking up things. An example is the GUI! Androids GUI has changed many times since its birth where iOS looks the same as it did a long time ago “very outdated” when you compare it to all the tweaks and customizations there at in android. It’s going to be very interesting to see where they both go next, and I’ll be waiting with eyes wide open like a kid in a candy shop ^_^

        1. ahhh, ‘dude’, you lack a funny bone. There was nothing mean spirited, foul or offensive in my post. I dont roll tht way. Tack even rolled with it. Sadly, you lack humor. I thought dudes were supposed to be chilling’ types.

    1. Problem with this thinking is that iOS was right from the start. It only looks outdated because it has not had to be seriously changed, thus it has looked the same since inception.

      I do not understand why people consistently do not remember that what Google has is essentially stolen IP. And do not come back and say that Apples stole anything from PARC. It is well documented that Apple paid PARC. Google is playing foot loose on all this stuff and EM has little to no ethics and he knows it.

      As far as Siri, Google may have something coming, but as far as I have seen, they have nothing now that is comparable.

    2. The reason the Android GUI has changed several times isn’t at all because Google is flexible. Rather, it’s because it looked like an amateurish open source project when first released, and Google is desparately trying to correct that with each new release! They’re finally getting close to something with some professional polish with 3.0 (Honeycomb).

      iOS is far from “very outdated”. In fact, it looks as great today as the day it was unveiled almost FIVE years ago. Even more important, it WORKS even better and is far more capable than it was five years ago. It’s true that it could use some refinement, but that’s always true of any software development – especially something as complex as a modern GUI-based operating system.

      1. Like jimg wrote, which I forgot to mention, Apple nailed it out of the gates. Nailed it. Google didn’t, and has been playing catch-up ever since, hence the endless stream of major changes to Android since it’s first release.

    3. Geesh, Tack isn’t a troll. Take a chill pill!

      Some people like something other than iOS and are entitled to their view. There are plenty of cool features you would find in other OS’s.

      I’m happy with my iPhone but would find it cool if they had a few more customizations and features. I wouldn’t want it to change too much as I prefer evolution over reinvention.

    4. i don’t know a lot about Googles AI work, but I think it is telling that Schidmt uses says “similar”. That is CEO lingo for “not as good”. The potential of Siri to be transformative lies in the things he can do that are at the cutting edge of AI. I suspect that is the area in which Majel cannot compete with Siri.

      Mostly speculation, obviously.

      With regard to the main issue – with this be a Google branded Moto tablet? I didnt read the full article…

  2. Ah eric.

    The only similarities between voice actions on android and siri are the 10 commands voice actions can perform.

    Granted they are adamn useful 10 things but its very limited vs siri when taken as a whole

  3. “An example is the GUI! Androids GUI has changed many times since its birth where iOS looks the same as it did a long time ago “very outdated” when you compare it to all the tweaks and customizations there at in android.”

    Uhhhhh, why keep changing the interface if it works so well?? Isn’t the idea to add functionality yet make it as easy to use as it was with the original? Don’t confuse the user with multiple changes in how things are done, if you are going to add something you think is “neat” allow the user to access it in the same way as before!

    1. One area where iOS has fallen short is accessibility of often-used System Preferences. My personal pet peeve is the brightness slider only being available in the System Prefs; others want toggles for wifi, bluetooth, VPN, and especially Personal Hotspot.

      Basic toggle/slider settings like this should not be limited in access to an app that you have to launch separately.

      iOS5 could have added this to the Notifications panel, to duplicate what jailbreakers get with SBSSettings. This would be similar in concept to Desk Accessories in the pre-Multifinder Mac days–DAs could run on top of other programs without quitting those programs. Sadly Apple chose not to do this; if they had, it would’ve removed the BIGGEST single reason people jailbreak iPhones in the first place.

      1. Yes I have to agree about settings / SBsettings. The screen auto adjust is pretty good though – I rarely use it and read at night and in full sun at the beach.

        Have you seen Quickpick? Just released on app store adds some functionality to notifications – could be one of those that get pulled quickly…

        1. The Brightness auto-adjust is useful but not good enough for me. Mine is set to about 2/3 of the way to the right, which is fine for most of the day unless in very bright sunlight.

          If I’m reading at night when I’m going to sleep though, my lights are off, and it should be bare minimum brightness, but it auto-dims to something much too bright.

      2. I just read another article to get shortcuts from Siri: add URL shortcuts to a contact.

        URL shortcuts can be done to settings even brightness:

        prefs:root=Brightness.
        If you type this into safari (or save as shortcut or use in the 99c quickpick app on notification screen) you have quick access to things you want

        There are thousands and for lots of apps too.

        1. I appreciate the suggestion, but I learned about this a month ago and have the “prefs:root=Brightness” saved as a Homescreen icon already. Rumour last week or two has it the next iOS update might actually break this, though it could just be a beta issue.

          Anyway, this method still requires exiting the front app, tapping an icon (that’s wasting one of the 4 permanent icon slots, otherwise I’d waste even more time to flip to the first homescreen first), which briefly invokes Safari, to get to the SystemPrefs app’s Brightness panel. The only step this method removes is manually tapping the Brightness option.

          Then I have to double-tap Home and tap the app I had to exit in order to change the brightness.

          Compare this to SBSettings: swipe to access panel, tap Brightness, adjust, dismiss panel. Done. And you never had to exit the app.

          Pain in the ass. I would’ve accepted a Brightness control in another of the hidden control slots that you get by double-tapping Home (to get Recent apps) and swiping rightward. The first control is iPod and orientation lock, the next one over is volume and Airplay….

          Actually, now that I think of it, all the major toggle/slider controls I mentioned earlier should appear in a single, full-screen pane when you swipe rightward. This gets around the Notifications pull-down only being for, well, notifications, but still gives me everything I (personally) want from SBSSettings. Just fade the app into the background when this pane is up; you can’t interact with it anyway when the Recent Apps row is showing, so why not use up all the available screen space for something actually useful? I’m writing this as a suggestion to Apple right now.

    2. ‘Uhhhhh, why keep changing the interface if it works so well?? ‘

      Then you do not understand teenagers. They continually hunt for the ‘different’ thing that makes them stand out. The problem is if everyone gets an iPhone, then they no longer stand out. Moreover, an anti-Apple backlash can occur simply because…Android is different. I agree that Apple nailed it from the get-go however, kids can be pretty shallow and take uniqueness over quality. Why else would one dress as Goth or pierce the hell out of your eyebrows, lips, tongue, nose cheek etc etc or dying your hair green, red, orange……

      1. Teenagers? Is that Apple’s market? Sorry, I didn’t think they bought many $600 phones, or BMWs, or had a lot of disposable income for $500 to $1000 items. Just sayin’…

        1. Teenagers these days get whatever they want from mommy and daddy. Many of them sure as hell can’t afford the $100+/mo plans on top of all the clothes and other stuff they’re sporting.

  4. Damn! Why can’t Apple do something to step on Google’s toes for once. Apple ought to try to build a search engine or something just to bust Google’s hump and see how they like Apple moving in on their territory. Siri might be able to get around Google’s search engine but that isn’t nearly enough hurt. It’s not that I don’t like Google but jeez, these companies like Google and Amazon keep branching out to challenge Apple like it was some sport.

  5. You notice that now that Steve is gone, Eric is spouting off a lot more? No way he’d be saying these things if Steve were still alive. Jobs would’ve opened a can of whoop-ass on him.

  6. Me barfing–> :-Q********(*_0) <–Mr. Mole's head

    This is supposed to be a technology community, not a BLOWHARD MARKETING MORON community Mr. Mole. Watch what comes out of your mouth Mr. Mole. Puking rubbish into the wind tends to come back on you Mr. Mole.

  7. “… Google has long had the ‘best’ voice dictation system and could use it to do things similar to Apple’s Siri.”

    You could interpret this in many ways. For instance, Google has had the ability to do this for years, but were too stupid and narrow-minded to see the potential that Apple recently demonstrated with Siri.

    Google, I don’t give a crap what you ‘could’ do. That ‘could’ stuff goes in the same pile as Microsoft vaporware and promiseware.

    In the immortal words of Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try.” So either bring it or accept your public humiliation in silence.

  8. Yeah yeah, mr. Mole, SJ wasn’t even COLD before you promptly started in with the near-daily doses of bullshit: guess you thought you could get away with it with Steve gone, esp when speaking outside the US. A real fuckin profile in courage, alright.

    Maybe you’d like to demonstrate for us sheep exactly how this wondrous “not-Siri”ous creation of yours actually performs…like in a television ad or two. Yeah yeah, show us just how you’re going to kill your own $20B search golden goose. What’s that, you’re backing down?? Then kindly STFU.

    Wow, between this guy and Bozos, I never thought I’d see Microsoft taking notes at all the empty, futile FUDslinging going on.

  9. Eric you stupid fuck! Siri is not a voice recognition gimmick like the shit your precious turdroid has. It is an artificial intelligence ASSISTANT in your iPhone (for now) that actually understands what you MEAN and learns your behavior and note that its still in beta!!! Wait till it gets out of beta… You’ll be pooping on your G-string you good for nothing mole! Geez I hate that fucker!

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