Microsoft really needs to step up

[Doom At Last]

I was comparing the speech recognition of Google Now on a friend's Android versus Bing's TellMe service on my phone and I was amazed by how accurate Google's service was. Bing can get you many words wrong, words that don't make any sense. I wonder how MS is going to compete with Siri and Google if their voice recognition software is so behind?
I've wanted Skype to be part of the WP OS since the WP7 days but that has never happened and it looks like it isn't happening anytime soon with WP8.1. Speaking of WP, Despite what the ultra fanboys say, it needs work, getting real tired of the catching-up crap. Google's already moving on the wearables while MS's somewhere behind playing catch-up.
Oh well.

 

[tgp]

I am also one who is known as a pessimist.
But i dont understand
people buy a phone and start whining about updates, future releases, inovations, world domination and lord knows what else.
But you buy a product just as it is, not what its going to be.

I heartily second this. Always buy a device based on what it is, not what it will be with updates. Unless you have an iPhone or a Nexus device, updates are not guaranteed. Even then, you don't know what the updates will bring until soon before release.

 

[SSgt Bruskowiz]

speech recognition is a hard thing to get right.
I worked with Google, Siri and many others and i just gave up.
Non of them understood a word i said.....as long if they are not "intelligent" its always be crippled.
There are many languages, and dont forget dialects, not everyone speaks fluent english lijk mie

I truly believe that interpretation of words is the biggest bottleneck of speech recognition.
And it takes years to get it right...if we get it right

 

[A895]

speech recognition is a hard thing to get right.
I worked with Google, Siri and many others and i just gave up.
Non of them understood a word i said.....as long if they are not "intelligent" its always be crippled.
There are many languages, and dont forget dialects, not everyone speaks fluent english lijk mie

I truly believe that interpretation of words is the biggest bottleneck of speech recognition.
And it takes years to get it right...if we get it right

I have a Moto X and speech recognition is painful at times. I even slow down my words and everything and google manages to mess up one or more words.

 

[Neo Nuke]

Besides Nest, there's nothing really there yet.

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[Jazmac]

Ignore them then. The worst thing to do, which never happens, is that Microsoft fans come to defend Microsoft and then get caught in a flame war. You should see the comments on Microsoft articles on The Verge. Flame War to the MAX.

Posted via the WPC App for Android!

I ignore them but you can't ignore that stench. I'm just making the point. I'm comfortable with this platform and have learned its best to stay in my lane and not peer over fences. The trolls are on the stroll and you can smell em from blocks away. And with 8.1 in the wings, these trolls smell red meat.

 

[taymur]

Summarizing:

its a Shot Gun vs a Sniper.
(Google and partners) vs (Microsoft and partners)

(buy & sell everything you think its interesting) vs (buy and sell based on financial analysis)

(include every feature mankind can think of) vs (include important effective features)

(Users who are hit, are wounded) vs (users that are hit, are killed of joy, and telling everyone around)

that was just for fun.

 

[Ezhik]

Summarizing:

its a Shot Gun vs a Sniper.
(Google and partners) vs (Microsoft and partners)

(buy & sell everything you think its interesting) vs (buy and sell based on financial analysis)

(include every feature mankind can think of) vs (include important effective features)

(Users who are hit, are wounded) vs (users that are hit, are killed of joy, and telling everyone around)

that was just for fun.

Wait I don't understand this comparison, both weapons are useful in their own spaces. You wouldn't fire on long distances with a shotgun (unless it's a SAIGA in Battlefield 3), and you wouldn't use a sniper rifle in close quarters. What's the deal?

 

[anony_mouse]

Google hangouts vs Skype, google play vs windows phone store xbox music vs play music play games vs xbox live google vs bing. Microsoft are directly competing with google. Google are taking over. They even have google + which competes with twitter & Facebook. I don't think Microsoft need to catch up, i think they need to over take, dominate, innovate. Playing catch up is not enough.

Why do you think that one company should do everything (whether Google, Microsoft or someone else)? Isn't it better than services are offered by many companies, and available on all significant platforms? Why would any sane person want one company to dominate anything?

 

[anony_mouse]

Summarizing:

its a Shot Gun vs a Sniper.
(Google and partners) vs (Microsoft and partners)

(buy & sell everything you think its interesting) vs (buy and sell based on financial analysis)

(include every feature mankind can think of) vs (include important effective features)

(Users who are hit, are wounded) vs (users that are hit, are killed of joy, and telling everyone around)

that was just for fun.

Wow! A psychologist could have a lot of fun with this!

BTW, your analogy wasn't very clear, but are you arguing that the Skype purchase was based on sound financial analysis?

 

[psudotechzealot]

Microsoft really needs to step up the battery on the non-phablet Lumias, though.

With that being said...........................

 

[taymur]

Wow! A psychologist could have a lot of fun with this!

BTW, your analogy wasn't very clear, but are you arguing that the Skype purchase was based on sound financial analysis?

I only mean that google is fast and responsive, though less accurate, Microsoft analyzes big data, slowly, but more accurate, then produces. Example R&D cost of Xbox controller.

 

[A895]

I only mean that google is fast and responsive, though less accurate, Microsoft analyzes big data, slowly, but more accurate, then produces. Example R&D cost of Xbox controller.

How is Google less accurate?

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[anony_mouse]

I said this the day the WP 8.1 "leaked" SDK came to light, get ready for the hoards of g-troll walkers to be unleashed on us. They will get louder and more ridiculous the closer we get to D-Day.

I have absolutely no idea what this post is trying to say. Also, the questionable military analogies are getting quite disturbing.

 

[TonyDedrick]

I am also one who is known as a pessimist.
But i dont understand
people buy a phone and start whining about updates, future releases, inovations, world domination and lord knows what else.
But you buy a product just as it is, not what its going to be.

I understand what you're trying to say. But I have to disagree. There should be a level of expectation that the product will be bettered in the future, whether its through updates or maximizing what can be done with the technology. To use another piece of tech as comparison, i can't imagine anyone who just dropped $400-$500 on next Gen consoles don't expect that in a few years, the experience on the console will be and should be better through updates and developers really knowing how to push the games to the consoles limits.

 

[savagelizards]

MS had a smartwatch over a decade ago. Kinda like they've had tablets since about 2001.

Correction: 1991. It was called Windows for Pen Computing and had a stylus, handwriting recognition, drawing capabilities and more. Childish by today's standards, but Bill Gates was already demonstrating working tablet hardware over two decades ago.

You can find a video of Bill demonstrating it himself in this post: http://forums.windowscentral.com/general-microsoft-news-discussion/263142-2.htm#post2348329

 

[Sean D.]

I've often thought of posting threads like this but always stop myself - there are too many fanboys on these forums that blindly think Microsoft can do no wrong. I love my 920, Surface, Windows 8.1 desktop, and Xbox 360... but I agree with the OP, MS always seems to be playing catchup.

For instance, I'm as excited about WP 8.1 as anyone else. It's looking to be an enormous update. But it makes me realize how lackluster an update WP8 was. Cortana will come out 2 YEARS after Google Now, and even longer after Siri. Notification center has been in Android forever, and even Apple adopted it 2 and a half years ago.

Now we're heading into the era of wearable devices, and look at all the great press Google gets for their Android Wear initiative. Wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft were the one to introduce the world to wearbles on a wide scale? Even services like Xbox Music... nobody has any idea that they exist. Which, by the way, makes no sense considering they're trying to be a devices and services company. They should be advertising these things like crazy. I saw these short and sweet ads playing after the Superbowl for Google Play music, and books, and video. I have literally never seen a commercial for any of Microsoft's entertainment services.

None of this is to say MS makes crappy products and has crappy services - they're for the most part really good. The trouble is that the competition is also really good, and MS is NEVER the one to lead the charge.

How is MS playing "catch up" when most, if not all of what is being talked about MS has done? To many of you all have short term memory and only live blog to blog. There is/was a history of tech long before the last year or so.

Cortana comes out 2 years after google now, which was a year or so after Siri, which was several years after MS Voice command.
Google has a smart watch with is coming about 10 years after the MSN Spot watch.
The notification center, which has in fact been a pretty unnecessary thing for WP, was also copied from the old Windows Mobile task bar.
We have yet to see a viable competitor from google that will rival MS Office, MS Servers, Azure, PC, XBox, and several others. But nobody looks at that and says "google/apple is way behind". Nope, you wait till the next anti MS, click-bait article to be written by the next hack, ms-hating "writer" to start the next anti-MS topic and run with it.

Believe it or not, the company's that are getting the attention today are doing things MS did, or started years ago. So how is MS NOT "leading the charge"?

 

[smoledman]

Smartwatches have to be so extremely compelling in feature set to overcome my discomfort of having something enclosed on my left wrist all day long. Will an iWatch not cause sweating?

 

[smoledman]

The notification center, which has in fact been a pretty unnecessary thing for WP, was also copied from the old Windows Mobile task bar.

You obviously miss the point of why Action Center is needed. Live Tiles are not the equivalent of all your missed notifications, also they are not in view all at once. To me the Live Tile home screen is more of a "browsing launcher" when you're not driven by notifications. Also the Quick Toggles are going to be a much lauded feature.

 

[A895]

How is MS playing "catch up" when most, if not all of what is being talked about MS has done? To many of you all have short term memory and only live blog to blog. There is/was a history of tech long before the last year or so.

Cortana comes out 2 years after google now, which was a year or so after Siri, which was several years after MS Voice command.
Google has a smart watch with is coming about 10 years after the MSN Spot watch.
The notification center, which has in fact been a pretty unnecessary thing for WP, was also copied from the old Windows Mobile task bar.
We have yet to see a viable competitor from google that will rival MS Office, MS Servers, Azure, PC, XBox, and several others. But nobody looks at that and says "google/apple is way behind". Nope, you wait till the next anti MS, click-bait article to be written by the next hack, ms-hating "writer" to start the next anti-MS topic and run with it.

Believe it or not, the company's that are getting the attention today are doing things MS did, or started years ago. So how is MS NOT "leading the charge"?

With less than 5% mobile phone market share and just now beating out BlackBerry that's how they are not leading the charge. I understand they did a lot of these technologies before but they never had all of them in a modern mobile device.

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