khedron: (Default)
[personal profile] khedron
I know some guy (Tim Cook) wrote an apology for the changes in the Maps app this morning. And in all honesty, it's deserved -- we've all seen or heard about the crazy results & deficiencies in the new program. But here's my story about living in the future.

Out & about running errands today, I was heading from my wife's office to a friend's place to feed her cats. I had planned on looking up the route in advance, just to confirm what I thought was the right path, but due to a combination of being illegally parked in a loading dock and blocked in by students & pizza, I got out of there as fast as I could and was on the road before I remembered to check the map.

On a lark, I pulled out my phone. I didn't unlock, swipe, search, navigate, or scroll -- after all, I was driving, and that would be both dumb and illegal (as of Sept. 1st). But I pressed the button to wake up the phone, held it up to my ear, and said, "how do I get to <friend>'s house?"

The best I was hoping for was a look-up in my address book followed by a map I could squint at and zoom in on. What I got was a map overview immediately followed with turn-by-turn navigation instructions. The phone was still locked! But it validated my route and started saying, "in a quarter mile, turn left on...". It was perfect. Absolutely what I wanted, but I never would've asked for it. I put the phone down and let it navigate my way there. It even brought me to the right apartment block entrance -- I always have to drive in and look for the landing with the bicycle or tomato plants. ;-)

And then I used Siri to dictate those FB/G+ posts.

Maybe I got lucky. Maybe there are advantages to living in the 15th largest city in the country, in terms of attention & coverage. I don't know, but I can tell you that this is a taste of what living in the future should be like.

(Is there anyone here who isn't on FB/G+? [livejournal.com profile] jnala? Just curious.)
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting
Page generated Jul. 6th, 2025 08:20 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios