Failed launch for Google’s voice recognition
On Friday morning, when Google announced its updated iPhone application, everyone was as dubious about the functionality (is there really a point in sending an mp3 to Google’s servers, and hoping to evade voice recognition errors, rather than typing a short query with your keyboard? cool as hell, no doubt, but useful?) as about the launch date — knowing the App Store’s approval process as we do.
First, let me be clear about one thing: this is a great idea, and one day, far in the future, voice input to various pieces of hardware around us might become a part of our everyday life. But right now, I’ll eat my hat if this thing is reliable enough - and we’re talking street conditions, crowded coffee house conditions; in short, normal situations - to use on an everyday basis. I bet that two times out of three Google’s software will misunderstand you and give you the wrong results. And I bet that in the end, the majority of users who try the feature out will go back to standard (virtual) keyboard input.
Google’s updated iPhone application could arrive as early as today, though we’re all familiar with how consistent Apple’s approval process is. Still, when it does arrive, Google’s Mobile App for iPhone will remain at the wallet-friendly price of free.
Two days later, it’s Armageddon! Apple completely screwed Google, Google is dead, Wall Street is gonna collapse!
For tech bloggers, this was bigger than Barack Obama.
Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review, instead getting their updates via the standard iPhone developer tool, which has said “in review” for the last few days.
Who knows why Apple delayed the application, or why they tend to treat every application developer equally poorly. But in this case Apple really screwed up in our opinion.
I hate bloggers, and reporters alike.
Did I just read, in the same article, that Google had never had any definitive information from Apple, yet decided to announce publicly that the update would certainly come out on Friday, and now it’s Apple’s fault if the application is late?
I’ve already written and talked about how awful the App Store’s process is, but counting on predictable, reasonable release dates now, knowing what we know about how it works, makes Google double as stupid as Apple.
Anyway… as far as commenting on the application and functionality itself, I’m waiting for it to be downloaded onto my iPhone, just like I was two days ago. (And I wouldn’t be surprised if the updated application was restricted to the U.S. territory, like version 1.0 originally was. There was no apparent good reason at the time, but now there might be.)
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