[al_borland]

When you said you were looking at a simpler device, I was not expected all those requirements and an AI device at the end. I was assuming dumb phone.

It seems an AI phone is going to also lock you into its own walled garden. So I’m not sure what this would solve.

What kind of AI phone did you have in mind? As it stands, it seems AI is an app or OS integration to smartphones as we know them today. Anything else seems like it would be too compromised as a product.

I stay with Apple’s walled garden, because it seems like the best option in terms of hardware, software, and services. I’ve tried Android tablets, Windows laptops, and use Linux on and off for various things. I don’t like any of it as well as what Apple, and the 3rd party developers on Apple’s platforms, put out. If Apple were to horribly fumble the ball on privacy and sell out their customers (they are going in the wrong direction in a lot of ways), I would have to seriously consider leaving, but I honestly have no clue where I’d go.

[FlyingAvatar]

Talking to an audio-enabled LLM is definitely "simpler" in terms of device interaction than navigating menus and such. Also having less GUI focus would feel simpler to me.

I find myself missing the experience of earlier iPhone where it didn't feel like I had so much crammed into my phone.

I can imagine using a device that I interact with primarily by talking with it, and the GUI is secondary or non-existent. For the bulk of what I use my phone for other than consuming video / doom-scrolling (which I could use much less of anyway), I think a voice interface would be preferable.

Initially "Apple Intelligence" was very exciting to think about, in that having a Siri that you could actually talk to would have a lot of possibilities, but we've seen essentially no progress in that direction.

[al_borland]

A speech or LLM based device is only more simple if it works perfectly. As it stands today, it’s far from perfect. When it makes a mistake, if there nothing to fall back on, I would think that would be very frustrating. I run into these types of issues on a daily basis with current LLMs.

I would liken it to a non-responsive touch screen. The magic of the modern smartphone evaporates if it stops responding to touch.

I missed the early iPhone as well. I actually setup my Home Screen on my phone to be the same app setup as the original iPhone when iOS 26 released. I still have other apps in the App Library if/when I need them, but I have my basic setup how things were in 2007… At least for now. I’ve actually liked it quite a bit so far.

I’m curious if Siri with Apple Intelligence will live up to some of what they showed in the ads last year, but at this point I need to experience it working with 0 issues for an extended period of time before I even start to think about an AI-first device, and especially for an AI-only device. I haven’t seen AI from anyone that can perform at that level. Much like full-self-driving, I feel like this is going to be something that is perpetually 5 years away.

[FlyingAvatar]

Agree that if the primary UI is voice, it will need to be the the multiple nines of success to avoid being frustrating.

Even so, I still frequently use Siri now despite it being much less successful than that.