Calling a technomechanical object “smart” is a few notches below bestowing intelligence, but I am happily surprised when I discover (often accidentally) what that phone thing can do.
I’ve known for more than a year that after taking photos of a plant or flower on the iThing yielded a small “i” icon in the bottom of the Photos app. Clicking it opened a drawee where Siri (apparently) took two guesses at identifying the plant as well as a few more google image search matches below.
It does away from having to get any of those upsell swollen plant ID apps.
That’s all fine for plants, but I happen to also have a good number of photos on my device of a certain dog. I noticed recently when selecting the photo, the “i” button briefly changes to a dog icon!
But then when I click the i/dog-con, that sort of smart phone does a great job at identifying his breed.
But wait, there’s more, the small icon in the bottom left leads to an option where I can assign a name, and hence the BrainPhone goes through the rest of my camera roll and finds all images of Felix.
This might be not so novel (I think Google Photos has been doing this for a while), but it was just one of those small surprises that just seems neat. There is something to in a design element that is subtle, rather than announcing itself, it awaits discovery.
Alas, as nifty as this is, it pales to make the ultimate thing I’d never expect to do on a mobile device, those times when I can deposit a check without making a trip to the bank. That is future-rama! (they don’t have a cash dispenser yet, right?)
Featured Image: My photo! Our New Old Phone flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) with an overlay of a screenshot my my iphone apps.
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised when it identified some of my early art as a real James Ensor (https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com/2023/10/19/more-ancient-greeks-throwback-thursday-edition/) – and the US squirrels get regularly ID-ed as a Felis Catus. So… it works better for some than for other IDs, with some hilarious results thrown in for good measure!