iOS is by no means feature-complete. But it’s getting harder to identify the low-hanging fruit — the things you just know Apple has to be working on, not just the stuff you hope they are. The biggest one left is mapping. Today brings a report from 9to5Mac that Apple is set to switch the back-end data in iOS’s Maps app from Google to its own mapping services; John Paczkowski confirms it, quoting a source who claims the new Maps will “blow your head off”.

I’d camp for it. Easy. I feel like it’s a space that could be much improved–even over Android Maps, which are phenomenal.

I have come to the conclusion that what has made Apple so different is that instead of having a profit motive at its core, it has something else entirely. Many big companies like to pretend this is the case — “we put our customers first” — but very few truly live by that mantra. When the pressure is on and the CEO of a big public company has to choose between doing what’s best for the customer or making the quarter’s numbers… most CEOs will choose the numbers.

Apple never has.

As paradoxical as it is that the pursuit of profit is what causes the long-term failure of companies, I believe that Apple’s lack of focus on profitability has actually made it one of the most successful companies in the history of capitalism.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Schmidt’s argument—a highly cogent and persuasive piece of propaganda—is dead-on: In the narrative arc of Google’s story, Siri is indeed a significant development. In fact, Siri is arguably the most significant development in Google’s story since, well, the advent of Google.

Sure, this story includes Facebook, the social web juggernaut that Google failed to see charging towards it on the distant horizon, and the Bing/Yahoo nexus that Microsoft assembled at magnificent cost. But in the retrospective view of of 3-5 years from now, these developments—while major—will likely pale in comparison to that fateful April day when Apple acquired Siri.

This is because Siri transforms computers from “passive” participants in the search process to “active” ones and in so doing urinates all over Google’s model. Instead of taking queries and then passively spitting out 10 blue links—which you then have to mine for the correct information—Siri actively goes and gets the correct information, herself.

Well, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it does seem logical. Very interesting.

In one experiment, he got 54 oenology (the study of wine tasting and wine making) undergraduates together and had them taste one glass of red wine and one glass of white wine. He had them describe each wine in as much detail as their expertise would allow. What he didn’t tell them was both were the same wine. He just dyed the white one red. In the other experiment, he asked the experts to rate two different bottles of red wine. One was very expensive, the other was cheap. Again, he tricked them. This time he had put the cheap wine in both bottles. So what were the results?

The tasters in the first experiment, the one with the dyed wine, described the sorts of berries and grapes and tannins they could detect in the red wine just as if it really was red. Every single one, all 54, could not tell it was white. In the second experiment, the one with the switched labels, the subjects went on and on about the cheap wine in the expensive bottle. They called it complex and rounded. They called the same wine in the cheap bottle weak and flat.

Another experiment at Cal-Tech pitted five bottles of wine against each other. They ranged in price from $5 to $90. Similarly, the experimenters put cheap wine in the expensive bottles — but this time they put the tasters in a brain scanner. While tasting the wine, the same parts of the brain would light up in the machine every time, but with the wine the tasters thought was expensive, one particular region of the brain became more active. Another study had tasters rate cheese eaten with two different wines. One they were told was from California, the other from North Dakota. The same wine was in both bottles. The tasters rated the cheese they ate with the California wine as being better quality, and they ate more of it.

In other news, I really like the iPhone 4S.

This is stunning stuff coming off of a mobile device.

I’d love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: “Check me in here”

I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: “Tweet @NikFinn that I’m sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger”

I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the “original” Siri app did have OpenTable integration): “Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening”

Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking “What time is ‘Moneyball’ playing near here?” and getting a choice of times, then saying “7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets” to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver.

How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: “Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive.” Once you see the specs, Siri asks “Would you like to buy this item?” Answer yes, and you’ve purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you’d like to look at other similar items.

Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool.

Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying “Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac” or “See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow,” and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver.

My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I’d love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say “Read me the first two items on my grocery list” and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with “OK, what are the next two items?” and so on.

For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you’re running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say “Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany” and have it respond with “Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?” could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not.

Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say “Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars” and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you.

Let’s go a bit further: think Google Ads meets Siri + (reminders and geo-fencing).

Now I go to the mall and Siri says to me:

Fabian you need to pick up milk and go to the post office.

I say, ok sure.

Now Siri says:

While you’re at it why don’t you take a look a some shoes your wife might like. Her birthday is coming up

Wait, what? (she’s even smiling now)

You see, a couple of weeks back, my wife sent me an IMessage or even an email and said: baby what do you think about these shoes? I think I’m going to get them next month.

Now Siri knows that my wife has an interest in said shoes and a time frame. Not only that, it might know based on that picture, other pairs that she might like.

Oh yes, Siri also knows that her birthday is coming up.

Boom.

Desire + Opportunity + Delivery Medium = I just bought some shoes.

My wife loves me, I come out like a King, I love Siri.

Siri knows more about me and my wife. Everyday she knows more.

I wouldn’t call it a trojan horse because the soldiers didn’t jump out of the horse and try to sell people things. But yeah, I get the point. Good article.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.