AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

A clock ticks down. Kobe taking the ball down the middle of the court for a final last second shot, with the hands of Lebron and Wade in his face, to win the NBA Championship in game 7. Or Jack Bauer disabling the relativity bomb at CERN that would collapse the planet. Or the end days as we get closer to 2012. Nope! It's Verizon Wireless' new iPhone 4 commerical. Nay a mention of the iPhone 4 until the last seconds of the commercial. But it was effective. I got really really excited. Until I realized that I'm gonna stick it out with my iSpot and iPod touch setup. Perhaps, I might finally see the iPhone 4G or 5 on T-Mobile sometimes this year. Meanwhile, this was a pretty effective commercial. Talk about freezing the sales in time. For folks who have been waiting years for this, this is it. This is your time. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

We all knew when Steve Jobs introduced the re-engineered Macbook Air, the current edition last winter, much of the features it gained were from the iPad.  And Steve said much of the what MBA inherited will be passed a long to the other Macbook line-up. Naturally, many think Steve is talking about the SDD or the month-long sleep period.  Or perhaps, and this is something that has not be brought up for a while, it is that the other Macbooks and MBP will lose the optical drive.   The question is would users want that?  And is the market ready for such an eventuality?   Let's examine this for a bit and see where it can possibly go. By removing the optical drive, Apple opens quite a bit of engineering possibilities.  First, it is possible for Apple to slim things down quite a bit.  As in nearly MBA thin.  It's doubtful we'll see them as thin as the MBA because of chip and heat issues.  The MB may go that route because there are no dedicated GPU in...

You want proof that 2011 is going to be very very important for mobile?  What? CES wasn't enough? CES in the first week of January did not end quietly as Apple and Verizon lit things up with the CDMA iPhone last week. This week, we had a bunch of earnings, trashing talking during earnings calls, and, oh, Steve Jobs taking his 3rd medical leave of absence. We might have a quiet week next but Sony may be brewing a PSP2 meal for us.  I'm hoping to see a PSP phone as well.   Just about the only week we might have a bit of time to catch our breath is the first week of Feb.  Then mobile activities will spike from there.  Check this out: Feb 7th: Sprint is hold a mobile event.  Calling it a mobile first. Feb 8th: Dell will likely show off their smartphones and new laptops Feb 9th: HP jumps back into the mobile war with Web OS 2 and new hardware.  Maybe a couple of slates.  Probably some smartphones too.   That's the second week.  We've yet to h...

According to an unofficial and certainly non-scientific poll taken by Business Journal, a full 40% are ready to jump over to Verizon for the iPhone.  Still, even at 30% (maybe the poll points to 50% because this is not scientific after all), that is quite a high number. And maybe this is good for Apple, it certainly isn't good for a few companies with a lot to protect and, maybe, even their futures are in jeopardy. Let me begin by saying that none of them is Google.  Android is going to be huge and nothing is gonna stop it.  Not Apple.  I'm also not saying that Google will rule the mobile realm but I am just saying that Android is here to stay. The first company I think will be going through a lot of pain is RIM.  RIM was thrown aside when its Storm was unable to match the iPhone blow for blow.  And with the iPhone going on sale on Verizon's network starting Feb 3rd, I can see sales already coming to a screeching halt.  And it might get worse if Apple...

I'll have more to say on this but right now, I want to give my initial speculation on what I think Apple may have paid upfront for with the $3.9 billion Tim Cook mentioned in Apple earnings call yesterday Glass.  Not just LCD or the Retina screen that many folks are speculating about but glass that goes on the iPhone.  The gorilla glass from Corning.  And more than just trying to find a stronger material for the iPhone, Apple is looking to add touch put to the underside of the iOS devices. Beginning with the iPhone.  Probably not iPhone 5 but I'm guess it'll be for iPhone 6 and beyond.  And while this doesn't mean twice the LCD screen, it does mean twice the type of glass that's needed to take in touch controls.  And a few weeks ago, there was a new patent granted to Apple that allows the touch contacts to be placed closer.   Speculation then was that it will allow Apple to make thinner iOS devices but it could mean that it'll allow Apple to add touch ...