AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I’ve been a T-Mobile subscriber nearly a decade. I’ve had a fantastic relationship with them. I was formerly with AT&T until they irked (I wanted to use a stronger language but I changed it because I really like Greenjava to be a family friendly site) off a lot of folks. I just could not stand them any longer. I was so happy when they received the G1, the very first Android device which I continue to use and cherish to this day. And I thought maybe two or three years down the line, I could get an iPhone that runs on T-Mobile’s 3G network. Surely, Apple would not keep the exclusive with the hated AT&T network for years and years, right? More At Greenjava .

No doubt Apple had a great week with the pre-sale figure of 1 million iPhone 4S sold and a fantastic Friday today with AT&T doubling the already iPhone 4 activations and Sprint recording best-ever day.  As an Apple fan, you are heartened by this. Okay, good.  Ahem, Verizon, you go next.  Tell us how crazy your iPhone sales have been today.  Go ahead.  The stage is yours. Hello?  Verizon?  Hey, there.  Come on.  Don't be shy. Not the best ever?  Second best?  Second best is okay.  I bought one, pre-ordered it.  That's one that I know of.  There were other folks I'm sure. What?  You're too good for us?  WTF!? Seriously, I can wait to find out the final score between the three.  I'm sure Sprint with its fantastic sales won't be close to what AT&T has.  I just want to know how close VZW's iPhone activations come to AT&T's. You have to keep in mind that AT&T has an advantage...

Hello everyone. This blog is composed using the dictation feature on the iPhone five using iPhone 4S. As you can see, it is pretty accurate. I try to compose message earlier using the iPhone 4S speaker. It was not as accurate as using the headset. For those of us who have the iPhone 4S, I think we should all try to use the dictation feature more often. Why's that? The reason is because I think with Siri, Apple is going to Really revolutionize how we interact with computers. Using Siri, it is only the beginning. Using dictation to compose our messages and emails, it is only the beginning. Obviously Apple has a long way to go before the AI in iOS 5 or future iOS can really become our digital assistant. Earlier I try to see if Siri can launch applications. It was not able to. However, I know didn't ability for users to launch applications with the mat or on and iOS device is going to be a very important feature and I think it will come rather quickly. Right now Siri is in beta t...

Here are a few pics I took off the iPhone 4S against the iPhone 4. Both are white and both are of the Verizon variants. As you can clearly see, they look similar. I don't know what to do next. I'm gonna have figure it out. When I do, I'll post and share with the VZW iPhone users how I got it to be activated. Can't tell which is which? The 4S is the one on the left and on the bottom. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

According to various reports online, it appears there are plenty of iPhone 4S still in stock that people can go pick up if they did not pre-order ahead of time or was not willing to wait along with the hundreds of thousands around the world for it. However, my suggestion is that you do go as soon as you can to get the model you want.  I'm sure the smaller memory versions are probably very popular. As a matter of fact, UPS dropped mine off about 30 minutes ago.  32 GB white Verizon version.  Will post pics.

I've been using iMessage to communicate with my brother and a few friends as far as India.  What is iMessage and why you really want it if you are surrounded by other people who use iOS devices like the iPad or iPhone? iMessage is Apple's newest iOS feature: an integrated messaging system for its iOS devices and, in the future, the Macs.  It allows the user to send messages from one device to another.  And again, it's only within Apple's software and hardware ecosystem.  What's cool about it is that it's free to use like most of Apple's online services. Okay, now you're exicted.  You've got iOS 5 (oh, yeah, it only works with the latest iOS).  How do you get started?  Apple's website doesn't exactly give you the info straight up.  

The iPhone mobile experience is seemless and it plain "just works".  Provided you follow through the step-by-step instructions and be sure to take the necessary time to make it work.  And it'll only take a few minutes if you know what you're doing. My brother like four hours because he skipped ahead and neglected to learn what each function are and how iOS 5 is different from iOS 4 on his iPhone 4.  And I nearly ran into similar issues.  When I went online, I realized that many people had problems during the setup, not just the iOS installation. What I realized is that people are just too darn expected about their iPhones that they forget to read on new features, setting up iCloud, and what-not. So I beg you...read up.  Please.  If you do, it won't take hours.  No tearful visits to the Apple geniuses will be necessarily.  And this will likely be the last time you have to plug your iOS devices into a Mac or PC.  

The HQ at RIM could be getting a Costco gift basket from Cupertino next week of the figure of 4 million iPhone 4S being sold just this weekend alone is true. This is the number that is widely being reported.  At the top of this CNBC video, it was mentioned about the Blackberry outage as being a contributor.  I think it is but probably won't have the short term impact as some folks think.  I think over the long run as contracts run out and people consider a new device, the iPhone might be a choice for many current Blackberry users.   I'm hours away from getting mine via UPS.  I always work so I never have to time to go to the Apple store to pick one up.  Although I do need to go there just to activate my 4S unless I figure out another way to do it.   Source:   Yahoo CNBC .

With tens if not hundreds of billions in cash, one might believe that the tech and wireless giants would do anything to find a way to reinvest some of that. And perhaps some folks believe that the tech execs, some being nerds, could be fooled into parting with a couple of billion dollars. Well, the studio executives who represented the companies that owned Hulu found out that these nerds are no fools. No one was going to buy a company that was at the mercy of people who could make or break it simply with what is offered or taken away. And who would want Hulu without some sort of guarantee that the content it currently had couldn't be taken away in a couple of years. Google was willing to double the asking price for Hulu of the studios would give Google four years instead of two years of content. The fact that the execs pulling the strings at Hulu did not want the Google deal is telling as far as what they are thinking. After two years and two billions, the new owner of Hulu would h...

iOS 5 and iCloud is upon us now.  However, there is a lot of confusion going around that I think folks need to be aware of.  Because I was kinda confused while I was looking around for new apps and features. So, I'll take it upon myself to provide you with information that I've heard as I explore iOS 5.  And yeah, iOS 5 is that good.  Worth the time to get to know.  But it'll take some time.   Together with iOS and iCloud, Apple could really be ready to change mobile yet again.  And it ain't got anything to do with iPhone 4S or the lack of iPhone 5. I'll write up iMessage next.

There is an interesting situation happening with iCloud and iOS 5. According to Instapaper's creator, when the iOS device reaches a threshold, it will automatically delete some cached files. I don't know just how critical this issue is but I figure I share this with you.  If you happen have some important files like a presentation and your iPad or iPhone deletes it, wow, that could be pretty bad, you know? More at MacNN .

Here is an adorable video of a baby trying to use a tablet and translating that to "using" a magazine.  Yes, adorable and, yet, it is a glimpse of where the future is headed. More At Gizmodo .

iOS 5 rocks.  However, for those of you who have been able to upgrade without much of a hiccup, I suggest that you take time to get to know it.   It's not easy nor it is difficult.  I think the difficult at times at this time for some people, including myself, is the load of traffic hitting Apple's servers and the Internet in general.   So, I suggest you take the time to get to know your new iOS.  I have and I'm loving Find My Friends (I guess I've got the stalker personality) and iMessage. I'm having some trouble with Notification Center - I don't see my weather or stocks.   And generally, updates are coming in, albeit, slower than it was yesterday. So, again, be patient with the updates and get to know your iOS.  Once you get the hang of it, it'll blow you away.   I can't wait for my iPhone 4S (in Kentucky of all places now) tomorrow.  Siri, you and I are gonna get to know each other well.

Today, there is a lot of buzz about Apple even before iOS 5 was officially released.  Word from a know-it-all Wall Street analyst is that Apple will be fighting the Kindle Fire by Amazon with a $250-300 iPad.  This particular analyst said that iPad mini will allow Apple to hold the tablet market and even benefit in markets like China and others because of the low cost.   Interesting...let's make this analyst famous, shall we? Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities is the analyst in the spotlight.  And not the good kind of spotlight. His name sounded familiar so I decided to put on my investigative journalist hat and look him up...on Google.  I didn't have to go far. According to Know Your Mobile , BW, as he is known to his friends, vowed that Apple was to release the iPhone 5 with an aluminum unibody with a larger screen on October 4th. It would have been spectacular, he said!  Well, things did not quite happened as BW said it would. TS powers-that-be, ...

This is the third day in a row that I've had to write about this.  RIM's Blackberry outage has now extended to North America ( Reuters ).  What exactly is going on here? Yesterday, we were told that it had to do with a corrupt database and the failure to switch to a backup.  Fine.  So make that switch already, RIM!   I'm not a Blackberry fan but as the number three platform with a loyal following, they really are not doing much to give the throng of its fans something to work with.  At this rate, there may not be anyone left to buy the QNX superphones when they eventually make it to the market. Just about everyone, pundits, analysts, bloggers, all are saying this could not have come at a worst time.  I'm seriously not looking forward to the next financial earnings call between the RIM CEOs and the analysts.  I'd say the Wall Street guys take it to them and really ask difficult questions and don't buy the BS that'll be handed out. Maybe I'm naive b...

I do a lot of e-mail with my MobileMe account on the Web. Switched over to iCloud last night.  Been using it all morning.   Wow, it's fast and much more stable than MobileMe.  Well done, Apple.

Just converted my MobileMe account over to iCloud.  I'm also working on help my family make the move. If you're new to the whole iCloud thing, head on over to the website and sign up right now.  It's free from Apple and so far, it promises to be what MobileMe wasn't and it'll be an added value to iOS 5, regardless of whether you're on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

If you've never used Siri before, I can tell you that Siri was an "it".  It was just an app.  However, during the iPhone 4S demo with the enhanced Siri, the voice was definitely a "she", albeit a robotic female voice.  But is Siri really a she? See, I think we need to hold our judgment on that for a while.  Siri started off as an app.  A bunch of codes.  Nothing masculine or feminine about that.  And it was likely a bunch of dudes who programmed and created Siri.  Apple decided to give Siri a female sounding voice in iPhone 4S but Apple could have just as easily went the other way. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Command Data, the Android Star Fleet officer serving on board the USS Enterprise D, who longed to be human decide to follow a trait that most humans have:  to procreate.  So in "The Offspring" , he created another android in his own image, his child.  But he gave that android a name but allowed it to chose its own sexual...

Facebook is one of the greatest privacy violator in recent memory since the Big Brother and the Oceanians in Nineteen Eighty Four.  And while it does seem at times that society is moving in that direction and we're not quite there yet (today, we learn that California will now allow warrant-less searches of mobile devices), online social activities by users seem to be moving us in that direction all together. And while Facebook and other social networks are in it for the profit, it's likely that certain individuals or companies can go online and really do some damage to an user when given the right opportunity. TheInquirer.net reported on a RSA internet security conference where Ira Winkler, a security guy, used the example of the Chinese intelligence apparatus going to Linkedin to target individuals or companies to obtain informations or informants.  Movie stuff, right? Definitely not.  I've thought of such things.  I don't know how I would go about doing it (being ...

Is anyone out there considering going yo wait in line for the iPhone 4S? The reason I asked is because I think most people who wanted one really badly will have ordered online through Apple or one of the three carriers in the US. I just don't see the kind of demand that is really to rush the stores on Friday. Sure, some stores will have lines. Probably not as bad as it was for the iPhone 4 or iPad 2. I just don't see it. Maybe I'm wrong. Love to be wrong. So anyone joining the line on Friday? Or have you already ordered yours already? Or are you waiting for the iPhone 5? Note: I'll be getting mine through the mail. Apple, I've yet to receive my email confirmation. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

According to  news reports , RIM went through a second blackout for two days in a row. Again, it's a gift that keep on giving if you're a Blackberry competitor.  This time, the problem has spread to  Latin America and India . I am certain the other mobile players are salivating at this.  However, as a mobile fan who believes more competition is better for all of us in the long run, tripping and falling on one's face one day and then tripping over one's own shoe laces the next day isn't competition.

iOS 5 is about to come out and there is one particular feature that is going to have a huge impact on the wireless industry. I'm surprised that hardly anyone is talking about it. iMessage. iMessage is Apple's own messaging app that really has taken too long to introduce.  And it'll put a severe dent in the carrier's profits.  After all, it costs them next to nothing for an user to send out a single text message.  And yet, they can charge up to two dimes for it.  It just play wrong, wrong, wrong. It's a clear example of who Congress and the FCC has been looking out for.   Let's make this hurt for the carriers.  I've already been using Google Voice to do all my texting but I'm going to try to get my friends and family stop using SMS and move over to iMessage when possible and Google Voice when absolutely necessary when the other person isn't on an iPhone or another iOS device. And don't feel too bad for the carriers.  They...

I think my iPhone 4S shipment notification probably got lost in the mail.  Otherwise, it cannot take this long for Apple to ship mine out.  I live in California, for goodness sake! Anyway, here is a Siri video that ought to hold us over until Friday (I hope). Source: TUAW .

We are less than 48 hours from Apple unleashing iOS 5 on our unsuspecting iPhones and other iOS devices. Very excited. However, I am wondering about a feature you might have heard about but haven't yet seen an update to since early June. Back in June, some wording within iTunes suggested that auto-updating OTA was not only coming to the OS but also to the apps as well. That might be a cool feature to have for most folks but not so in some minor situations. For instance, my updated iOS Slingplayer app will not work with my Slingbox but the earliest version from 2010 will. It's weird. I know and I have seen anything that might suggest why. So you can see why I would not want my iPhone or iPad to go to iCloud and pull down an update. Question: does anyone know whether auto-app update is an iOS 5 feature and, if so, can it be disabled? - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Here's a simple write-up from TUAW that explains just how iCloud deals with files and how it syncs them to all your devices.  It's worth a read if you're concerned about how your files will be treated.  More specifically, which versions of updates win out.

The key to iPhone 4S is Siri, our personal assistant who won't judge us and lives to serve us.  But while Siri is an unique name,  I would like to be able to rename it. I'm sure this feature along would wow the next Apple keynote event, be it for the iPad 3, WWDC, or just bring Siri to the Mac. So, how about it, Apple?  Give us that personal touch - let us name our Siri.  I'm also interested in the ability to customize the voice for Siri.

The Facebook app for the iPad is here.  Does it matter?  Maybe if you use it a lot and wanna waste more of your time away on it, then okay, this is a big deal. Here are a couple of screen shots I took from the iPhone 4. I think the gaming that the app brings is very interesting from a curiosity standpoint and how "HTML 5" this all really is.  Supposedly, this is all based on a new gaming and Web platform that Facebook has been working on with Apple's help. What else do you get? Higher rez pics Better navigation (we'll see) Ability to spy on your friends (I've got Foursquare for that). Again, gaming...most interesting addition. What I don't see is better privacy but coming from Facebook, that'll never happen. If this is your cup of tea, its available in the iTunes store or your app store on your iOS devices now. For the rest of us, it's "meh" update.  

The brand new Acer competitor to the Macbook Air is $100 less!  Really?  That's all you can bring to the game, Acer?  I'm sure the specs and everything else is better, right?  Sacrificing margin to compete, no? Wrong.  According to  Electronista , this Acer ultrabook is, again, $100 cheaper than the lowerest priced Macbook Air.  But it's not a fair comparison because this UB, Acer Aspire S3, has a 13" screen.  The 13" Macbook Air starts at $1299, which is $300 more than this UB from Acer. Go for the Acer, right?  Definitely not. Remember a few months ago when Intel was pushing the ultrabook to compete with the Air?  Well, the PC makers revolted, saying that Intel would need to lower its chip prices in order for them to compete with Apple.  I reckon at the time that Intel was not likely to make enough of a sacrifice to allow the PC makers to compete with Apple. Hence, the PC guys would need to make their own compr...

I think there is a race to go thinner and lighter.  I think that’s all great but it is really coming at a sacrifice of the mobile experience and performance.  Ideally, we want our mobile devices to half as thin and nearly weightless in our hands.  All that without sacrificing the speed and battery life.  Then after that we want them to be even thinner yet again. Fine, someday.  That day will come.  With the speed of tech advancements today, it’ll probably come sooner rather than later.  However, there is a threshold that each company like Apple, Nokia, and Samsung pushes up to each time and will not be able to exceed until the following year until technology advances enough for them to push that envelope again. But within that threshold, there is only so much they can do.  Check out where we were and where we are today. It reminds me of when role playing gamers create their characters.  They have points that they can assign ...

This is an email I've sent Dave the Mobile Sage this morning: One of the most interesting thing about the iPad over the Mac is that I don't have as much distraction as it is on the laptop. Not that there is a death of apps. It's the the fundamental change in its use. Maybe it's the switching back and forth between apps.   And in using the Touchpad over the last week, I find the distraction on the Touchpad even less than on the iPad. That is because it is because of the dearth of apps. Well, I'm sure this was not HP's intention to begin with.  I've been able to write my novels, write blogs, communicate with friends via the IM app, and surf the Web and keep up with what's going on around the Internet. What I cannot do is play a lot of the games in the iPad when I'm don't have it with me.  What I cannot do is watch many of the videos on Hulu or Netflix.  What I cannot do access a lot of the tablet-ready apps for my workflow.  I have had t...

Apple is dedicating hundreds of thousands of man-hours and a lot of engineering resources to develop its next generation of mobile chips, hoping to put some more space between itself and its competitors. So far, Apple's A5 chips have an advantage in generational operations while maintaining up to 7x in graphics operations.  But Nvidia has some wonderfully nasty quad-core chips that are due out in a couple of months. Apple's own answer to that chip is likely months away but will it be something that we can be willing to way for?  Apple's working on chips in new innovative ways that may mean a core-war but it could always mean Apple trying to make sure its mobile lead continues with tighter mobile integration. Source: Greenjava .