AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

No longer a Tom Cruise fan?  I don't know one way or another.  I just like a good movie with actions, explosions, and any attempt to develop a story. MI4 seems to have all of them.  Oh, yeah, the iPhone also has a small part in the trailer. What do you think?  In the poster, TC actually looked like Lestat again with the longish hair. Source:   Digg .

I’m an a Battery life on the 4S is on par with the iPhone 4 as far as usage goes.  But because the iPhone 4S is just begging to be used in ways that the 4 isn't, dictation, Siri, Notification Center, etc, the battery life can seem to be shorter as a result. So, I've been going a little more extreme with respect to trying to be more conservative and squeeze every last second of power I can get out of the 4S.   I’m an a WiFi environment most of the time – home, office, Starbucks.  So, I have the luxury to do what I am going to suggest to help you extend the battery life on the iPhone: Turn on Airplane mode and then turn on WiFi if needed.  I’ve also turned off location and alerts when I’m at work.  I still let e-mails and messaging go through. There it’s that simple.  And using Siri and dictation will eat up battery but since I got the 4S, I’ve been Siri daily and dictating my notes, messages, and e-mails.  If you don’t, you’ll also...

Apple is set to unleash the iPhone 4S another wave of countries even as some iPhone shortages persist.  22 countries and city-states in all.  Pop (M)  Austria         8.40  Belgium       10.80  CzechRepublic       10.50  Denmark         5.60  Estonia         1.30  Finland         5.40  Hungary       10.00  Ireland         6.20  Italy       60.70  Latvia         2.20  Liechtenstein   Lithuania         3.20  Luxembourg         0.50  Mexico   ...

It's been two weeks since the iPhone 4S went on sale.  By now, I'm guess about 6 to 8 million iPhone 4S's have been moved off the shelves and into user hands all over the world.  I reckon we'll see 10 million by the weekend as the 4S goes on sale in more than half a dozen countries. So, I think I'm in good company when I ask you.  Has Siri changed how you do things with your mobile device?  Now, if you're new to the whole smartphone scene and the 4S is your first mobile device, I can safely say that you're blown away. For the rest of us, Siri could be the reason why we upgraded.  And I can tell you this.  I'm blown away just by what it can do as well and it's only in beta. What can it do?  Well, it cuts down on a whole lot of tapping away on the screen.  You speak to Siri, make a request. Task done.  Making calls, sending messages or e-mails, or schedule an alarm or appt.  But that's the easy part, isn't it. It's the search...

You may know by now that Apple has been awarded Patent Office the "Slide To Unlock" patent.  It's a very blatant copying by Android OS.  I'm find with it.  Companies copy each other all the time.  However, the Chinese provincial government of Taiwan is worried that its local firms, HTC, will come under additional lawsuits from Apple. This is where innovation comes into play.  Why not just find a way around the patent?  You know, innovate? See?  WebOS has its own way of doing it.  I don't see why others like Google can implement their own unlocking mechanism.  Android 4 has facial recognition, right? Here's the thing.  Why a lock screen at all? Source:   Focus Taiwan . Note:  I know that Taiwan is still recognized by some island nations as an independent country and that China considers Taiwan as a breakaway province.  Still, the willingness of Taipei to capitulate to Beijing's wishes shows that its only a m...

You've noticed by now that you can see your notifications directly from your lock screen if you're running iOS 5.  Pretty neat, I know.  But once you've unlock it, the notification goes away.  Then you've got two ways of looking for notifications.  Hunt for them on your iOS device or use the Notification Center. Apparently, there is a way to get to your most important notification directly after unlocking your screen.  I happened to have discovered it by accident a couple of days ago and only now have the time to share it.  And if you already know what I'm talking about, cool. So, when you want to unlock your iOS device, you have to slide the locking mechanism.  Well, you can do the same with your notification. If you have more than one notification from different apps, you simply choose the notification that you want to get to first, and your iOS device will take you to that app.  As you can see, my "slide to unlock" remains in its free-...

According to Sprint's CEO, Dan Hesse, the iPhones are less of a Web hog than Androids.  Does that make sense?  I always thought it was the other way around.  In fact, he said the  iPhone is 50% more efficient  than the Androids. I am a bit surprised by this but Hess did give some reasons for this.  He attributed this to Apple's stricter app development policies - like accessing the network less frequent where as Android apps have a wider and freer playing field for developers. Furthermore, he attributed the iPhone's better ability to offload data to WiFi hotspots better than its Android competitors. What is interesting is that this could end up being a big deal when companies negotiate with carriers over cost of acquiring a smartphone. At the same time, we have to wonder if this is a ploy being used by Sprint to bring to the negotiation tables in future smartphone talks with device makers.

This is why it's so exciting to be alive now.  Those of you younglings who were not around or aware of the computer revolution in the early 1980s are now a part of another revolution - mobile computing coming of age. Not quite but here is another sign that we're trying to get to mobile nirvana as Steve Jobs envisioned it.   Bloomberg TV+ is a new app for the iPad that allows users access to Bloomberg TV for free with 24 hour streaming.  I can tell you this already.  My service provider ain't gonna be too happy.   I'm being lazy so I lifted some pertinent info from the iTunes page for the app: Watch: - Live TV: Bloomberg Television Live 24-hours a day - Featured videos: The biggest business stories right now prioritized by importance - Last 24 Hours: All the important business stories from the last 24 hours - Exclusive interviews with the most influential people in business, finance and investment - Original content produced for mobile - Bloomberg's crit...

Nintendo is in a pretty dark place right now.  Sales are not going well and its products are no longer competitive.  It all started a few years ago when mobile gaming changed.  And certainly, I did not expect this.  Neither did the powers-that-be at Nintendo Japan. And this was lead off by the iPod touch and now the weight whole iOS ecosystem is crashing down on Mario, Pikachu, and company's heads. More at  Greenjava .

There is plenty to be excited about with Nokia's first Windows Phone device.  Now, we have to be careful about this because it's not necessarily a winner in terms of sales because it's not on sale yet.  And when it does go on sale, it's limited to a few European markets.

I don’t know about you but I find what Google is telling Nexus One users totally unacceptable.  If you’re using Nexus One, you’re stuck on Android 2.x.  You’re done.  Finished.  Enjoy it as it is because your device will not be getting Ice Cream Sandwich. If you want it, fork over some more money for the Galaxy Nexus. Ordinarily, I would agree except for a couple of things.  One, the Nexus One is still being sold on the market.  So, basically, people who bought into it will never be able to enjoy the latest and greatest features. Second, why won’t it work with Android 4?  Is this some sort of a revenue grab by Google?  It totally doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Just to put some of this into perspective, the Nexus One came out on January 5, 2010 and it was rolled out months after that over the world.  You’re got a device that is less than two years old.  Less than a year old for some users.  And you’re telling me it’s specs...

According to Gazelle (Electronista) , buyer of used gadgets and electronics, reported a record number of Blackberries were traded in last week.  And this was a record that broke another record number of Blackberry trade-in a month ago.

You know what's interesting about Apple's 30% cut from apps to movies to books?  It's 30% of someone else's money that it is taking for itself.  Now, Apple has said that the 30% take it's enforcing allows it only to operate its stores at around break-even point.  Still, as more people go digital, all that money is going to add up. And this is even before Apple, with access to around two hundred million credit cards, begins to get into the mobile and online payment business.  I get the feeling that Apple isn't looking at credit card like transaction fees.  I think Apple wants a piece of the profit as well. Apple could leverage its considerable knowledge of its customers and move into deals with retailers in ways unlike anything we've seen before. And Amazon, which has just reported its own Netflix-like earnings and missing expectations, expectations that were not unreasonable like those imposed on Apple, needs to be aware of that. Apple will be wor...

According to a variety of reports, Apple was not the only one to have missed their forecast on iPhone sales.  Both AT&T and Verizon all saw lower number of activations - largely due to people waiting for the iPhone 4 successor. On top of that, what is scary about iPhone's potential growth is that Android and other competing devices, with newer models, did not see their sales increase.  It just sounded like people either wanted to jump ship to the iPhone 4S or that they simply wanted to see what Apple will be offering. Then the Blackberry blackout happened.  It was an early Christmas gift for Apple.  According to a new survey, about 40% of Blackberry users now want to get an iPhone.  And this is only the beginning.  Since we do not know how this survey was conducted and who were a part of it, we can safely believe that this is only the beginning. After all, the consumerization of IT is in full swing.  On top of that, Apple is look...

For those who still doesn’t get what’s going on, consider this.  The iPads alone have pretty much vanquished the netbooks and really put a hurt on companies likes Acer that had relied on netbook shipments to pad their PC sales numbers. According to ABI Research, 7.3 million netbooks “shipped”, not sold.  On the other hand, 13.6 million tablets were “shipped”.  Again, not all of it sold.  As you can see, the volume of tablets shipped doubted that of the netbooks.  And while many research firms refused to face this facts, this started in Q2 of 2010 when the original iPad went on sale.  It’s only now that these firms realized what’s going on. Even as Acer, which had relied on netbook figures to pad their PC shipments, was going through financial pains, research guys and analysts refused to face the facts. Now, let’s be clear about something here – iPads alone accounted for a vast majority of that tablet figure.  Of the 13.6 million tablets, about 7...

The general move to tablets is well under way now.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an iPad user which constitute a vast majority of sales (not just shipped) and near totality in Web traffic from tablets or an Android tablet, Playbook, or Touchpad user, we are a special breed of pioneers who are blazing a trail towards new means of mobile computing and entertainment. One of the most interest things is that while Apple has sold millions upon millions of iPads, there does not seem to be a general acceptance that tablets are here to stay.  Moreover, the sales of iPads is something that is watch so closely over that any slip up is cause to disparage the tablet market in general, and specifically, something for analysts and pundits to find fault in Apple. Apple sold more iPads than its internal numbers reported and above Wall Street concensus.  No, it did not sell thirteen, fourteen, or even fifteen iPads.  But it sold enough.  Eleven point one million iPads to b...

Would you make Tim Cook the CEO of one of the most profound, visionary companies in the world?  Would you leave in the hands of Cook, Ives, Schiller, and a few others without Ivy League education a vision that that time and time again created change in a civilization-wide scale? Sure, today, you would.  But back in the late 1990s, if you were Steve Jobs, would you have hired them for the jobs to turn Apple around?  Chances are, you probably would not. I wouldn’t.  And that lies in just how differently Steve Jobs, and now Apple, things about the world.  And I’m glad that this  Forbes post  highlighted just how differently Apple sees talent. And the post goes on to say that there does not seem to be a formula about how Apple looks for people it finds talented.  Absolutely right.  If there was one, I don’t think Apple would be as successful as it is today.  However, I know this much.  B-schools, Ivy Leagues, and others have the...

Last night I had dinner with a good doctor friend.  We got to talk about the state of the health system as he sees it from the trenches in the ER, his office, and, more importantly, his patients.  But he’s a tech guy too and now, he’s not sure he’s getting the Galaxy S II or the Galaxy Nexus, two of the top Android devices I recommended to him. He had expressed a desire to leave Apple’s ecosystem.  I told him, yeah fine, he’ll love the Galaxy phones because he likes a more opened approach. Then for some reason, we hit the topic about the Night Stalker . He was a serial killer in the mid-80s.  Anyway, he asked if he was still alive.  I didn’t know.  The only thing I remembered about him was that he scared the crap out of him as a child. Instinctively, we both when for our phones.  He has a 3GS and I’ve got my 4S.  I was able to get the answer from Siri via a Web search even before he opened Safari. It was fast, accurate, and Siri blew hi...

Apple is kind enough to post their all-hands event to celebrate their iconic and visionary leader, the late Steve Jobs.  You can click through here to Apple's webpage . Got it from Daring Fireball .

CBS has put up transcripts and videos online from their 60-Minutes program of an interview with Walter Isaacson, the author of the Steve Jobs biography. Personally, I'm waiting to read the book first before I watch the video.  Inevitably, there will be spoilers.  I have been trying to avoid reading posts that unveil interesting bits of information from the biography.  I've been success for the most part but avoiding headlines from my RSS reader was a bit more difficult. The book should be available for download tomorrow, in a few hours to be exact.  You can get them through Nook, Kindle, or iBooks on your iOS device as Steve would want you to. Or you can do it old-school style and order it online.

According to Compaq's former CEO , Steve once tried to see if he was interested in licensing OS X from Apple and offer them along side Microsoft's Windows.  This offer was made back in 1999 by Steve Jobs to Compaq. But only for a moment, both sides bursted out laughing and that was the end of it.  Still, I would love to seen OS X running on a non-Apple laptop.  Desktops, not so much.  And not all laptops and certainly not on netbooks. But there are a few laptop makers that do come up with some pretty nice designs.  I've complimented Sony's designs in the past.  And on top of that, Sony at times offer higher specs than some of Apple's Macbooks. For instance, Apple's 13" Macbooks has resolutions that go up to 1440x900 while someone of Sony's Air-like Vaios go up to 1920x1080.  And more than a few of them comes with 8 GB of RAM while the Air goes up to 4 GB, but only if you ask for it and are willing to pay for it. Now, keep in mind, the VIAOs I...

I'm read a couple of books in the iPhone now.  iBooks and Nook app.  I'm considering getting the Barnes and Noble Nook reader because I like having a bigger screen to read a book with.  It has nothing to do with the e-ink. In fact, I find the e-ink a bit dated.  It's slow and I'm just not used to the touch function on these dedicated readers.  Rather, I should say the lack of touch in the readers. So, would I have liked the iPhone 4S to have a 4" screen?  Sure.  It means bigger fonts or you can fit more text into one page. But should Apple release a device with around 6" +/- 1", Apple could end up locking up the reader market rather quickly.  In previous posts about the tablets and screen sizes, we always focused on productivity rather than consumption. What do you think?  Would get an iOS device with 4-6" just for reading?