AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I like scary movies. And today, I got quite a treat as I ventured out of the house to do some chores on a cloudy day in LA. Cloudy cold day that was perfect for a hot coffee with a pastry and a scary movie on Netlfix. I don't like watching them alone at home. Which leads me to this post. Be careful what you watch in public. As you can see, nice day, right? Well, with mobile now, we can take our whole lives with us. Work and entertainment. So I finished watching Quarantine from a couple of weeks ago and started on Quarantine 2, zombie movies where the characters in the plots were, you guessed it, quarantined. In the first movie, a news team followed a fire engine into an apartment in LA and ended up trapped inside by a military force tasked to keep a weaponized rabies that turned the infected into the walking dead. In the second part, it's folks on an airplane and airport terminal. Don't knock it until you try it. Both are good movies that even friends who typically aren...

It's inevitable that the wages and benefits for Chinese workers will increase. We've already seen that happening in China for years. For reasons that are obvious, the media has decided to make Apple their whipping boy in all this. While they have largely ignored its competitors like HP, Dell, HTC, Sony, and others in the Android and Windows market, that include PCs, tablets, televisions, and smartphones, use some of the same factories Apple does. What will happen to the cost of their products? Well, the answer is simple: it'll go up. However, the true question is how this impact this margins of some of these companies that do not necessarily have the benefits of Apple's higher margin. For Android device makers, it helps some what in that they don't have to pay Google for the cost of licensing Android. But facing competition on all fronts, Android device makers could be forced to cut back in features to maintain margin. Perhaps, this has to do with the announ...

I've played Ghost Recon with friends years ago.  In case you're not away of this, Tom Clancy is a novelist who write a lot of spy and war novels.  The most famous is the Jack Ryan series and he has parleyed that into a publishing and gaming empire.   One of the best gaming series in the Rainbow Six games.  Now, Ghost Recon is back - guerrilla style.  I doubt much of the high tech equipments are that high-tech.  I think it's a future our soldiers are headed towards.  What could be even better is if you play the game without the high tech toys and see how you fare. Obviously, you can't do that until the game is released but wow, does the video look good.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a Mac version.

Here a couple of interesting benchmarks that provide a partial picture of where Google’s Android And Apple’s iDevices.  Obviously, we know that Android dominates the mobile handset market, both domestically and globally.  However, Apple leads in the only category that it has ever cared about: profits. How about the speed of the latest and greatest tablets and how much money developers are getting? More At  Clouding Around .

Blackberry's maker, Research In Motion, has been having a bad time of it lately and it got worse yesterday.  I don't want to get into the gory details from yesterday's financial call.  Only some personal observations about the market and what stagnation and arrogance can do to one individual or an empire, be it corporate or a political entity. First, there's denial.  I was going to start with arrogance but they kind of go hand-in-hand at times.  Apple went through it in the 90s.  Microsoft, Palm, and countless others went through this during the 2000s with the music players.  And then as if that isn't enough, nearly all of the major mobile device makers were arrogantly in denial about the iPhone. And I'm sure that while Apple has done quite well with the iPhone and other iOS devices, Steve Jobs likely was pretty arrogant when he thought Apple was years and years ahead of the competition.  I'm sure the folks at Cupertino were shocked when Google's Andro...

Okay, this isn't about wireless, politics, or green tech.  Just a life post but a very important one. A payment processor called Global Payments has detected a security breach in which 50K credit/debit card numbers were taken ( CNET ). Both MasterCard and Visa have warned potential customers.  While a serious situation, CNBC and MSNBC seems to think this is more serious than the fifty thousand credit card information taken since they used the word "millions".   Not sure if it's millions of credit card numbers or millions in value. It's likely these two networks believe the situation to be bigger than what's being reported.   Isn't it always like that?  Anyway, check your bank and credit card information just in case?  I've had it happen to me before so I'll be calling my credit card and banks after work today.   Now, if I win the $600+ million in MegaMillion lottery today, I'd be a lot less worried about this breach.  Wish me luck!

Microsoft turned way more than a few potential Windows Phone users when they limit the number of people who wanted to participate in the Windows Phone challenge.  Essentially, Microsoft forfeited.  It's unfortunate that there are no records of how many. I was one of them.  I called up the Century City store in California to participate in the challenge.  I asked how long the line would be but they said the line was about a twenty minutes.  Great, I said, I will be there between  6:30 and 7 PM. However, the store employee said that they're cut off time is 5:45pm. Given the LA traffic and my obligations at work, there was no way I would have made it there in time.  However, the rules said that the challenge is available during store hours. WTF, right?  I was so excited about getting my hands on a Lumia 710.  I was sure that I would eventually get Lumia 900  and Windows 8 a tablet later this year. Redmond can forget about that. ...

This is the kind of innovation that the iPad has spawned...you'll be hearing a lot about this app by tomorrow. What's interesting is who helped fund this app.  Oh, the irony... Source:  Tapose , a lot more at  9to5Mac .

As you know by now, Harry Potter books are now available via Pottermore and they can be purchased on an assortment of ebook stores except for the iBookstore.  The going guess is that Apple wants 30% of the cut but Hogwarts Publishing is saying no to Apple. The question I have on this is who will cave first?  Or not at all? Is it important that you get Harry Potter books in your iBooks app or are you going to be happy with reading them through Kindle or the Nook app? Well, there is a way to get these books on your iPad or iPhone.  These books are in unprotected ePub format so you can still get them via other platforms and then upload them directly to iBooks.  Most folks are suggesting that you do it through iTunes but I wonder if you can do it simply by emailing them to yourself. My guess is that a deal will be struck eventually.  I'm sure the folks working for Pottermore are just as much fans of Apple as Apple fans are of Harry Potter.  What I'm ...

Tim Cook was spotted in China via a Weibo account ( TechNode  via  Appleinsider ).  Weibo is China's version of Twitter.  As I said before, China's growing mobile use will have influence on mobile development and directions app developers take in the future.  And the influence won't just be isolated to Apple.  Others like Google and Microsoft will be impacted as well. While the linked posts focused on the iPhone, you have to know that there is more to it than that.  Apple recently added to its Mac OS a few social and video sharing features native to China, like Weibo In the past, there were talks that a major hangup between Apple and China Mobile was largely due to CM's request to add apps and revenue sharing for apps which Steve Jobs has explicitly ruled out.  So, the direction of iOS development could be influenced further as Apple has staked its future in the Middle Kingdom. How about other mobile players like Google and Microsoft. ...

Walking Dead is one of the best drama on television right now.  Yes, yes.  Despite it's subject matter, it's a drama just like The X-Files was too even though it touched on the paranormal and extraterrestrial conspiracies. And I'm very excited by the prospect of living in this world where I'm trying to not only stay alive but to also make sense of a zombie apocalypse. And so, this is this Friday's movie clips. The Trailer The Game Play More on the games at   NG4 ,  Toucharcade .

I know that the buzz around the Internet is Apple’s own HDTV set.  Honestly, this has been around the corner for a couple of years now, it’s getting old.  The Apple-branded TV isn’t even out and I’m ready to move to what should come next from Cupertino.  And it should be auto industry. As in iOS-powered vehicles.  I’m not particularly big on the iCar.  Not now.  But someday.  For now, I just like to see what Apple can do with iOS embedded in the dashboards. Imagine the revenue growth that Apple can get out of this.  While I doubt GM, Ford, Toyota would be willing to share 30% of proceeds with Apple, perhaps the likes of Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes might be willing to deal.  Already, Siri is already coming to the Benz ( Mashable ). And in the past, I’ve already said that Siri is a platform, an artificial intelligence with voice input/output, that can catapult Apple into the next realm of mobile computing. See, there’s a reason why Micros...

I was at a branding forum last night.  Just branding in general.  The talk was hosted by a branding expert, Sasha Strauss of Innovation Protocol, in Pasadena, California.  It was a very informative night and what I took away from it was what he said at the very beginning.  He mentioned “brand promise”.  And because in an era where mobile tech dominates the consumer market, Apple and Google were top mentions as we as social media forums like Facebook and Twitter. Brand.  Mobile. Social. It’s about access, connection, and instant gratification.  I’ll have more to say about this because I think we’re living a revolution that spans a whole generation.  If there is a podcast of the event, I’ll provide a link.

FaceTime use in my family has been limited.  Clearly, Skype has won this battle.  However, the video chat or conferencing war will continue to go on.  With the 2012 iPad introduced and went on sale just this past weekend, Apple could have made FaceTime a more central element of mobile communication.  While that clearly did not happen, Apple can still move forward on this. Here’s why I think that’ll happen.  Apple first introduced iChat on OS X years ago and while over time, it gained video chatting, it languished as Skype and others take over in terms of features and popularity.  And with all things Apple, apps can sit in developmental limbo as far as users are concerned.  Apple will give no clue if something is being worked on or allowed a slow painful death. We finally got FaceTime on the iPad and iPhone last year and the Mac got it with Lion.  As a user, you can’t help but feel the app is a bit spartan and Apple is trying to figure out whe...

It looks like Phone Arena has a screen shot of Verizon's upcoming family data plan.  The pic depicts a planner so that the subscribers can decide just how much data they need.  Sorry, but I reckon this is the start of a new "family feud" once the new data plans go into effect. Personally, I'll never be able to share.  I'm a data hog and I freely admit it.  I think it's for some families.  Definitely not mine.  Can you imagine your little ones taking all the data playing games and videos?  Yeah, not good for the pocketbook.  Maybe the grandparents won't use their data allotment.

Apple has been making some curious moves in the last year and things have rapidly accelerated in the last six months. And we are getting indications that Apple's whole mobile plan as well as the complete ecosystem is only far from complete and has plenty of room to expand. And it got me thinking that perhaps, in using the razor and blade analogy, we could one day sees Apple switch gears and sell its iOS hardwares as the razor while the whole iTunes ecosystem and whatever else market Apple expands into will become the blades, giving Apple growth that is far beyond what Wall Street expects. Any taker on where I am going with this? - Posted using BlogPress

Through an alert, it was made know to me that Apple will be hosting a 6am EST meeting to discuss what it has decided to do with some of the $100 billion in cash and investments. There are two popular options:  Dividends and/or Stock buyback I hope its not dividends. What would be the point in that?  A $30 to $50 billion stock buyback would do more for Apple than anything else.  Please, Tim.  No dividends.  -- Sent from my HP TouchPad

I like that Steve Wozniak has to wait in line just like the rest of us.  I'm sure Apple can make an exception and ship Steve one every year but this is not how Woz would have preferred it.  He enjoys waiting outside with everyone else. And I think all the lucky folks who happen to have in the same line also enjoyed his presence. Also, head over to  What's Trending  for the original post for more details about Woz's thoughts on the new iPad and Apple's future.

How often do you buy a car?  Until the lease runs out for some people.  A couple of years after the loan is paid off.  Or if you're like me, 10+ years or until it starts to fall apart.  For laptops, they're closer to 3 to 4 years.  How about the iPad? The reason I'm asking is because I think people are beginning to settle in on a biannual upgrade schedule.  Or at least, I think they ought to be because the 2012 iPad is just rocking fast, awesome, and magical.  And I wanted to say that you should not take my word for it but, in the case, you should.  In this case, I'm not exaggerating.  I don't at all just because I'm an Apple (more importantly) a mobile fan. I've had the new iPad for 24 hours now and its use has been limited.  A majority of the time, I've spend it doing just one thing:  read.  Reading Instapaper, long posts on the Web, and iBooks and Kindle apps.  It's just that amazing. The iPad is about the screen...

Before I start, I am both an Apple and Google fan.  I love Apple’s seamless integration and I purposefully live within its walled garden.  At the same time, I love the everywhereness of Google’s Android OS and apps.  And I think Google has done great things to liberate information and made our lives so much better. Now, I get to the subject matter. Today, we learn that Google is facing additional attention from the US and EU regulatory bodies over their hacking of the Safari privacy issue.  Essentially, Google hacked into a vulnerability that Apple failed to plug.  Yes, yes, Apple screwed up and allowed this vulnerability to exist in the first place.  Shame on them.  I’ve always been annoyed with Apple’s slowness to get these things done.  However, Google did use this security hole and essentially hacked into Safari that allows them to install tracking cookies. Now, Google isn’t the only one.  Other ad companies have been known to have...

Speculation time on the next “new” iPhone (AKA iPhone 5). Can a 4” or slightly greater display on the 2012 iPhone slated for later this fall still be called a Retina Display if it has the same 960x640 resolution as that of the iPhone 4S? Sure, but only if you hold it further away from you.  At least that is what Apple told us about the Retina display on new 2012 iPad with its 2048x1536 resolution.  See, the pixel density for the iPad 2’s 9.7” screen is only at 264ppi to the iPhone 4 and 4S’ 326ppi at 3.5”, it’s still considered a Retina Display because a typical iPad user operate the tablet at a distance further away than he or she would with an iPhone. So, a 4” or slighter larger than 4” display for a potential new iPhone could still be called a Retina Display without increasing the resolution or maintaining the pixel density  if it’s is held sufficiently further way than users would now with the 3.5” Retina Display.  And it could happen because everything on t...

First, let me say that I am a conservative on many issues, most fiscal.  Some issues more important to me than others.  And that my conservatism doesn’t extend to trying to get others to go along with me.  I have my values, I try to live by them.  So, it befuddles me when these self-proclaimed conservatives attack others in very arrogant manners.  So yeah, I can see just how conservatives as just as arrogant as liberals.   What got me going on this topic is this post from a likely conservative Apple shareholder pissed off about Apple’s green plans for the company and attacked the seemingly liberal policies.  Here’s the thing, the liberals in charge over at Cupertino has made Apple the most valuable company in the world.  As a conservative, you want Apple to succeed and to keep on doing what they are doing.  It’s capitalism, right?   So, when I read this article attacking the liberals over at Apple for making decisions that is good for...

I am using DragonDictate on the iPhone right now. That new iPad, introduce on March 7, will have its own needed dictation function. There are a couple issues we want to examine. One is why does the new iPad not have Siri. The other issue is why dictation function not extended to other iPhones and iOS devices. My iPhone is the CDMA iPhone for Verizon. Using Dragon dictate, it works perfectly well. As a matter of DragonDictate seems to work the same way Siri's dictation works by sending information to Apple's servers to process the voice information. From what I can see, both Siri dictation and Dragon Dictate work in the same manner. Therefore I cannot understand why the new iPad does not have full Siri, and why older iOS devices like the iPhone 4 cannot have needed dictation. One possible explanation is that Siri simply is not ready yet. Siri was a beta function when it was first introduced during the iPhone 4S event last October. The status of Siri has not changed. I am sure ...

The iPad 2 coming in at $399 after the introduction of this year's new iPad with it's Retina Display and awesome new features came as no surprise.  At this point, the $399 iPad 2 is going to have a huge impact on the sales of tablets priced between $299 and $399.  Unless you're stuck in time, $100 isn't that big of a deal as it was even when the original iPad came out in 2010 or even ten years ago.   Now, consider this.  Suppose Apple keeps the iPad 2 around for another year next year's 2013 iPad comes out and the current iPad goes down to the $399 price now occupy by the iPad 2.  that could mean the iPad 2 could potentially drop as to as low as $299.   Don't think it'll happen. The iPhone 3GS has been around since 2009 and continues to be a hot seller, this is a full two years after two new iPhones has been on the market.  So, there is precedent for Apple to keep products around just to capture lost sales while still maintaining its profit margin. The...

For those of you who are still on the first-gen iPad like I am and are looking to upgrade, a quick note here.   eBay is offer a trade-in for cash. Not a bad deal if you're looking to upgrade to the 2012 iPad. As you can see, for my 32 GB iPad, I'm able to get $215.  Not a bad value.  Not great either.  At the end of the day, I'm still very fond of my iPad so I think I'll be keeping it.  I don't know if I'll be upgrading to the 2012 iPad yet.  I might after I've seen the awesome Retina Display and feel the speed of Apple's latest magical tablet. But if you're up for it, eBay is willing to pay you for your older gear. Note:  Even if I decide to get the new iPad, I'm not letting this one go.  It's like the original Mac, an antique.

This proves it. AT&T sucks big time while VZW is using this opportunity to stick it to them. When Apple unveiled the latest iPad on Wednesday, there was a scramble for info on the LTE data plan. As things began to be sorted out, we learned that AT$T is unsure about wireless data tethering while Verizon is stepping up and offering it for free as a part of your data plan. I am sure VZW will extend this offer to other tablet users like those with Android in the coming weeks as well. It doesn't make my issues with the evil wireless providers any batter as far as VZW goes but it does make them less evil for now than AT$T. - Posted using BlogPress

Zynga's social gaming platform is a very interesting take and it marks the ability for the Z to break away from its reliance on Facebook for gamers.  And while Zynga's new social gaming platform (SGP) has a good future, I wonder if it's creating more of a Hulu-like environment for gamers and developers? It just added three new studios, Konami, being one of the biggest and baddest in the video game arena.  And likely, we'll see Z announce more partners in the future.  And I'm liking this quite a bit, much more than Hulu's ad-based and subscription business model. As we know from mobile gaming on Apple's iPhone and iPad and Google's Android, in-app purchases has become very popular and is one of the preferred business models.  This is a recurring revenue that is just right for picking from developers. I'm no stock guy but if I had some money that I don't need, I would consider buy Zynga stocks because of this huge potential.  And as this SGP grows,...

When the news of Michael Jackson's death hit the web, millions flocked to Google to see if the news was true. It was assumed a massive denial of service attack was on-going.  Now, there's anther kind of event that can bring websites to their knees: Apple media events. When the iPhone 4S was introduced, many live blogging sites failed.  You'd think live blogging sites have learned their lessons.  Have they? I started off the day with 7 blogs running simultaneously because I knew most of them will fail by the end of the day.  By the time Tim Cook wrapped up the event and said "expect more innovation from Apple" in 2012, I was down to two blogs because the other sites failed. This gigaom post gave a detailed account of what happened.  So, the answer to the above question is: no. Trust me when I say that the next Apple event this fall for the unveiling of a potentially redesigned iPhone (no more iPhone 5 as Apple has gotten rid of the numeric suff...

The 2012 iPad has 42.5-watt battery compared to the iPad 2's battery coming in at a mere 25-watt.  And yet, the new iPad manages only to meet the battery life of the iPad 2 - coming on at 10 hours of use on WiFi and the same cellular use at around 9 hours.  The main difference here is the vastly improved Retina Display on the 2012 iPad versus the iPad 2. The question is just how much of a big deal is LTE use for the new iPad versus the 3G in the iPad 2?  With both coming in at 9-hours, you have to assume the power consumption are the same.  And the only other factor that might impact the extra power use would be the new display. And you have to marvel at Apple's engineering for managing to fit such a bigger battery inside the 2012 iPad.  You can almost correctly say that the iPad is a battery that happens to have a dense multi-touch screen that runs iOS. A further thought along this line is that the Retina Display is not very efficient.  We already know the...

As I begin to process the iPad media event yesterday, March 7th, it is really hard to begin until we actually have the new iPad in hand and be able to truly get a feel for what the Retina Display and speed it offers.  But there are some things that we might be able to talk about with authority.  That's the iLife and iWork apps that Apple made available.  The newest one is iPhoto. And I'm still in the process of getting to know the app better.  I like iMovie and I am sure iPhoto will not disappoint.   At the same time, I wonder why is Apple competing with other text editing, office suite, and movie/photo editor apps in the app store.  That cannot be a good thing right? Well, it make me thing about Google with the Nexus phones and, soon, tablets.  If we take Google's words at its face value, which is harder and harder to do these days giving their privacy changes, the Nexus hardware serves as a template for how Android devices should be.   And I rec...

In a while, we’ll know what Apple will unveil.  Okay, we kinda already know.  The iPad 3.  Or the iPad HD.  Or judging by this morning’s rumors, maybe Apple might be unveiling the iPad touch.  What I want to speculate about now is the changes Apple made to the App Store before today’s unveiling.  There is a whole new catalog section called “catalogs”.  Why?  Is Apple about to get into more e-commerce? The most logical reason is that Apple want to separate them from the other apps.  So be it.  But with Apple, it might not be so simple.  Think about it.  By offering a catalog section, it makes very sense in and of itself just to separate apps that showcase goods.  It isn’t as if they were getting in the way of app discovery so much. Apple has often bragged about just how many credit cards it has access to via its iTunes and iOS customers.  Apple could be unleashing its marketing prowess and offering its customers e...

News come that Nintendo managed to sell 4.5 million 3DS in the US alone.  While the global 3DS sales figure is more elusive, let’s say closer to 20 million units (I made this up – 10 million or so for Asia and another 5 million for EU and the rest of the world), it’s a viable platform.  Perhaps, we might even seen the platform go across and move closer to 75 to 100 million in five years or so.  And given the still vast size of dedicated mobile gaming from the likes of Nintendo and Sony, the question for gaming developers is where to invest your limited resources. Obviously, the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices have wrecked havoc on the dedicated mobile gaming market and mobile gaming in general will shift towards smartphones and tablets.  In just three years, the collective gaming prowess of iOS and Android have taken over the gaming revenue and it’ll only get worse over time.  Mobile gaming is estimated to take 58% of all revenue while incumbent playe...

Apple recognizes the importance of the Chinese market to its mobile and computing focuses.  Mac sales are doing pretty well, growing faster than the US and Europe while mini-riots break out for iOS launches. Oh, let's not forget about the gray market for Apple goods because Chinese launches lag US and EU launches by months. So, when Apple release the Mountain Lion beta, few were surprised that Apple integrated some popular social network and email services popular in China and most agree it makes a lot of sense for Apple to make it easier for the Chinese mobile warriors to integrate their contacts, calendars, and social needs into their iOS devices and Macs.   As a Weibo user (because I'm trying to learn Chinese), this is perfect.  At this time, I'm unable to figure out how to access Weibo but if you're a fluent Chinese speaker and uses this Chinese version of Twitter, you'd find it very useful.  I know I would, again, if I can figure out how to access it fr...

The winner of the 25 billionth app downloader from the App Store is Chunli Fu of China.  Rumor is that he downloaded Where's My Water?, which he didn't pay for since it was the free version.  Nevertheless, I want to congratulate the dude for it.  He deserves it.  Fu won $10,000 as well as a lot of recognition. Now, comes the part that I wonder if this is just too much of a coincidence that with China being such an important market and opportunity, an iOS winner from China wins this prize.  I mean, seriously, you cannot ask for a better PR campaign than this.  It's likely that with all things Apple, this is getting a lot of positive press. On top of that, there is the iPad trademark battle with Proview.  I'm not sure whether if Apple or Proview has a more positive image in China.  I read a post that many Chinese on Weibo believe Proview is attempting to extort money from a cash rich company like Apple.  So I reckon Fu as winner of ...

We know that social networks like Facebook to Google+ to Foursquare love to boast their number of citizens (users). It sounds great and in Facebook's case, it helps to let the financial community know that they've got about 700 million users as they go IPO. There are also reports that Google+ is like a ghost town and only Googlers are the ones still using it after the initial interests from the media and the curious. Then there is location-based social networks like Foursquare. Personally, I can say that the number active users among my friends list has dropped by 2/3. So, what exactly is going on here? And while Facebook claims to have hundreds of millions of daily users, not quite near the 700 million users that they have, many of them are what I called "lurkers". They're people who sign up for social networks or other services but rarely participate in general or as the network as it is mean to be. After all, according to Wikipedia on lurkers , lurkers ac...

Meet Terry Myerson, head of Windows Phone at Microsoft, needs to talk less and work more on giving us clear answers about the future of WP phones, upgrades, and who can or cannot use Windows Phone 8. See, WP7 and WP8 are entirely different OSes and current WP7 phones are unlikely to ever see WP8. At the Mobile World Congress, Mr. Myerson bashed both Apple's iPhone and Andoid for having shoddy updates. For one thing, he accused Apple of making older iPhones slower thrrough new iOS versions so users will be forced to buy new iPhones. Meanwhile, he said Android devices hardly ever get upgrades. I can't say that Android devices hardly get upgrades. They're slow in coming and only one or too units that I can think of, the original Samsung Galaxy S, isn't slated for Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, but that matter still has not been quite settled yet. As for Apple purposefully making older iPhones slower through updates, I've often often about that. As a matter of fact, ...

News now that iPhones made in Brazil are on the market. With the statements made that jobs like manufacturing consumer electronics not coming back to the US, specifically attributed Steve Jobs to President Obama, we have to wonder how is Brazil about to get Apple and Foxconn to invest in a local manufacturing plant? Now, let me put this out: can Apple do something like this in Mexico? Or maybe the US? We can forget about blue states like California but how about red states like Texas? Foxconn likely received a large incentive from the national and local government to do this. At the same time, we have to wonder just how they can achieve the infrastructure to do this. Labor issues aside, I like to see government officials look into seeing how this was achieved and how feasible is this go duplicated in the US. My guess is that even with the technology and logistics solved, special interests like labor is going to make things very difficult to convince Apple or others to invest in an i...

We have an old Apple IIc in the garage. Last I checked, it still booted up. Also, last I checked, it was still running BASIC. And yet, someone found a way to get OS X to run on it. HOW?! There is a G4 Mac Mini in there. Not sure why they didn't fit the newer and slimmer Mac mini in there if they're going to go through all this trouble. Anyway, this has me thinking about dusting off the old IIc and fire it up and relive my childhood. More at Mental Hygiene .  

It's been a while sense we added a Friday movie.  This week, it's none other than the Avengers, 2nd Trailer! If you've not seen the first one, go duckduckgo it your self.  Okay.  I'll post it for ya.  This is the first must see 3D movie, since, well, Avatar really.  One that I will eagerly pay whatever the amount they'll be charge us this summer. Enjoy! The Avengers - Official Trailer 2   by  DailymotionTrailers Here's the first trailer! The Avengers   by  teasertrailer    Have a great weekend!!! Note:  sorry about the ads at the beginning of the video. I think it's kinda dumb...what can you do?

Let me be very clear.  Unlimited in my world, presumably yours as well, means just that:  unlimited.  However, in the wireless industry, especially for our esteemed GSM carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile (they deserve each other by the way - not in a merger but when you wish them ill) has a very different definition of unlimited.  However, if users are throttled from 4G down to 3G, will you be pissed? I read this  GiGaom post  on the possibility that AT&T might sunset EDGE.  So, if that happens, does it mean that users who get the nasty text from AT&T are forced to go at a slower 3G speed when EDGE goes away? T-Mobile is doing something similar as it attempts to move from its current 3G (not buying the 4G nonsense) to LTE by 2014 - there were reports in late 2011 that some users were getting 3G speed on the T-Mobile network when they ought to be getting EDGE only. Time will tell just how this plays out.  I'm more interested in how the ...

Is this Google's Nexus tablet?  Probably not but we all know it's coming.  There are rumors abound.  I reckon it's something that we will be paying a lot of attention to.  So far, Android tablets have had their collective butts handed to them by Apple's iPad. It was only Amazon's Kindle Fire that has found some success in blunting Apple's dominance in the tablet market by finding a sweet spot, $200 to be exactly, that many consumers found palpable.  There is talk that Google is looking to enter that portion of the market with its own 7" Nexus tablet rather than go head-on with Apple's 10" iPad. Android Community  is asserting that Google could possibly call the tablet "Nexus Play".  I wonder how RIM will feel about that. I look for Play to come out by summer to fall.  However, keep in mind that many other tablet players, including Android competitors to the Play will likely be unveiling their own 7-8" tablets around that time...

It’s hard not to get into the he said/she said battle going on between Apple and its competitors in the smartphone and tablet market.  Above all, I’m a mobile tech fan.  I’m not an Apple or a Google can do no wrong kind of fan.  They can and they do all the time and I try to point it out when possible.  Still, you have to be skewed to not think Apple’s iPhone and iPad has not given birth to some copycat devices.  As for the copying part, I'm with Apple on this one. Yeah, Samsung quickly comes to mind.  In fact, I have to say that Microsoft’s Windows Phone and upcoming Windows 8 is as different from the iPhone, iPad, and iOS as they come.  So, I’ve got a plan that could really put a hurt on Apple’s copycat competitors. On March 7th when Apple unveils the next iPad, there is a chance that Apple will unveil the next upgrade to its Steve Jobs’ hobby, Apple TV.  Go one step further.  Announce it’s forth coming iTV, Apple own HDTV, if all the ...