AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

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