AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

After getting the last iOS update, which brings it up to 6.1, I was kinda "meh" except for the security plugs that were long, long overdue.  I was "whatever".  But having a couple of days to digest this now, I'm very excepted about one update:  Siri can now buy movies tickets for you. First, you have go to download Fandango but that's a small issue. As with any Siri services, you have to download the associated apps as well.  No big thing. What's big is mobile commerce for Siri just started.  Siri is moving beyond provide some searchable answers to user questions to starting to make money for Apple.  You can bet that any deal with Fandango in the case of buying movie tickets or other deals that Apple is likely to agree to will include Apple getting a piece of the action.  Whether it's a simple transaction fee or Apple getting a percentage of the transaction. I would love to be able to order pizza through Siri.  Had Apple sealed a deal with P...

Blackberry is no longer just a phone.  It’s not the new name of the former company called RIM.  And today, Blackberry unveiled to the world it’s latest and, hopefully, greatest mobile OS and flagship device.  Blackberry 10 and Z10 respectively.  I said hopefully because as I’ve mentioned before, we need more competition in the mobile market, not less. Having said that, there is a decent  summary of review from WSJ  on Blackberry’s new OS and device.  A couple of things.  Yesterday, I wrote about Palm and the Pre .  In the WSJ summary, they brought up Palm as well.  And there is no doubt that the feeling about Blackberry’s latest and quite possibly last effort to get back into the mobile game. From the reviews, it looks like Blackberry managed to hold serve and the new OS, services, and hardware is just enough to stem Blackberry fans from defecting to iOS or Android.  At this stage, however, anyone remaining with RIM, sorr...

First, let me say that I’m not sure anyone is all that concerned about what RIM is going to do with Blackberry 10.  As a mobile fan, I like to see it take a few shots at Apple and Google from a competitive perspective.  I want Blackberry to thrive again.  I mention all this because, well, remember when the Pre was released and how excited everyone was? Yeah, not many remember Palm, the Pilot, or, especially, the Pre now but it was huge news at the time when the newly energized Palm packed with former Apple executives and engineers were ready to go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone.  At the time, Apple had the iPhone 3G on the market for about six months and Palm’s Pre was fresh. And WebOS made Apple’s iPhone OS (wasn’t called iOS yet I think) looked antiquated. In some respects, WebOS is even more innovative than iOS 6 is now.  And let's not forget, the Pre had a physical keyboard. Great timing.  Sure, it’s great timing as far as setting up a media ev...

As you may know by now, Apple just released a new iPad.  Not one with a new form factor.  It looks exactly like the iPad 2, 3, and 4 (give or take a few ounces).  What is new about this iPad is that the top line storage is now 128 GB, minus whatever Apple takes for iOS and its apps. Messages What does this mean?  It means that if you're in the market now for a new tablet with 9.7", you get it now.  It also means a couple of other things. It means come March or April, there will not be a media event to introduce the fifth generation iPad.  Why?  Because Apple just told the world that this is their new iPad and you'll probably have to wait until later this fall if you want a new iPad. It also means that the 128 GB iPad is going to go head-to-head with whatever Surface Pro or other Windows 8 tablets running ARM or Intel chips.  Apple is saying to the market that the tablet market is its own and no one else's.  No one messes with its top...

It’s not for us to be talking about Apple’s stock prices here and its value as a company in fiscal terms. However, what’s going on in the stock market could lead to certain mobile expectations that I would like to dispel now. Here is one that I want to dispel now. There will not be a cheap iPhone coming out any time soon. There. You have it. No cheap iPhones that cost $99 or $199 without contract. Why do I believe this? In order to do that, we do have to talk about Apple’s earnings and profit margins a bit in order to do that. See, one of the reasons Apple’s stock is getting killed is the perception that growth is slowing. Sure, it’ll happen eventually but growth is still there if you don’t look at the last financial quarter as a whole but on a week-by-week basis. And Apple is killing it by growing more than 25%. However, what some investors are concerned about is the drop in profit margins from a low forties to high thirties. This is largely due to the fact that Apple i...

Apple will start selling the $99 Apple TV in South Africa.  It’ll probably cost more so the $99 price is US only. There is a bit more information at M acnn .  What can we take away from this?  Well, it’s probably unlikely we’ll get an update to the Apple TV any soon then.  The reason is because if Apple is just starting to sell the Apple TV in a new region, an update would make the current model just beginning to go on sale already obsolete.  Of course, Apple could be looking to stagger sales of the device but that’s not likely the situation here.  This isn’t like the iPhone. I’m hoping that I’m wrong.  Still, what can Apple update to the current Apple TV other than the OS that would give us more apps or features?  I don’t see a major hardware update to the Apple TV (like being able to display 720p to 1080p video) unless Apple has decided to add a major feature like being able to handle major 3D video games or something like that. Plus, I’m...

Here is a list from an analyst who offered very sensible predictions on what Apple may do on 2013 with respects to its product update.  It's all hardware so nothing about software, services, or cloud updates.  I think both should continue to go hand-in-hand as far as updates go.  That's Apple's claim to innovation and ease of use after all. It's from M acrumors .  I'm not in the biz of regurgitating rumors but since this is only a prediction, which is as good as any I've seen or I can come up with, I'm willing to pass this along to ya'll.  Having said that, I do have some comments. iPhone: I don't know about iPhone getting a shorter update cycle or colors.  Even fingerprint sensors.  I think we will definitely see an updated CPU.  It's also time for new camera sensors as well as smarter iOS that brings Apple's mobile apps and services more in line with its competitors.  Though I don't know if it'll happen, the battery life iss...

Source:   Engadget . On stalker skills scale, I think I'm about a four, maybe a five if I use Google instead of Duckduckgo.  And I don't use Facebook anymore so if I wanted to stalk someone, I would be kinda shut out. But if you're a stalker and you're on Facebook, I reckon today Facebook's new social search engine would benefit you greatly. So far, I have only heard how people and see what you're doing made all the more easier but nothing about not having what you posted kept from any search results. And Mark Z claimed that ads displayed will not be influenced by the search.  I don't buy that.  Maybe he's telling the truth about this today but if investor pressure keeps up, FB will eventually turn on that switch and, believe me, there is such a switch. What's interesting in today's press event is that someone asked FB about working with Google since Microsoft's Bing is involved.  FB nicely threw it back and said that it was willing ...