AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

Source:   Appleinsider . Over the Holidays, you could have gotten a good deal on Macbooks.  After that, prices go back up to where it's high Apple usually likes it.  But according to Appleinsider, you can get a $200 discount off the most basic Macbook Pro with Retina Display.  That would put the Retina Display model at about a $300 premium over a regular Macbook Pro on the low end - much better than the $500 premium we were looking at. There is no word on how long this will last.  But what's the reason behind the price cuts?  Apple's regular Macbook Pro and Air models have not been discounted much to such an extent but where were still inline with the Christmas discounts. So, I'll just the basis here for you.  And depending on the reasons for the cuts, it could be a good time to buy. One theory is that Apple's Mac sales have fallen on hard times.  First quarter sales were off by 1 million units.  Much of that could be attributed to th...

Let me be clear.  I'm a fiscal conservative as in I think I should live within my means.  So should the government.  While I think charity and helping neighbors should be the innate duty of every American and there are some things that governments can do that is good for the people, it's not the government's role to legislate many things and overspending. So, my political views are probably closer to the dumbass gentleman from Florida, Senator Marco Rubio. So, I don't want this to seem like a Democrat bashing a Republican.   Why dumbass, you ask? As an US senator, he's suggesting that he would migrate over to a phone made by a foreign company from an American one.  An iconic company no less. In this case, it's Apple and Samsung. Why migrate from Apple over to Samsung?  The reason is stupid to say the least.  It's not even an iOS versus Android issue.  It's because he thinks he has too many Apple plugs! I have Android devices. I’m con...

Source:   9to5Mac . Back when Apple was still struggle, Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he was in charge of Apple.  Well, he said he would do what exactly is happening to Dell right now:  give the money back to the investors.  Irony aside, maybe today’s Apple executives probably don’t think that is such a bad idea after all given what happened today. Apple is being sued by a greedy fund manager to use financial trickery to “unlock” shareholder value.  Believe me when I tell you that all this is about greedy and getting Apple to do what it won’t.  Of course, by nature, fund managers are greedy people.  They have to be so you can’t really blame them. So, no extra value is being created for Apple shareholders if this fund manager gets what he wants.  It’s all about Apple’s cash.  Cash that Apple can use to do what tech pundits and Wall Street analysts want Apple to do more often:  come out with revolutionary products the c...

This is too funny. You have to watch this baby named Amaya.  Apparently, she can sleep through anything but once a particular song comes on, she wakes and dances to it.  Even in the car seat. And yes, it's the Gangnam song.  I'm sick of the song but it's worth it to watch the video below. As if that was not cute enough, check out her older sister laughing so hard she started to cry.  Both very adorable. Enjoy!   

Source:   Destructoid . You and I both want an app store for our Apple TV.  Games galore and whatever fancies you.  However, it's a no-go yet even as others experiment with it.  I think I know partly why that is so. Square Enix, despite having awesome titles still have not managed to make a buck last year on the consoles. That's Playstation, Xbox, and the Wii.  It seems to be doing a better on mobile like on the iPhones and iPads.  I'm sure developers will be pleased when Apple TV gets an app store. Of course, it's anyone's guess.  Apple has always been very careful about these sort of things.  Until they figure out a perfect way for users to access apps, it won't happen. In the post, SE blamed the mess that the console market is in.  They blame the cost of doing business which inflates the prices of the games which users shied away from.  Apple is very likely looking to avoid the console makers' mistakes. I also believe that o...

I’m sure Apple has iPhone prototypes in Jony Ives’ lab ranging from 3” all the way up to 6”.  It makes sense that Apple would play around with different screen sizes and UI to see what is best for users.  Now, it’s anyone’s guess whether Apple will ever release an iPhone with a bigger than 4” screen current on the iPhone 5.   Momentum/Issues However, momentum is building within the Apple blog circle that Apple could conceivable release a 5” iPhone and they speculated how Apple could go about it.  The way they’re doing it is through mockups, speculating about resolutions, DPI, and icon sizes.  I read just about every post I could find on it and love every one of them and hope to God that they’re right. Here are the more recent ones in the last week or so (Marco , iMore , Daring Fireball ). There are just a few problems.  One is Tim Cook saying that they found the perfect size with the 4” screen that is great for one handed use.  However, Apple...

All Things D. More than 250,000 Twitter accounts were hacked. Luckily, mine wasn't among those but I'm sure that day will come. And this happened via Twitter, not individuals who were phished or something. With today's short term media attention, I want to remind ourselves that earlier in the week, the New York Times claimed to have been targeted by Chinese government backed hackers. I know there is no evidence that Beijing had a direct hand in it but, come on, it's China we're talking about. Later, the Wall Street Journal as well as the Washington Post revealed that they too had the honor of the Chinese probing them from the back. Needless to say, it's only February and we've for 11 more months to go in 2013. We're looking at a lot more of this for the rest of the year and beyond. It won't be just social media sites or media giants. I think government sites are next as are public facilities like water, gas, and power facilities. So ATD is right. It ...