AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

As you know by now, though you may not care or have done ranting about it, Google decided to kill off one of their biggest driver for blog traffic:  Reader.  It's an RSS reader to aggregate, you guessed it, RSS feeds into one place.  I swear by it and I've since moved on to Feedly . However, I think Twitter should pick up the mantle.  I know this is probably not something that Twitter will even remotely consider doing but I think it could work very well given that many tweets are about articles from various news sources or blogs. Or, even create channels which allows tweets to be turned into RSS substitutes.  I've been organizing my "followings" into lists as many of you have already done so for various reasons.  I've only recently given it another look after the impending death of Reader. Of all the social networks that can most act and capitalize on Google's mistake of killing off Reader, I think it's Twitter.  Sure, I've done something ...

Source:   Kotaku . What can we all mobile fans agree on?  SciFi, right?  How about Doctor Who?  Yup.  That's right.  Science fiction is like the neutral zone for all mobiel warriors regardless of whether you like Android, iPhone, Nokia, or Blackberry. What's more, about about two hot twins performing the Doctor Who theme? Enjoy. As a bonus, the twins playing The Walking Dead theme, anyone?

Source:   Tech News Daily . I'm come straight to the point.  Any company should be investigated and fined heavily for allow child pornography on their site.  There cannot be any excuses.  And they have to do everything they can to help authorities catch the perpetrators.  Screw the ACLU. Apparently, Facebook only took down a criminal pornographic video of a child being abused after it had been share 16K times and garnered thousands of "likes" before doing anything about it.  Probably only after users used Twitter and other social media to express their outrage. However, Facebook stated they "swiftly" took down the video after being notified.  Honestly, that's a load of crap if you heard one before.  Swift action would not have allowed so many shares and likes. And that's only part of the story.  In the original link to the story,  a comment for The Independent  (UK paper) stated that there was actually 29K shares and 9...

Source:   PRmac . I use mobile apps for my workout.  For running, doing specific exercises in the gym, and keeping track of activities and diet.  And so why not kung fu? After all there are yoga and other types of physical activities with dedicated apps.  I just had never considered kung fu. App is currently free and downloadable for both iPhone and iOS.

Source:   9to5Mac . You probably have never met Stephen Elop of Nokia.  He’s Microsoft’s viceroy over at Nokia to ensure that they push Windows Phone devices out instead of any running on other platforms, like, oh say, Android. Well, in this video below, he’s the phone throwing the interviewer’s iPhone across the room. Now, you know what he looks like. I reckon this isn’t how a CEO should act or this is going to get mobile warriors excited about Nokia devices.

Apparently, Google and LG are working on their watches to compete with nonexistent watches from Apple and Samsung.  Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Microsoft, Nokia, HTC, Acer, Lenovo, etc. are all working on watches. I don't know how the rumors that Apple is making a watch got started.  I supposed it started when the iPod nano was so small that it could be fitted on a wrist band and be worn as a watch.  It didn't do much except tell time. Then you've got the Pebble watch that got a lot of media attention via its success Kickstarter campaign.  Of course, when I dug deeper, there are plenty of watches out there that has similar capabilities.   I suppose that's how it all got started.  So everyone is making a watch.  Heck, Amazon, too!  I think some of Nike's sports watches that monitor activities can be considered more of a real smart-watch than anyone currently in development at these various tech giants.   ...

Here's here. According to 9to2Mac , Apple has finally enabled a two-step verification for iCloud.  I've been using this for Google accounts and it's seemless.  I know I'll feel mucho better about iCloud now. Right now, Apple's website for Apple ID is up but there's all these weird strings.  My advice is to wait a few hours until the dust settles before sign up for it.  But do sign up for it. The way it works is that you type in your ID and password as you normally do.  You already do this. Then Apple will send to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad a second code that you'll have to enter to gain access to your account.  Enter that access code and you're in. If someone else tries to log in with your credentials, even if they have the password, without the access code, they're still locked out.

Update:  BBC, how much is your integrity worth?  Hope AV or Samsung pay you enough to stoop this low. Because you'll never get it back. BBC is another media company that has been hit hard by the changing media landscape.  I'm not leaking to the BBC post but I'll link to MacDailyNews that discovered it .  In its post, it said that apple's brand is less inspring these days. When the post went online, it cited a report made by a consultant company called Added Value.  Well, what the post failed to mention was that Samsung is AV's client.  Apparently, folks have pointed that out and BBC has noted it.  However, the post remains and continues the biased reporting. That somehow a survey from AV, again whose client is Samsung, that blasted Apple while lifting its client escaped BBC's editorial process. This process sounds familiar.  Where have I heard this recently. Oh, right.  It reminds me of China's CCTV hit piece against Apple that fai...

Source:   Appleinsider . According to a newly published report from Strategy Analytics, more of a survey than anything else, iCloud accounts for 27% of cloud use with Dropbox and Amazon trailing.  However, I don't know if Apple should declare any sort of victory here. The fact that Amazon is third over all with 15%, ahead of Google at 10%, suggests that a closed system like Apple and Amazon are more able to get their users to sign up for their own services. If you want something amazing about this report, it's that Dropbox is in second place with 17%, ahead of both Amazon and Google.  Dropbox has no support in terms of native OS.  What it does have is an open strategy to allows its services to be used on any PC or mobile device with plenty of app support. For iCloud, its use will be limited to Apple's ecosystem.  That is its advantage as well as potential pitfall.  Apple has to continue to innovate and expand its cloud offerings, an area where ma...

Lately, I've fallen prey to posts from a number of blogs, even major ones you probably frequent, that have interesting posts.  Catchy titles that drew me and others in.  It's only after reading it and clicking through that we realized those aren't real posts. They're sponsored posts.  I've been approached a number of times to do this.  No way.  Not here. However, it's a practice I fear will only increase as competition does.  So, I think these blogs should do their readers a service and say right at the very top of the post and mentioned what they're reading are ad posts. Better yet, add the word "sponsored post" in the title of the post.  Believe me, I might still click through if I really find it interesting and the blog is honest about it upfront and I'm sure others will too. What we don't like is being duped.

Source:   Yahoo News , Space ,  bezos Expeditions . Regardless of how you feel about Amazon or even its CEO, Jeff Bezo, you gotta love the guy for what he’s doing here:  he launched an expedition that recovered enough parts to rebuild two Saturn V engines that took Americans to the moon during the Apollo program in the 60’s.  You know, a time when we put country first and felt that if we set our minds to anything, we can accomplish it. Interesting thing is that NASA will continue to retain ownership of the engines that will be put on display as museums. According to Bezos' update: What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo p...

Source:   CNN .     CNN tried to be generous about Blackberry’s Z10 but you can tell that they’re just coming up short of tell you not to buy it.  They like the hardware even though they acknowledged that it’s behind its rivals like the iPhone, Galaxy S 4, and the HTC One. This must be very disheartening for once dominant Canadian mobile giant.  The problem seems be the OS itself.  CNN believes, it has some polishing to do while it lacks some major native apps that its competition has plenty of. The post ends with the fact that Blackberry lacks the infrastructure that Apple and Google has to make distinctive features like Google Now and Siri.  Personally, I would not have mentioned Apple in the same breath as Google when it comes to web services and infrastructure (Google is so far ahead of everyone else) but we get the point. You cannot help but feel that the current BB10 hardware, and there are only two, is Blackberry’s attempt to ste...

Source:   Cnet . Yahoo wants a piece of online video streaming to compete with Youtube.  So, it’s looking to buy a part of DailyMotion.  I think Vimeo is a better buy if it’s available for sale. After all, Vimeo is the default video service for iOS and OS X after Apple dumped Youtube.  There’s gotta be a reason why Apple picked Vimeo. Recently, Vimeo enabled a service,  Vimeo On Demand , allowing providers to charge for their content.

Here’s a post from  TabletPC Review  that suggests we aren’t going to see cheaper, smaller, and lighter Windows RT tablet until Microsoft releases the next version of Windows.  It’s an interesting suggestion but I am not sure I agree. Right now, the Surface RT has a screen size of 10.6” (Apple’s iPad has a 9.7” screen) and 1366x768 resolutions (the iPad has 2048x1536). So, why can’t someone out there make a screen with 7 to 8” and still have 1366x678?  Apple’s iPad mini is 7.85” with a 1024x768.  Heck, even the smaller 7” Android have a higher resolution.  The Nexus 7 has a resolution of 1280x800. So, as an average mobile warrior, my question is why no 7” or 8” Windows RT tablet yet?

Microsoft has not always been very good at its first time out in almost any market it enters.  Even in the PC market, it took a couple of tries before it eventually knocked Apple out and nearly for good.  The same for the browser market and the console. So, I haven't been all that surprised by the degree of success that Microsoft's own tablet effort, the Surface, so far.  I'm not even sure the Surface Pro, which runs the full version of Windows 8, will either.  I'm hoping perhaps, Windows 8.x or Windows 9 could do the trick. And even now, Windows 8 is in danger of being marginalized in favor of its older sibling, Windows 7 and, of course, OS X, iOS, and Android. Samsung has largely shunned it.  Even now, Lenovo has machines with Windows 7 installed instead of making Windows 8 users do the hard work. So, Surface 2?  Well, the issue isn't that Microsoft's tablets are not good.  They're very decent but they're also priced like iPads. Between ...

Whatsapp doesn't sell ads but it does sell its app for $1.  Sometimes, you can get it for free.  However, all that's ending as it moves to an annual subscription-based service.  It's $1 per user for a year.  It's not a bad deal in the grand scheme of things but it is more expensive than just paying $1 now and getting grandfathered in. I'm sure this new subscription implementation will be closely watched by others.  Obviously, its competitors could be looking at how well Whatsapp does with this and if users are receptive.  It's got a big enough market share that it could stand to lose a few that might jump ship. However, social services that offer messaging or even updates like Path could look at this and see it as a potential source of revenue in the future.  Yes, even now with Facebook charging users to broadcast their updates, they may even get in on the game.  With hundreds of active users, Facebook may be looking at millions in revenue....

For anyone waiting for a new iPhone, my guess is you've got a long wait.  Apple's industry leading device is selling well enough, even in India, that it doesn't have to worry about slowing sales other than what's seasonally adjusted. However, if you're looking for possible signs that new iPhones are coming other than waiting until fall, there could only be one.  And it's not from rumor sites either.  When every authorized iPhone resellers begin to discount them, that's a pretty good indication that Apple is trying to drum up last minute sales before new models arrive. For instance, we can see anywhere from $50 to $100 in discount on the iPhone 5.  This happened the last couple of years. And it's probably anywhere from six to eight weeks ago when Apple starts doing that.  For those who are hoping that Apple will release new models in June, Apple will have to start discounting current models right around the beginning of April. Another time frame t...