Friday, June 24, 2016

If Fujitsu Can Create A Supercomputer with ARM Chips, Apple Can/Should Create A Superdupercomputer

Call it the superdupercomputer from Apple - or the Mac S as in super or the Super Mac.  See, Fujitsu decided to use ARM chips over SPARC to design its next supercomputer (Source:  Duckduckgo).  The Japanese tech company is looking to use ARMv8 architecture to be the brain behind its next computing machine, dubbed the Post-K, due to exceed the K Supercomputer in 2020. 

So, given that Apple also use the ARM design as the basis for its iOS devices and with rumors that Apple has been spending time and effort to put its A-series chips as a potential replacement of Intel chips for its Mac computers, I wonder if Apple had considered designing its own supercomputer and perhaps even make it easier to link iOS devices and Macs together to share processing power. This would be especially useful and quite possibly necessary as mobile computing becomes smaller and even more portable as wearable devices begin to populate the mobile market.

First, let's speculate a bit about the Apple superdupercomputer (SDC) a bit.  Faster, more efficient, and scalable than anything on the market, the SDC can be build deep within the new Apple campus, allow it to power and process everything that Apple needs for its R&D.  After all, supercomputers are not build to display as many 4K frames of the next hottest computer game.  It's use for research. 

With Apple getting more and more into designing its own tech and making sure it can stay ahead of its competitors, it makes sense for Apple to build and own the SDC.  It create simulations for its car designs, create models, and even test algorithms that can make Siri smarter. 

Imagine banks of Macs or Apple TV-like devices that are faster and more efficient than anything else on the market, not to mention that it requires much less power than anything else on the market and that it operates at a much power temperature. 

And as with tech and features Apple create, they can trickle down from one product to another.  While we do not need a 10.5 petaflops of computing power the Fujitsu Post-K is capable of, just imagine a bank of A-series chips for the home that can process your mobile and home needs.  On top of that, this could be just the key that Apple delivers as far as privacy is concerned and making Siri even smarter and faster.  All the processes and learning is done right in your home and office. 

Forget wanting a separate answer to Google or Amazon's Echo.  A redesigned Apple TV or ARM-based Mac that serves as your home's central nervous system and Siri's own backbone.  And then suppose you can link a box filled with Apple designed chip or another Mac and create a device with more processing power. 

Of course, this is mostly wishful thinking on my part.  I'm sure smarter folks at Apple have through this through and probably dismissed it as impractical and/or create a better solution.   Make no mistake, our homes and offices will need and require this type of computer, one that does not sit necessarily sit on a desk but, perhaps, by the TV.  The Echo, Apple TV, our phones, and other hubs are only the beginning. 






Monday, June 6, 2016

iOS 10 Feature: Picture-In-Picture Would Rock!

Here is a 9to5Mac post on what they like to see and conceptualized the features for iOS 10 for the high-end iPhone 7.  One that I would love to see is the picture-in-picture feature that is only available on the iPad.  The iPhone 7 Plus would like have the same screen size at 5.5" as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus.  There is more than enough room on there for a diminutive screen for streaming my Youtube, Amazon Prime, and iTunes videos.

Why not the 4.7" iPhone?  Well, given Apple's past on making features exclusive for newer and bigger devices, it would not be surprising if Apple makes certain features available on select devices if only to up-sell them - resulting in higher profit and revenue.  It's not to say that this is always the case but I reckon features like PIP would be available only on the bigger screen iPhones because they would allow more room for operating an app while still have a small windowed video going on.  If anything, Apple might also make it available on the newer iPhone 7 with the justification that it will have newer, faster, and more efficient CPU and other internal upgrades.

How would this affect play or workflow?  These days, my iPhone 6S Plus has been relegated to the prominent role of an iPad nano while the SE has taken up duty as the main daily phone driver and my workout machine with the Apple Watch attached to it.  And while I'm in a coffee shot or whenever the opportunity arise, the 6S Plus would serve as my writing machine, game playing, and video watching.

Of course, if you have a very small screen like the 5.5", let's face it, you're gonna be missing a lot of action.  And if you're like me who has word captions on, you're not going to be able to read anything.  Even now, I can't make out the words when I'm in PIP mode on the iPad mini.  But a lot of time, if I'm playing Star Trek, Stargate, or a movie that I've seen before or a video that the image quality is that important, I would not mind.  A lot of time, I just like that it's playing in the background.

The issue that comes to mind is the battery life, another reason why if the PIP feature is ever made available to the 5.5" iPhone, it would only be on newer and efficient iPhones.  I'm guess at the very least, the iPhone 6 Plus would be out.  Maybe the 6S Plus but I highly doubt it.  If you want the PIP feature, you'll probably have options:  get the newer iPhone 7 Plus or hope that that someone in the jailbreak community will find a way to enable PIP in older iPhones including smaller screen ones. 


MacBook Air M2 - I Love It And Any Laptop You Get Will Always Be Right For the Time

The 2016 MacBook sitting off to the side still has some value as I gleefully starting using my MacBook Air M2 that I got for a decent price ...