AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I am writing this post on my Macbook but I am listening to the latest podcast from Maccast.  And Yesterday, while I was donating a couple of units of platelets, the nurse whipped out her iPhone.  Earlier in the week, there was another iPhone that was still being used.  Now, seeing iPhones in public isn't like seeing the white tiger but seeing the original iPhone still in use is. And while I know a few other folks who still happen to be swiping and tapping away on their iPhone 2G, they are quickly giving way to the iPhone 4.  So I want to know what they will use it for once their uses give way to more and powerful models.   For myself, there is limited use as the battery life in my 3+  years old iPhone begin to give and crap under years of charges.  There is a slight crap on the upper right corner of the glass though unless you're looking directly at it, you can't see it. Still, it works well as an iPod.  And while I go on runs, I use the iTreadmil...

After dinner, I finally got an opportunity to play around with the brand new Mac app store that appeared magically on Intel Macs all over the land, provided you upgraded your OS to 10.6.6. Once that little business has been taken care of, you'll notice a small icon that appeared on the left-hand side of the dock. So, good is this app store for? And who does it benefit? And will this translate into something that will be as successful as the iOS app store?

Apple should come out with their own magazine for the iPad that would serve as a model for other media publishers to follow. Another alternative is for Apple to work closely with a couple of major magazines that can serve as showcases on how to transform print into the digital age. Nexus One, Google's model smartphone, was a brilliant move even though it did not sell in the numbers expected but it did act as a showcase device for other device makers to follow and gave a kick in the butt for those in the Android market. Without it, the Android market may not be where it is at today. It is why Google continue this with Nexus S. It's a model that Apple can follow. Steve Jobs should lead a team that can put together and publish an Apple-backed magazine. I don't know what subject it could be about. Anything really. But it will allow Apple to lead the way and show how to leverage technology and tools such as social media that are readily available for publishing a dig...

I know that Apple has made it easy to design, code, and publish apps for the iOS devices.  Three hundred thousand apps and likely five hundred thousand apps by the middle of 2011 is a testament to how Apple can really shine when it wants to. However, outside of iTunes and the App Store, Apple's effort into other media has been met with mediocre success as with TV and movies.  And it has so far floundered with ebooks.  What should Apple do? How about an iBookstore SDK?

Some app piracy rates for iOS apps are as high as 50% if not higher in some instances (try 95%). So, I'm making a general plea on behalf of all the hard-working, innovative, and imaginative developers. Pay for fraking $2 app! It isn't like we're being asked to pay for $25 or $40 that DS and PSP owners are paying even for the lamest games. Nor are these $50-$60 console or PC games. They're mostly $1 or $2 apps in the App Store. Seriously, when the number of illegal downloads are reporting scores in OpenFeint double those of legitimate buyers, something is majorly wrong. Plus, Apple needs to protect the legions of developers more. Instead of paying out $1 billion to developers, Apple can easily be paying $1.5 billion or more if it makes it harder for pirates to use apps. Furthermore, using pirated apps is only possible through jail-broken iOS devices. And while I supported jail-breaking 100%, using pirated apps does open up users to malicious attacks. More...

What might be more rare to find than an iPhone or iPad? How about an Apple store. There's only about 300 of them worldwide with most of them residing in the States. So when one opens up in your neighborhood, it's a cause for celebration. At the newly opened Covent Gardon store in England, folks are still waiting in line. No. Not waiting in line for an iPhone or iPad. They're still waiting in line to GET IN! Personally, I'm blessed to have FIVE Apple stores in area that I go to, depending on which of town I'm in. More at Electric Pig

BBC is looking to replace some laptops and even desktops for their staff. Okay, I’m big on the whole tablet concept but the amazingness of this is quite shocking. Merely months on the market and its potential yet to be fully realized, the iPad has gone from what analysts thought to be a fad to fade quickly once fanboys get it in their hand has continue to grow. With more than 3 million sold in just three months, this is even before Apple has made it available in most of the countries. Not only is the iPad invading traditional Windows territory, the iPad and iPhone is likely bring a long a lot of Macs as well. Essentially, Apple’s ecosystem of providing seamless and enjoyable user experience along with easily accessible content and apps has paved a way for others into Appledom. Why is BBC doing this? Portability. Ease of Use. And the 3G + WiFi provides instant access to data and communication. Bigger screen than mobile phones. All of this at an affordable price. Persona...

The iPad is being pushed for the education market. Personally, I think things would have gone much better for me at school if I had the iPad waaaay back then. But there are two things I think would help the iPad really take off for school. Printing and Microsoft Office.

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time with my nephews. As always, it's a memorable experience and I am reminded that I am not made of parental material. Visiting them I brought my iPad. And to entertain (distact) the babies, I made sure to load up on a wide range of apps for their enjoyment. A few observations. First, the 3.5 year old is already pretty good at navigation around the iPad. I've heard stories about how even one year olds know how to use the iPad. Well, kids like buttons and the iPad is pretty much devoid of them. But the multi-touch feature is excellent for just this purpose. My nephew loves the app Drawing Pad. There are an assortment of drawing tools and cut-outs that he can pick and display on screen. And to be honestly, it's a lot less messy as well. Another thing I like about the iPad is that it isn't a television. There are interactive and educational values if parental or an adult supervision is involved. Sure, I could have just pu...

First, ATT is confirming iPhone shipments have begun. I read over the weekends that Apple was doing the same but I did not want to get into it but with a secondary source like ATT, it's a lock. As a matter of fact, MacRumors has a screen shot of the matter. This is fantastic news despite the dismal day everyone had trying to order the iPhone last Tuesday. This Thursday is going to be wild. As a matter of fact, iOS4 is suppose to be released today. So be ready to be flooded with Apple and iDevice news. If you have not order one, I feel for you. I went through Radio Shack because there was no line and I was the second person to have ordered that day in person. I noticed that many of the Radio Shack folks were ordering for themselves and friends. FaceTime .  Although I anticipated as much it's good to have confirmation that users will not be charged their cell minutes for using FaceTime. It would have been moronic for ATT to charge mobile users who use their own Wi...

In reading a CNet article about how iOS features can make it on to the Macs, I thought of how Apple can use the iPhone to sell more Macs than the halo-effect the iDevices have already generated for the rest of Apple's business. Allow anyone who owns an iDevice, including the iPhone, iPad, or the iPod Touch, to use their apps on the Mac and only the Mac. For the hundreds of thousands if not millions of Macbook owners, wouldn't it be great to use our apps with our Macbooks with the multitouch trackpads? This would sell tons of Macbooks. But hey,I don't to leave out iMac, Mac mini, and the Mac pro either. There was talking last week of some sort of a multitouch pad for the desk-bound Macs. This pad will enable every Mac to use iOS4 apps. Once more, Apple will be smart to make this a Mac specific feature. The question is how likely is this to happen? Not likely. But as the saying goes, improbable but not impossible. At D8 and during his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs s...

Here is the video on the new iPhone 4. A lot of updates coming tonight after we've got some time to digest the information. All is good except one thing. We're still stuck with AT&T. will be availabe on June 24th. Pre-order June 15th.

With anywhere from $6 to $9 billion in app revenue by 2014, depending on who you choose to believe, I think here's a small piece of action for me right? I think so. Even it's a couple of bucks, there are a couple people will just buy any app just to test it out. Maybe I'll give it out for free and then collect revenues from the ads. I am pretty sure I'll give the iPhone market a try first given how much Steve Jobs has hyped iAd if I plan on going about the free app route. Plus, Apple just announced today a new program for indie authors to submit books to the iBooks store. As a matter of fact, I just just mention this in a post at On Apple . I will be tweeting and updating my progress. I hope you will also consider giving writing apps a try as well. Whether it'll be for the iPhone, Android, or another platform, there is certainly plenty of opportunity for a create soul to make some extra money. -- Post From My iPad

Here's an aggregate of today's tweets that I put up called "Flash War". The day started looking quite promising as the media latched onto "reports" from "sources" that the FTC and the Justice Department are negotiating with each other about who should look into whether Apple did anything wrong not wanting substandard apps in the iPhone platform.  I think iAds could also be thrown in. However, there is certainly no indication that an investigation would even be initiated.  After all, Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and advisors to other administrations, believe the FTC has better things to do than to investigate Apple (okay, the Justice Department is another issue). The tweets: Flash War: Adobe mouthed off to the feds to get them to look at Apple's SDK agreements. Stupid, stupid, stupid... (part 1) Flash War: Adobe should shut up and work hard to make Apple regret it. Go crying to others is just weak (part 2) Flash War: Apple i...

I know that Apple already has an iron grip on the app store approval process. Personally, I haven't had too many run-ins with the enigmatic exercise. But recently, I decided that I was going to get on board with Barnes and Noble's ebook initiative. Boy, was that a mistake. Here's a bit of my history with ebooks. I've been reading on a mobile device since Palm V back in 2000. Been reading ever since despite what Steve Jobs would like us to think. And for more Apple fans, I think you all pretty much read ebooks or otherwise. Some of these books are downloaded and other bought from eReader.com and Fictionwise (Fictionwise bought eReader and, in turn, Fictionwise was bought out later by Barnes and Noble). I have a couple of books with Kindle on the iPhone as well, one of the better things to have happen to the iPhone and iPod Touch in my opinion. But what has kept me from siding with Amazon is the little fact that Amazon feels it has the right to come into your ...

Just how much will the Apple iTablet cost?  Alright, here's is what we think we know.  And then we'll get into some more speculations.  Remember, these are speculations based on what I've seen about Apple's moves and tactics from the past. It should be available in the first quarter of 2010.   It should have very good battery life (or else, what's the point?) It should do everything.  "Everything" being relative.   It should have a 10"-ish screen.   It should be touch only.  A recent patent uncovered pen input and Apple does own a whole host of input patents with pens from the Newton days. It should spark a whole new segment of mobile computing. It should require a data plan thought not necessarily the case.But there will likely be an unlocked standalone version as well. It should serve as a companion to the Macbook people already have.  It will not replace the low-end Macbook. It should have a serious focus on education.  I kn...

If there is an app that ought to have been rejected, it is this one.  Six-year research project by a Spanish team translate into an app called Cry Translator.  It is suppose to do what the title says.  It'll tell you what your precious little one means when he or she cries. As you well know, babies can't talk.  So, they make noises.  Mostly, they cry when they're not sleeping.  It's what I noticed with my brother's new baby.  Essentially, the research time claims there are 5 universal cries.  They're either hungry, bored, stressed, sleepy, or in discomfort. Will this work?  Well, it costs $40 but will be available for an introductory price of $10.  Boy, I am attempted to see if this works as claimed if Apple's refund procedure isn't so, well, you know. Then again, there are a number of fart apps and this is at least trying to claim to be useful.  Anyway, drop me a note if you end up finding this app useful. More at Baby Chum...

Yesterday, Yahoo went ahead to call out Apple on their Yahoo Messenger approval.  The lack off.  Well, it turned out that Yahoo was trying to jump on the bandwagon to bad-mouth Apple's dismal app approval process without doing it own homework first. Reported on CNet News, Yahoo posted a blog titled "And so we wait...on Apple".  The CNet post titled to max out the effort of the Yahoo blog, Ms. Sarah Bacon of Yahoo called out Apple for the "somewhat unpredictable process".  Well, Bacon, it's gonna get a lot more predictable for you and Yahoo from now on.  First, Yahoo needs to do something about this. Yahoo had pulled out their update to Yahoo Messenger to add more update and Bacon was left out of the loop.  It's funny because you'd figure that someone on her team might know a thing or two about what's going on. No wonder Yahoo has been in such a dismal shape compared to Google and has to look to Microsoft for search helps.   Two weeks ago, Yah...

I knew straight away that Apple would never allow the original C64 emulation to get into the app store a couple of months ago when it was first reported.  It was an exciting prospect but, honestly, Apple's knee-jerk reaction would be to turn away any emulation apps.  I think everyone knew that was going to be the case. But for most folks, we wonder "where's the harm in a two decade old computer"?  Well, the fear is many folks will start turning out emulators for other systems.  Palm is the obvious pick.  That's what I'm interested in.  And maybe Windows Mobile and others. But Touch Arcade is now reporting that a C64 app maybe coming to the iTunes App Store.  Apparently, the developer was contacted by a high-up at Apple and he or she tweeted "big news coming.  Thank you to EVERYONE for the support".  I don't think we can confuse this for anything other than that a Commodore 64 emulation app is on the way. I never had a C64 or the C128. ...

You might know by now that Apple, with the gun to its head, was forced by ATT to pull two 3rd party Google Voice apps and to reject the official app from Google. I don't want to get into that.  I don't agree with it and Apple had to comply.  Fine.  Perhaps this was why Google developed Android a couple of years ago.  It's why we have G1, myTouch, and HTC Hero today, all running Android OS.   And this exactly why Google is now pushing Chrome OS and, in doing so, pushing Webapps.   Honestly, the wireless providers' days are numbered in terms of how they can have so much dominion over us.  One day, Safari, Chrome, mobile Firefox, and mobile IE will all be able to allow webapps to work like traditional apps. When that day comes, good luck trying to block specific websites.  Verizon Wireless or ATT would be stupid trying to tell Apple, Android developers, or Microsoft to block some sites because they don't like the competition those sites o...