AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I know I am going to get some pushback for this but I think Apple should include Google+ as part of its wider integration with social media and networks. The other day, I talked about the values of "networklets" like Foursquare and Yelp that offer values to users beyond anything that Facebook and even Twitter can hope to achieve at this time (even Twitter has had better success than Facebook). Well, despite Google claiming Google+ having a couple of hundred million users, not many uses it on a consistent basis as Facebook, Twitter, and networklets. However, Google+ works more like a networklets because it is composed of a variety of subgroups of audience and users that geared towards specific interests. Writers, sports fans, tech pundits who following one another, etc. Artists often share their latest work. This is why I even use Google+ on a regular basis. And this reason alone is why Apple needs to include Google+. These subgroups have strong passions for their ca...

Source:   Blastr . It's been a while since I've explained about our Friday Movie post.  See, back when I was still a TA and a research assistant at UCLA, we used to sneak out on Fridays for after movies.  With premiums happening at the time there and like with about ten or so theaters, you get a wide range of selections of movies. Awesome time.  Obviously, can't do that no more.  However, I've decided to bring this tradition via Friday trailer or shorts.  And this, it's from  Cloud Atlas (wiki)  starring all time favorite actor, Tom Hank, based on a book by the  same title . It's a series of stories that are intertwined and about how it affects. According to Wikipedia, the plot for the novel "...consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next...

When Facebook bought Instagram for like a gazillion dollars, you have to ask why.  I know all the talks out there about how it was a threat to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg just kinda bought them out because he somehow knew that it would be a huge benefit to Facebook in the long run.  I don't buy it. Instragram was a threat but it's other social networklets (a term I should trademark me thinks) like Foursquare, Yelp, and others that have their own social networks, albeit not as big as Facebook but big enough to be a threat.  And, furthermore, these networklets are much more useful than Facebook alone. Clearly,  Foursquare has figured  out just how it wants to monetize the network of eighty or so million users via businesses paying to show up as recommendations.  Its intrusiveness is the key to winning users over and provides a more measurable tool for Foursquare and its partners on the effectiveness of the campaign. More about Yelp and Path...

Source:   Marketwatch . Woke up this morning to this incredible surprise:  Apple bought a company that specializes in making sensors for fingerprint authentication.  You're like what?  I'm still "like what?". The company is called unsexily Authentec and was acquired for $356 million in cash.   And yeah, after reading a couple of posts in this, I know this is related to security obviously.  For mobile?  Definitely.  It'll be interesting to see how Apple plans in integrating this with the iPhone and iPad which both have a wide enterprise adoption. AllThingsD speculated that there could be something in the works that Apple wants exclusively for itself. This would be my guess as well.  Otherwise, there would not be a need for Apple to also acquire rights to certain patents and such. Reuters goes one step further and figures this could have something to do with mobile payment.  It figures that even with a year or so lead in m...

Source: Blastr . The “last” of the Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, has been opened just a week ago (amidst the Colorado shooting tragedy) and fans are clamoring for more (I haven’t seen the movie yet but looking forward to it this Saturday!).  And it could be a while before Warner Brothers and its partners get their act together and figure out where they wanna go. Hopefully, gone are those bat-nipples and may they never made a return.  Having said that, don’t worry.  I’m sure WB will continue to feed our insatiable appetite for all things Batman.  And if that’s not enough, maybe fans will get in on the act. Take for instance, this Nightwing take by a fan. How fraking cool is this?!  I love what’s happening and what’s sure to happen.  Technology, a few clips here and there, some ingenious costumers and how-budget effects, and you have more materials for Batverse. Okay, you creative fans out there, give me more of this!

Big news in the mobile struggle this week between Google and Samsung versus Apple isn’t which company sold what or release new products – although Nexus Q selling out at $300 is awesomely impressive (one has to wonder how many Google actually stocked initially).  It’s what happened in the courts and this could have far reaching ramifications in the next year or two. First, a judge ordered a really prejudicial jury instruction in an Apple versus Samsung court case going to trial.  It stated that Samsung destroyed some e-mail (evidence) and that the jury has to assume the destruction of this evidence that could have helped Apple prove its case against Samsung. Oh, and Apple is asking for $2.5 billion in damages.  Not a big deal for Samsung's money printing machine but still, it's about pride, you know? ( WSJ ,  TheDroidGuy ) Second, in a brief filed by Apple, which is very damning, it stated that even Google thought Samsung’s products were too close in resemblin...

I've wondered when the supply and demand for Apple's new Retina Display Macbook Pro will equalize.  And it's happening quicker than I expected.  Others have wondered about the same thing and as Apple shorten the time to get the Retina Display Macbook Pro to about a week, you have to wonder what's going on. Has supply and demand getting closer to equalizing or something more ominous ahead for Apple?  I started on this post over the weekend and there has been some new developments. So, which is it?  Well, Apple reported earnings and, well, things are good but not "Wall Street good".  First, Apple did beat its own estimates.  Second, Mac sales did increase 2% from a year ago.  Together, that's great. And on top of that, Apple only refreshed the Macbook line after the last financial quarter ended.  I reckon that the coming quarter could be huge.  And in the Christmas quarter, it'll be even bigger. However, we cannot dismiss the fact th...