Steve Jobs Is Smiling: HBO on Apple TV

Yup, Steve is smiling his trademark smile with a bit of a smirk at the news of the standalone HBO service, HBO Now, with Apple as its exclusive launch partner (media reports Apple with a 3-month window exclusivity).  The success of this launch, which others and I have already called it, will put mucho pressure the current cable TV model.

According to Recode, HBO is hoping to gain leverage over the cable and satellite industry in generating more revenue.  For now, HBO will charge $15 a month.  With Apple and, 3 months later, other means by which HBO Now will be able to be watched, it will add a new market for the cable channel - cord-cutters who want HBO without paying for cable TV bundles that most do not want to watch.  HBO wants broadband service providers to sell this new standalone service. 

And of course, Apple is all the more willing help HBO out if it means wrestling control of the media content away from the traditional players and destroying the current TV model.  Already, Sling TV with its $20 a month service that includes EPSN, TNT, CNN, and the Disneyland (there are more channels) is finding many takers. 

As a Sling TV subscriber, I can tell you that I'm very happy.  It would be awesome to have a science bundle includying SYFY but I'm patient. 

In the coming months, we'll see more effort along this line:  wrestling control away from tradtional cable TV.  Apple will certainly be a major player.  Even now, Sling TV is not available on Apple TV.  Perhaps, Tim Cook has a few designs with a rumored upgrade to the current Apple TV model. 

The end of the Recode article spoke of a stand-off between content providers and the cable TV gatekeepers and what weapons are at their disposal.  As a consumer, as long as the stand-off also mean others like Disney, Paramount, and Sony also provide their content via the HBO and Sling routes and we get more choices with less bundles, I'm happy with that.

Apple To Frame Watch Success Based On Lives Saved, Improved Health, And Convenience

Apple Watch may well be a flop.  No one knows until it actually goes on sale and, even then, we will have to wait a couple of quarters at least to know if this is actually the case.  On top of that, should the Apple Watch add a mere $10 billion a year to Apple's bottom line, it's only a flop compared to other Apple launches.  Ask any of Apple's competitors and ask them if they would like to see an extra $10 billion to their revenue.

Still, this has not stopped headline grabbers from news outlets to "analysts" and other forms of pundits to come out and used the same tired argument about how Apple is doomed and/or how a device that will sell millions is a failure. 

Take this list of detractors via USA Today. One of the arguments made about the Apple Watch being a failure is that it only works with the iPhone.  Duh.  It's the iOS ecosystem.  As last I checkedly, it's limited to the iPhone and iPad. 

The success stories that Apple will be sharing will not be limited to how many Edition units it'll sell.  In fact, it's entirely possible that Apple will no share any data regarding how many units of specific Apple Watches it sells and the average prices for competitive reasons.  The stories will be about how the lives of Apple Watch users are enriched by the plethora of features like the health ones that many will beneit from. 

It'll be about Apple Pay and other conveniences the watch offers. 

And this is only the first one.

Apple Watch Details Leaked To Media To Build Growing Hype Or Really Bad Control At Apple

It's Friday afternoon here in the Pacific Standard Time.  The sun is up, the freeways will be clogged for another four hours, and the parties have even started yet.  And the rest of the world is well into their weekend.  So, it should be a slow news day, right?  Ordinarily, Friday afternoons are perfect time to unveil bad news that no one wants folks to pay attention to.

So, it's odd that there are plenty news on the Apple Watch that are somewhat positive - longer battery life than expected.  As in 25% longer with double the actual usage time (9to5Mac).  And this is news leaked to an Apple-centric blog and not to a major news outlet like Bloomberg or the WSJ. 

Why now?  At the start of this post, I had wanted to make you, the readers, decide whether this is more controlled leaks from Apple to build hype through the weekend or Apple had somehow lost control of the flow of information.  Only yesterday, Bloomberg shared juicy bits about a few fortunate developers like Facebook giving special access to a secret lab to work on their Apple Watch apps. 

More and more, I'm beginning to believe that Apple really is behind anything and everything, both rumors that are true and fantastic, and they carefully laid out detailed plans of what to leak out, who to leak it out to, and when these leaks come out. 

I'm not naieve here.  I know Apple is fully capable of manipulating the press.  It plays favorites much of the time.  I'm only saying now that the operation is much bigger.  And while the Internet has opened up many new outlets for flow of information, it has allowed a skilled company like Apple to also control how information flows. 

Amazon Brings Former Exclusive Games To iOS As Fire Device Sales Collapse, And What Of Minecraft

Source:  The Verge.

Amazon bought some game studios a couple of years ago in hopes of launching exclusives that it hope would stimulate sales of its own Android-forked OS devices, the Kindle Fire tablets and its ill-advised foray into the mobile phone market, the pretty much dead and Fire Phone.  It's like Fire tablets are not doing too well giving it has been many quarters since Amazon crowed about how many millions it has sold without actually giving the public a number.

This is pretty much the reason why Amazon is bring more of its game over to iOS.  One title, Tales from Deep Space, has been giving good reviews and the newer games should be pretty decent.  As an iOS gamer, I'm pretty happy with this. 

From a competitive stand point, there are two takeaways from this.  First, exclusives are not working out too well for developers unless it's on iOS.  Second, Amazon with its bad bet on the Fire Phone may have killed off its mobile hardware business while it tries its damn best to keep a small foothold in the living room. 

I'm personally glad that Apple has not gone down this route and it does not look like it will either.  This is a strategy that console makers like Microsoft and Sony often employed to entice gamers to jump into the Xbox or Playstation camps. 

And what of Minecraft?  Perhaps, Microsoft actually see a profitable business in the Minecraft universe.  However, I hope MC fans on non-Xbox platforms and non-Windows devices should expect Microsoft to prepare exclusives for its own platforms or cut back the perks of or at least cripple the game somewhat for non-Microsoft devices.

CarPlay At Heart of Why Apple Is Making a Car, Auto Industry To Be Blamed

When it came down to it, the iPod was just a MP3 player.  Plain and simple.  But as with anything Apple is involved with, the iPod has an unusual and unique take on how we listened to music and interact with it.  Click-wheel and gigabytes of storage in forms of a hard drive and, later, flash memories.  It will be the came for Apple's car.  But here's the thing, Apple has been prefectly willing to let someone else make the cars as long as their dashboard work seemlessly well with CarPlay.

And with delays after delays, I think at some point, Apple got fed up and decided it was better off making a car running its own unique interface. 

And while it's not set in stone, should Apple truly unveil its own car, the auto industry has no one else to blame but itself.  Take Toyota for instance.  It is not only dragging its feet on CarPlay and Android's take on the car, it supposed believe that its proprietary take is better for Toyota going forward.  Sure.  For Toyota but not necessarily for its customers who likely owns an iPhone or Android device. 

Had Apple's CarPlay been wholeheartedly embraced by the auto industry, it's likely Apple would have been content with letting someone else making the cars.

Wearable War: It's Apple Watch Versus Others

Source:  9to5Mac.

The Swiss watchmakers are not just rolling over for the potential Apple Watch jugganaut.  In fact, Swatch among others will debut smart watches at Baselworld next month, weeks after Apple's March 9th event.  It'll be interesting to see if Apple Watch lives up to hype and whether Apple has a couple of more surprises up its sleeve.

Then the tech and watch world will have to see if the traditional watchmakers have what it takes to upstage Apple. 

Designs and features aside, there is one very important aspect with Apple and non-Apple watches:  only the Apple Watch has full integration with Apple's ecosystem and iOS devices.  Furthermore, Android watches have full integration with most Android devices but not necessarily all.  It'll be interesting to see what a Swatch smart phone will feature and how it'll work along side a smartphone market dominated by Android and iOS.

One very important thing to consider here.  The Apple Watch will compete in the mid to high end segment of the wearable tech. And with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus dominating the high-end market, it stands to reason that many of the watch makers will try to compete with Apple Watch there as well.  With Apple's closed ecosystem, will iPhone owners have uses for non-Apple Watches?

Alternatively, these high-end smart watches will end up competing for high-end Android users which Samsung, LG, and Motorola will try to integrate their watches with their phones.  So where does that really leave these traditional watchmakers?

Man Or Robot - Maybe After iCar, Apple Can Give Siri An Android Body

Here is a short video clip of an actor pretending to be an a robot.  With the sound effects, he really hit it out of the park.

I'll say this much.  We are a long way from androids let alone robots.  And for AI in human forms to have fluid human like motions, it will be even further into the future.  Perhaps after Apple is done with the iPhone and the iCar, maybe we can have the brilliance of Cupertino bring us the iRobot.

Or will it be called "Siri"?

Phone Cases That Serve As Wallets Underscore How Badly We Need Mobile Payment and ID

Even before the smartphones were integrated into our daily lives, before Blackberries, the original iPhone, and the HTC G1, there was the Palm Pilot.  And I could not be more excited by it when Dave the Mobile Warrior showed me his Palm from US Robotics.  It was an eye opener.  Prior to that, I was using Casio made personal digital assistants (PDA) with black-and-white screens.

But the Pilot was a competely innovative device that was the future.  If you consider just how forward thinking the Palm was, even with its ancient input with the plastic stylus, you knew this was the future.  And let's be honest, be it the iPhone or a Galaxy Note, they owed their DNA to the Palm. 

And when I upgraded to the Palm Zire with an integrated camera, that was the moment when I realized the value of having a mobile computer that you can carry in  your pocket and you take everywhere with you.  The only thing I carried around in my pocket, then and now, is my wallet.  I thought wouldn't it be awesome when we can integrate both the PDA and the wallet into one?

With NFC payment used by Google Wallet years ago and, now, Apple Pay, we are a step closer to that future.  However, upon seeing the number of smartphone cases that has a flip or cover that includes credit card-sized slots, I also realize just how far we are from having a truly integrated wallet in our smartphones.

These wallet cases remind us that we still need to carry around our driver's license, a credit card or two, or reward cards.  So far, there is only one state I know of that allows identification through a smartphone while only a handful are actually looking to integrating driver's identifications into mobile devices.

However, I'm hopeful the momentum for the smartphone to replace or integrate the contents we now carry in our wallets into apps will happen sooner rather than later given the surge in mobile payments in the last few months. 

iCar: Won't Be A Minivan and Might Be A Decade From A Showroom

In reading dozens of articles about certain rumors that either is more and more concrete with each passing hour, there are a couple of takeaways about a potential move into the automotive market by Apple.

First, in hiring a former head of R&D from Mercedes, Apple ain't gonna build a minivan that may or may not be electric only and may or may not be self-driving. Have you see Mercedes' non-sedan vehicles. Ugly! Jony Ives and his team should have soemthing for us that should give Telsa a run for their money. So, no minivan.

Second, how is your awesome HomeKit enabled and Apple streaming video service working out for you on your awesome Apple TV 3 and Apple Home Cinema 4K panel? What, no? Yeah, it's been years in the making and no evidence that Apple has "cracked" televsion as Jobs alluded to in the Walter Issacson Steve Jobs biography.

The Apple TV started off as a hobby and only in the last year when Tim Cook took that label off and, yet, we are still waiting. Having said that, it could be years until we seem a full TV service and hardware from Apple.

And the iCar is just as complicated to develop and there really will not be an opportunity for a beta car or calling an Apple branded car a "hobby". Apple will have to have fully filled out everything before they can hit the carshows with it and start delivering it to the market.

A quick Google search on the average time it takes to develop a car turned up three years. With the new technologies that Apple will be testing, materials, artificial intelligence, robotics, and who knows what new innovations Apple will try to bring to the market, I'm gonna guess Apple will take twice that long. So a ten years window is not out of the real of possibility.

On top of that, 6 to 10 years is a long time and the rest of the auto industry will not be standing still. Tesla will have improved its own profile vehicles and have addressed a bigger part of the market with better and more efficient Model S and X. Even with a minor delay or two, Model 3 will have been out on the market for years. This is also not discounting vast improvements being made by existing electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, and the Volt. Others will also come out with their own green cars soon.

I bring this up only because Apple will need to address where the market is going to be a decade from now and offer something that can still be disruptiveand game-changing. It is hard to fathom what Apple can bring to the market that will give car owners the same reactions iPhone owners had when they first got their Apple mobile devices and say "wow, I can't believe how I lived without this before".

Posted with Blogsy

Apple Street View

Another van registered to Apple spotted and, this time, it's in the southern part of what I consider to be Southern California, San Diego.

More and more, it's looking like the van is taking pictures and data for Apple's own version of street view like Google Maps.

However, if someone can confirm whether the license plate of this new sighting is different or the same as the van spotted in the Bay Area, that may go a long way in knowing for sure one way or another.

That other speculation is that these are self-driving vehicles. Unlikely.

Source: macdailynews.


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