AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

The 5th generation iPad Mini is my laptop.  I’m semi-productive on it and I am very satisfied with what I can do with it.  And with the lockdown and working from home, I have begun to explore more of what I can do with it including shooting and editing video with it.  It means I am spending more time with it and not only consuming media, I am doing more CPU intensive tasks with it.  So I think it’s time that Apple rethink what an all-day device means if Apple expects us to use our iPads for more than just play.  Ten hours of battery life is so 2010 (when the original iPad was introduced. Ten hours might have been adequate in 2010.  Maybe even through most of the decades but as more users use productivity apps, that might even be fine.  From what I gathered, many users use their iPads to write and even do some light video work.  But for the next decade, iPads with 12 to 15 hours of battery life is needed.  And at some point, I think Apple will...

I was listening to a podcast today that focused on Apple and Apple products.  One of the hosts described Apple as being courageous in the face of the social and political pressures it had faced over the last three years both from the Trump administration, China's totalitarian regime, and others to today's pandemic raging through the world.  I wondered to myself if the host should have applauded Tim Cook himself or Apple.  There is no doubt that a vast majority of Apple employees share Tim Cook's social and political views.  So much of the employees agrees with Tim's actions and his positions.  And certainly, it has also helped that Tim Cook made many Apple employees very rich during his years as CEO and, hopefully, for many more years to come. Still, I want to examine this question further:  Tim Cook the man is responsible for all the accolades that Apple has been showered with or should others in the company also share in it as well?  Think for a bit....

Who here have not gotten started with a pedometer and than eventually graduating to a Fitbit or an Apple Watch to count the number of steps they’ve walked per day, probably with trying to hit the daily goal of 10,000 steps per day? And if you haven’t, you probably know someone who has a wearable device that counts the steps the wearer walks per day.  As an Apple Watch user, I would like to see Apple allow custom metrics in addition to the three circles many of us try to close on a daily basis.  And one of these metrics is the goal of hitting a specific number of active steps per day. The calories ring means nothing to me.  Getting up 10 times a day is important to some folks who sit at a desk all day but for someone like me, who does sit at a desk all day, and I get up and move around 15 to 18 times a day, I rather have an alternative goal - instead of the standing metrics, I like Apple to give users an additional circle to close or to replace one of the circles with a se...

Source: Slate . You're at home. You're also a cord-cutter.  You might have other human contact in the form of a spouse or family.  Or perhaps roommate.  Your only connection to the outside world is your iPhone, Android device, or tablet.  You're doing fine provided that your Internet connection stays stable.  Then the unexpected and unfortunate thing happens:  your mobile device dies on you.  Maybe it just gave out or the screen gets broken. Now what? First, I feel for you. I'm sure this is not that common but it is not as uncommon as we expect.  The Slate post is about a man whose iPad screen cracked during California's statewide stay-at-home order.  He could not exactly head out to the nearest Apple store or the local mall repair kiosk right now.  Not next week or next month.  Not for a while.  We have no idea when stores or malls will reopen.  And when it does, you can expected there to be a lot of distancing policies a...

The Tim Cook led Apple is filling the role of the federal and state governments as the pandemic crisis is weeks from peaking.  Apple has sourced and delivered over twenty million medical masks and just announced today, Apple has delivered face shields to Kaiser and will be delivering up to a million more per week. As an Apple fan, I cannot help but be proud of this iconic American company.   Apple is dedicated to supporting the worldwide response to COVID-19. We’ve now sourced over 20M masks through our supply chain. Our design, engineering, operations and packaging teams are also working with suppliers to design, produce and ship face shields for medical workers.  pic.twitter.com/3xRqNgMThX — Tim Cook (@tim_cook)  April 5, 2020 I don't know what the cost to Apple is at this point and while I like to say that cost is not the issue here and it's stop the coronavirus pandemic at all cost, Apple definitely has taken the cost into account.  And while it's not much g...

It looks like it is pretty much confirmed that Apple is release an updated iPhone SE in the iPhone 8 form factor. Gone will be the iPhone 8 immediately if not by the end of the next main iPhone upgrade cycle later this fall.  Now, Apple should be commended for still giving the smaller iPhone form an upgrade, certainly, we can definitely kiss the older iPhone 5 form factor good bye.  The question for most iPhone SE holdouts is if the new 2020 version is enough of an upgrade despite being a bigger phone for them to give up their current devices. For me, not so much.  I have been using the iPhone SE since it came out in 2016.  I have gone through different ones since then.  I'm currently on my third iPhone SE.  Each time, I changed it not because it broke or the fault of the device itself.  Rather, I "upgraded" each time because I wanted more storage.  I went from 32 GB to 64 GB and eventually to the 128 GB silver version that I am using on a daily b...

To start, I'm as productive as I have ever been and as productive as I can be compared to two weeks ago when I was working at my company's office.  In fact, I think I managed to get much more done in a shorter amount of time.  However, it has not translate to me "getting off work" at 3PM instead of 5:30 PM like I normally do.  The main reason is that I was not ready for working from home.  Internet Connection: First off, you are only as productive as your Internet connection.  And while my Internet connection, courtesy of Comcast (yeah, yeah, I know...), is up a majority of the time, the speed is kind "meh".  When I am doing mindless Excel calculations or setting up a new sheet, there isn't a whole lot of thinking that needs to be done.  So I like to have something play in the background - video from Netflix or one of my science fiction shows.  But that could slow things down at times if my wife is also streaming her own stuff, well, it's hit and ...

Bike ride through the city.  We did that today.  The ride was just like any I've had as far back as I can remember.  The only difference is that there are way less cars than before.  And the remaining cars on the streets are driving so fast I'm considering getting a camera mount for my helmet so I can record and report them. It's been almost two weeks since the state and large cities like Los Angeles declare self-lock down and ordered temporary closures of nonessential businesses and activities and, on Friday, closed beaches, parks, and trials after thousands did not take the order and social distancing seriously and took to public places in large numbers. It's a little different this Saturday compared to last weekend.  People are still going out but there is a feeling in the air that more people are taking the coronavirus pandemic, which started in Wuhan, Chia in early December (possibly late November) but was not reported by Beijing until January. ...

I skipped the Apple Watch 4 and 5 and plowed through with my Apple Watch 3.  It'll be three years this September 22nd and I can't wait to see what new features the Apple Watch 6 will pack when it is released this year.  Of course, with what's going on with the coronavirus pandemic here in the US and the rest of the world, there is no guarantee that Apple will be release products on the annual schedule that we have come to expect. And while I think I can hang for another six months, I'm not sure my Apple Watch 3 can as the battery life has diminished greatly in the last month.  I reset it today in hopes that the reset could fix it.  And if it doesn't, well, I'll have to figure out how to work around a shorter battery life until later this fall.  It is not as if the Apple stores are open for me to take my watch in for a battery replacement. But even if I eventually have the chance to take my three in for a battery replacement and that the Apple Watch 6 does...

I was able to update Watch OS on my Apple Watch 3 the last couple of times.  We are getting closer to the day when the Apple may well be able to completely be tether-free of the iPhone.  It's not that being tethered to the iPhone is bad in any sense.  But can users buy an Apple Watch one day and start to use it without the iPhone? Since Apple Watch 6, I have gained a new sense of freedom with the watch.  The fact that I can use it without the iPhone being close and the watch can continue to be connected to the Internet independent of it through Wi-Fi is awesome.  For this reason alone, I really regret not getting the cellular version in the beginning.   In the first 2-3 years of the Apple Watch, the Watch OS just was not matured enough and relied heavily on the iPhone.  And now with the Apple Store on Watch OS 6, it does feel like it has grown into its own and it closer to being ready to turn your wrist into a computing power.  There a ...