2013 iPhone Launch: Special Events For London, Berlin, And Tokyo Too

Source: Cult of Mac.

Yesterday, we found out that Apple will be hosting an iPhone launch even just for China (also analyzed the reasons why a Chinese event makes sense for Apple).  Apparently, not just China.

Berlin, London, and Tokyo will also have their own events as well.  While such events hosted by Apple has occurred in the past, the Chinese one remains the most important in recent memory.  There's talk that Apple could announce China Mobile with its 700 million customers as a partner.  No seventy million.  Seven hundred million, as in three hundred million short of a billion.

However, I'm still on the fence about it.  If something was afoot, Weibo, the Chinese rumors and Twitter-like social network, would have caught on by now.

Video of New Designed iPad Cases - Both Full Size and Mini (Rumors Or Speculations)

I don't want to get into the rumors game but boy, the following video of a comparison between the mini back cases versus the case of what we all think the full sized 9.7" redesigned iPad is going to look.  Looks awfully close to what we want.

I know probably real but I kinda want to put this in the rumor category.  However, I also think it's a good speculation on what we think the next iPad and iPad mini will look like.  We assumed two things.  The new 2013 mini will look like the 2012 iPad mini.  Also, we assumed the redesigned iPad will look like a bigger sized iPad mini with thinner bezel.

Watch the video and judge for yourself.  We are probably a month away from finding out what is what when Apple unveils the 2013 iPad.  And no, it won't happen on 9/10.  Rather, Apple will set up a separate fall event for the iPads and probably the Macbook Pro as well.

Bad Timing: Microsoft Should Have Waited Until After 2013 Holidays To Make Nokia Deal Announcement

There is a sense of pride in that Nokia is a Finnish company.  And Nokia's dominance for years fueled that pride.  At the same time, I'm sure some of the neighbor states in the EU for years felt the same on some level.  With Nokia faltering in the smartphone race, more and more users switched to using Android and the iPhone.

But now, with Nokia's mobile division now firmly in the hands of an American company, Microsoft, it likely has freed more users to abandon any allegiance to the Finnish brand, seeing the buyout as a green light to look and switch to another brand and mobile platform.

No matter what Microsoft/Nokia announced in the last month, with the Nokia 1020 and its crazy 41 MP camera (I'm very jealous mine's only 8MP - with that big of a difference, size matters), and whatever will be out for the 2013 Christmas season, it will make a large segment of the consumers feel uneasy about a floundering platform that may not go anywhere even if it is Microsoft in the driver seat now.

Right now, it would be a great time for Apple, Google, and Samsung to pile it on.  And today, saw Samsung unleashed the Note 3.  On deck is Apple with the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 and Google with its Nexus 5 powered by KitKat.

If the situation for Blackberry was better than it is now, the Canadian firm could also launch a campaign to convince Windows Phone users and other mobile warriors it is the true heir to inherit the third spot in the mobile market behind Apple and Google.  Unfortunately, Blackberry is looking to get out of the hardware market as badly as Nokia was.

It remains to be seen just how the Lumia and other cheaper Nokia devices hold up this Christmas.  Microsoft really needs a big, big win.  There's no work on when the next Windows Phone upgrade and devices will be coming out.  However, Microsoft does have the Surface 2 devices ready to go.  Maybe if the Surface does well enough, or at the very least, doesn't do worse than the first Surface, maybe tech pundits and mobile warriors might reconsider the Windows option as their mobile platform.

The Walking Dead Online College Course By UC Irvine: This Is Real

Source:  My friend (who I thought was yanking my chain), SCPR.

It's been a while but I can now once again say, "I can't wait for school to start".  This is just a one course, online, class created by University of California at Irvine (south of Los Angeles).  It's in cooperation with AMC to create a The Walking Dead online course to teach about what lessons we can learn from the highly rated zombie-apocalyptic series now entering its fourth season.

I could not believe it when my friend told me she heard it on her drive into work on radio.  

Here's the thing that is so interesting.  This isn't the first time that anyone has ever used zombies to create buzz to educate the public.  There have been other college courses that have used zombies.  Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also used zombies as a case study to prepare for disasters.  

Also, the US military has used zombies as their enemy in military exercises as well.  It involved troops from the Marines as well as special forces.  Yeah, not the light stuff.  And yes, even DHS also used zombies to get local communities to prepare for disasters.  

So, the UCI course is by no mean something new. What's new is the involvement of AMC and a major highly rated and critically acclaimed TV series.

Here's the gist from info I swiped from the enrollment website:

Course descriptionFrom understanding social identities to modeling the spread of disease, this eight-week course will span key science and survival themes using AMC’s The Walking Dead as its basis. Four faculty members from the University of California, Irvine will take you on an inter-disciplinary academic journey deep into the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, exploring the following topics:

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—is survival just about being alive?
• Social order and structures—from the farm and the prison to Woodbury
• Social identity, roles, and stereotyping—as shown through leaders like Rick and the Governor
• The role of public health in society—from the CDC to local community organizations
• The spread of infectious disease and population modeling—swarm!
• The role of energy and momentum in damage control—how can you best protect yourself?
• Nutrition in a post-apocalyptic world—are squirrels really good for you?
• Managing stress in disaster situations—what’s the long-term effect of always sleeping with one eye open?

Each week we’ll watch engaging lectures, listen to expert interviews, watch exclusive interviews with cast members talking about their characters, use key scenes from the show to illustrate course learning, read interesting articles, review academic resources, participate in large and small group discussions, and—of course—test our learning with quizzes. We recommend that you plan on spending about two (2) to four (4) hours per week on this course, though we believe the course is compelling enough you’ll want to spend more time.At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe how infectious diseases—like a zombie epidemic—spread and are managed
• Apply various models of society and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to existing and emerging societies as a means for understanding human behavior
• Analyze existing social roles and stereotypes as they exist today and in an emerging world
• Debate the role of public health organizations in society
• Describe how mathematical equations for population dynamics can be used to study disease spread and interventions
• Apply concepts of energy and momentum appropriately when analyzing collisions and other activities that either inflict or prevent damage
• Summarize multiple methods for managing stress in disaster situations

Apple's China Only Event On 9/11: This Points To Something Major In iOS 7

This is just speculation on my part and nothing more.  I just need to mention that before things get out of control.

Now, Apple will be holding a press event to introduce the next iPhone and whatever goodies it has in store for us.  However, hours later, that day or the next, Apple is due to host a separate event on the other side of the planet, on the continent of Asia, specifically, in China.

It's like that Apple wants to let the Chinese feel that they are very important to the company that designs its products in California (doesn't say the USA) but was manufactured in China locally.  A few things could also happen. Again, just speculation on my part but nothing so far out in left field.

• A new deal with China Mobile for the less expensive but still top of the line iPhone 5C.  Of course, the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 should still make a grand debut as well.  However, by then, we will have known what we're getting in terms of hardware.
• iTunes deal with Chinese content for the locals.  At a later date, it could include Apple TV.  There are a plethora of local apps like PPTV and Youku that have been very popular among Chinese iOS users and Apple could conceivable make a deal with app developers for this reason.
• iOS 7 should be the main attraction for the local press.  Perhaps Chinese specific features that will not be found anywhere.  For instance, Apple in the last OS X and iOS integrated local social media connectivity like its local Twitter-like app, Weibo, and we could see additional and more robust integration.  Maybe, even a version of Siri that caters specifically to the Chinese more on par with English versions.

Why is Apple doing this just for the Chinese?  Two reasons.  They want to feel like they're being treated well by a foreign company.  For that matter, respect from anyone is appreciated.  Face, respect, ego.  All that.  

Second, it's a big market for Apple.  It's where the future growth is going to come from for a lot of multi-nationals.  And by Apple doing an event there just for the Chinese, it shows everyone that they're serious about OS X and iOS future there.

Microsoft's New Mobile Biz Now More Like Google-Motorola or Apple?

I have a question that I'm sure will be answered in time.  But while many pundits out there are coming the new Microsoft with the old Nokia mobile hardware business to be like Apple, I'm not so sure.  It's likely that Microsoft engineers had been working closely with their former Nokia counterparts, now new Microsoft employees, with new products in the pipeline prepared, the fact that Nokia is selling now speaks volumes about what is in exactly in the pipeline.

If they were going to be gushing out and take the mobile market by storm, it's not likely Nokia would sell its business at the time it has.  So, one has to wonder if what's there is going to clog things up further for Nokia so it was best to just get rid of it and hand it all over to Microsoft to sort out.

So, the new Microsoft sounds more and more to be like the Google-Motorola situation where it took longer after the merger for products like the Moto X to come up.  It remains to be seen whether Moto X is good enough to challenge the dominance of the iPhone and, to some extent, the Galaxy line of devices.  So, we don't really know yet if Google's mobile business will be like Apple's and Samsung's or more like Nokia's and Blackberry's.

Microsoft will try to make the transition as seamless has possible.  It has to.  Any hiccups would immediately be seen as signs of doom ahead for Windows Phone and Microsoft's inability to execute against competitors.
So, Microsoft isn't suddenly going to be compared as apple-to-apple with Apple.  At least not until it has a successful selling high-end Windows Phone.  There is also one difference between Microsoft-Nokia and Google-Motorola.

Google has a sizable and complicated Android web of partners and deals that Microsoft so far doesn't have because of the lack of Windows Phone traction in the market.  Anything that Google may have to worry more about Microsoft on stepping on partners' toes.  On the other hand, while I anticipate meaningless press releases about Microsoft working with and licensing Windows Phone to partners, it has less to worry about hurting the feelings, oh say, HTC.

Thus, Microsoft has greater freedom than Google has to do as it pleases.

At the end of the day, only time will tell.  We'll know soon enough how well Moto X will do.  And we will know in the second half of 2014 if Microsoft's new $7 billion business is what Windows Phone needed.

A Week After Balmer's Pending Resignation: Nokia Sells Mobile Biz to Microsoft

You have to assume that Nokia's $7+ (some say $7.1 billion and other say $7.2 billion) sale of its mobile business to Microsoft, allowing Microsoft access to its name, some mobile tech like mapping, and licenses to use its patents, had been in the works long before Steve Balmer offered (or pushed out) to resign as CEO of Microsoft.  Still, the announcement was likely timed to avoid getting bumped off the front page by Balmer's news.

And this is probably part of new plan at Microsoft to compete against the likes of Apple's iPhone/iPad and Android which has thoroughly dominated the mobile market - with Android taking around 70% of global smartphones shipped and Apple selling over 50% of tablets while Windows based Surface caused Redmond to write down nearly $900 million and forcing Microsoft to permanently cut the price of the ARM-based version by $150 and the Intel version by $100. 

I'm thinking there's going to be additional write-downs for Microsoft in the coming quarter. 

Now, there have been rumors and suggestions from all corners of Wall Street, media, and armchair bloggers that Microsoft should be Nokia for one reason or another.  These flood of articles has paid for many meals, mortgages, and college tuitions for dozens if not hundreds of writers because they were at the same time making sense and also polarizing.

Made sense because Nokia was going nowhere with its own effort prior to Windows Phone and only managed to tread water after the Lumia brand came out.  Imagine what would have happened had Nokia gone with Google's Android instead.  Maybe they should have been the ones to buy Web OS instead of HP.

At the same time these posts were polarizing is because Microsoft fans and supporters did not want talk about potential Windows Phone failures or how Microsoft had to bribe Nokia with hundreds of millions to get them to use it.  And in a sense, it was this or nothing for both companies.  If Windows Phone fail, it was pretty much it for Nokia and Microsoft likely would have to forget about being a mobile player and would have only its Windows and Office biz to milk from. 

What's scary is that it has happened - Microsoft with a large part of Nokia.  It's likely this was forced upon Redmond.  Nokia was sunk and Microsoft was told to hold the bag that is the Windows Phone market.  For a while now,  Nokia wanted out of the market.  Lumia phones were decent but had many shortcomings while providing an interesting new UI offered almost nothing new that the iPhone or Android devices didn't. 

And oh, no apps in the phone store.  No good apps I wanted (I have a Lumia device too).

So, Microsoft was forced to spent more than $7 billion to remain a player fast and brutal mobile market.  I agree it had to make this move but we're here today because of the news from a week or so ago:  Steve Balmer.

Balmer, genius and brilliant in his own right, was the reason why it cost Microsoft $7 billion today.  And the sooner he is able to leave and give a new CEO more time to come in and make the necessary changes, which will take time and even billions more, the better off Microsoft is in the long run regardless of whether Windows Phone will catch on or not.