iPhone With Curved Screen: How Much Sense Does It Make?

Source:  On Android.

First there was the Nexus S.  Now the LG Flex. Samsung also has its own device but there isn't anything new about it - if you want to know, it's called the Round.  You can head over to The Verge for more info.  Between the two, I think the Flex's top-bottom curve makes more sense than the Round's side-to-side curvature.

However, this is talk that Apple is interested in developing its own curved-screen iPhone.  It's a rumor and while I don't like to dish rumors here, for the sake of speculation, we will here.

Let's suppose the rumors about Apple releasing a curved iPhone is true, it'll be interesting to see what real world advantages of curved screens has over traditional screens that Apple can develop. What kind of real world applications a curved iPhone might have over competing devices from the Android world.

I've mentioned that reduced glare might be a possible advantage but there would need to be more for Apple to move on it.  And Apple never released a product with new technology for the sake of doing it.

Word is that special sensors could be in the works.  If true, that would make the rumors, and that's all they are, rumors, make more sense.

Today on a Sunday, the mobile world exploded that Apple bought a 3D sensor company.  Initial reports are that the company, PrimeSense, focused on 3D sensing for the living room as well as mobile (Reuters).

For speculation sake, let's sake Apple needs something from PrimeSense for more than the living room.  Say it has to do with the curved screen design.  Wouldn't that be spectacular?

Must Read: Paid Firms To Stack Against Apple May Have Short Term Effect But Long Term Could Still Go Apple's Way

Here's a must read Appleinsider post regarding just how analytical firms that sell themselves to the highest bidders to stack statistics their way.  What's interesting is a quote within one firm's, Strategy Analytics, client page that one of its missions is to "influencing consumer behavior and buying preferences".

Time and time again, we've noticed that firms refuse to recognize Apple's growing dominance in the tablet market with the iPad and the influence its had on the PC market.  Time and time again, firms refuse to acknowledge the change in the mobile computing market in a shift away from PC towards more lighter and nimbler tablets, at the time, was only the iPad that sold in any number.

The question is does Apple mobile fans care?  Probably not.  Only a subset of this group really care about these reports or keep scores.  For the general mobile market, those who are more educated about the differences between tablets, iPad versus others, know what they want and whether they want to be a part of Apple's iTunes, iOS, and mobile ecosystem.  A wider portion of the market care nothing at all about iTunes or Play or anyone else.  For them, it's about the price.

The point though is that Apple owns a large segment of the mobile market, both PC and tablet, of those willing to invest in the mobile life.  This is part of the market are willing to spend more on their devices and not only download apps but buy apps as well.  This is why though Google's Android has overtaken Apple in terms of downloads but Apple is still king when it comes to app store monetization.  This is why Apple likes to brag about how much Apple has paid out to developers.

And while the public may not know or care in general, constantly hearing how Mac sales are slowing or that Android tablet shipments have outran the iPad could definitely have an adverse influence on Apple.

It's possible that the tide could turn in market and profit share against Apple.  But I think any setback is temporary.  Just like in the smartphone market, the iPhone has had to deal with $100 or $200 Android devices (and now, cheap Windows Phones too) for years since its introduction in 2007.  But in the US market now, sales of iPhone is beginning to turn around and in about a year, could overtake Android.

Note that Appleinsider is a rumor site and very pro-Apple.  I have found that while it is pro-Apple, it isn't in the realm of Fox News if you get what I mean.  It's very insightful and doesn't go places or twist facts too much to make its argument.  Still, you have to decide for yourself about this particular post.

Social: Power of A People, Social Media, And Kindness Helps Kid Battling Leukemia Save Gotham

Source:  Make A Wish Foundation, Business Insider, Politico.

Great news, folks.  Gotham City is once again safe.  Thanks to not Batman (he had a small part in it).  Not one of the various Robins.  Not Nightwing.  Nope, not Superman either.  Or the JLA.  It's Batkid!!!

That's right!  Thanks to Make A Wish Foundation, more than 10K fellow Americans, and thousands if not millions of us on social media cheering him on, Batkid, aka Miles, roamed through Gotham (San Francisco) to save its citizens from evildoers.

What's more, many are cheering him on via social media like Twitter.  Tweets from famous folks, politicans (some of them I like Batkid to deal with, and even the President of the United States.

With little brother aka Robin. Choking back tears! #sfbatkid pic.twitter.com/apIpn9OUYn
— patricia wilson (@pilarwish) November 15, 2013

This has got to be one of the best stories of 2013.  It's just so heart-warming to see what Americans can do even for a 5-year old when we work together.

And Miles, continue the good fight.  We're all pulling and with you!

Also, never once did the Make A Wish Foundation expect their website to crash.  And only the Batkid could do that!

Cloud/Product Rollout: Beta Or Staggarded Roll Out Versus US Government

It's safe to say that the federal government's rollout of the health insurance exchange has not gone well.  In fact, it's pretty dismal.  At the same time, they're hardly to be blamed for this.  Remember all those cloud services that Apple tried to unveil that didn't work? MobileMe, the early days of iCloud?

I'm sure you can think of a few other examples of how things didn't work out well for private companies. And the health exchange is probably many times more complex.  This is why I don't get why Washington thought it could make it work from day one.

Where was the beta testing with real people participation?  Google's Gmail has been in beta for years and I'm sure there are a few other apps that are still in beta?

The health insurance exchange debacle is a very valuable lesson for government officials and entrepreneurs.  This reminds me of Google+ unveiling.  You needed an invitation to sign up.  And it was done over time probably to give Google time to scale properly.

In fact, a few mobile apps that I've signed up for had this system where you can sign up for service you had to wait until the app developers had scaled enough to accommodate more users.  One app in particular was Mailbox from Orchestra.  It took about a week between me signing up for service and when I could actually use the app but it was worth it because it worked seamlessly.

President Obama spoke today about the frustration regarding the ACA roll out.  I think he should have added that the exchange was a beta process and it could be a while before it's up and running properly.  Word is that Google engineers have been tasked to help out.  I think that helps but should have done that from day one.

Zune I Get But Windows Phone 7: This Blows. Microsoft Ends Support for Video

Source: The Verge.

If you bought Xbox video, and you use Windows Phone 7 or Zune, you're going to be able to continue using it until Feb of 2014.  After that, nada.

Microsoft gave some crap about how they improved on the video and offerings.  Translation:  if you wanna keep using Xbox content, get a new Windows Phone device, preferrably the Lumia which Microsoft effectively own.

Zune?  I get that.  But Windows Phone 7.  Not so much.  It's still pretty new.  It's the OS that has been delayed over and over until Microsoft managed to ship it against some already entrenched smartphone heavyweights.  It, along with Blackberry, had owned the mobile market.  One theory I've got on why Microsoft is chucking WP7 now.  There were not many takers to begin with.  Kinda like Zune I guess.

Apple Promises More Advanced Features for iWork

Source:  TC.

Apple got some blow-back from some quarters regarding the new iWork, you know, the office suite that they made free to everyone (almost everyone).  And while it was not surprising that in order to make iWork seem seamlessly across the two plaetforms, iOS and OS X, Apple would have to strip out some of the more advanced features in the previous versions.

However, it did hit a nerve for some folks.

This reminded me of when Apple released the new Final Cut Pro a couple of years ago that not only stripped out a lot of features pro users came to rely on but also made the projects incompatible between the new and older versions of the professional video editing app.  Eventually, many of the features did come back.

So, I expected the same thing to happen with iWork as well.  And Apple pre-announced what they would be (Apple).  Here are the key updates that will be coming in the next 6 months:


Pages

• Customize toolbar 
• Vertical ruler Improved alignment guides 
• Improved object placement Import of cells with images 
• Improved word counts 
• Keyboard shortcuts for styles 
• Manage pages and sections from the thumbnail view 

Numbers

• Customize toolbar 
• Improvements to zoom and window placement 
• Multi-column and range sort 
• Auto-complete text in cells 
• Page headers and footers 
• Improvements to AppleScript support 

Keynote

• Customize toolbar 
• Restoring old transitions and builds 
• Improvements to presenter display 
• mprovements to AppleScript support

The biggest outcry I've read is the loss of Applescript support.  It'll be interesting to see how this is implemented on iOS devices.  As far as I'm aware of, Applescript isn't supported on the iPhone or iPad.  

There are two things about this debacle.  First, it's manufactured.  By Apple screwing up and not communicating to the public about it and the media picking over something that that 90% of iWork users don't care about.  Second, it's been a while now with Tim Cook at the helm and Apple is just as bad at communicating this type of changes to users as they were under Steve Jobs.

That's gotta improve.

Blackberry: No Takers, Relegated To App Maker Role But Small Chance Of Keeping Hardware Future

Black Monday for Blackberry today. For both the company and its fans.  Apparently, things are so bad there that there are no real takers who believe the company can be turned around and reclaim even part of its former glory.  And that is sad.

And apparently, the patents that Blackberry own do not have the value which many believe should have.  It's surprising because Blackberry is a pioneer in messaging and a trailblazer in smartphones as far as most are concerned.

Today, the CEO of Blackberry, Thorsten Heins, was forced out and it received an injection of $1 billion in investment.  The details aren't that important here.  It's how the investors perceive today's announcement.  Blackberry has apparently taken itself off the market.  And it's uncertain what its turnaround plan is if there is one.  That's the scary part for investors. And this development certain does not inspire confidence among developers and consumers.

There is a possibly a sliver of hope for mobile fans who want Blackberry to stay in the mobile hardware game.  It's new interim CEO, John Chen, believes Blackberry has enough ingredients to continue innovating on the hardware front (http://crackberry.com/blackberry-has-no-plans-shut-down-handset-business).  While that could just be PR talk, I'm also very confident that Blackberry with the right guy at the top could mount some sort of a comeback.  While I don't know if Chen is the right guy or not, certainly the old regime has not produce the results the mobile market had hoped for despite its best efforts.

I think that Blackberry has to change the narrative and get people talk about the future in ways that isn't about its products fighting an uphill battle against mobile juggernauts.  When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he changed the narrative immediately by declaring the PC war over and it's on to the next phase.  Blackberry has to do the same.  It cannot possibly go up against Apple, Google, and Microsoft with a combined cash of around $250 billion.