Wearables Like the Apple Watch To Play Key Role in Cars

Though it is a no-brainer, but WSJ reports that GM (probably other car makers as well) will soon allow drivers unlock vehicles with their watches, specifically the Apple Watch.  You want to know what else wearables, and smartphones, can do for drivers? 

Just watch Knight Rider from the 80s.  Replace KITT with Siri.  You get the idea.  We are headed into that direction and beyond.  Just don't expect your car to go airborne when you tell Siri "turbo boost!"

For starters, GM will allow drivers to lock/unlock doors and to start cars remotely.  What else would you like to be able to control with your watches?

Carly Fiorina Likely Has Not Learned From Her Failures Enough To Succeed And More About Steve Jobs and the HP iPod

Here is a very good look-back post from Medium penned by the author Steven Levy who had written a book at length about Apple's iconic iPod and how Steve Jobs rolled over Carly Fiorina and HP to get the iPod into the dominant position it was years ago and even through today.  The focus came about because during the second GOP debate on CNN, Fiorina opportunistically mentioned Steve Jobs as his friend and to deflect her past failures and somehow linked them to Jobs' darker past. 

The thing is that Jobs learned from his past mistakes, spent years in the woods finding himself again, nearly lost much of his wealth with NEXT and Pixar before Disney inked a deal with Pixar and Apple bought NEXT.  And he applied his lessons to turn Apple around with a string of innovative products like the iPod, iMac, iPhone, and iPad.  And even the Macs are selling better with each passing quarter in the post-PC era. 

Sadly, even for those who agree with Fiorina's politics has to admit that there was no second coming of Carly where she took charge of a company and made it better than it was when she took over.  As mentioned in the article, HP's stock jumped on news of her dismissal. 

The Medium was no doubt negative on Fiorina.  While you can dismiss her closeness to Jobs and her time at HP as a failed executive, you cannot question her rise to the top of Hewlett-Packard, an iconic company in its own right. 

Carly is successful as a person and did what she needed for her career.  The question is whether her management style is a good fit for today's political evironment in DC.  And one thing to consider before closing:  as president, Carly will be unable to buy another country to shore up the country's revenues.  That's good, right?

Macworld Review Shows Apple Tech Pundits and Bloggers Growing More Arrogant and Full Of Themselves

In an otherwise decent review of the iPhone 6S, Macworld UK (link here but nothing new you probably haven't read else where) love the iPhone 6S.  The chief complaint it had was that Apple did not increase the resolution of the iPhone 6S over the 6. 

Seriously?!  Seriously?!  Was Apple increasing the resolution on the iPhone 6S even on any rumor site's radar?  Not at all.  A quick search on Google showed that not one rumor indicated the possibility that Apple was going to up the resolution on the iPhone 6S.

And hey, pal, Apple ain't gonna change the 1080p on the 5.5" iPhone 6S Plus to 4K next year either.  Make sure you show your disappointment in your review next year, yeah?

This is just another example of what I see as an increasingly arrogance that tech pundits show for decades and Apple writers beginning to adopt this bad behavior.  Call out Apple for its bad cloud support.  I agree.  But looking for issues where there aren't any or ripping into Apple or another company whose products do not have all features they want or what competitors have.  Not like all those 4K Android devices are outselling the 6S, are they?

Call things for what they are.  Battery life?  Yeah, that's one thing Macworld could have complained about.  But 4K?  Even if Apple did put in a 4K without telling anyone, I reckon this reviewer probably would have complained about the lack of 4K because HE PROBABLY CAN'T TELL!

Oh, and if Apple had added a 4K screen, this dude would have complained about the shorter battery life. 

It just seems like Apple bloggers just have nothing to do since iPhones are doing so well these days compared to its competitiors that all they can do is bitch, bitch, bitch to get eye balls.  C'mon, guys.  You guys are smart and some of you are even decent writers.  Still with that.

iPhone 6S: Day 1, Meh But Still With High Expecations

If you're judging from the title of my post, you'd think I was not impressed with my iPhone 6S.  Well, it has been day one and I have not had a chance to go exploring new features like 3D Touch, snapping photos, and testing out the battery life.  I just had an ordinary day.  And for the new iPhone 6S at my side, there was nothing new to change my routine. 

I did snap a couple Live Pictures but was unable to share this new iOS feature because many folks with iPhones have not upgraded their phones or to iOS 9. So, it could be a while before we start seeing many live pictures being shared and viewed properly.  For now, it feels gimmicky.  Apple pushed it as a new neat feature but it does not feel like a must have.  But don't tell the other 12,999,999 iPhone 6S buyers that. 

But the fact that the new 6S out of the box works like just the 6 means that Apple has done well in allowing users from previous iPhones to transition well.  Swap out the sim card, transfer old data from iCloud or iTunes, and it just works a few hours later.  That is an incredible feat.  Something that is not easily done on Android especially if you're moving from one company's phone to another. 

One thing that did irk me just a bit was pairing with Apple Watch with the 6S.  I lost half a day's of physical data on the watch.  There does not seem to be a way to repair without resetting the watch.

One thing I noticed was how comfortable it felt in my hand. I previously owned an iPhone 6 Plus. And now with the iPhone 6S Plus which weighed just a bit more, for whatever reason, it feels great in my hands.  Perhaps it's pyschological. 

Now, I can't end the post without talking about battery life.  I'm not expecting great things especially given the talk around the tubes of web that the both models of the new iPhone have smaller batteries than their predecessors.  I reckon Apple has made enough improvements to both the hardware and iOS 9 to squeeze out additional efficencies to maintain similar battery lives.  I've adapted and have made peace with battery life expecations from all my devices, trying to preserve battery maintenance, and balancing my needs.  With the expectation that I will upgrade my iPhone annually, I have no issues charging the battery once a day when I have a light schedule or midway through the day if onset of battery anxiety hits.  Still, Apple, would it kill you if you stop making phones thinner every other year to increase the battery life? 

Same goes for the iPad.

Space: Mars Has Flowing Salty Water During Summers

Hot off the press:  NASA said there is liquid water still flowing on Mars.  The press conference is still live.

This has huge implication on the possibility of life on Mars, else where in our solar system, and beyond.

Source: SCPR.

iPad Versus MacBook: Does It Come Down To Only Keyboard? Mostly

Here is a post from Macworld in which the author argues and explains why his MacBook Air is still his go-to device while the iPad, regardless of whether it is the mini, Air, or the yet to be released Pro, still cannot displace his Mac still. I have read enough similar posts to see an underlying theme: keyboard. 

That's it. The Macs have keyboards where as the iPad inherently do not and needs a clip-on case keyboard or one hooked in via Bluetooth. And here is the thing that I have thought about that makes the MacBooks a better option than the iPad with a keyboard. You cannot put the MacBook on your laps as easily as you can with an iPad with a keyboard. Really, think about it. It makes sense. 

Having said that, at the end of the day for a lot of these posts, it's about keyboard and navigation versus no keyboard and navigating with fingers and touch. 

But Macs are generally more powerful and capable as a computer and, therefore, are more capable of supporting more tools. Take Xcode for instance. If a developer wants to write an app for the iOS ecosystem, his or her only option is the Mac. To me that's a good reason why one would stick with a Mac. Until Apple is inclined to release a iOS Xcode app, we really won't know what developers will choose, keyboard or not. 

Oversimplifying this a bit? Maybe. However, this issue could be generational. Those born into the touch UI might well be fine with typing on a glass screen or feel quite at home dictating to Siri. Those of us older who started their computing experiences on a keyboard would like see things differently. 

It all comes down to preference. I'm on the camp that uses my iOS devices fora cats majority of my computing needs and into go to my Mac when I am absolutely have to. 

Note: This post was writing on my iPhone. 

October Event: Nope

Over the weekend, the idea that Apple may or may not follow tradition with an October event was batted around (On Apple).  Listed were subjects that Apple may dive into and talk about its visions and more far-reaching services that it plan on pushing out to iOS and OS X, reaching further into mobile and eventually the home and car.  However, unlike this post from Two Guys and A Podcast, it is not likely that Apple will hold an event just for the Mac updates. 

Mac Pro and Mini updates?  ZZZZZZZ... Retiring the Macbook Airs in favor of the 12" and even 14" Macbooks?  Sure but the way Apple works is it will allow the Air to languish for a while before unveiling any new replacement and then also allow the Air to sit around for a while with no update and, one day, it's just gone.  The Air was just updated recently so it's not going to happen as TGAAP hope. 

Plus, as far as the Macs are concerned, the much anticipated El Capitan is coming out on 9/30.  Apple is not going to devote time to a product already on the market unless there is a secret update to El Capitan that Apple is hold back that is so awesome that it warrants Tim Cook and friends to take the stage to talk about.  And if that is the case, what can it possibly be? 

Conventional wisdom is that an October media event is not going to happen because Apple loves to break from patterns when it can and deem necessary.  Still, fingers are crossed that Apple is not done wowing its devotees and fans.