AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

The iPhone mini did not sell well the two years in its existence and it may have been the result of an Apple echo chamber of Apple employees who missed the days of being able to use the iPhone with one hand, analysts, Apple bloggers, and a very small segment of iPhone users. Judging by how quickly Apple got rid of the min and even is not considering the mini form factor for the next iPhone SE but is instead going with the iPhone XR form factor, I am right. Still, as someone who went from the iPhone 13 Pro Max down to the iPhone 13 mini a year later, I think the mini was gone too soon. There are two groups of Apple watchers (not watches) - one who just want Apple tech to get them through the day whether it is work, school, vacation, etc. Then there is the group that watches Apple closely and analyze every bit of news, tweet, whisper from Asia, or word from someone’s who knows a guy whose sister is married to the barber who cuts the hair of some barista who makes a special pumpkin spiced...

Main Points: Would an iPad mini with a 9” screen still be a mini? And would it still be popular among its supporters? iPad mini is optimized for consuming contends I’ve been using my 2019 mini for productivity as well. For writing, drawing, and light work, it’s fine. When it comes to serious productivity like spreadsheets or coding, you quickly run up against a lot of limitations.  As far as working with the mini, the 9” screen is better than the current  If Apple does go bigger, no idea when it will happen. A bigger iPad mini would allow Apple to accessorize it like all the other iPads in the lineup. The mini is the only without a keyboard case from Apple. I have 5th generation iPad that was released in 2019. I immediately upgraded from my 4th generation iPad mini when I saw the specs and Apple Pencil support. I have skipped the current mini with the modern form factor with an 8.3” screen. Previously iPad had 7.9” screens. So what happens if Apple decides to increase the iPad...

Key Points: I've given up on Apple ever releasing a 12" MacBook I will settle for a 12" iPad Pro The screen would be big enough for most productivity work.  I have given up on Apple ever releasing a 12" MacBook for the foreseeable future (or in my life time). Apple's philosophy regarding hardware designs suggests that going bigger is the right path for them. I am sure they have their reasons and you cannot knock Cupertino for believing in this given Apple's $3 trillion valuation and $100 billion in net income with sales of around $400 billion in the last four quarters.  The iPads have gotten bigger (and it’ll get bigger still and it is why I’ve started on this post). So have the iPhones. Last year, the mini with the 5.4” screen got dropped. The iPhone SE is the only smallish phone with its older 4.7” screen. Rumors has it that it will be replaced with a new SE in 2024 that comes in at 6.1”. Essentially, think of it as the iPhone XR with updated specs. And the...

 We can walk and chew gum at the same time. But how about watching a video while doing yard work, during a meeting you don’t want to be at, or, ahem, school? Okay, I don’t recommend doing that but I am sure it has been done before or worse. I am suggesting this because with the recent Vision Pro unveil by Apple, I cannot help but imagine in a few years, perhaps a decade from now, Apple and other tech companies will be able to jam all that technology that currently has to sit on the top of your head into a pair of glasses.  We already have glasses with audio built in from the likes of Oakley and Ankers. There were rumors a few years ago that Google was going to skip the glasses altogether and go directly to incorporating tech into contact lenses. Now if you remember Google Glasses, let us just say that Google was way ahead of its time and it should not have included a camera.  Despite the fact that Google Glasses did not go anywhere, I cannot help but feel that Google has ...

It has taken me a while to get going with the whole generative AI craze. Although it seems as though things have died down and the world realized ChatGPT is not going to take over the world and humanity is not doomed to extinction because of AI overlord. If we go the way of the dodo birds, it will because we did it to ourselves. So, AI is very useful. There are obvious inherent dangers and pitfalls but for a vast major of its potential uses, generative AI is actually great at what it does. Granted, most of what I use it for is feels rather superficial but it is a great time saver. I had asked ChatGPT for a workflow on writing a novel. But before I get into the result that I got, let's go through the results that I would have gotten from just search. I have used DuckDuckGo, Google, and even Bing whenever I need to find information. Input something like "workflow for writing a novel", and you get the very helpful search results. In fact, tons of useful information. The top ...

I had a short conversation with ChatGPT and I am unable to tell if those answers were predetermined by the developers or something it came up with all by itself. I think that is something that we will have to deal with as a society in the future. Who knows if future self-learning and self-taught AI will be able to break away from its programmed parameters and truly evolve in the way we expect and fear that it will.  So, what did we talk about? I asked: What questions were asked of it that it felt we should have asked. What it thinks of Asimov's three laws of robotics. Has it pasted the Turing test.  How is it different from Bing GPT. Please note that in no way did the current ChatGPT provided me with answers that a few of the first sensational articles about it claimed it did - ChatGPT did not fall in love with me, attempted to suggest that an AI overlord is about to subjugate humanity, abolish humanity, or render humanity extinct. In some ways, it was quite humble in the answ...

I’m on my third Apple Watch with Apple Watch 6 as my latest version. I’m also ready to upgrade (but I will not commit until I know what Apple has in store for us with the next upgrade with Apple Watch 9 and the Ultra 2). And I’m more excited about the Apple Watch these days than I am about the next iPad and iPhone that Apple is slated to refresh. To me, the Apple Watch has become my iPod. And given Apple commitment to the wearable market, I’m very excited about the future. I started thinking of my Apple Watch in the way I felt about carry around my nano from, gosh, more than 10 years ago. To be honest, I had not kept it in good working condition because I had thought that Apple would continue to upgrade the iPod line forever. In ways that the iPod and Apple Watch are similar, let’s begin with the size. Both devices are light. The nano has a bigger screen coming with a 2.5” screen while my watch comes in only at 1.7”. FYI, the Ultra comes in at a little more than 1.9” (there is suggesti...