AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

Over the Holidays, I had a $100 coupon for signing up with Audible.com and some leftover credits on Amazon from a while back. So I figure since I'm going to give my jailbroken iPhone away, I'm gonna need a new iDevice. I was torn between the Classic and the iPod Touch. I ended up with an iPod Touch (8GB - it's a downgrade from the 16GB in my iPhone) because I felt the 2nd generation iPod Touch had a lot of offer expecially with the built-in features - Nike+ and voice recording. And let's not fool ourselves. Apple is prepping for the iPod Touch and the iPhone platform in general for much more than music and games. Now, 8GB verus 120GB in the Classic. I only considered the Classic because I felt Apple may not continue making it beyond this year. iPod Touch stands at 32GB. We can potentially see a 64GB model in late 2009. Apple might just say "okay, it's got enough storage for 95% of the users and we want to move everyone to the new iPhone/Touch platform...

Macworld reports that Apple pulled Duck Hunt from the app store at Nintendo's request.  Frankly, I'm very surprised by how long it took for Nintendo to make this request. However, the developer will provide an updated version without infringing on Nintendo's copyright - meaning removing the graphics and music. Now, sports games.  Today, Macworld wrote an article about football games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I thought "wow, how could I have missed those games completely".  I have been complaining about the lack of sports games. Well, it turned out it's not real football like what we see on the DS or PSP.  No Madden.  Still, it's a great post that I recommend readers head over to read.  Instead of real football, it's finger football or paper football.  Basically, you flick something between a graphical pair of hands set up to look like the goal post to see if you can make the "field goal". There's a game called "X'...

Nothing major here but I just want to share my addiction to blogs and updates on all things Apple. Typically, we get our regular updates.  I'm not going to mention sites I visit here and now because I'll inevitably leave some out and that's unfair.  Suffice to say, I go through a lot of them as I've got them in my Google Reader. But come weekends, I start to sweat, shake, feeling something's not quite right.  I've provided some posts here but I ended up having a very busy weekend. On Apple will start writing more weekend posts to carry everyone through until Monday.  Meanwhile, I've updated daily headlines on general mobile issues as well as Apple specific posts that I think you would also be interested in reading about.  So, visit Mobile Digerati .  I've also started a section on mobile gaming that I know is going to be huge in 2009.

I was at a friend's house last night watching the pay-per-view UFC.  It was my second UFC party.  I had a good time.  Pizza, chicken, drinks (soda, smoothies, Gatorade - I don't drink).  Bunch of guys getting together to have fun.   It was when I was in the kitchen looking at everyone and I realized how mobile tech has permeated through a lot of our lives.  Laptops (a couple of Macbooks and Macwinds) dotted the living room while smartphones orbited them.   Folks were connected to my friend's Wi-Fi network surfing the web - Facebook, news, UFC updates.  There were texting, twittering, and emails flying back and forth.  But of course there was the main event. The UFC fight.  None of that distracted from what we were doing - watching some great fights.  I honestly don't care too much for it.  We could be hang out to watch a couple of DVDs and I would be fine with that.  It was about hanging out. It was when I wa...

I love rumors but I don't write about them. Why is why you are wondering why I'm getting this from MacRumors of all places. Well, MR likes to delight us with rumors but they also provide news as well. And this is more news than rumors. According to this post, MacRumors has found evidence in the iPhone's firmware (I'm guessing it's the 2.2.1 that was just released). What is it? Well, it's not like Apple wrote "iPhone 2009" or anything like that. It's the iPhone code designation, "iPhone2,1". It's not a designation Apple simply use to upgrade capacity between models. The original iPhone was "iPhone1,1" and the iPhone 3G is "iPhone1,2". How does Macrumors know for sure? Well, they point to how Apple labeled the original iPod Touch and the current generation iPod Touch. Well, not iron-clad but very convincing. Less certain proof is a new iPhone is instored is a developer who has seen it used via logs from an ad...

We've heard the stories about Apple's secrecy and it sort of went insane in the early days of the iPhone SDK with the nondisclosure agreements.  And when Apple finally dropped the NDA, developers were generally happy (users probably were affected much). Well, you might not have know that an app called Podcaster was rejected and because of the NDA, the developer couldn't well talk about it much.  It was a big story.  You can google for details if you want to learn more about it. Well, Apple has finally approved Podcaster.  Originally, it was rejected for duplicating a function on the iPhone -  well, eventually, an iPhone update on the iTunes allow iPhone users to wirelessly download podcasts, very much like what Podcaster does. Macworld is just as baffled by this change of heart at Cupertino as we are.  They believe it's a removal of a feature in the original Podcaster app or that RSS Player, the new name for Podcaster, slipped through without Apple no...

Without Apple's redesigned unibody Macbooks (which I have and love) and the refreshed iPod Touches, and certainly the iMacs were no help, Apple stock price could have end up much lower.  The record quarter revenue and profit did stunt any effort from Jobs not being at the helm, at least until June. But with Macbooks selling really hot, let's not forget the iPod Touch.  the iPhone had a great quarter but nothing like the 7 million sold in the previous quarter.  So, let's focus on the iPods. It's unfortunate that Apple doesn't break out individual numbers for the different iPods but I'm willing to believe that the second generation iPod Touch did a lot to exceed analyst expectations (from Wall Street to Internet bloggers/analysts).  I got the 2nd gen 8GB iPod Touch and it's just absolutely incredible.  I have the iPhone as well and this design is just incredible.  More than just the design, it's what it represents.  It's a mobile computing platfo...