AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

The seven-month old iPhone 4 just went on sale over at Verizon Wireless on Thursday, selling out the pre-order allotment in just 17 months and setting a record sales figure in just two hours, between 3am-5am. By any measure, that is an incredible feat I don't know can ever be duplicated. But every time someone says something is no longer possible for Apple, Steve Jobs and company always manages to outdo expectation. Meanwhile, ATT and Verizon Wireless (VWZ) crossed swords on Twitter and in the press over who has the better iPhone. And this week, that skirmish spilled over into television and online as they released opposing commercials that highlight who's got the better iPhone and what features one has over the other. The best thing about this is that mobile warriors like you and me win with this kind of competition. More at Greenjava .

I use Apple's Siri app on occasion.  And it's a decent app for process that pulls information from various sources.  However, I wonder if Apple will finally do more with it in iOS 5. After all, spending $200 million to buy it out must really mean that there is value in the app and the talent behind its development that the top echelon at Apple saw. It is a very useful app as it is if you have never used it.  It's a voice query app and I have spend some time here and there to see what I can do with it.   First, you can tap and say what you want to ask.  If the question is within reason, like "where am I?", Siri thinks for a bit and offers you what it thinks is the best answer.  When I asked it where my current location was, it showed me a map of where I am.   And for lunch, I was able to ask Siri where is the location to the restaurant I'm suppose to meet up with my friends.  It was a very easy process.  No typing required.   That's great...

This new Verizon commercial for the iPhone kinda says it all. Seriously though, I don't think Apple has never allowed AT&T to use the iPhone in any commercial at all. If true, this is Apple's payback to AT&T for maintaining such a crappy network all these year. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

Neither Apple or Verizon Wireless has any iPhones for pre-orders to be reserved by current VZW customers.   The next time anyone can order one starts on February 9th and can be picked up on the 10th or wake up early to wait in line for one. No one knows just how much Apple allocated for today's pre-order or whether taking 16 hours to run out of iPhones was a success or not. We will not know just how well the CDMA iPhones are selling until a week or two after.  That is usually when Apple gloats to the public about their numbers. From the survey conducted by uSamp , there is a lot of enthusiasm for the seven-month old iPhone 4  We will not know just what kind of change in the mobile market this will cause until we see the actual lines (if there are any) or the effects ripple effects this has on Apple's competitors.

There, I said it.  Being able to access data while fielding a phone call is a good feature to have but for a vast majority of mobile users, we don't really do that all the time.  As a matter of fact, I cannot remember a time when I've had to do that while using the G1 on T-Mobile.  I think you'd have to think hard to remember having to do that and I'm willing to wager that it isn't often. Nor do I remember a time when I'm on the 2G iPhone telling someone I'll call them back so I can access something via the wireless Internet.  Once again, if this occurs, it's a rare instance. Having said that, there are some heavy users that live on their mobile devices and they probably need to chat and access data at the same time.   This issue is suddenly important once more because the iPhone is now on Verizon's CDMA network which does not allow this ability that the GSM iPhone is capable of on AT&T's network.   The millions of Droid and other Android use...

This is purely fun speculation on my part about Apple, iPad 2, and the possibility of Steve Jobs and friends offer a higher resolution display on the iPad 2. And here’s how. Charge more for it. I am sure the cost will be a lot more than the standard display being used for the iPad. And it probably does not makes business sense to introduce such an expensive display while trying to keep the price of the forthcoming iPad 2 in the same range as the current line of iPads. So, make one model with a retina display or simply higher resolution display. Seriously, there will be a market for this high-end iPad 2. For there rest of the lower end iPad 2 line, Apple can continue to use the same display as current model. I am sure there will still be improvements – like thickness and a more powerful efficient display. And there is precedent for this. Keep in mind that the Macbook Pro displays come in two models. On the 15” model, the standard resolution is 1440 x 900 with an option for a h...

Apple likes to shake things up.  They've done that with Apple II, the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad.  They did it with iTunes and the app store.  And now, they're doing it again by enforcing an app store rule that said content that are available for purchase outside the app must also be made available for in-app purchases. The most publicized victim of Apple enforcing this is Sony and it's Reader app.  It was rejected by Apple for not allowing in-app purchases of ebooks. You ask how is this different from what the Kindle and Nook apps already do?  It's not.  And if I know Apple, look for future updates to these two apps and other apps that draw purchased contents into the iOS devices to be rejected wholeheartedly or be resubmitted into the app store with in-app purchases. This shows Apple's growing confidence in its iOS platform.  Going forward, look for Apple to apply this rule to other media as well.  Music, books, video, and even comic ...