AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

What does Verizon Wireless and Bank of America have in common? Verizon Wireless is wisely backing away from the $2 fee set to be imposed on its subscribers, those who can least afford it, after foolishly thinking it could get away with this.  We are after all in the "Occupy Whatever" era with social media becoming a weapon of choice for consumers, vigilante hackers, and those who would seek to overthrown their governments. And what's interesting is that VZW learnt nothing from Bank of America's own bone-headed adventure to raise debt card fees on its customers. I think most readers, my fellow mobile warriors, will agree with me when I say that while the banks are getting a lot of hate from the general American public (or people of the world for that matter), wireless carriers come in  a pretty close second on this "dislike" list.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a 5.3" Android device with a stylus.  Forget what Steve Jobs and Apple feels about the stylus or the screen size for a sec.  Samsung, the current boogyman of the mobile war as far as Apple fans are concerned, has shipped (not sold) one million Notes and will bring it to the US market. Now, having said that, it's an incredible opportunity.  Would I want a 5.5" iPod touch or iPad?  I would not mind having a go at it and seeing for myself just how such an iOS device would fit into my mobile warrior life and I'm sure that there are many of you out there that are thinking the same thing and agree with me. Obviously, Apple's dogma to conform to the UI and experience likely is going to prevent this from happening.  Fine.  Still, smartphones to tablets with screen sizes from iPhone's 3.5" screen to the 10.1" Galaxy Tab are on the market. Apple has a commanding control of the tablet market for now and it has a respectable 30%...

Would you get a $400 (if we’re lucky, $350) iPad with about an 8” screen?  I would in a heart beat if we’re talking about having at least 16 GB of storage.  And I think Apple will make it so.  So, that means I am disagreeing with Steve Jobs on this point. Let’s refresh a bit.  Steve Jobs, a year and a half ago, blasted the 7” tablets that were just beginning to go on sale, in particular, the 7” Galaxy Tab from Samsung.  I would have to agree with Steve that that particular tablet sucked.  It was just a smartphone OS in a tablet.  And even today’s Honeycomb, Android 3, doesn’t measure up to what iPad’s iOS can do and, in terms of usability, doesn’t come close. However, we have to examine what Android 4 means.  So far, we haven’t really seen a tablet with Android installed.  I think it’ll be awesome compared to what we’ve seen from the Android camp so far.  And iOS 6 should look about the same as iOS 5 on the iPad.  But my point ...

When I read reviews, good and bad ones, of mobile devices, one think I like to concentrate on is the battery life.  And with battery lives, it's very subjective.   There is no universal standard for this.  It is probably easier to do this on the iPhone and other iOS devices but not so with other mobile platforms that have more than one handset.  I'm talking about Android, Windows Phone, and whatever other platforms that are still left competing in the mobile market. So, I find it a bit irritating when reviewers talk about their moderate or heavy use.  I know that I've discussed this in passing on other posts regarding batteries and battery technologies, however, I feel these reviews are a disservice to the end-users of there is no concrete description by the reviews on what these subjective definitions of battery uses are. What has started me on this has been the reviews for Galaxy Prime and, before this, the battery issues that some iPhone 4S users have reporte...

When the iMac first came out, it had a tray CD-ROM.  Then the moved onto a slot based while its competitors continue to use tray CD-ROM but they can burn CDs which the iMac could not. At the time, I remember thinking it was just another move by Apple to offer incremental upgrades.  It turned out, as you will read in the book, that was not the case. Sometimes, Apple, as forward looking as they are, can still screw up. Back to today and the iPhone. Not having 4" screens.  No NFC chip.  Keeping Siri only on the iPhone 4S.  I don't know.  Maybe it could be a calculated move.  However, I am not discounting the possibility that Steve Jobs just does not see the 4" screen as right for the iPhone just as he doesn't see a 7" iPad as something viable. Expecting NFC?  Well, Apple has a few patents but we may still not see it.  I go to Starbucks a lot and I'm able to make payments with my iPhone.  No need for an NFC app. So, what are re...

This is one of those things that came out of the left field.  Far, far left field.  Apple is allowing a gaming developer that many Mac gamers should be familiar with, Big Fish Games, to utilize the subscription model that Apple developed for magazines and periodicals and let users subscribe to play games on a monthly basis. Terrific deal?  You'll have to be the judge of that.  However, it is just another mobile innovation that we like to see.  Don't be surprised if this feature is adopted for other uses as well and not just gaming. I reckon it's possible for studios to release sets of video in a similar fashion.  Take SyFy.  They can release an app just for science fiction fans to indulge themselves with content from the network and other materials. After all, multimedia does mean multimedia.  And for any developer or studio out there looking for additional revenues, well, this could be it.  Google, Microsoft, or even Facebook could be ...

No longer a Tom Cruise fan?  I don't know one way or another.  I just like a good movie with actions, explosions, and any attempt to develop a story. MI4 seems to have all of them.  Oh, yeah, the iPhone also has a small part in the trailer. What do you think?  In the poster, TC actually looked like Lestat again with the longish hair. Source:   Digg .