AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

You should know by now that Disney owes LucasFilm.  If not, well, now you do.  Well, along with this bit is news is the bigger news that we're going to see a 7th Star Wars movie. My hope is that George Lucas isn't given any kind of creative control over it.  If anything, Disney should bring in the Pixar folks and get them to work on it.   Anyway, we'll know soon enough in the next few months.  Still, I wonder if the person who suggested this deal secretly wanted someone else to try making a Star Wars movie and show good-old George that his prequels could have been done better. And don't be surprised by this deal.  Disney and Lucas has cooperated in the past with attractions at Disney theme parks. On a historic note, this deal has come a full circle.  Like I mentioned before, Disney and Lucas has had some great history working together.  And Disney and Pixar made great animated movie history together and eventually Disney b...

Source:   Twitter . Pretty telling photo here from NY.  These folks are all standing outside Starbucks.  A closed Starbucks. Why?  Not because there’s a new drink that everyone has to have the way Apple fans has to have their fix of the latest and greatest from Cupertino.  Not because Starbucks has a new coffee flavor. Free WiFi.  Rather, working WiFi.  After Sandy plowed into the Northeast, about 8 million customers were left without power.  By the looks of videos and photos online, NY took a big chunk of the pounding and many were left without power. How Starbucks still has power and working Internet connection is something that I like to know.

It's here finally.  Despite Hurricane Sandy wrecking Google's plan, they went ahead and released Nexus 4, the next smartphone, and also iPad competitor Nexus tablet with a 10" screen. The Nexus 4, made by LG, could be had for $300 without a contract.  You're thinking "only $300??? Must not have the beefiest specs."  Well, you'd be wrong. Here are some specs: Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 Pro processor with 1.5GHz Quad-Core Krait CPUs Operating System: Android 4.2, Jelly Bean Network: 3G (WCDMA), HSPA+ Display: 4.7-inch WXGA True HD IPS Plus (1280 x 768 pixels) Memory: 8GB / 16GB RAM: 2GB Camera: 8.0MP rear / 1.3MP HD front Battery: 2,100mAh Li-Polymer (embedded) / Talk time: 15.3 hours / Standby: 390 hours Size: 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1mm Weight: 139g Other: Wireless charging, NFC Is that impressive enough for you?  Okay, I think the Galaxy III might have this beat or at least sort of keep things close.  Still, based on price alone, you ...

Source:   Touch Arcade . We don't write enough about games here.  And we totally should, you know?  Zombies rock and we're less than a week from Halloween.  And this "choose your own adventure" type of game here is exactly what mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are made for. This RPG game, if you can call it that, has all the elements of those old 80s and 90s book RPG games that a game master would use to create adventures for other plays.  Those were great times.  And if you have never tried it, well, you simply have missed out. But this game, available for iOS and Android, should help bridge that gap.  It's a zombie game, Blood of the Zombies, the title kinda gave the plot away a bit. And there isn't a lot of gore so it makes the game focused on the adventure than say something like The Walking Dead game offers.  It's all for good old fashion fun.  It's a big pricy compared to other games in app stores but definitely offe...

Source:   CNet . Meet Google and Samsung's answer to the iPad.  From this picture supplied by CNet, it looks like a giant Nexus phone. I refuse to believe that Samsung cannot design something that isn't the iPad and still look good. Maybe pricing will make all the diff for potential buyers.  $300 or even $250 would be a good point from Google.

Source:   Cult of Mac  (I don’t recommend clicking through – just an idiotic post). I hate pollings like this one.  Folks with new iPads from April were asked what they thought about Apple releasing a new iPad with a speed increase just a couple of days were.  Well, if they didn’t know about it as most iPad owners would not have, they would not care.  Their early-2012 iPad was the best tablet they’ve owned. So what if about 50% of the folks are upset.  We live in a world where people feel entitled and they are constantly looking out for things to be upset about.  Case in point.  At a local meeting, parents were upset with the current school board because another school board eons ago agreed to a cell tower on school property. Not one of the old school board members who signed on to that are now serving on the current school board and a recall effort against the current board is beginning to take form. So seriously, iPad owners love their ...

Source: Digital Reader . First, let's get this out of the way. The iPad mini was a response to the sub-10" tablet market, not necessarily the 7" tablets alone. And second, the iPad mini has a 7.9" screen that has a full 35% more screen real estate than the 7" flavors. So in his post, the DR writer uses Steve Jobs, as if he really gets Steve, said he would have priced the mini at $199 or close to it. He doesn't really say but given the rumors that were flying about, I guess he was one of those who believed it to be true. However, once you get pass his profanity, and there was lots of it, you are reminded that Apple never competed on price. Sure, the iPad at $499 was incredible but it is a whole new category of mobile computing no one has seen or experienced before. It was a new market for Apple to do as it will including pricing it at $499. So for Apple to price the level entry mini at $329 isn't that far fetched. Remember, Apple was unwilling to produce ...