AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I'm always been a bit jealous of the camera capability of the high-end Lumia devices running Windows Phone from Nokia.  I want those features.  I mean the camera on the 1020 is just crazy.  Sure, the iPhone 5S camera rocks but there are still new tricks the next iPhone can pick up. It's why Apple hired away from Nokia its top camera expert, Ari Partinen.  With Nokia having sold its mobile division to Microsoft, it was a perfect tiemf or Mr. Partinen to move to sunny California.  And he's exactly the type of new blood that Apple can use.  Imagine what he can bring.  Just looking at Nokia's Lumia 1020 page, I want it all.  Lossless zoom.  Better pics in poorly lit environments.  Better flash.  Truer colors.  Of course, he'll have to really be creative and innovate in ways that he was not familiar with or expected to at Nokia.  There is the design element that the new Apple hire will have to deal with.  He won't have the...

This might not be the best analogy but I'm beginning to see Beats as Apple's Instagram.  Bear with me and maybe I'll manage to muddle my way through this.  This is because I'm not entirely convinced about why Apple would want to buy Beats.  In fact, I'd bet come next week, there will be no announcement regarding Financial Time's breaking rumor about Apple plucking down $3.2 billion for Beats, maker of headsets and floundering streaming music service. So, the only thing I can think of is that Apple is looking at Beats for the streaming music service to supplement its iTunes buy/download music store as interests in streaming music has increased while downloads have decreased in the last couple of years.  Most of Apple's iTunes service growth comes from app sales.  And just like Facebook who spent $1 billion for Instagram (which as far as I know is still not making money), Apple is buying Beats to make sure it has a foot in the streaming music service.  Why no...

Source: Arstechnica . The FCC abandoning net neutrality (essentially a U-turn from its previous position has many big and small companies protesting the move.  It's good for broadband dumb pipe operators like Comcast (currently trying to buy Time Warner Cable to gobble up more bandwidth) and Verizon but not for end-users. So, while most companies like Google and Netflix are content with sending letters and lobbyists, one ISP decided to act.  So, it's taken FCC's IP addresses and throttle all connections down to dial-up speed of 28kbps.  I think that is kinda cruel considering 56K should be enough but I'm a gentle person at the end of the day. The ISP, Neocities, And they're quite funny about it too. They're giving the FCC a special "Ferengi plan" (obviously Star Trek fans there):  pay the $1000 a year (they'll accept most payments including digital currencies but not Latinum) and Netcities will remove the throttle. I think that's brilliant.  Ma...

Source: IO9 . Did you know that bears can climb? No? Neither did I. I mean I know they climb trees and stuff but scaling the sides of a mountain is something else. I've gone climbing before. And I suck at it. But these bears you're about to see are natural climbers. I had no idea they could to this. Enjoy. - Posted using Mobile

Last month, Amazon became the proud owner of Comixology, a popular and likely the only source of mainstream comic books for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.  Didn't think much of it until today when the convenience of in-app purchases was stripped away in an update. Why? It's easy to understand why as Amazon is looking out for its bottom-line.  What's also obvious is that Amazon doesn't care about its customers in this regard.  Personally, I get both sides of why Amazon did this and why this move is very bad for loyal customers. As someone who makes purchases from Comixology, I have to say that I'm looking to alternative apps or sites to make my purchases.  If there is one out there, please share and let us know. I know that DC and Marvel both have their separate apps.  However, they are both powered by Comixology.  It's likely that only some sort of contractual agreement has made it impossible for Amazon to remove in-app purchases from tho...

I have to admit that I've got a bit of envy when it came to the HTC One from a year ago when I saw a friend with it.  However, despite his bravado, I knew that the battery life on the One was no better (in fact, I think it's worse) than other flagship devices from competitors like LG and Samsung.  And sure, the bigger screen on the One did elicit some envy, I did not think it was enough to get me excited and trade in for one (One's camera just was not not as impressive as HTC claimed it to be). However, it appears the new One M8, let's just call it the M8, is getting enough iPhone owners to trade up.  According to Macworld , 45% of those who bought the M8 were either Galaxy S 4 or iPhone users.  That is quite an impressive number.  I'm not sure even the iPhone has come close to getting Android defections with each new release. This is worrying for Samsung because of the 21%+ Galaxy users who upgraded, many of those were Galaxy S 4 users, a device that is only a ...

Today, there are more than a few pics depicting what appears to be the front face of the next iPhone, presumably called the iPhone 6.  Well, I can tell you this.  It doesn't jive with the design direction that Apple is heading towards nor does it work with how best one will interact with a larger screen iPhone. I'm calling it a fake or someone getting turned around by misinformation.  ( Appleinsider ). It's possible that I just refuse to believe that Apple will go back to the iPhone 4 screen ratio and that the pic showed what is essentially a bigger size iPhone 4 or 4S.  Operationally, whatever size the screen that is bigger than the current 4" on the iPhone 5S and 5C, Apple will have to compromise somewhat on the one-hand operation doctrine. Why are we trafficking in rumors when we've consistently said in the past that we wouldn't?  Well, we've walked a fine line here but I believe we haven't.  Pointing out a bad rumor is a public service in my mind.