AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

  Apple will release the next Apple Watch in less than 2 months.  There are a lot of rumors out there but there is no concrete evidence what new medical sensors will be included if at all.  While oximeter is the likely candidate given the era of Covid we live in (and Apple likely has been working on it for years), another overlooked feature is just as important it not more so:  a thermometer. When I was little, electronic watches was all the rage.  Watches that play games.  Watches that has a number pad on it for doing calculations.  The Apple Watch can do all that.  But I also had a Casio watch that was able to give me the temperature.  I did a search on Amazon and found that  Casio still sell watches  like these.  For you kids out there, sure look and feel a bit vintage. The Casio one measure the temperature outside, not body temperature.  But fear not, such a technology already exist and Apple should be able to build a ...

By now, developers and users are taking sides - those who think that Apple is taking away the livelihood of developers by syphoning off 30% of what users pay in the App Store, limiting the freedom of choice for users, and being a big mean faceless corporation versus those who think that since Apple invested billions to create a safe, secured, and easy to use platform and playground with an app store that has created millions of opportunities for developers and users.  Oh, and that Apple has paid developers hundreds of billions, facilitated more than half a trillion dollars of transaction in 2019, and created more than 2 million jobs in the United States because of its economic activities since 2017.   Attention to Apple's App Store practices, as well as those of Google's, has gained attention as lawmakers look into the supposed outsized influence of Big Tech and social media has on the public.  On July 29th, the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple were brought i...

The countdown for the next iPhone upgrade has started.  It depends on when the clock started but with a September iPhone event less than two months away, Apple fans and people with older iPhones or Android switchers are gearing up to get their hands on the iPhone 12 even in the midst of an pandemic and uncertainties going forward.  Along with the anticipation the plethora of news and rumors, mostly rumors, about what is new with Apple’s mobile devices.  One feature many iPhone users are likely hoping for is Apple Pencil support.  It ain’t happening this year. With iOS 14 instruction and betas widely available, users have a good idea what Apple has planned.  A lot of times, new features in iOS 14 are not in the beta until after Apple announces new hardware and the features exclusive to the new devices.  Some new camera features in the native camera app were not in the iOS 13 betas until after Apple released the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro.  It’s like that...

The 5th generation iPad Mini is my laptop.  I’m semi-productive on it and I am very satisfied with what I can do with it.  And with the lockdown and working from home, I have begun to explore more of what I can do with it including shooting and editing video with it.  It means I am spending more time with it and not only consuming media, I am doing more CPU intensive tasks with it.  So I think it’s time that Apple rethink what an all-day device means if Apple expects us to use our iPads for more than just play.  Ten hours of battery life is so 2010 (when the original iPad was introduced. Ten hours might have been adequate in 2010.  Maybe even through most of the decades but as more users use productivity apps, that might even be fine.  From what I gathered, many users use their iPads to write and even do some light video work.  But for the next decade, iPads with 12 to 15 hours of battery life is needed.  And at some point, I think Apple will...

I was listening to a podcast today that focused on Apple and Apple products.  One of the hosts described Apple as being courageous in the face of the social and political pressures it had faced over the last three years both from the Trump administration, China's totalitarian regime, and others to today's pandemic raging through the world.  I wondered to myself if the host should have applauded Tim Cook himself or Apple.  There is no doubt that a vast majority of Apple employees share Tim Cook's social and political views.  So much of the employees agrees with Tim's actions and his positions.  And certainly, it has also helped that Tim Cook made many Apple employees very rich during his years as CEO and, hopefully, for many more years to come. Still, I want to examine this question further:  Tim Cook the man is responsible for all the accolades that Apple has been showered with or should others in the company also share in it as well?  Think for a bit....

Who here have not gotten started with a pedometer and than eventually graduating to a Fitbit or an Apple Watch to count the number of steps they’ve walked per day, probably with trying to hit the daily goal of 10,000 steps per day? And if you haven’t, you probably know someone who has a wearable device that counts the steps the wearer walks per day.  As an Apple Watch user, I would like to see Apple allow custom metrics in addition to the three circles many of us try to close on a daily basis.  And one of these metrics is the goal of hitting a specific number of active steps per day. The calories ring means nothing to me.  Getting up 10 times a day is important to some folks who sit at a desk all day but for someone like me, who does sit at a desk all day, and I get up and move around 15 to 18 times a day, I rather have an alternative goal - instead of the standing metrics, I like Apple to give users an additional circle to close or to replace one of the circles with a se...

Source: Slate . You're at home. You're also a cord-cutter.  You might have other human contact in the form of a spouse or family.  Or perhaps roommate.  Your only connection to the outside world is your iPhone, Android device, or tablet.  You're doing fine provided that your Internet connection stays stable.  Then the unexpected and unfortunate thing happens:  your mobile device dies on you.  Maybe it just gave out or the screen gets broken. Now what? First, I feel for you. I'm sure this is not that common but it is not as uncommon as we expect.  The Slate post is about a man whose iPad screen cracked during California's statewide stay-at-home order.  He could not exactly head out to the nearest Apple store or the local mall repair kiosk right now.  Not next week or next month.  Not for a while.  We have no idea when stores or malls will reopen.  And when it does, you can expected there to be a lot of distancing policies a...