AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

I've lost about 15 pounds in the last twelve months and have managed to keep it off all thanks to my Apple Watch. It is not much but for someone who has struggled with weight on and off, it's great to have such a device that is so capable of helping me through this journey to become fit and, more importantly, stay fit. Let me stress this important point: Apple Watch is helping me keep the pounds from coming back. I could have rushed headlong into losing 20-25 pounds in months but that had not yielded the results that I wanted which was to keep it off. Because the few times that I have managed to do that, the pounds slowly came back. Lose five here, gain six back. Lose fifteen and see ten or twelve come back weeks laster.  Apple Watch is a great companion that allowed me to keep track of my movements, calorie counts, and reminders to get moving. I work in an office environment. I think many folks who work in offices also know how easy it is to just want to sit there and get lost...

The question though is when will Apple unveil its own car effort and what that will do to the market. We recently bought a Nissan Ariya and offered to give our Fisker Ocean reservation to a friend. I think we are are done with getting a new car for a while. Only Apple Car will get me trade in my current car sooner than I normally would.  Prior to the Ariya, I was driving a 2014 Lexus RX330 - its transmission finally gave out. It did not have a lot of mileage (less than 180,000 miles) but it is what it is. The timing on the Ariya was fortuitious. I had made the reservation more than a year ago. The RX330 gave out and the Nissan dealership in Glendale, California called me a month later to let me know my Ariya is here.  One of the reasons I held onto the RX330 longer than I would have like is because I was hoping to that Apple would have at least announce that they were getting into the market. But now, it does not look like an electric vehicle from Apple will be coming any time...

I value portability in today's computing devices. It's why I have not owned a desktop since my college days. I'm pretty sure that most college bound students who need to get a computer probably went with a laptop. Maybe even a small number of them might have opt for an iPad.  So out of the blue, I asked Bing Chat whether I should get a MacBook or iPad that I can use to code. Not surprisingly, Bing told me to go with a MacBook. Essentially, Bing found MacBooks to be more versatile when it came to the number of tools available for coding and development. It does think that the iPad has potential. The other issue it brought up is cost. I specifically asked if I should get an iPad Pro but it seems to suggest that there is no difference between a regular iPad and an iPad Pro given that the apps that are available for coding on the iPad run on all current iPads. So, if cost was an issue, the iPad would be the way to go.  On both accounts, I agree here just as I agree with another...

When Apple release the iPad mini 7, Apple should continue to keep the mini 6 on the market with a price drop. There are many reasons why Apple should make this move. I'll outline the reasons below.  Before I get into that, I want to note that I am currently on the iPad mini 5 and my wife got the iPad mini 6. While I always like having new things, I can't say that I am jealous of my wife's iPad mini. My mini 5 has worked so well for me since 2019 when it was first launched. I'm coding a bit on it and with the Apple Pencil, I'm drawing much better. I eagerly want to see what the iPad mini 7 has in store for us. Will it be enough of an upgrade for me to make the jump? We will have to see. Meanwhile, I hope that when it is finally released, Apple will consider keeping the iPad mini 6 around. Why it would be advantageous for Apple to having iPad mini 6 on saleon the iPad mini 7 is released? Here is why: Apple can lower the iPad mini 6 price by $100. It will help APPLE co...

With an aging MacBook that still continue to serve me, I do long for a M-series MacBook. However, do I really need one right this moment or in the next month or two? The conclusion after much deliberation is no. And that deliberation took months. And during that time, I certainly managed to muddle long with the Macbook from 2016. I will need one eventually. All good things come to an end and I think my MacBook is nearly that.  The keyboard was subpar to begin with.  The battery is about half what it was It does not support the latest OS anymore. However, I use Bing's ChatGPT powered search and ask whether I should be upgrading to a new MacBook now. The answer, depending on how you feeling about these AI-powered chat queries, I found was quite reasonable.  If my MacBook continues to serve my needs, including learning to code, well then by all means, keep it until it stops to serve that need or breaks down. Bing's AI chat suggested that if my MacBook is slowing or is strugg...

Most iPad Pro users appreciate Apple's effort to give us reasons to get the iPad Pro. For years, other than bigger screens, cameras (which I'll get to), keyboard and mouse support, and, in the past year, Stage Manager, there really is not a whole lot of other reasons why we need to get the iPad Pro. Please note that this is not a complaint article. We have no idea how much resources Apple is pouring into making the iPadOS experience that much better year after year both on the hardware and software side. I do agree with many of this year's review of the iPad Pro and iPadOS that if you already have the iPad Pro with the M1 chip inside, you are not missing anything with the 2022 iPad Pro upgrade with the M2 chip. And it is not likely going to make a big difference when Apple eventually release the iPad Pro with the M3 chip as well. So, what makes the "pro" in the iPad Pro then if we are not seeing a significant user experience? For me, it  has come down to Stage Man...

Would you like Apple to be on the current trajectory of making iPadOS more like MacOS through efforts like Stage Manager or simply let the iPad Pro run macOS? I am sure deep someone at Apple in the R&D department has an iPad Pro running MacOS and is loving it and lament that it is not allowed to escape the confines of the laboratory.  Okay, this is just me guessing really hard but I do not think it is out of the realm of possibility given that Apple has a history of doing this kind of thing. Even while Apple was selling Macs running on PowerPC, they had a parallel track of OS development on Intel's X86 chips that went on to do very well. And then of course, while Apple was selling Intel-based Macs, Apple was preparing to move the Macs over to chips developed in house. And so far, Apple has decided to make iPadOS more, well, iOS-like rather an allow the M1 and M2 iPads run MacOS. All the while, Apple is trying to increase a segment of users who want to only use their iPad Pro as...