mjtomlin

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mjtomlin
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  • Apple increases R&D spend to nearly $2.8B in fiscal Q2

    mjtomlinmjtomlin
    I find it amazing that people have not made the correlation between augmented reality and self-driving cars. They both utilize the same core technology - being able to recognize the space you're in and/or what you're looking at and then react in some manner. For a car it's a mechanical reaction. For AR, it's layering digital data over the "scene". They are both based on real-time image recognition, 3D mapping, and position/direction detection.

    This is why Tim Cook is correct in stating that AR is much more significant than VR. There's much broader use case into many disparate products and markets. Being able to "see" and react to the real world is many times more complex than creating a finite virtual world to move around in.

    Furthermore, I highly doubt the cars Apple is using are actual self-driving cars, I'm guessing they are a teaching tool, to allow the system to watch and learn how to drive - how the driver reacts to specific situations. That's why Apple requires special certification for each driver - they need to be accurate and deliberate in their actions.
    radarthekatwatto_cobra

  • Apple investigating wireless charging via Wi-Fi routers, other communications equipment

    mjtomlinmjtomlin
    macxpress said:
    entropys said:
    don't know about that Ireland. i would change a cheap box one hell of a lot more often than I upgrade my TV.
    What if you could install and update tvOS on a future TV? Not just an apple branded TV, but the next generation of smart tv. 
    The problem with that is, 2yrs down the road the TV may not support what Apple wants to do. So what are you going to do, buy a new TV just so you can get this update? This is why even an Apple branded TV doesn't work. Its much easier to change a box (like a physical AppleTV) vs shelling about another $1,000 for a TV. This is an area where an All-in-One doesn't work. 

    I seriously don't understand this logic at all. It ONLY makes sense if and when you want to stay up to date with the latest and greatest, but that has NEVER been possible with any kind of hardware device, including TVs. Just because Apple stops updating your model of a specific product, doesn't make that product useless. To this day I still can and do use the original Apple TV from 2007, that's 10 years of use.

    Back on subject...

    This is one reason why I figured Apple allegedly disbanded their current WiFi team, not because they're dropping out of the wireless router business, but because they decided to move in a completely different direction. Mainly I believe they're creating a new AirPort that is iOS based, which will allow for greater integration with their ecosystem (iCloud). And, less important in the near term, they're working on a model that not only transmitted data, but also power. But that model may be a couple of years out - you need the "receiving end" devices in order to make that model worth anything to anyone. 
    watto_cobra

  • Apple's 2017 iPad vs. 2016 9.7" iPad Pro: Which model is right for you?

    mjtomlinmjtomlin
    k2kw said:

    Jeff C said:
    I think the choice is clear. Do you need an Apple Pencil or the color gamut for your work as an artist? Do you want handwritten notes? Buy a Pro. Everyone else should buy an iPad and save the scratch. The world of people who can use an IPad as a "laptop replacement" is small and is largely populated by retirees, small children and people who just surf the web and never use a complicated spreadsheet. The lower price iPad opens that world up and also keeps it as a more viable choice to buy for kids. Though giving up on the mini basically cedes that to Amazon where $50 gets you a crap-in-comparison tablet that is actually amazing because you can hand it to a four-year-old and not care. Most of us are not tech writers with access to the bleeding edge. The new iPad is going to be a nice replacement for those with an original iPad, 2,3,4 or maybe Air who are thinking "It is time for a new one do i still need... $329. OK let me just explain this to the wife in a way that makes it sound important. I should use the old iPad more to make it look like I need one." Normal people cannot justify an $800-$1,000 iPad (either base or all in with keyboard and pencil) when you can now grab a MacBook Air for the same price or a MacBook for just a few hundred more. Meanwhile for a growing segment of the population that just browses the Web and uses Facebook the phone works just fine. I just hope Apple wakes up, either adds more true multitasking and power abilities to the Pro's or concedes they are not laptops, they cannot grow the mac business charging more and more for less and they find a way to bring Mac prices down to reality so they can grow the user base and be more than an iPhone company for years to come. They are losing the top part of the market who don't want toy computers and the bottom part that can get a $300 Windows laptop a couple of minutes after ogling the nice MacBooks hidden in the corner of Best Buy.
    I have an iPad Air 2 and if you all you are doing is watching movies/tv/web surfing/or email it's a great machine.   And I think that this new iPad is also a great machine that will hopefully get people into pads.   

    As great of a machine that the iPadPro may be for artists with the Pencil.   Its' not going to motivate me to upgrade.    If they add mouse support to the Pro then I will definitely upgrade.    Apple needs to expand the reach of the Pro to more users.


    Just want to point something out here. The Pencil is a pointing device. Like the mouse or trackpad on your "Desktop" computer it can be used for fine selection that your fat finger is not capable of doing. This make the iPad Pro a much more capable device for a lot more than just "artists". And along with a keyboard, it becomes just as useful as any laptop. People can't seem to grasp the fact that the reason their "computers" are better is because of the devices used to interact with them and it's the same reason Apple does not sell Macs with touch screens.
    redgeminipa

  • Rare photos of 'Apple II Forever' media event surface, reveal Apple keynote progenitor

    mjtomlinmjtomlin
    We had an Apple IIe that the whole family used - my brothers mainly for games. I wanted to do more programming, so I asked if I could get a Commedore 128 for Christmas, for my own use. My parents surprised me with an Apple IIc. Did a lot of BASIC programming until I started working on an RPG game similar to the Ultima series of games from Origin. The game was way too slow, so I taught myself 65C02 assembly and used the built-in mini assembler/disassembler to recode it in assembly... was much, much faster. :-). I used it a lot until they bought me a MacSE in '87 for high school graduation. Went on to learn Pascal, C, M68k Assembly, and HyperTalk on that Mac. And believe it or not, I still have my SE and it still runs! Unfortunately, I do not have the Apple IIc - my Mom sold it, so my younger brother could get his own computer, but I do still have my ImageWriter, although the ribbon has since dried up! ;-P



    coolfactorxzupscooter63damn_its_hotwatto_cobra

  • Google's Top News results for 'Great Barrier Reef' directs to fringe political commentary

    mjtomlinmjtomlin
    Apple needs to team up with IBM and offer Watson as a means to answer questions and perform a search. Siri is not a search engine. It currently uses Apple's Spotlight search engine for local search results, but turns to Bing for web results.

    What Siri needs is a huge knowledge (data) base for performing searches and asking questions - and that's exactly what IBM has in Watson.

    Apple should just buy IBM. This gives Apple a much larger foot hold in the enterprise, not to mention a ton of advanced R&D and IP.
    sockrolidwatto_cobraMacPropatchythepirate