Top Bananas | Monthly Archives: June 2018

The Mysterious Wireless Charging Mat

Posted on June 21, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Apple’s long-awaited wireless charging mat may soon arrive this fall.

Back in September 2017, Apple teased their AirPower wireless charging mat that would let you charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPod case all at the same time. Almost a year later, the AirPower wireless charging mat may be ready.

Why did it take so long? Engineers reportedly needed to fix bugs, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Apple announced this product long ago. There’s little point in announcing products if they’re not ready to ship. Microsoft learned this the hard way by repeating promising products that failed to deliver on their promise. When Microsoft announced their Surface tablets, they weren’t available for months, which meant all those people who got initially excited about buying one likely did not when the Surface tablets were finally available.

Now Apple is repeating this same mistake of announcing products that aren’t even available. Besides the AirPower wireless charging mat, Apple also announced their HomePod smart speaker and then failed to release it by Christmas like they promised. This resulted in lost sales and a growing reputation for sloppiness. The next time Apple announces a new product, nobody will believe it will be available unless Apple offers it for sale right at that moment.

If Apple were smart, they would hold off new product announcements until they actually had them ready to ship. Then they would surprise people and use that product announcement to entice more people to buy who might otherwise not buy if they had to wait.

In the world of sales, you always want to make sale now, not tomorrow because the longer you wait, the more likely potential customers will simply buy something else or choose not to buy altogether. Apple used to announce new products and then offer them for sale immediately. That’s the best way to surprise and delight customers because then people are amazed at the new product and want to be the first ones to have it. Waiting guarantees fewer sales and poor publicity.

Perhaps Apple will start changing their ways. If they don’t, they risk creating unhappy customers who will start looking for alternatives. Just as Microsoft wasn’t immune to bad publicity, neither is Apple. Apple can fix this problem by simply shipping products when they announce them. It’s really that simple.

Apple Creating Content with Sesame Workshop

Posted on June 20, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple signed an agreement to create kids programs with Sesame Workshop.

Apple needs original content or else Apple TV will just be another commodity TV device. Original content means creating shows that can only be seen by subscribing to a particular service such as Netflix, Hulu, or now Apple. While Apple is unlikely to pursue any R-rated shows, they do seem interested in family entertainment. That’s why Apple has partnered with Sesame Workshop to create children’s programs.

Sesame Workshop is best known for creating “Sesame Street.” While Sesame Street won’t be exclusive to Apple, Sesame Workshop will create exclusive content separately for Apple. that includes live-action and animated shows. Most likely these shows will focus on educational content but this is just one more effort by Apple to create family-friendly content exclusively for Apple TV and other Apple products. If you want to see these new shows, you’ll have to subscribe to Apple’s new TV services.

Apple is likely focusing on the G and PG-rated market so families will trust Apple content in much the same way that families trust Disney’s content to be suitable for children. Of course, it doesn’t mater who Apple partners with if the content they create isn’t appealing to others, but that’s the chance Apple (and every other content provider like Netflix) must take. For every show that succeeds, a larger number will fail. That’s just the nature of original TV programming.

So look for original content coming from Apple and Sesame Workshop soon. Then hope that Apple’s original content actually proves compelling enough to convince people to sign up and pay a monthly fee. Apple will likely field a lot of misses and near disasters before finally discovering a blockbuster hit.

Digital Health Records

Posted on June 19, 2018 by admin Posted in Medical, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Deloitte predicts digitally connected health treatment will be a normal part of healthcare within a decade.

Anyone remember the old days before the Internet when online services were the only reliable way to connect with other people? The trouble was that there were so many online services that they couldn’t connect with each other. That’s essentially the problem today with health records with everyone following different standards and no standards making it easy to share data with other standards.

The lack of standards means that data gets lost or ignored. Missing data means less than optimal knowledge about a patient, which could prove fatal. That’s why the medical world wants to move to a digital standard but with so many standards to choose from, there’s no compelling reason for any single standard to stand out. Until, of course, Apple appeared.

Given the popularity of the iPhone, Apple can help define a health record standard that makes it easy for people to securely store and share their medical data with medical personnel. with Apple’s focus on privacy and security, Apple’s health care standard offers compelling advantages that other standards lack. That means in the future, health records may get digitized and securely stored and shared with health care professionals.

The immediate problem with digital health records is security and privacy. Without proper security, hackers could invade people’s privacy. The punishment for stealing and revealing health records might not seem that important, but it’s essentially violating a personal part of a person. Although no security can be 100% effective, Apple’s iPhone is at least far more secure than Android. Yet to succeed, standard digital health records will need to be shared among all types of devices, which means less security and greater threats of privacy loss. Today’s lack of health care data standards dramatically increases privacy and security at the cost of updated information.

Ultimately the question is whether shared health records will be worth the risk of privacy loss. For some people, the answer will be yes but to others, the answer will be no. Although Deloitte predicts health care data will be digitized within a decade, don’t expect this process to arrive without lots of lost, stolen, and misinterpreted data. Digital health records aren’t perfect but they’re far more useful than today’s hodge-lodge system of storing and sharing medical information. The only question is whether the advantage of sharing data will be worth the price of privacy loss.

The Future is ARM Processors

Posted on June 18, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Hewlett Packard Enterprise is creating Astra, the largest ARM-based supercomputer ever made.

For the longest time, Intel’s x86 processors dominated the computer market. Unfortunately, x86 processors were never designed to be energy-efficient. For laptops, x86 processors worked fine because laptops had the space to use large batteries, but for smaller mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, x86 processors required too much energy. That’s why mobile devices like smartphones and tablets use ARM processors instead.

Unlike x86 processors, ARM processors are specifically optimized for power efficiency. So while x86 processors dominated the PC market, ARM processors slowly took over the mobile computing market. PCs always offered more power while mobile devices offered longer battery life. Now that’s changing.

Intel tried to develop energy efficient x86 processors called the Atom processor, but those proved so weak and not as energy efficient as ARM processors that Intel quickly dropped Atom processors. In the meantime, ARM processors have consistently gotten more powerful to the point where they’re starting trivial x86 processors in terms of sheer raw processing power. Once ARM processors exceed x86 processors in power, there’s no reason to use x86 processors any more.

That’s why Hewlett-Packard’s latest venue with the Department of Energy to create an ARM-powered supercomputer is huge news. This new supercomputer will be one of the fastest supercomputer in the world, surpassing even older x86-based supercomputers. This signals the end of x86 processors and the beginning dominance of ARM processors.

That means the future is ARM processors. ARM processors can always get more powerful but x86 processors cannot get more energy-efficient. Eventually ARM processors will surpass x86 processors in power and still retain their energy efficient advantage. Meanwhile, x86 processors will never beat ARM processors in energy efficiency, which means x86 processors are doomed. It may not happen this year or the next, but it’s going to happen.

Microsoft already knows this, which is why they’re shifting Windows to ARM processors. Apple is likely looking towards this future as well. Once Windows runs on ARM processors, then Apple can create ARM-based Macintoshes that can run Windows just like today’s x86-based Macintosh computers can run Windows.

Apple will likely offer both x86 and ARM-based Macintosh models until the x86 processor is gone for good. Then the whole world will shift to ARM-based processors.

The future is ARM processors. With both power and energy efficiency, look for ARM processors to dominate the computer market for decades to come.

The March Towards Smart Glasses

Posted on June 16, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Google tried smart glasses with Google Glass, but Apple may define the market in the future.

When Google released Google Glass, there wasn’t a compelling reason to use it. Beyond the creepy ability to video someone without their knowledge, Google Glass offered little in the way of features that would solve actual problems. That’s why Apple is refining augmented reality first on the iPhone and iPad. Once people find augmented reality useful and get comfortable (and dependent) on it, then they’ll be able to shift people easily into smart glasses.

Think of how Apple introduced the iPad. Rather than develop a tablet and expect everyone to adopt it for no reason (think of Microsoft’s original Surface tablets tuning Windows RT), Apple created the iPhone and got people excited and used to touch screens on a smartphone. Then it was easy to shift people to the larger iPad screen especially because the iPad ran iOS and could run iPhone apps as well. Now that people have embraced both the iPhone and iPad, the iPad is diverging from the iPhone but both products are firmly entrenched in the public’s mind.

Augmented reality is Apple’s way to hesitantly step forward into the future by offering features that gradually get people used to its uses. Beyond playing Pokemon GO, augmented reality will soon offer more interesting features that people will depend on, such as walking or driving directions that display useful sights along the way. Once people get used to directions through augmented reality, it’s a small step to put that augmented reality view in smart glasses that people can use.

Smart glasses will essentially be an iPhone screen visible at all times without forcing you to hold a device in front of your eyes. After people get dependent on augmented reality through an iPhone, smart glasses will be an easy transition.

Augmented reality is the key to the transition form the smartphone to the tablet to smart glasses. Google had to revise their augmented reality framework drastically to catch up to Apple, but Apple is slowly plowing ahead. With augmented reality easy to use on iOS devices, this will be one feature used to attract people to the iOS platform. Eventually Android will be forced to catch up but augmented reality will pave the way towards smart glasses eventually.

Augmented reality is a technology with more potential at this point than actual products, but that will change over time. Augmented reality is the next user interface that will drive the mobile and smart glasses wearable market in the future.

To learn more about Apple’s augmented reality plans, click here.

Apple Inks Deal with Oprah Winfrey

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Marketing Leave a comment

What it is: Apple signed a deal with Oprah Winfrey to bring her content to Apple products.

Oprah Winfrey is a powerful woman who can create content in video and books. That’s why Apple recently signed a deal to access any future content Oprah creates or acquires the right to. That could mean future Oprah TV shows or movies could appear on Apple TV and future Oprah books could appear on Apple’s bookstore.

Apple has been aggressively pursuing original content for Apple TV because without it, Apple TV is just a commodity, offering the same thing that everyone else offers. Commodity markets are the least profitable markets. Just witness the android smartphone market where Samsung makes most of the money and all other Android device makers lose money. Making products that lose money is simply not sustainable in the long run.

Without original content, Apple TV offered little to attract customers. Now with more Hollywood deals including the latest with Oprah Winfrey, Apple can differentiate themselves from their rivals. Just as Netflix and Hulu have created original TV shows, so does Apple TV need original content that Oprah can provide. Any content created or endorsed by Oprah will immediately attract a huge following simply based on her name alone. Most likely any content endorsed by Oprah will be decent but the quality is far less important than Oprah’s name attached to it because Oprah’s name and following will insure that her content will be widely publicized and viewed.

Apple may be late to the original content market that Netflix and Amazon helped pioneer, but it has the money to stay in the market and outbid rivals for original content. This latest deal with Oprah will simply help Apple TV get started and compete against rivals. Now we just have to wait and see how good Oprah’s content really might be.