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Apple to Design Own Health Processors?

Posted on August 14, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple may be designing their own processors for health sensors on the Apple Watch.

It’s no secret that Apple wants to custom design their own processors to optimize the performance of their products. Unlike Android smartphones and tablets that use off-the-shelf components, Apple uses optimized processors that allows the iPhone and iPad to run faster than similar Android devices even if those Android devices sport more RAM and faster processors.

Now Apple may be designing their own health processors for health sensors embedded in the Apple Watch. The main goal is to offer a non-invasive glucose monitoring sensor that could be used on the Apple Watch. Such a proprietary sensor would not only create a huge market worldwide, but also lock any competitors out from using similar technology.

The Apple Watch and wearable computers are the future. Just as the iPhone surpassed the Macintosh as Apple’s primary product, so will the Apple Watch eventually surpass the iPhone as Apple’s primary product.

Microsoft isn’t competing against the Apple Watch, having abandoned their Microsoft Band product after two generations. Samsung and other Android device makers keep trying to push wearable devices but they lack the same level of integration that Apple can offer through the Apple Watch in unlocking your Macintosh or paying for products through Apple Pay.

The combination of the iPhone and Apple Watch will fuel the future for years to come. If Apple can perfect non-invasive glucose monitoring using proprietary sensors, that’s the time when Apple will become a health company and less of an iPhone company. That’s why Apple is really pursuing proprietary health processors because that’s the future and that’s the big prize if they’re successful.

Apple Pay Has Over 252 Million Users

Posted on August 10, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple Pay continues growing with over 252 million users, mostly overseas.

According to Loop Ventures, Apple Pay adoption continues to accelerate exponentially overseas compared to the U.S. Out of the 252 million worldwide users of Apple Pay, 85% of users are outside the United States with only 15% in the United States.

The biggest advantage of Apple Pay is security. During most credit card transactions, the credit card number gets transferred to the merchant’s computers. Since most merchants lack adequate security, big merchants like Target, Walmart, or Home Depot, become instant targets for hackers. If a hacker can break into a single large retailer’s computers, the hacker can steal thousands of credit card numbers.

Apple Pay avoids this problem by never giving a credit card number out. In this way, Apple Pay is far more secure than using a traditional credit card. The big problem is that security is rarely a selling point. As a result, many people don’t use Apple Pay because they don’t see the advantages and they don’t want the hassle of setting it up.

That means Apple Pay adoption, while slow in America, is increasing rapidly in other parts of the world because credit card transactions are far more inherently insecure in many parts of the world. In comparison, credit card fraud is just as high in America but because banks easily remove fraudulent charges, it’s far easier for Americans to dismiss the idea of greater credit card security.

Apple Pay isn’t a must-have feature, but it’s an extremely convenient one once you get used to making payments through Apple Pay. As more merchants start accepting Apple Pay, more people will find it’s far more convenient to use it by simply holding an iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for your purchase. Rather than carry around a wallet full of credit cards that someone could steal, Apple Pay lets you pay for everything using your iPhone or Apple Watch that you’ll likely have with you anyway.

Apple Pay will gradually convince more people to stick with Apple products over time. That’s why rivals like Android Pay and Samsung Pay are trying to compete, but Samsung Pay is limited to Samsung products so Android users are far better off using Android Pay.

Whatever digital payment system people use, the long-term means that credit cards will increasingly become obsolete. Now thieves won’t be able to steal your credit card number or your credit cards if you don’t have to carry them around and give up your credit card numbers every time you make a purchase.

Apple Pay is the future of digital payments. If you haven’t started using Apple Pay, yet, get started. It will keep your credit card more secure and security is one feature that too many people only think about after they need it.

Losing Weight with the Apple Watch

Posted on August 7, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The Apple Watch can track your daily activities to help you lose weight.

Leif Johnson simply wants to lose weight. Like most people, losing weight can be easier if you have someone with you at all times to constantly remind you of your goals. However, unlike most people, Leif relies on the Apple Watch to help him lose weight.

The Apple Watch works for helping people lose weight for several reasons. First, as long as you attach it to your arm everyday, it can provide constant reminders of your daily activities such as calories burned, exercise, and whether you’re standing up at least once an hour. By tracking all this data passively while you go about your day, you can see periods of time when you might be inactive and when you have a chance to be more active.

The basic saying is that if you measure something, it’s more likely to get done. That’s why dieters count calories and weigh themselves because only by knowing where they’re at in relation to their goal can they make sure they continue working towards that goal. It’s not always fun or exciting to see days when you’re slacking off, but it is educational because it shows that you can’t do nothing and simply wish your excess weight away. You have to work at any goal, such as weight loss, everyday.

Besides providing constant reminders, the Apple Watch also can help you lose weight by providing regular notifications. Just displaying information passively may not be enough. Having the Apple Watch display your exercise or calories consumed goal at the end of the day can be a powerful motivator to get you to take consistent and regular action towards your goal.

The Apple Watch passively records your data and then actively reminds you when you’re falling short and when your’e reaching your goals. Through this combination, the Apple Watch can help you lose weight.

Naturally, the Apple Watch can do more but for many people, this aid to losing weight can be worth the price alone. Then anything else the Apple Watch does is simply a bonus.

The Product Line of Apple

Posted on July 31, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple released financial news about their product line and the iPhone continues to dominate.

Most financial analysts think of Apple has strictly an iPhone company. While hat’s not accurate, it is telling that 56% of Apple’s revenue comes from the iPhone alone. Second isn’t another product but services such as iTunes downloads, iBooks sales, AppleMusic subscriptions, and Apple Pay revenue. Soon that services category will include TV subscriptions as well, which will only grow over time.

Trailing behind the iPhone in revenue are Macintosh and iPad sales. As popular as the iPad might be, it’s never going to challenge the iPhone where people upgrade to a new model every two years. On the other hand, iPad users tend to hold on to their devices for far longer. Macintosh users also hold on to their devices for years, but Apple’s recent lack of updates for Macintosh models have likely hurt sales. Why would anyone buy ancient technology like the Mac mini unless they absolutely needed it? Walk into any Apple Store and you’ll find that the Mac mini is hard to find, let alone buy.

Put iPhone and iPad sales together and you have the true mobile market that Apple dominates. Despite not dominating the smartphone market, Apple sells plenty of iPhones and does dominate the tablet market. So what does all this mean for Apple in the future?

Unless Apple fails to update their products, they’ll likely see steady growth. Apple can’t fail to innovate with the iPhone because people expect a new model every year. Apple has failed to innovate in the Macintosh market because people don’t expect a new model every year, although Apple should at least keep up with the latest changes.

Although it’s easy to fault Apple for failing to update the Macintosh, part of the reason is Intel’s own problems updating their processors. The early MacBook Pro could only use a maximum of 16Gb of RAM because Intel’s processors could only handle 16Gb of RAM. Apple is increasingly dependent on other company’s technology and that’s causing a delay.

Notice that Apple controls almost everything in the iPhone including the all-important processor and now the graphics processor. Intel’s delays are likely pushing Apple to create their own processors, and that’s likely why Apple has delayed updating the Macintosh lineup for so long. It’s not that Apple isn’t capable of updating their models. It’s more likely this is their Plan B because their Plan A is to shift the Macintosh to their own technology, but that technology isn’t ready.

The future of Apple is the mobile market of smartphones and tablets. Augmented reality and wearables like the Apple Watch are future growth products that will supplement revenue from the Macintosh. What’s clear is that the Macintosh is not Apple’s focus. The Macintosh is never going to replace PCs despite the gradual shift in acceptance in the corporate world for the Macintosh. Apple knows they’ve lost the PC market. They also know they’ve defined the mobile market and they’re busy defining the wearable market.

If you want to see the future of Apple, look at the mobile and wearable market. The Apple Watch and future smart glasses are the real future of Apple.

Apple Pay Growing in Popularity

Posted on July 30, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Juniper Research estimates 225 million people will be using Apple Pay in two years.

While most analysts focus on sales of iPhones to determine Apple’s financial health, they tend to ignore Apple’s services division that includes iTunes music downloads, Apple Music subscriptions, iBook sales, and Apple Pay. Essentially Apple Pay provides a secure way to use a credit card without giving up your credit card number. This makes it impossible for merchants to store your credit card number where hackers could steal it. For that reason alone, Apple Pay is far superior to using a regular credit card.

Each time you use Apple Pay, Apple gets 0.15% of every transaction. That might not seem like much but the more people use Apple Pay, the more money Apple makes by simply providing a secure way to purchase items using a credit card. Apple Pay is particularly handy for Apple Watch users because you essentially have your wallet with you at all times that you can’t easily lose.

For those without an Apple Watch, they can use an iPhone. For online purchases, you can sue Apple Pay on MacBook Pro laptops that include a Touch Bar that can verify your identity with a fingerprint.

Apple Pay has competitors like Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but Samsung Pay is essentially targeting the same market as Google Pay. The goal of Samsung Pay is to tie people to Samsung products much how Apple Pay ties people to Apple products.

Whatever mobile payment system you use, the purpose is to make it easy to pay for items without constantly reaching for your wallet and pulling out a credit card that could be hacked if a merchant stores your credit card number on its computers.

For now, many people don’t use Apple Pay because it’s far more convenient to use a credit card and many merchants do not support Apple Pay. That trend will gradually change over time, which means Apple will continue making money without having to expend much resources (like building a new iPhone) to do it. Apple Pay may not be the big money making that the iPhone is, but it’s certainly a steady and reliable money maker that is practically a Fortune 500 company all by itself.

If you haven’t used Apple Pay, try it. It costs nothing to use and offers greater security in return. For that reason alone, you should use Apple Pay instead of a credit card whenever possible.

Siri Slowly Improving

Posted on July 25, 2018 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Siri is slowly improving against rivals like Google Assistant and Alexa.

When Apple introduced Siri, many people thought voice recognition was just a gimmick. For many people, it still is but voice recognition is now becoming an important user interface feature for wearable computers like the Apple Watch and smart speakers like HomePod. Without a screen and keyboard, the easiest way to control an Apple Watch or HomePod is through voice commands.

Unfortunately, Siri defined the smart voice assistant category but quickly lagged behind rivals. Now the latest tests show that while Google Assistant seems most reliable, Siri has dramatically improved. On the other hand, Cortana seems to be the worst and Alexa seems lagging as well.

The big problem with Cortana is that Microsoft lacks a mobile, wearable, and smart speaker product where voice assistants are crucial. So it’s probably safe to say that Cortana will continue to be the worst of all the voice assistants.

Alexa dominates the smart speaker category but trails in the wearable and mobile market. Google Assistant dominates the mobile market but lags in the wearable market while doing well in the smart speaker market. Siri dominates the wearable market and it second in the mobile market, but third in the smart speaker market.

All of this means that it’s pretty much a three-way race between Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa. Apple needs to keep improving Siri. While Siri leads in the number of languages it recognizes, Siri needs to get better at responding to questions. Google Assistant and Alexa need to expand their language capabilities beyond a handful of languages.

Ultimately all this competition means that voice assistants will only get better since they’ll have to compete against each other. The moment one voice assistant starts to lag, it will fall behind rivals, forcing them to catch up. So if you use Android, you’ll likely use Google Assistant. If you use Apple products, you’ll use Siri. If you use a low-cost smart speaker, you’ll use Alexa. Each voice assistant will likely are out its specialty niche while intruding on its rivals niche. All this is good news for users since this will make the voice assistant category improve rapidly.

One huge advantage Siri may have in the future is the ability to respond to voice commands without the need to connect to the Internet first. Apple is developing an artificial intelligence chip specifically designed to do most of the4 work that rivals use the cloud on the Internet to do. Freeing Siri up from the Internet simply makes Siri more useful in times when an Internet connection may not be available.

One day talking and responding to a computer will seem natural. Now we just have to make sure our computers don’t laugh or secretly record our conversations.