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Learning from the Cape Town Water Crisis

Posted on February 2, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Cape Town, South Africa is running out of water and has enforced rationing.

The city of Cape Town, South Africa is running out of water and predicts by April, they’ll have to shut off the tap water. This day of no water is known was Day Zero, and foreshadows a future where water will be scarce due to climate change. Cape Town’s next hope for rainfall will be in July, far too late to resolve the current water crisis. Rationing will only delay the inevitable and solutions like building desalination plants will take too long. The lesson is clear. When there’s an impending crisis, the best time to act is before the crisis, not during the crisis.

What will people of Cape Town do? Most likely, many will simply stay put because inertia is the strongest motivator of human behavior. Bye tasing put, these people will simply hope that life will get better and water rationing will go away. While this could happen, placing your future on hope alone essentially condemns you to failure.

A second solution is to find ways to cope with the crisis. Many people are digging wells or buying devices that convert humidity in the air into water. While these solutions can work, they offer only a stopgap solution. The long term problem is that Cape Town is out of water. So if there isn’t any water in Cape Town, the logical solution would be to move to somewhere that has more plentiful water.

Of course, most people won’t do this due to various commitments they may have in Cape Town such as having a job or owning a house there. Yet the simple fact is that no technological solution can overcome the problem of less water. Nobody’s moving to Death Valley although it’s possible to build pipelines to bring water there. Rather than live in Death Valley, it’s far simpler to live where there’s water.

In the technology world, you can see rapid change catches people off guard every time. When Blackberry got killed by the iPhone, the smart solution would be to embrace the iPhone or Android phones. That’s easy to see in hindsight but much harder to see when that crisis was happening.

As PC sales decline as people shift to mobile computing, it’s easy to see that sticking to PCs is little different than staying in Cape Town. As smartphone growth slows down, it’s easy to see that we need to look for the next revolution, which will likely be smart glasses or other wearable computers. Most people wait for disaster to strike before changing. If your’e smart, you change before disaster strikes and avoid it altogether.

To see what happens when you refuse to face reality until it’s too late, watch what happens to Cape Town over the next few years. Beyond property values plummeting as people leave, watch for fights over water. With a long-term vision, any problem can be resolved or avoided. With only a short-term vision and refusal to change, no amount of technology can save people who wait too long until a crisis hits.

Optimized Apps vs. Cross-Platform

Posted on December 24, 2017 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Pixelmator Pro offers graphics editing capabilities at a fraction fo the cost of Adobe Photoshop.

In every software category, a leader emerges. For years, that leader maintains its grip on the market until something changes. Then that leader starts fading away and a new leader emerges.

In the operating system world, CP/M-80 was the business standard because it ran WordStar and VisiCalc, two early dominant programs in their market. CP/M-80 eventually faded when CP/M-86 failed to catch on because MS-DOS was cheaper and came free with most IBM PC compatible computers. WordStar faded when WordPerfect took over the word processing market, and VisiCalc faded when Lotus 1-2-3 appeared.

What’s notable about all three dominant leaders is that they didn’t lose their market because a better competitor came along, but a different competitor appeared. CP/M-80 had the Z80 processor market locked up but when IBM PCs standardized on Intel processors like the 8088, MS-DOS had a chance to take the market away from CP/M-86. Suddenly CP/M-80 wasn’t a factor any more and MS-DOS could compete against CP/M-86 on equal terms. Both operating systems were essentially the same, but MS-DOS came free with IBM PC compatibles while CP/M-86 did not. That alone spelled the difference and led to massive success for MS-DOS.

WordStar wasn’t a bad word processor, but WordPerfect came along and offered toll-free support, which shifted the balance to WordPerfect and led people to abandon WordStar. VisiCalc worked just fine until Lotus 1-2-3 included graphics and ran optimized on MS-DOS while VisiCalc was making the transition from CP/M-80 to CP/M-86 and MS-DOS. given the fact that Lotus 1-2-3 offered more features and was optimized for MS-DOS (unlike VisiCalc), people soon abandoned VisiCalc and used Lotus 1-2-3 instead.

In today’s graphics world, Adobe Photoshop reigns supreme. If you’re a professional graphics artist, you have to use Photoshop. That’s why Adobe can afford to charge a subscription to all Photoshop users so they get a steady stream of revenue all year long. If you don’t want to stay locked into Photoshop’s subscription, you now have a new choice on the Macintosh called Pixelmator Pro.

Pixelmator Pro probably won’t replace Photoshop, but it can steal away a sizable share of the market. First of all, Pixelmator Pro is completely optimized for the Macintosh, using Apple’s graphics framework called Metal to speed up displaying and manipulating images. Photoshop is not optimized for the Macintosh because it’s cross-platform to run on both Windows and the Macintosh. That means less optimized code for both Windows and the Macintosh.

Second, Pixelmator Pro offers machine learning to take advantage of Apple’s new CoreML framework that lets you add machine learning to your programs. This is a feature that’s easy to implement in Macintosh software but not so easy to implement on Windows software. That means Adobe can’t easily add similar machine learning features to Photoshop.

Given Pixelmator Pro’s lower price and its optimization for the Macintosh, it only makes sense to use Pixelmator Pro unless you absolutely need to use Photoshop. It’s likely professional graphics artists will use both Photoshop and Pixelmator Pro at the same time because of Pixelmator Pro’s low cost. Then they can choose which program to use based on what they need to do.

Pixelmator Pro may never displace Photoshop because it doesn’t run on Windows, so Photoshop will likely remain a standard. However, Pixelmator Pro will gain a huge Macintosh following regardless. As Pixelmator Pro evolves and the optimization features make it faster and easier to use than Photoshop, expect more graphics artists to rely on Pixelmator Pro more often. As Windows fades from dominance, expect Photoshop’s influence to fade as well.

Pixelmator Pro may never take over Photoshop’s lead, but it will make a mark of its own, and part of that mark may be taking over Photoshop’s lead in the Macintosh market because Pixelmator Pro is optimized for the Macintosh and Photoshop is not.

Animoji Karaoke

Posted on November 5, 2017 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Animoji is Apple’s latest feature that translates your facial gestures into animated emojis.

Animoji is Apple’s latest feature that uses facial recognition to match your face movements and convert them into an animated emoji. The original idea was to allow users to create short, animated messages. Instead of using static emojis, animated emojis lets you add humor and visual aspects to your messages.

By itself, animojis may seem fairly trivial for practical application, but it’s often the silliest uses for technology that gets the widest adoption that turns into something useful later. In the case of animojis, people are crating animated music videos mimicking the actual music videos, such as having animojis singing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

For now, animojis can help further promote the iPhone as the only smartphone that allows animojis, but tracking and animating human gestures could have practical uses. Mechanics often need to fix cars, engines, planes, tractors, and other mechanical devices using paper manuals that display static images. A video of a procedure may not always be clear because of all the additional items in the way, but an animated procedure could eliminate any extra items that may distract from a procedure and simply show an animated view instead. Such animated views could show real items as transparent objects so you can easily see past them and get a clearer idea of how every part works.

Remember that playing around and having fun is usually the beginning of more important uses for technology. Back in the old days of computers, people used punch cards to program computers. Then researchers hooked up a TV screen to allow users to type commands directly on the screen, eliminating punch cards altogether. Having a TV screen connected to the computer led to MIT hackers creating the Spacewar video game, which heralded the entire video game industry.

What can animojis foreshadow? At this point, who knows, but it’s fun and interesting technology that will likely find a practical use eventually. For now, just enjoy fun examples of music videos converted into singing animojis.

To see videos of singing animojis, click here.

Boston Red Sox Caught Cheating with Apple Watches

Posted on September 7, 2017 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The Boston Red Sox admitted to stealing signals with the help of an Apple Watch.

Many people still claim they have no use for an Apple Watch, but that’s often because they don’t know what the Apple Watch can do. without trying it, they have no way of knowing its features and advantages, and without knowing its benefits, it’s impossible to say whether an Apple Watch will work for you or not until you actually try one.

In the old days, people dismissed personal computers as useless. They also dismissed mobile phones as gimmicks and automobiles as something that was unnecessary if you had a horse. When people blindly dismiss technology because they can’t find a use for it, it’s usually because they simply aren’t looking for the benefits that technology can offer them for now and in the future.

In the case of the Apple Watch, it’s main benefit is that you have a computer strapped to your wrist at all times that you can look at to quickly get information without the hassle of booting up a laptop or pulling out a smartphone. That benefit allowed the Boston Red Sox as an aid to steal signals from the catcher to the pitcher and allow Boston Red Sox players to guess what type of pitch would be thrown next.

Sign stealing is actually legal if you do it only with your eyes and not with the aid of any gadgets like cameras, binoculars, or Apple Watches. While signal stealing has likely been part of the game for decades, the use of the Apple Watch simply makes this activity simpler and more convenient. Whether it’s right or not isn’t as important as the fact that the Apple Watch has proven it does have benefits for people if they only look hard enough to find a way to apply it to their own lives.

If you still think an Apple Watch can’t be useful, just ask the Boston Red Sox if they could steal signals as easily without an Apple Watch. Then realize that technology is only as useful as the imagination of the person using it. So if you think the Apple Watch is useless, there’s a strong possibility that you’re simply not using your imagination to see how it could be useful in your own life after all.

Using Machine Learning

Posted on September 5, 2017 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Pixelmator announced a new professional graphics editor called Pixelmator Pro that uses machine learning.

For the longest time, Adobe Photoshop ruled the graphics editing world. The problem of Photoshop was that it was expensive, it was cross-platform for Windows and macOS so it wasn’t really optimized for either operating system, and Adobe switched to a subscription model so you had to buy a software subscription to use Photoshop. For many graphics professionals, Photoshop is the only alternative.

However, Pixelmator is a low-cost alternative graphics editor that does much of what most people need. Now the company that brought Pixelmator has introduced a new professional version called Pixelmator Pro. Although the cost hasn’t been revealed yet, one unique feature is that Pixelmator Pro uses Apple’s latest machine learning features. Presumably this machine learning feature will allow Pixelmator Pro to help people edit images faster and more accurately than before, but this could be the first major use of machine learning in a major application so it will be interesting to see how well it works.

The real key to machine learning isn’t just to use trained models but to allow users to train and update the machine learning model through use of the program. While this likely isn’t possible yet, it’s what will make machine learning far more valuable to adapt to the user rather than offer a canned response every time.

Pixelmator Pro offers real competition to Adobe Photoshop, and machine learning just makes this program even more intriguing. Best of all, Pixelmator Pro is optimized solely for macOS so it should run better and faster than Adobe Photoshop. The only question is whether Pixelmator Pro can offer all the features professional graphics users need.

Whatever the case, the graphics editing world is getting full of rivals and alternatives to Photoshop. Beyond Pixelmator Pro, there’s Affinity Photo along with Adobe’s own Photoshop Elements, a simpler version of Photoshop for the average person.

Photoshop may be the dominate graphics editor today and maybe even tomorrow, but now you won’t have to rely on Photoshop any more if you don’t want to. Pixelmator Pro will be coming this fall and this may give you a chance to leave Photoshop once and for all.

To learn more about Pixelmator Pro, click here.

Apple Eyeing Hollywood Studio

Posted on September 1, 2017 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple may lease space in the Culver Studios in Hollywood.

It’s no surprise that Apple TV has been a disappointment. Hardware-wise, it’s little different than any competitors. Software-wise, its user interface is marginally interesting but nothing drastically superior to the competition. What Apple needs to do to separate Apple TV from the competition is to offer unique content.

Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services early on realized that if they all offered the same movies and TV shows as everyone else, there would be little reason for anyone to choose them except for price. This commoditization of products is what drives everyone to a race to the bottom, cutting prices constantly to attract customers who simply price shop to find the best deal. The moment a rival offers lower prices, customers abandon one company in search for a lower cost alternative. This race to the bottom is what gives PC makers razor thin margins.

To create proprietary content, Apple needs to work with Hollywood. That’s why Apple is reportedly interested in leasing space at the Culver Studios in Hollywood to put their people in close proximity to the content creators in Hollywood. Trying to make deals from afar is fine, but there’s no substitute for actually having contact with people in Hollywood on a regular basis.

Right now Apple’s current original content (“Planet of the Apps” and “Carpool Karaoke”) are rather thin enticements for getting anyone to buy an Apple TV. Apple needs a major series like “Game of Thrones” or “The Handmaid’s Tale” to attract customers to Apple TV. That’s why Apple plans to spend $1 billion dollars to purchase original content, although Apple is also competing against Netflix, Amazon, and other major companies for the same content.

This is great for Hollywood because it gives them more places to shop content with so many people fighting in a bidding war. This also likely means Apple will finance a series of flops before eventually finding a show that people like. Apple, like its rivals, needs to invest in TV shows and original movies.

TV shows are what can attract customers, but original movies can be useful as well. Netflix has been creating original movies and stumbling on flops as well as critically acclaimed films. Apple will likely do that as well. Apple needs to expect to fund flop TV shows and movies, and be ready for ridicule and embarrassment for some of their projects, but that’s the price they need to pay to eventually find a hit.

Unlike the computer industry, there’s no set formula for a hit TV show or blockbuster movie. Even the best films and TV shows sometimes struggle to find an audience and lose money. Venturing into original content isn’t going to be easy for Apple, but moving to Hollywood is a start. Just expect Apple to get their nose bloodied numerous times in high profile failures before they finally find success.

Once they find success, they need to further differentiate themselves from competitors somehow. Rather than bid on original content just because of an A-list star or director is attached to a project, Apple (and everyone else) needs to look at the actual content of the TV show or movie itself so they can create an overall brand.

Disney movies represent family entertainment. Yet to access racier content, Disney founded Touchstone Pictures so they can create films that don’t fit under the usual Disney brand. How will Apple do that with Apple TV?

Will that mean limiting violence and sex? Avoiding controversial topics? Sticking to family friendly entertainment? Apple is venturing into unknown territory in Hollywood and their brand name and reputation isn’t going to be much help to them if they simply mimic everyone else and pick and choose TV shows and movies like a crap shoot.

Apple TV has a long way to go to reach the status of the iPhone or Macintosh in the eyes of the public. Chances are good Apple TV will never be the best streaming TV option but it might still be good enough to make a decent profit and that’s the best Apple can hope for.