Top Bananas | Tag Archives: creativity

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.

Stopping Fake News

Posted on March 12, 2017 by admin Posted in Education Leave a comment

What it is: The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, wants to find a solution for stopping fake news.

Facebook recently announced plans to flag and limit fake news while Tim Berners-Lee wants regulations to stop fake news. The problem with fake news is that it’s a social problem and you can never solve social problems with technical solutions or legislation. As a result, any attempt to solve fake news will always fall short until people start thinking instead.

The whole idea of fake news is half-truths or outright lies. Yet lies have been at the heart of mass media for centuries. When the battleship U.S.S. Maine blew up in a Cuban harbor, William Randolph Hearsts’s newspapers cheerfully printed sensationalist headlines depicting the cause of the explosion due to Spanish saboteurs. By rushing to judgement and not supplying facts but speculation, Hearsts’s newspapers help convince the American public to support a war against Spain.

A more recent example of fake news occurred when George W. Bush was trying to drum up support to invade Iraq by convincing the American public that Iraq was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that Iraq was on the verge of using chemical weapons to attack the United States. Most newspapers of that time focused solely on speculation with little regard for facts or even offering an alternative point of view disputing Bush’s assertions. If you weren’t supportive of a war against Iraq, many people even called you un-patriotic or a traitor.

Naturally once the Iraq war turned out to be a disaster where Iraq not only didn’t have weapons of mass destruction but wasn’t even involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the media and most people simply forgot about their earlier assertions that Iraq was responsible. Notice how quietly newspapers and the rest of the media still avoids pointing out this fact? Sometimes fake news can be promoting lies but more often fake news simply omits unpleasant truths that people don’t want to discuss or even hear about. Fake news can be both outright fabrication or avoiding the past.

So for Facebook to think that they can use algorithms and machine learning to solve the problem of fake news is simply delusional. For Tim Berners-Lee to think legislation can minimize fake news is also delusional because fake news will exist as along as people create it to influence others, and as long as gullible people believe it because it supports their own way of thinking. You can’t use technology to solve a social problem any more than you can use legal solutions to solve social problems.

The real problem is that people are far too willing to believe what they already believe and far less likely to challenge their own way of thinking. What people need to realize is that they may be wrong and the other side may be right. Because people are so unwilling to examine their own thinking, they readily embrace fake news that supports their point of view while ignoring any facts that contradict their point of view. Fake news is simply wishful thinking, much like believing that Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny is real. If someone believes in Santa Clause, there’s no amount of technology or legislation you can create to make them change their minds.

That means fake news will always be around as long as there are people willing to lie to promote their point of view. Likewise, there will always be fake news as long as far more people refuse to examine all sides of an issue instead of simply looking only for evidence to support their point of view while ignoring anything that contradicts their point of view.

The real fake news occurs inside each person’s head, and no amount of technology or legislation can ever make a person think clearly.

To read about attempts to minimize fake news on the Internet, click here.

Apple’s Original Content

Posted on February 25, 2017 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple is offering original content starting with a show called “Planet of the Apps.”

Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon quickly realized that simply offering TV shows and movies that others have produced reduced themselves to peddling the same products as everyone else. That’s why they moved into original content such as shows like “Orange is the New Black.” That way if you wanted to see those shows, you had to subscribe to one particular service.

Apple has finally realized that they can’t simply offer the same TV shows and movies as everyone else so they need to create original content exclusively for Apple TV and other products as well. Their first offering is a reality show “Shark Tank” clone called “Planet of the Apps” where developers pitch their ideas to celebrities.

While this may be a strange start to original content, at least it’s a start. Reality shows are cheap to produce because there’s no script, sets, or costumes to worry about, which is why major TV networks favor reality shows as well. The drawback of reality shows is that they’re just not that compelling enough to encourage people to subscribe. Reality shows may be cheap to produce, but they lack the draw of a major series like “Game of Thrones.”

Original content is the key to any TV service/network. That’s why ABC, CBS, and NBC created unique situation comedies and dramas that attract an audience. If you wanted to watch “Seinfeld” or “Friends,” you had to watch NBC. The market is no different for online TV services like Apple TV or Netflix.

Creating original content is going to be a hit and miss situation for anyone including Apple. Even the major TV networks had their share of major embarrassments over the years so any original content Apple creates will have its flops as well. That’s just part of the business.

So whether “Planet of the Apps” draws anyone in or not is debatable, but original content is the key. The more interesting content exclusive to one service, the more likely they’ll draw a larger audience. The real key is whether Apple has the stomach to invest in original content over the long-term to insure they’ll eventually have some hits to go along with the many inevitable misses they’ll produce.

Original content is no guarantee of success but without it, there’s a guarantee of failure. Nobody has the key to producing successful original content over time so this is an area where Apple’s brand won’t help them and their past engineering achievements have little basis for predicting future successes in original shows. Apple is a novice in the original content TV business and they either have to accept this fact and deal with the consequences or not even bother trying.

The future will tell how committed Apple may be to original programming. Unlike software and hardware engineering, it’s difficult to design original content successfully on a consistent basis so it will be interesting to watch how Apple TV evolves (or fails to evolve) over the next few years.

Bringing Jobs Back to America

Posted on December 7, 2016 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Liam is Apple’s robot for disassembling iPhones to retrieve recyclable materials. Liam also represents the future of jobs in America.

Back in the 80’s, England’s newspaper unions insisted on printing newspapers using hand placed type instead of modern computers. The reason was simple. Avoiding automation retained more jobs. The problem was it was expensive and inefficient and ultimately unsustainable.

So when you hear of politicians talking about bringing jobs back to America, it all sounds good until you realize that most people without a job simply want their old jobs back with all the benefits. In other words, they want to go back to the old days when manual labor was necessary because there were no other choices.

It’s easy to go back to the past to create jobs. Instead of word processors, we could go back to typing pools that employed hundreds of typists. Instead of copying machines, we could go back to hiring scriveners, people whose sole job was to reproduce documents by hand. Instead of using modern machinery to construct skyscrapers, we could go back to doing everything by hand with shovels and picks.

In other words, it’s easy to go back to the past to create jobs. The problem is that going backwards is never a solution to the future.

There are actually plenty of jobs available. The problem is that former steel workers or auto assembly line workers don’t have the skills needed by today’s employers. Even if they developed the necessary skills, they’re competing against younger, fresher applicants. That doesn’t mean they can’t reinvent themselves to do new jobs, but it does mean that getting nostalgic about bringing the past back seems far simpler than learning new skills and competing against a younger generation.

Donald Trump recently boasted how he kept 1,000 jobs in Indiana by keeping Carrier from moving to Mexico. What Trump fails to realize is that the company is still shedding jobs and most jobs won’t be the old fashion blue collar jobs that once sustained the US economy. In short, Carrier is cutting costs and jobs by relying on robots and automation.

If you think about Apple’s Liam robot that disassembles iPhones, you can already see the future of jobs in America. Old jobs like postal carriers and assembly line workers are going away because technology offers simpler and faster solutions (email and automation). Donald Trump wants Apple to build products in America. If they do, they’ll simply rely largely on automation, which is what Apple does with their Texas plant that manufactures Mac Pro computers.

The future is robotic automation on assembly lines just like the future of writing is no longer typewriters but word processors and the future of accounting is no longer adding machines but computers running spreadsheets like Excel. Expecting accounting firms to go back to adding machines and paper accounting just to create more jobs is about as delusional as hoping Apple and other companies can bring back old fashion blue collar jobs to America without relying on automation.

If people really want a job, they’ll have to realize that going back to the past is never the answer but going forward to the future is. It’s much easier to hope for an old, well-paying job again and it’s much harder to work to reinvent your skills to a new job, but that’s the only solution. Going backwards will never move you forward. Automation is here to stay just like copying machines, email, and spreadsheets are here to stay. The future of employment is never the past. The only question is when will people finally realize this?