UPDATE: Off Line Until The End Of October

Giff via: DevelopmentBlog

To all of my faithful readers, all two or three of you, I will be off-line until the end of October or even November, rather than September 28 as originally planned.

I've been out of town and seemingly everywhere you can name, except, of course, for where I would rather be the most of all..... good, old Germany!

Hopefully,however, once I get back in town I will be back at em, and writing about this that and the other thing, especially on things related to Apple in good-old Cupertino, so until then, best wishes....




And that's my 2 cents until the end of October, 2012

Apple Dumps Audience`s earSmart Noise Suppression Technology

Apple is no longer planning to use Audience's chips or its EarSmart technology in its next iPhone according to Audience.

Audience originally helped Apple to develop the parts of  its A5 processor that enabled it to remove unnecessary background noise and secondary voices, and, as well, as helping it to improve the over all Siri experience.

So, what doe this mean?

Well, it could mean one of several things, such as Apple abandoning background noise cancellation altogether, which I sincerely doubt, or more likely because it has something much bigger, and something much, much better waiting in the wings to take its place and that most likely will blow the doors off of what Audience already offers.

The problem for Apple is that other OEMS can easily include earSmart technology as well, and in fact, Samsung`s Galaxy S III, among others, are already using it. Apple would not want, naturally, to have equal technology in its products, but rather superior technology that helps to differentiate itself from the competition, which is why I believe that Apple will announce that the next iPhone will have its own earSmart like technology that, as I`ve said, will absolutely blow the doors off of Audience`s current technology.

Audience describes earSmart technology this way:

``earSmart is an intelligent voice processor that delivers a clear voice and audio experience for mobile devices, allowing you to hear and be heard even in noisy settings. Our earSmarth Advance Voice processors use the science of human hearing to distinguish sounds, intinctively enhance voice quality and suppress surrounding noise, for radically clear conversations just about anywhere.``

In conclusion, it`s obvious to me that Apple would not just give this up just so Samsung and others could have it. That is why I`m convinced Apple has something much better up its sleeve. That said, unfortunately, we`ll just have to wait until next week, September 12, to find out. Unfortunately, I`ll be out of town for a week or so, so I probably won`t be able to post anything about it, or anything else period, at least until I get back back on the 17th.




And that`s my 2 cents 4 this cloudy Friday, September 07, 2012

Source: ArsTechnica

The Sorry State Of Android Updates

Via Android Developers

Thanks in large part to fragmentation issues, Android's often updated OS seems to take forever to actually get itself updated to actual devices as the pie chart above clearly points out.

ICS, or Ice Cream Sandwich, has been out for awhile now and yet its installed base is now only about one in five Android devices. Considering its been out for over a year now, well I say that is pretty good for Android, but compared to other OS's, that's frankly downright pathetic.

The latest and greatest iteration of Android is Jelly Bean, and it has been up substantially to a whopping 1.2%. As bad as that sounds, actually it's really quite good as far as Android OS updates goes, so ditto to Android for that one.

The percentage of different Android versions, from newest to oldest, lists as:

Jelly Bean - 1.2%

Ice Cream Sandwich - 20.8%

Honey Comb - 1.6%

Ginger Bread - 57.2%

Froyo - 14%

Eclair - 3.7%

Donut - .4%

Cupcake - .2%

Wow! I can't believe that Ginger Bread, which seemed like it came out just yesterday, but is in fact three whole updates ago, still has the commanding share of the entire Android market! That might seem to be good for Ginger Bread, but in fact it's a very bad sign for Android as a whole and would make me pause when considering buying an Android device. Of course, the biggest reason I would pause buying any Android device is that I feel that both iOS and Windows Mobile 8 are much better alternatives. Then again, there are the legal issues involving Android that would also tend to make me especially nervous buying any Android device, and that is especially true after Apple's huge patent victory recently over Samsung, which is nothing more in fact than an all out proxy war on Android, a war, by the way, that it is seemingly losing and can't hopefully expect to win.

In conclusion, the above distribution of Android updates paints a very telling picture of the true state of fragmentation within the Android camp, and a very good reason for staying clear of it altogether.




And that's my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, September 06, 2012
Via Engadget; via Slashgear. Source: Android Developers

September 12, Will It Be The Beginning Of Massive iPhone Sales, Or A Law Suit For Apple Copying Itself?

Image via: TheLoop

It's official, sort of.

Yes, Apple has officially announced that they will be holding a press conference on September 12, but it hasn't officially stated what it will be, but the moneys on it being the next the iPhone 5.

Of course, it's apparent from the graphic seen on the right, that the shadow coming from the number 12, shaped like the number 5, makes it pretty clear that is exactly just that, the iPhone 5.

If it is indeed an announcement for the iPhone 5, than we can expect to see a huge number of them sold in short order according to some people, such as Neil Hughes, who writing for AppleInsider, wrote that Apple could sell as much as 10-million of the little buggers this coming quarter alone!

Now that's a lot of phones to be sure, so much so that Johnny Evans, writing for ComputerWorld, wrote that it , "... will send competing devices off to the land fill...,"  and that:

"Competitors are wasting their time by launching their devices so close to the introduction of the new iPhone. Apple will suck the media oxygen out fo the room with its release, while others will inevitably be forced to share what little attention/interest is left beyond that of more tech-obsessed consumers. Most consumers aren't tech-obsessives, but tech-users"

Image via: Gizmodo

As far as the iPhone 5 name goes, well according to this site, the new iPhone 5 will simply be called, "The New iPhone!" Whether that is indeed the case or not, you can expect that the introduction of any new iPhone will also increase the value of Apple's already sky-high stock and market cap, one that is now so large that it was recently reported that it was greater than the total combined stock markets of Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland!

What I find really interesting, however, if not down-right insane, is that even though big, old Samsung, one of the biggest companies in the world, couldn't get away with copying Apple, one small Chinese clone rip-off company apparently thinks it can and is now saying that they have the gall, and the stupidity to actually threaten Apple with a law suite if they dare even introduced their new iPhone, since they have already produced a clone of the next iPhone based on leaked photos, and that according to Gizmodo, their argument made perfect sense to them, because:

".... they have released their clone first, so everything that comes after that must be a copy, even if they actually made their phone after the parts of a phone that hasn't been released but that everyone believes is the real thing.

"In other words: since their clone was released first, that makes it the original phone. The iPhone 5 is the actual clone, not theirs."

In conclusion, I guess that if big, old Samsung can think that they can blatantly copy the iPhone, despite  Google and others in its own country telling them not to,  then I suppose that a little old Chinese clone rip-off firm would also think that they can get away with copying too. Unfortunately, even though Apple won't get a billion-dollar plus settlement from any counter suit, if there is any justice still left in the world, there will be one less rip-off clone maker in the world.





And that's my 2 cents 4 this incredibly rainy Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Apple Leads, The World Follows

Image via: Dewith

As you can seen in the image above, via Dewith.com, the Asus, Acer, Samsung and Lenovo laptops all have a striking resemblance to Apple's now iconic MacBook Pro's and Airs, and thus proving once again that the world follows Apple's every little step, be it in hardware, software, marketing or what have you?

For an idea of what laptops looked like before the said Apple laptops, well you need only look here and see that before Apple came along things looked rather different, did they not?

Samsung, as many of you already know, has been hit hard with claims that it copied both from the iPhone's hardware and software features, but trust me, I can remember when copying Apple went back even farther than that, including the old days when Microsoft's Windows copied the look-and-feel of Apple's Mac OS, both in its classic and OS X versions. First, I remember Windows copying the mouse, and then later certain features from Mac Classic, and then really coming to a head with Windows 95. Be it translucent windows, bounce-back, pinch-to-zoom, tap-to-zoom, the GUI, or what have you, Apple in one way or other first paved the way. 

In conclusion, they say that "copying is the sincerest form of flattery" and, therefore, in that case, I tend to think that Apple must be pretty much flattered by now. Yes, the world may copy Apple's every little move, but remarkably I find that no matter how much they copy, the copies themselves never seem to be quite as good or as unique as Apple's originals.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Tuesday, September 04, 2012

iPhone 5 Mock Up (Video)

If you like the current design of the iPhone 4 and 4S, then you'll be pleased to note that the mock up of the iPhone 5, seen in the video above, looks pretty much as does the current version, only taller, and as other leaks have shown, complete with a two-toned colour back, which, if I do say so myself,  looks rather spiffy.

The video comes from TheVerge who states that it " ..... looks like a fully realized compendium of all the rumours and leaks we've been hearing about the device. It has an elongated screen, a shrunken dock connector, a repositioned headphone jack....."

The mock up itself comes from a certain case manufacturer, who naturally wishes to remain anonymous because of another certain company. The mock up was first spotted, as TheVerge noted, by GSM Israel and it was recently shown off in Berlin at a booth at this year's version of IFA.

Personally, and in conclusion, even though I consider and love the current design of the iPhone, believing it to be the very best of any smartphone out there, I was still hoping for something radically different, and something considerably bolder, as well as completely new. Of course, that said, even though it's looking more and more that the recent leaks are indeed correct, Apple could still surprise us all by revealing something totally different. I wouldn't bet against it, however, but one thing is certain.....  we don't have very long to wait as the the next iPhone is expected be announced this month on the twelfth.




And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, September 03, 2012

Via: Gizmodo; Source: TheVerge