The Disney Way: Surprises Shoppers With An Impromtu Performance With Live Characters

You only have to watch this brilliant bit of marketing from Disney in the forming of Disney magic on unsuspecting shoppers.

Enjoy.

Man Or Robot

Here is a short video clip of an actor pretending to be an a robot.  With the sound effects, he really hit it out of the park.

I'll say this much.  We are a long way from androids let alone robots.  And for AI in human forms to have fluid human like motions, it will be even further into the future.  Perhaps after Apple is done with the iPhone and the iCar, maybe we can have the brilliance of Cupertino bring us the iRobot.

Or will it be called "Siri"?

Phone Cases That Serve As Wallets Underscore How Badly We Need Mobile Payment and ID

Even before the smartphones were integrated into our daily lives, before Blackberries, the original iPhone, and the HTC G1, there was the Palm Pilot.  And I could not be more excited by it when Dave the Mobile Warrior showed me his Palm from US Robotics.  It was an eye opener.  Prior to that, I was using Casio made personal digital assistants (PDA) with black-and-white screens.

But the Pilot was a competely innovative device that was the future.  If you consider just how forward thinking the Palm was, even with its ancient input with the plastic stylus, you knew this was the future.  And let's be honest, be it the iPhone or a Galaxy Note, they owed their DNA to the Palm. 

And when I upgraded to the Palm Zire with an integrated camera, that was the moment when I realized the value of having a mobile computer that you can carry in  your pocket and you take everywhere with you.  The only thing I carried around in my pocket, then and now, is my wallet.  I thought wouldn't it be awesome when we can integrate both the PDA and the wallet into one?

With NFC payment used by Google Wallet years ago and, now, Apple Pay, we are a step closer to that future.  However, upon seeing the number of smartphone cases that has a flip or cover that includes credit card-sized slots, I also realize just how far we are from having a truly integrated wallet in our smartphones.

These wallet cases remind us that we still need to carry around our driver's license, a credit card or two, or reward cards.  So far, there is only one state I know of that allows identification through a smartphone while only a handful are actually looking to integrating driver's identifications into mobile devices.

However, I'm hopeful the momentum for the smartphone to replace or integrate the contents we now carry in our wallets into apps will happen sooner rather than later given the surge in mobile payments in the last few months. 

Nutella Founder Died, The Awesome Spread Came About Due to Chocolate Shortage

Source:  CNN.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ferrero.  Thanks for Nutella.  We eat quite a bit of it.  What is interesting is how it came about.  During World War II, chocolate was rationed due to shortage.  So, he mixed hazelnuts with chocolate to produce more product for his family's pastry shop.  

iCar: Won't Be A Minivan and Might Be A Decade From A Showroom

In reading dozens of articles about certain rumors that either is more and more concrete with each passing hour, there are a couple of takeaways about a potential move into the automotive market by Apple.

First, in hiring a former head of R&D from Mercedes, Apple ain't gonna build a minivan that may or may not be electric only and may or may not be self-driving. Have you see Mercedes' non-sedan vehicles. Ugly! Jony Ives and his team should have soemthing for us that should give Telsa a run for their money. So, no minivan.

Second, how is your awesome HomeKit enabled and Apple streaming video service working out for you on your awesome Apple TV 3 and Apple Home Cinema 4K panel? What, no? Yeah, it's been years in the making and no evidence that Apple has "cracked" televsion as Jobs alluded to in the Walter Issacson Steve Jobs biography.

The Apple TV started off as a hobby and only in the last year when Tim Cook took that label off and, yet, we are still waiting. Having said that, it could be years until we seem a full TV service and hardware from Apple.

And the iCar is just as complicated to develop and there really will not be an opportunity for a beta car or calling an Apple branded car a "hobby". Apple will have to have fully filled out everything before they can hit the carshows with it and start delivering it to the market.

A quick Google search on the average time it takes to develop a car turned up three years. With the new technologies that Apple will be testing, materials, artificial intelligence, robotics, and who knows what new innovations Apple will try to bring to the market, I'm gonna guess Apple will take twice that long. So a ten years window is not out of the real of possibility.

On top of that, 6 to 10 years is a long time and the rest of the auto industry will not be standing still. Tesla will have improved its own profile vehicles and have addressed a bigger part of the market with better and more efficient Model S and X. Even with a minor delay or two, Model 3 will have been out on the market for years. This is also not discounting vast improvements being made by existing electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, and the Volt. Others will also come out with their own green cars soon.

I bring this up only because Apple will need to address where the market is going to be a decade from now and offer something that can still be disruptiveand game-changing. It is hard to fathom what Apple can bring to the market that will give car owners the same reactions iPhone owners had when they first got their Apple mobile devices and say "wow, I can't believe how I lived without this before".

 

Posted with Blogsy

Lynch Should Retire To Save Health

Source:  MSN.

We all know that American football can be very physical.  I was going to use the word "brutal" but it's not like this was the ancient gladiator games.  Still, concussions from years of physical hits on the fields has taken their tolls on a number of current and retired players.  Not to mention the wear and tear on the other parts of their bodies that professional athletes put them selves through in the name of the competitive sports and the huge salaries they command.

So, word comes just as Superbowl runner-up Seattle Seahawks running back (for those outside the US, he's usually the guy that is tasked to run the ball) Marshawn Lynch is contemplating retirement, I'm all for it.  He's made millions and can probaly make tens of millions more.  His health still seem intact.  Maybe the smart thing is to call it quits and enter a new chapter of his life.

It's likely he has many opportunities that will open up.  Sports commentor.  Businessman.  Or enter the NFL as an advistor and, one day, maybe even head coach. 

More importantly, he would have a chance of a long life without many of the ailments that would come from playing another three to five years in the NFL.

Duet: Macbook Pro And iPad Air, Awesome and Creative Use of the iPad For Increased Productivity

Most worker drones have an one-screen work routine.  One laptop, one screen.  Or phone or tablet.  However, there are many who deal with multiple screens to increase efficiency.  Recently, I've come acrossed an app called Duet for the iPad (iOS App Store) and Mac (Duet Website).  By downloading the app from the app store for the iPad and a version for the Mac, you can turn your iPad into a second screen via the cable that Apple provides with your iPad.

I can rave about the virtues of having a second-screen, but what good is that if I don't provid examples of how having a second screen can increase productivity?  And I reckon it can also work for entertainment as well.

My photo doesn't do justice to Duet but you get the picture, right? More at On Apple.