I picked iPhone 6, my friend picked 6 Plus, Why?

A data center friend who is a loyal iPhone user and I both ordered iPhone 6s on Sept 12.  We were both going to order iPhone 6 regular, but then he decided to order the Plus.  I stuck with the Regular.  I tried logging on to the order websites at Apple and AT&T at 12:01a on Sept 12.  After 15 minutes of trying I gave up and went to sleep.  My friend stayed online and finally got his order in at 2:30a.  I was asleep.  :-)  Got up at 6a, tried ordering from Apple site. Got frustrated and went to AT&T.  

We both ordered 128GB models.  Why?  Because pushing GB of data on wireless to devices takes time.  So, we both said let’s treat the iPhone 6 as a storage device.  Besides with a 10GB data plan you can easily go through the data use quickly.  As one of my friends said he knows of someone whose daughter gradually pushed the data plan spend to $2,000 a month as she watched Netflix anywhere she wanted.  Dude, disable the use of cel data by Netflix.  I did.

My friend ordered the Plus when he realized his huge protective case for his iPhone 5 made it just as big as a Plus, and he figured why not give it a try.  Worse case he returns it or sells it.  He ordered at 2:30a and still has to wait 3-4 weeks.

I ordered a iPhone 6 regular.  Why?  I have been a user of Galaxy Note since 1, and have a 3.  So I am used to having 1920x1280 display.  I carry my iPhone with me all the time.  The Galaxy Note 3 is more like my work device.  Having a Phablet for 3 years I know what it is like to have a phone that people make fun of because it is too big.  Now that the iPhone 6 Plus is coming out, Samsung has chosen to say how it is being copied.

Can you coerce people to think Mobile, Cloud, and Data First? IBM tries

I made the switch years ago to think about Mobile, Cloud, and Data as the ways to build solutions.  Mobile devices are with people so much more than a laptop or desktop so information is at your fingertips more often.  The Cloud gets you around the monopoly of internal IT organizations and lets you scale faster.  Data has changed from the forms people fill out to be stored in a SQL database which had comfort and control for those who controlled the database schema, to put anything you want in a key value pair approach.

A name–value pair, key–value pair, field–value pair or attribute–value pair is a fundamental data representation in computing systems and applications. Designers often desire an open-ended data structure that allows for future extension without modifying existing code or data. In such situations, all or part of the data model may be expressed as a collection of tuples <attribute name, value>; each element is an attribute–value pair.

The problem is the transition for people who lived in software licenses of applications and the associated hardware can be difficult.

IBM is trying to coerce its staff.

IBM ruffles feathers in push to re-educate veteran employees for cloud, data, mobile

by Barb Darrow

17 HOURS AGO

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photo: Shutterstock / B Calkins

SUMMARY:

Some IBM Global Technology Services employees have been told they keep their jobs (and 90 percent of their pay) as long as they retrain on hot new technologies.

Mainframes, Mini's, Servers, and Mobiles Oh My, Journey through Computer Development

Taking a journey through technology world can be scary to many, causing users to panic.  In the beginning users couldn’t get to mainframes or mini’s.  Millions of servers exposed many more users to the scary use of technology.  Mobiles is in the hands of billions.

Dileep Bhandarkar gave a presentation at the Computer History Museum on Aug 21, 2014.  Dileep’s slide deck is here.

My amazing journey from mainframes to smartphones chm lecture aug 2014 final from Dileep Bhandarkar

As a product developer you may think you don’t need to be scared.  Well there were wars going on fighting for survival.  Below Dileep covered the RISC vs. CISC wars.

And Intel won the battle with the RISC killer chip.

One of the more peaceful battles was the fight for energy efficiency.  The path of clock rate was consuming too many watts.

Dileep covered the Data Center as a computer where the battle was/is between Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

One overall theme in Dileep’s talk is how volume was behind so many of the wins.  And Mobile has the highest volumes now.

Some data on the Mobile Battle - iOS, Android, and distance last Microsoft

Here is a post by GigaOm’s Kevin Tofel on market share #’s for mobile.

Apple loses 5% of mobile enterprise share to Android, but it’s Microsoft that should worry

by Kevin C. Tofel

2 HOURS AGO

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photo: Microsoft

SUMMARY:

Android made gains in the workplace this last quarter according to Good Technologies but I doubt Apple is too concerned: It still leads by quite a bit and has a new IBM enterprise deal. Microsoft, however, is blip on the radar.

Here is the data to get your attention.

Much to the chagrin of companies such as Microsoft, BlackBerry and Google, Apple iOS devices are still dominating mobility in the enterprise. Apple’s hold over the workplace is diminishing, however, according to research from Good Technologies. The company, which tracks device activations in enterprises, published a mid-year report (PDF) suggesting Android is making gains over iOS.

Electricity Demand Growth disappears, The Shift to Mobile contributes

WSJ article reports on the mystery of Electricity Demand not growing the way the industry expects.

Electric Utilities Get No Jolt From Gadgets, Improving Economy

Electricity Sales Anemic for Seventh Year in a Row

Five years and an economic recovery later, electricity sales at the Columbus, Ohio-based power company still haven't rebounded to the peak reached in 2008. As a result, executives have had to abandon their century-old assumption that the use of electricity tracks overall economic conditions.

"It's a new world for us," says Chief Executive Nick Akins.

Utility executives across the country are reaching the same conclusion. Even though Americans are plugging in more gadgets than ever and the unemployment rate had dropped at one point to a level last reported in 2008, electricity sales are looking anemic for the seventh year in a row.

The article covers the energy efficiency shift.

Energy efficiency blunts the impact of population and economic growth, because upgrades in lighting, appliances and heavy equipment reduce energy needs. In 2005, the average refrigerator consumed 840 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A typical 2010 replacement needed only 453 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

There are various industries covered in their usage in the WSJ article, but the one thing that is not discussed is the shift to Mobile.  Especially kids.  Few kids want to jump on a computer.  First choice is their phone, 2nd is a tablet, then a laptop.  I don’t know about you, but the PC is gathering dust compared to the rest.