US$10 Project Rigel is Adobe Photoshop for smartphones - Why a Stylus is needed form Pocket sized Professional Editing

“Project Rigel is designed and built in a way that serves the needs of professionals familiar with retouching tools on the desktop, but more so for people not familiar with Photoshop tools like content-aware fill or spot healing. It democratizes them and makes them easier to use”

Adobe's Senior Product Manager for Digital Imaging, Manu Anand in an interview with CNET News about Project Rigel, their Photoshop for Tablets and smartphones

Adobe Photoshop on smartphones and Tablets is far from dead.

Come October 2015 at the Max Conference, just in time for Christmas, Adobe plans to unveil a new Photoshop app as reported in the article “Adobe aims to bring Photoshop to mobile masses with upcoming app”, published August 26, 2015 by Stephen Shankland, CNET News. 

This Photoshop app is for editing photos on Apple's iPhones and iPads with and Android devices being thrown into the mix a lot later. As a lover of Photoshop myself, especially for making book covers as explained in my MICO Wars blog article entitled “How to remove Image Backgrounds to make an e-book cover”, I use Photoshop as well as other free photo and image editing tools on a daily basis for my blog.

Project Rigel is a follow on to Adobe Creative Cloud launched back in September 2014 in partnership with Google as explained in my blog article entitled “Google and Adobe launch Adobe Photoshop Streaming Edition - Adobe Creative Cloud pips Chromebooks to Graphics Design students on the Move”.

Back then, Adobe Creative Cloud was launched to basically stream Adobe's suite of products to Chromebook users, so that they too could use Adobe’s creative suite of products! Adobe's Project Rigel is the same thing but for smartphone and Tablet toting professionals graphic editors!

Adobe's Project Rigel is free with a paid subscription of US$10 a month that gives you Photoshop and Lightroom, with US$50 giving you access to Adobe’s entire Creative suite of software that requires a yearly commitment.

Adobe's aim is to improve upon the failure of Adobe Touch, an earlier attempt at a Smartphone app as noted in “Adobe discontinues Photoshop Touch, previews its next generation”, published May 21, 2015 by Lori Grunin, CNET News, and make photo editing an easy transition from one device to the next.

Interestingly too, you're not tied to Adobe Creative Cloud, as you can pull your material from any source, be it Dropbox, Google Drive or elsewhere. More interestingly, Adobe is joining the Social Media crowd as your finished work can be posted immediately to social media, iOS's camera roll and even Adobe's Lightroom tool for photo editing and cataloging. 

So what's changed with the interface that'll make you shell out US$10 per month just to edit photos when free photo editing apps are available?

US$10 Project Rigel is Adobe Photoshop for smartphones and Tablets - Pocket sized Subscription to Professional Editing

Dubbed Project Rigel, the product is free and is made with more touch friendly, intuitive interface to simplify the otherwise complex interface that is Photoshop.

Interestingly, despite being formatted for the smartphone, it's made with professionals in mind, as many of them take photographs that they may start editing on tablet or Smartphone and finish up on a PC, to quote Adobe's Senior Product Manager for Digital Imaging, Manu Anand: “It might seem a little cheesy, but this is something we've actually worked with professionals on”.

There is a menu of editing tools at the bottom of the screen and a floating control bar tool adjustment on the left of the screen. Thanks to the presence of front facing cameras, it even sports face recognition technology that Photoshop for PC lacks, allowing you to change facial features on the fly.

That facial-recognition tool will eventually be coming to the PC version of Photoshop and is compatible with the Liquefy tool on the Photoshop for PC.

 The menu bar at the bottom has some options familiar to Photoshop users:

1.      Cop

2.      Adjust

3.      Liquify

4.      Heal

5.      Smooth

6.      Light

7.      Color

8.      Paint

9.      Defocus

10.  Vignette

Tapping on each reveals a submenu of other choices that makes working in the tiny space that much easier.

Photoshop on Tablets and Smartphones – Stylus is needed to do Great work

But most important to such a small workspace is the ability to zoom in for finer detail, which is very important for doing graphics work on a confined space like a smartphone or tablet.

Each edit you make becomes its own editing layer within the Photoshop file (the PSD file format), making changes reversible once you jump around a PC for greater control. As part of making that transition easier from non-Photoshop inductees, a lot of the custom terms have been changed e.g. “dodge” and “burn” become lighten and darken.

The floating menu on the left helps you adjust tooltips and brushes, which is really your finger or stylus if you're using a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is a flatteringly fabulous Phablet with an improved S Pen”. 

Still, I'd recommend that you make your own Stylus if you really want to accomplish great editing masterpieces in Photoshop as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to make a Stylus for your Apple iPad or Capacitive-Touch Device”.

US$10 a month for Photoshop and Lightroom is beginning to sound like a steal, albeit the subscription model does need a little work. For the Professional, this is a great tool to have in December 2015 on hand to work on your next great ad campaign.

Here’s the link:

Max Conference 

 

Ashley Madison’s Females are Fembots means Human AI Sexbots coming by 2017

Remember the Ashley Madison Hack reported by a group calling themselves the Impact Team on Monday July 20th 2015 as reported in the article “Hackers of cheaters' site Ashley Madison threaten to expose user profiles”, published July 20, 2015 by Luke Westway, CNET News?

Despite committing a crime, the hackers may soon be vindicated thanks to a recent revelation; Ashley Madison, which is owned by Avid Life Media, was filled with Robots as reported in the article entitled “Report: Yep, Ashley Madison is full of Fembots”, published 26 August 2015 by Lauren Hockenson, The Next Web.  

From the very start, the hackers, who called themselves Impact Team had accused Ashley Madison of fraud. They claimed that some 90% to 95% of the female users are really robots.  In response, Ashley Madison has place a statement online via their Twitter account.

New Statement from Avid Life Media Inc: http://t.co/9iGwRzf90y

— Ashley Madison (@ashleymadison) August 19, 2015

This accusation didn't surprise me initially, as I’ve long known based on the stats from Analyst Incapsula that at least 61% of the traffic online is from Bots as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “61% of all Traffic on the Internet is generated by bots”. 

Albeit you might doubt the word of a hacker, it's good to note that back in 2013, Ashley Madison had been sued by a former employee Doriana Silva for US$20 million for injury incurred after being forced to create fake female profiles as reported in the article “Woman hurt typing fake profiles for dating site, $20M suit alleges”, published NOV 10, 2013 by News Staff, City News.

Armed with this known history, the team at Gizmodo began digging through the data as reported in the article “Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site”, published 8/26/15 by Annalee Newitz, Gizmodo.

What they discovered was very shocking; Ashley Madison was still up to their old tricks and Impact Team was right. Almost 90% of the females within the websites were fake accounts, possibly run by robots.

Ashley Madison’s Fembots - How the lack of activity and Loopback addresses indicate nobody was home

From Gizmodo's parsing of the users demographics based on the data dumped on the Darkweb, the gender imbalance became glaringly obvious:

1.      37 million registered users

2.      31.5 million male accounts

3.      5.5 million female accounts

To make it worse, those 5.5 million female accounts showed 0% activity the day after they were created. After all, if they were seeking men they'd be actively updating their accounts to make themselves more attractively to potential males.

This lack of activity implies robots, as robots need input via conversation online to respond, being as they're not sophisticated enough to hold a conversation on their own.

Inbox activity, which is free on Ashley Madison, brought home this fact more clearly:

1.      20 million men checked their Ashley Madison message inbox

2.      1,492 women checked their Ashley Madison message inbox

To chat online in Ashley Madison, you need to purchase a 100 credit pack for US$49. Surprisingly the numbers were a little better but the imbalance was glaring:

1.      11 million men used this chat system to communicate with someone

2.      2,409 women used this chat system to communicate with someone

Deleted accounts, a service which attracted a fee of US$19, didn't actually delete anything; Impact Team still managed to retrieve so-called deleted accounts. Again the gender disparity persisted:

1.      173,000 of deleted accounts were men

2.      12,108 of deleted accounts were men

But the biggest clue, almost a smoking gun, was the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of the persons who logged in on Ashley Madison. Almost all of the females on the website had an IP Address that matched Ashley Madison's Home or Loopback address of 127.0.0.0, indicating that they were all logging in from a computer inside of Ashley Madison.

The numbers again are telling:

1.      68,709 of the profiles created with 127.0.0.0 Loopback IP address were female

2.      12,000 of the profiles created with 127.0.0.0 Loopback IP address were male or unidentified

So basically, there were more males than females cheating, which I could have predicted based on my experience with females at the all-females MICO University College. 

I’d also predicted this would happen as online Bots are now sophisticated enough to pass the Turing Test as noted in my blog article entitled “Russian and Ukranian Research Team beat Turing Test - How to spot a chatbot online as Eugene Goostman win suggests Turing Test for Natural Language”.

5.5 million Fembot accounts sounds just about right.

Ashley Madison website Hackers Impact Team justified - How married Humans may be scammed by AI in the future

Good to note here that the hackers broke in and stole logins, passwords, usernames and partial credit card data for cheating married men and women as explained in “What to know about the Ashley Madison hack”, published AUGUST 26, 2015 by Robert Hackett, Fortune.

By Wednesday August 19^th 2015, Ashley Madison admitted that the breach had indeed occurred and that the hackers had posted data online in the Darkweb as reported in the article “Adultery site Ashley Madison confirms leak of actual user data”, published August 19, 2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

Typical of hackers, their motives weren't terribly clear, as hackers often change the reasoning behind what they to do to justify what's effectively a crime as noted in the article “Wreaking havoc: Ashley Madison breach shows hackers' shifting motives”, published August 21, 2015 by Laura Hautala, CNET News.

But when two (2) Canadian men in Toronto, Canada committed suicide by Monday August 24^th 2015, a bounty was quickly place on the heads of the alledged members of Impact Team in hopes that their bragging would result in friend ratting out on them as reported in the article “Ashley Madison puts $377,000 bounty on hackers' heads”, published August 24, 2015 by Laura Hautala, CNET News.

Now that we known that the accounts were mostly fake accounts, it seems the actions of Impact Team were justified; Ashley Madison was nothing more than a Scam with Fembot Accounts that was milking men of their money.

Something tells me that Bounty will be ignored, as the hackers motive may actually be that they are disgruntled former users of Ashley Madison who realized that they were being duped and decided to expose the company Ashley Madison, which is owned by Avid Life Media.

For me personally, Females cheating on their husbands was the first clue, as women don't cheat via websites being as they're not that tech savvy; they usually have a female friend set them up, based on my experience from MICO University College.

Still, an interesting hack, as it now turns out that the real criminals were Ashley Madison. Also, sexbots are in our future, Humans style!

Ashley Madison Website

Ashley Madison YouTube Channel

Ashley Madison Twitter Feed: @ashleymadison

Ashley Madison Facebook Accounts

Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 images in LookBook sells a Wearable using Fashion, Style and beats Apple Watch

The Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 isn't out yet.  

Still, it’s set to make its debut at the IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany, from Friday September 4^th 2015 to Wednesday September 9^th 2015 as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple sells 4 million Apple Watches - How Samsung, Asus, Huawei, LG and Motorola Empire Strikes back at IFA Trade Show”.

What's known from the Samsung Unpacked Event since Friday August 13^th 2015 is that it's round an it runs Tizen OS like the previous Samsung Galaxy Gear S as pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “How Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Keyboard Cover Nostalgia wins Applause”.

But pictures of it are already floating about on the Internet and it's looking mighty fashionable as noted in the article “Samsung Gear S2 news: Latest picture shows the Gear S2 in real life, and it’s gorgeous”, published August 26, 2015 By Andy Boxall, Digitaltrends.

Take a look at these snaps of the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 being rocked by Samsung executive Dennis Miloseski who posted a picture of him wearing the device on Instagram.

Folks, there more of those pictures in Samsung Unpacked Event Lookbook!

Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 images in LookBook - How to sell a Wearable to women and beat Apple Watch

There was also a Samsung Unpacked Event 2015 Lookbook that was published after the Samsung Unpacked that shows the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 being modeled.

It also showcases Samsung’s idea of tying style, design and tech together in once nice bow. A massive 30MB for the lower quality images, the two (2) main ones are shown below.

Paired with a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 is show to be circular, have a dark strap and a brushed steel body and bezel. It actually looks like a regular wristwatch and based on the lighting would look great on your skin.

The second image has the model rocking a white strap, which is also a colour that I've send out and about this summer and it looks to be more of a woman's smartwatch.

This makes sense, as women are a huge target demographic that doesn’t buy gadgets, so making something that tech-forward yet goes well with your shoes is very fashion forward of Samsung. 

It's a lot thinner and less bulkier than the original Samsung Galaxy Gear S as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung’s Galaxy Gear S Smartwatch coming to Jamaica while reppin’ for Tizen”, suggesting a strong shift away from males to appealing to females.

But it's what's under the hood that has me super excited as the following promo video suggests.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 might be packing a nano SIM card slot, suggesting women will be made into female Dick Tracey's making call from their hand. Only this time, I suspect, Samsung will market Bluetooth headsets, making it possible to answer calls and not have to be seen talking to your hand.

Also unlike the Apple Watch, this feature, if really true, means it's completely un-tethered from your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, making it possible to make calls without having to pair it with your massive tablet!

And in case no cellular signal is nearby, you can always IM (Instant Message) via the built in Wi-Fi that the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 is also rumoured to be packing.

No word on a built in camera for making Video Calls, but then again there is only so much you can cram into a Smartwatch!

Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 need Better Battery Life – Apple’s next secret weapon for future products

I hope all this means that the battery life has improved, as it would give them an advantage over the Apple Watch.

Apple’s next products might feature Hydrogen fuel cells from Intelligent Energy, giving them battery lives measured in weeks instead of hours  as explained in my blog article entitled “Intelligent Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell for Apple - How Hydrogen can give Apple products weeks of battery life by 2017”.

Based on estimates from Strategy Analytics, the Apple Watch has sold some 4 million units as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple sells 4 million Apple Watches - How Samsung, Asus, Huawei, LG and Motorola Empire Strikes back at IFA Trade Show”. 

So imagine if they had such battery lives instead of the one (1) day they’re currently rated. Apple’s products would sell faster than hot bread!

Can't wait for September, as I suspect by that time Samsung in Jamaica will have a launch event where they'll showcase their latest arm candy obsession.

Here's the link:

Samsung Unpacked Event 2015 Lookbook

Apple sells 4 million Apple Watches - How Samsung, Asus, Huawei, LG and Motorola Empire Strikes back at IFA Trade Show

Although Samsung has launched the Samsung Galaxy Edge 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on Thursday August 13^th 2015 as reported in my Geezam blog article entitled “How Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Keyboard Cover Nostalgia wins Applause”, some interested parties are more focused on their latest Smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2.  

This as according to the latest stats from Strategy Analytics, Apple has sold some 4 million Apple Watches in the Second Quarter of 2015 as reported in “Apple Watch snags 75% of global smartwatch market”, published July 22, 2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News. 

That translates to 75% of the smartwatch market, with Samsung getting a mere 7.5% compared to their dominance in the same period in 2014 of 73.6%.  Samsung had committed to the Tizen OS powered Samsung Galaxy Gear S launched back in October 2014 in Jamaica as chronicled in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung’s Galaxy Gear S Smartwatch coming to Jamaica while reppin’ for Tizen”.

Apple has also knocked the wind out of the sails (that's a pun, no doubt!) of the other smartwatch makers, whose collective marketshare has fallen to 17%.

The graph shows this clearly.

So word-on-the-street is that Samsung is set to debut a circular Tizen OS based smartwatch dubbed Samsung Galaxy Gear S2, their first update since the Samsung Galaxy Gear S launched in October 2014 as reported in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung’s Galaxy Gear S Smartwatch coming to Jamaica while reppin’ for Tizen”. 

It’s set to debut at the upcoming IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany from Friday September 4^th 2015 to Wednesday September 9^th 2015 as reported in the article “Samsung offers glimpse of round Gear S2 smartwatch coming soon”, published August 13, 2015 by Shara Tibken, CNET News.  

So will a change of OS and a new round face allow Samsung to claw all of the lost ground from Apple? 

Apple Watches bests Samsung Galaxy Gear – Watchmakers plan new smartwatches at IFA Trade Show

Hopefully it should, as Android Wear has proven to be more hindrance than help in the Global Smartwatch market! Google had updated Android Wear with some spiffy new tricks as chronicled in my Geezam blog entitled “Google updates Android Wear before the Apple Watch Deliveries on April 24th 2015”.

The other smartwatch makers also plan to debut their smartwatches at or before the IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany as reported in the article “New wave of Android Wear watches aims to make up for lost time”, published August 25, 2015 by Shara Tibken and Roger Cheng, CNET News.

After all, with only 720,000 units sold in all of 2014 based on the stats from analyst Catalys as reported in the article “Slow Android Wear sales underline the challenges Google's smartwatches face”, published Feb 12, 2015 By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service, PC world and “Android Wear Sales Dim As Apple Watch Looms”, published 2/12/2015 by Eric Zeman, Information Week, they have a lot of catching up to do!

That’s a mark the Apple Watch may have eclipsed in less than a week even as fitness trackers are now the main wearable of interest according to analyst IDC as noted in my blog article entitled “IDC Stats for Wearables in the First Quarter of 2015 - US$13 Mi Band Fitness Monitor @Xiaomi No. 2 as Apple Watch to dominate Smartwatch segment by Q4 2015”. 

In fact, the Apple Watch has been so effective it’s even resulted in a slowdown in the sale of traditional Mechanical watches from the Swiss watchmakers in the month of June 2015 based on NPD Group stats as laid out in my blog article entitled “U.S. wristwatch sales in June 2015 dip due to Apple Watch - Why Apple Watch heralds Armageddon for U.S. and Swiss Watchmakers”.

But what of the Swiss watchmakers? What mechanical Android Wear marvels do they have up their sleeves?

Apple Watch is a smartwatch Killer – Expect Android Wear to partner with Swiss Watchmakers

With that kind of killing power, other smartwatch competitors using Android Wear as their smartwatch OS need to come out with all guns blazin'. To that end, Asus, Huawei, LG and Motorola all have smartwatches to be revealed at the IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany. 

Many of them are mere rumours of smartwatches, yet to be revealed or like Samsung, they've been touted recently or launched since 2014 with no clear updates to their initial offerings in sight.

What I’m expecting is for the Swiss Watchmakers to launch their Mechanical Watch assault on Apple in partnership with Google as mentioned back in March 2015 as per my blog article entitled “Apple Watch Appointment Fittings coming Friday April 10th 2015 - Why Apple Appointments sets trend for How to sell a Wearable”. 

Expect fireworks come IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany from Friday September 4^th 2015 to Wednesday September 9^th 2015, when the smartwatch makers and Swiss Watch makers are expected to declare War on the Apple Watch.

Here's the link

IFA Trade Show in Berlin, Germany

Why @JUTCltd @Google Transit from @UWImona Computer Science Department is the next AVL

The JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) certainly is slow with the rollout of their AVL (Automatic Vehicle Locator) as reported back in September 2014 in my blog article entitled “JUTC's AVL and Chaos on Back to School Day – How JUTC's Automatic Vehicle Locator may placate Smartphone toting Commuters who ask Are we There Yet”, during the chaos of the Smarter Card launch.

So much so that now a UWI Student's proposal has finally seen the JUTC's information placed on Google Maps for Google Transit as reported in the article “JUTC info on Google Transit, thanks to UWI student”, published Monday, August 24, 2015, The Jamaica Observer. 

The student is information technology consultant and third-year computer science student at the UWI (University of the West Indies), Oswald Smith, who had originally made the proposal to the JUTC as noted in the article “JUTC on Google Maps”, published Wednesday, August 26, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.

Thanks to this development, this means as of the week of Monday May 11, 2015, you can now access the following information on GoogleTransit about the JUTC Buses:

1.      Routes

2.      Schedule

3.      Fare information

This means that Jamaicans toting around smartphones with Google Maps can get this information on their phone without having to visit the JUTC's rather smartphone unfriendly website or call the HWT (Half-Way-Tree) Transport Center.

Google Transit, which is a sub-domain of the Google Maps that a default App found on most smartphones, supplies them with directions to take a JUTC bus from any point within the KMTR (Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region).

It's not quite AVL as described in my blog article entitled “JUTC's AVL and Chaos on Back to School Day – How JUTC's Automatic Vehicle Locator may placate Smartphone toting Commuters who ask Are we There Yet”, but it’s the closest thing!!

So where did this idea originate?

UWI uploads JUTC data to Google Transit – Why Google Maps is the next step towards an AVL

Apparently back in October 2013, a 28-y-o Oswald Smith, a third year UWI Student in the Computer Science Department at UWI (University of the West Indies) had submitted a proposal suggesting to the JUTC that they be allowed to upload the information to Google Maps and make it available via Google Transit.

This would make it accessible to students with Laptops smartphones and tablets, a very good idea, as I often use Google Maps myself to find the location of strange locations in Kingston and what bus to take.

The JUTC was totally down with the idea. And so the project commenced, with the JUTC providing the Routes, Schedule and Fare information as well as GPS information for the bus routes and bus stops.

A Team in the Computer Science Department at UWI then converted the data into the GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) required by Google Transit.

It must have been quite a mountain of data, as well as a lot of rechecking to make sure it was accurately uploaded, but finally on Monday May 11, 2015, the team achieved a clean upload of a clean GTFS feed to Google Transit.

Now users of Google Maps can get accurate Route, Schedule and Fare information for JUTC buses based on their GPS location, first in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Its not complete, as only 61 of 114 JUTC routes are available on Google as noted in the article “JUTC on Google Maps”, published Wednesday, August 26, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.

So albeit not entirely accurate, it's a technical first in the Caribbean and no doubt other Caribbean nations will follow. It's not quite an AVL that tracks the location of buses, but at least you don't have to visit the JUTC's websites or walk with the JUTC's schedule.  

Here’s the link:

Google Transit Webpage

JUTC Website  

How Intelligent Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell can give Apple products weeks of battery life by 2017

“To our knowledge this has never been done before. We have now managed to make a Fuel Cell so thin we can fit it to the existing chassis without alterations and retaining the rechargeable battery. This is a major step because if you are moving to a new technology you have to give people a path they are comfortable with.”

Chief executive of Intelligent Energy, Henri Winand, commenting on their developement of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell for the Apple iPhone

Imagine your Apple iPhone 6 being able to last weeks on a single battery charge instead of a day?

That's the promise of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell being developed by a British company Intelligent Energy as reported in the article “Revealed: the first hydrogen-powered battery that will charge your Apple iPhone for a week”, published 22 Aug 2015 by Christopher Williams, The Telegraph.

A world first, they've managed to squeeze an Upp Hydrogen Fuel Cell into an Apple iPhone 6 without increasing the thickness from 6.9mm (0.27”) as pointed out in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - No Sapphire Screen but 128GB Storage and NFC-powered Apple Pay in Apple's Biggest iPhone Launch”.

Intelligent Energy has a patent on a popular portable charging device called “Upp”, which it released in 2014 as noted in the video below. Apparently, they've figured out a way to miniaturize into an Apple iPhone!

Apple isn't officially collaborating with Intelligent Energy, but the design concept is rather compelling. Not to mention the fact that smartphones with 1 week battery life would give Apple a decidedly uncomfortable advantage over current smartphones that can barely last a day in a single charge.

So how exactly does this work? And are there any disadvantages to having a Hydrogen Fuel Cell in your pocket?

Intelligent Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell for Apple - How Hydrogen can give Apple products weeks of battery life

The Fuel Cell creates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen via a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) similar to the technology used by Japanese company Toyota as reported in my blog article entitled “PEM Fuel Cell Technology gets Japanese Government support - Hydrogen Gas Stations Coming in First World and Developing World Countries”.

In effect, you’d be freed from frequent recharging and even inductive recharging via a device that’s basically portable Power Generator in an Apple iPhone or any device for that matter, such as the Apple iPod, Apple MacBook Pro or Apple iPad.

However, with the waste products being water vapor and heat, the hydrogen stored in the cartridge will have to either be replenished or the cartridge replaced. This might be a minor inconvenience, since it implies that Apple iPhone users will have to tinker with the innards of the next Apple iPhone or any product Apple want to use this technology.

This is a definite aesthetic design no-no for a company that makes solid consumer products that you just use without having to go inside to modify, fix or repair anything! 

However, if they could figure out a way to make the cartridge rechargeable without it having to be removed from the Apple iPhone 6, then Intelligent Energy would have a winning product on their hands that Apple would accept!

Still they had to make modifications to the iPhone 6 with the addition of air vents at the rear so as to release water vapour, a by-product of a hydrogen Fuel Cell, into the atmosphere.

This means you can't carry this in your purse or pocket as pointed out in the article “Future iPhones Will Have One Week Of Battery Life, With One Catch”, published AUG 24, 2015, by Jay McGregor, Forbes.

That can be mitigated by the use of silica gel desiccant powder to prevent moisture from gathering around the vents, reducing the risk of corrosion and extending the lifespan of the Apple iPhone.

Heat from the Li-Polymer battery would keep the silica gel salts dry, allowing the cycle of water removal to continue without need to open, clean and replace the Hydrogen Cartridge.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell to augment Li-Ion Battery - Expect full replacement by Apple iPhone 7 in 2017

This isn't meant to replace the traditional Li-Polymer Batteries used in the Apple iPhone 6, but to augment existing battery power, making it possible to have a weeks worth of battery life as noted in “Hydrogen Fuel Cell integrated into iPhone 6 powers it for a week”, published Aug. 24, 2015 by Matthew Humphries, Geek.

But with interesting in smartphones waning across the world, making a smartphone with longer battery life and be its own portable energy! Miniaturizing the Up Fuel cell was difficult, but the remaining problems can be solved!

An arguement I've suggested many times over the years and more recently for the Apple Watch as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple considering Inductive, Solar and Kinetic Charging for Apple iWatch - Apple iWatch will start the Post-Power Adapter Era and kill the power Brick, the last vestage of the Analog Era”,  will make Apple’s rechargeable products i.e. Apple iPod, Apple MacBook Pro, Apple iPad, stand out.

Especially if they also include inductive charging, putting them on par with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, which has inductive charging built in as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung declares 2015 Year of Wireless Smartphone Charging becoming an Industry Standard”.

Expect this to be coming in the Apple iPhone 7 by 2017!

Here’s the link:

Intelligent Energy 

Google Desktop Search Patent and Why @Google's Alphabet will organize your 1TB SSD Drives

Google isn't content with giving you the power to search the Internet.

A recently filed patent points to them developing a Windows or Mac desktop search tool that can search for your local files as reported in the article “Google could soon be searching your desktop too”, published August 16, 2015 By David Nield, Digitaltrends.   

The patent, titled Computer Application Data In Search Results as reported in the article “Google Files For Patent To Search Your Desktop Files, Apps And Cloud Storage”, published August 17, 2015 By Menchie Mendoza, Tech Times covers the search for the following on your desktop:

1.      Native Applications

2.      Remote Services

3.      Registered Applications

Curiously, this sounds a lot like Google Desktop Search that Google had cancelled back on Friday, September 2^nd, 2011 as reported on their last blog post “Google Desktop Update”.

Their reasons given was that the users had shifted away from Desktop Storage to Website and Cloud Storage, which possibly prompted them to upgrade their Google Drive offerings from 5GB to 15GB in April 2013 as reported in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Drive, the Dropbox clone, now ups the ante to 15GB of Free Storage during Google I/O”.

You cannot download new versions of Google Desktop to search your Windows or Mac computer as they've discontinued the service.

This is also a lot like Apple's Spotlight, their serviced in Apple iOS 9 that allows you to search for apps, files and virtually anything on your smartphone as well as in Apple iCloud as reported in my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple WWDC 2015 debuts OS X 10.11, Watch OS 2.0 and Apple Music”. 

Google Desktop Search Patent hints at Return - Why Google's Alphabet is based on the coming of 1TB SSD Drives

If implemented, most likely Google will ask your permission to search your desktop as explained n the article “Google could soon search your desktop, too”, published Aug 14, 2015 by Chris Burns, Slashgear. 

Google basically wants to pick your brain to send you more advertising while you search for stuff you cannot find using Windows Explorer to locate the item. Especially if it's tucked away deep in your computer's 1TB SSD (Solid State) hard-drive and you’re having difficulty finding it in a minefield of folders!

Something tells me that this service will be met with a lot of skepticism, especially with Google's track record relating to privacy.

Still, very few viable alternatives that users approve of to search your every growing Terabyte Harddrive storage exist as listed in the article “Five Best Desktop Search Applications”, published March 3 2013 by Alan Henry, Lifehacker and “What Are the Fastest Tools for Windows Desktop Search?”, published July 29, 2015, Make Use Of.

Here's the list for Windows users, with a few surprise entrants:

1.      Windows Search

2.      Everything

3.      Listary

4.      Lookeen Free

5.      Copernic Desktop Search 5

There are special Desktop Search Applications for Mac and Linux Users, albeit if you have Finder and now Spotlight now coming in September 2015 with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, you might now want these third-party alternatives if you're a Mac user:

1.      Alfred for Mac OS

2.      Quicksilver for Mac OS

3.      Launchy (Windows/OS X/Linux)

There are tons more as listed in the article 19 Best Free Desktop File Search Software.

But with no clear favourites and Google's ecosystem of products now organized into an alphabet of companies as reported in my blog article entitled “@Google Inc is now Alphabet Inc – Why an Alphabet Soup of Business Structure means better Engineering Project Success” and the coming of larger and cheaper 1TB SSD (Solid State Drives), effective Desktop Search will be needed to search these ever-growing Personal Clouds.

Here’s the link:

Computer Application Data In Search Results