Have Phones Become too Smart?

No, Don't think so, just need to be better tailored to needs. 

extract from ACM NEWS

Have iPhone Cameras Become Too Smart?,        By The New Yorker

In late 2020, Kimberly McCabe, an executive at a consulting firm in the Washington, D.C. area, upgraded from an iPhone 10 to an iPhone 12 Pro. Quarantine had prompted McCabe, a mother of two, to invest more effort into documenting family life. She figured that the new smartphone, which had been released the month before and featured an enhanced camera, would improve the quality of her amateur snapshots. But the 12 Pro has been a disappointment, she told me recently, adding, "I feel a little duped." Every image seems to come out far too bright, with warm colors desaturated into grays and yellows. Some of the photos that McCabe takes of her daughter at gymnastics practice turn out strangely blurry. In one image that she showed me, the girl's upraised feet smear together like a messy watercolor. McCabe said that, when she uses her older digital single-lens-reflex camera (D.S.L.R.), "what I see in real life is what I see on the camera and in the picture." The new iPhone promises "next level" photography with push-button ease. But the results look odd and uncanny. "Make it less smart—I'm serious," she said. Lately she's taken to carrying a Pixel, from Google's line of smartphones, for the sole purpose of taking pictures.

Apple has reportedly sold more than a hundred million units of the iPhone 12 Pro, and more than forty million of the iPhone 13 Pro since it débuted, in September of last year. Both models are among the most popular consumer cameras ever made, and also among the most powerful. The lenses on our smartphones are tiny apertures, no bigger than a shirt button. Until recently, they had little chance of imitating the function of full-size professional camera lenses. Phone cameras achieved the standards of a basic digital point-and-shoot; many of us didn't expect anything more. With the latest iPhone models, though, Apple is attempting to make its minuscule phone cameras perform as much like traditional cameras as possible, and to make every photo they take look like the work of a seasoned professional. (Hence the names 12 and 13 "Pro," which are distinguished from the earlier iPhone 12 and 13 models mainly by their fancier cameras.) The iPhone 13 Pro takes twelve-megapixel images, includes three separate lenses, and uses machine learning to automatically adjust lighting and focus. Yet, for some users, all of those optimizing features have had an unwanted effect. Halide, a developer of camera apps, recently published a careful examination of the 13 Pro that noted visual glitches caused by the device's intelligent photography, including the erasure of bridge cables in a landscape shot. "Its complex, interwoven set of 'smart' software components don't fit together quite right," the report stated.

From The New Yorker

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Hide My Email

 In an email security application, Apple has included in their IPhone verision IOS 15, a method called 'Hide my Email', which constructs unique, random email addresses.     These private emails can be used to send messages, and then responses received to those messages will be forwarded to your primary email address.    In this way you are not revealing your primary email for anyone to misuse.     You can apparently create any number of these 'fake' addresses.   Keep or delete them as you desire.  Nice basic idea, about to seriously try ... '

LiDAR Space Scanning, Modeling and Enabling

Some time ago attended a brainstorming session on the use of 'space scanning' to support advertisements and other future AR functionality.   Well the time is now closer, but how close are we to actual functionality?   I am testing for now an IPhone 12 Pro with Apps, and will present more here.   For now here is an article on current Apps that support LiDAR scanning.  IKEA is known to be testing.   Will be testing the idea.   Any thoughts out there of current tests that could be supported? 

Best apps for testing and experiencing LiDAR on your new iPhone 12 Pro  and more here on uses .

Did you buy a new iPad Pro? How about a new iPhone 12 Pro? These are the LiDAR apps to try right now, regardless of your background or experience.   By  Brian M Wolfe

The second-generation 11-inch iPad Pro, fourth-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and now the iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max offer a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Scanner that will play a huge role in Apple's augmented reality initiatives in the years to come.

Here's more about LiDAR and apps you can use right now on your new iPad Pro to test the technology.

What is LiDAR?

LiDAR uses light to measure distance using invisible pulsating green spectrum lasers. These pulses (which occur thousands of times per minute) measure how long it takes for the light to get back to the sensor. By doing so, it paints a "picture" of the environment in front of the scanner. .... "

iPhone Convinces us We Need the Web all the Time

I like the broad statement.  Though its more complicated.  In our enterprise the Blackberry device helped as well.  It was as easy to use as the iPhone, though not as extensible.   The iPhone came in from the consumer side, and was very quick to provide innovative updates.  Ultimately execs that watched their stock positions move in Apps, asked why they could not do that with company data,  and ultimately demanded the same on their company phones.   IPhone continued to produce innovation that was demanded, but has definitely stalled.

The iPhone Helped Convince Us We Need The Web All The Time, Every Day  In Fastcompany: 
That’s according to Brian McCullough, who runs the popular Internet History podcast, and discussed the iconic device’s impact upon its 10th anniversary.  ... "

Apple's Neural Engine Plan

Bottom line, its all about the data.  And its Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook that have the data.   Lots of data.   And all of these companies are expanding their machine learning to leverage the data.  Looks like new Neural engines, likely on the edge, in devices like the iPhone, will be doing the work.

Why CIOs must understand Apple’s Neural Engine plan   By Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Your iPhone will know you better than you know yourself, but no one else will know what your smartphone knows

One day, soon, your Apple iPhone will be able to figure out when you’re going to get sick, will book itself in for servicing when faults develop, will let you know if it picks up a virus, and will be able to figure out if the person you are sharing data with is authorized to see that information. CIOs should begin to think about how this level of machine intelligence may impact their business. .... " 

So should data always be analyzed on device, on the edge.?  On the iPhone.  With a neural engine its faster there,  and closer to dynamic data needed.   And communicating to user and devices.  But not always.

Google Assistant on iPhone

In Computerworld:   With some cautions.

Google Assistant for iPhone: An enterprise perspective
What you need to know ... 

" .... You can use it to make calls, send messages and emails, set reminders and events, play YouTube music, get navigation advice, and search for the answers to questions.

It is an app, which means you need to activate it to use it just as you do any app on iOS. That's different from Siri on iOS, which is built inside the operating system so you can access it without needing to open the app. Curiously, Assistant can do one thing Siri inexplicably cannot do -- which is to turn on your flashlight. .... " 

iPhone as Future Wallet

More indications that Apple will be pushing the idea of a convenient phone-wallet in future mobile.  An idea that has been around for years. Talked to credit card companies about integrating promotion offers and shopping lists.  Will this finally be the push to make the idea common?   What are the security and privacy implications?

" ... It seems likely Apple's payment solution will combine iTunes with Touch ID and the secure enclave on iPhones. The service will come to market in partnership with existing credit card firms.

"Apple has told some partners its system would involve a so-called secured element in the phones — a piece of hardware where sensitive information such as a phone owner’s financial credentials can be stored," The Information says.

The offer means consumers will be able to use their devices to pay for physical goods on the Web, inside apps and at retail stores.... "

A Twisting Phone

My son pointed me to this iPhone App, that twists a phone on its long axis, to enable automated panorama images. It was featured recently on Shark Tank.   An example where devices in a phone can be used via their unintended consequences.   I do note that there are many 'it doesn't work', comments in the  Reviews, and its stability on an on end phone are suspect.  And, what if Apple slightly changes the physical specs of the phone operation and the effect goes away?  Also there are competitive solutions.   So what are its realistic applications, beyond a 360 degree selfie?

EEG from an iPhone

Doing an electro encephalogram reading on your smartphone.   The number of mobile smartphone sensor applications is growing.   The picture shown in the article in CNet is absurd.  " ... Neurocam is an iPhone and EEG headband that automatically records footage of things that interest you. Advertisers would love everyone to wear it. ... " 

Got a Stain? An IPhone App for that

I see that the Tide Stain Brain is now available as a free IPhone App. This work has a long history at P&G and I had several involvements in the knowledge being delivered. The driving idea is to figure out how to take knowledge that the consumer package goods has and deliver it to the consumer at home and on the road. It has to be simple since consumer products are meant to be easy to use.

The stain advisor was first delivered via a CDRom in the early 90s, then via an 800 line number and next with a very sophisticated animated, talking artificial intelligence character based on 'Mr Clean'. Finally it resided as a application on the Tide Web site. Unilever soon copied us with their own detergent based stain site. Now its available for those with mobile stain needs on the IPhone. Don't know how much the knowledge has changed, the interface looks very simple.

Also uses a more social networking approach than previous implementations. That also makes this an interesting case study for delivering and sharing knowledge.

Press release. Tide is also on Facebook.