David Emery on Tim Cook's letter to Apple's 2.5 billion 'crazy ones' - 'On links in posts, I’ve learned a couple of things: 1. You cannot edit a post with a link in it. 2. Only 1 link per post. Even obeying those 2 rules, occasionally I’ll post a comment with a link and it gets caught in the ‘awaiting moderation’ purgatory. A private email to PED usually shakes it loose (be sure to identify the name of the page you commented on.)'
on Apple not on Iran's hit list - 'More proof that the present US leadership wrongly assumed that this would be another Venezuela.'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Quantitative analysis of glucose in the blood is really, really difficult using some sort of non-invasive technique with lasers. It is possible to detect glucose with Raman spectrometers, quantitation is much harder. Normal glucose levels are only around 0.1%. This measurement is not performed in distilled water, this is in blood which contains all sorts of other molecules which can skew results. I did see some interesting research on blood pressure. As I recall they correlated the arrival time of increased blood pressure in the capillaries after measuring a heart beat electrically. This is a promising way to non-invasively measuring BP. I imagine long before we see devices like these in the Apple Watch we’ll see some sort of armband to measure things and transmit them the results to either the Watch or iPhone.'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Heart attacks are usually not related to high blood sugar levels. The worse case scenario is a diabetic coma, whereas a coma actually puts less stress on the heart than a body up and walking around. But if a heart attack accurs in close proximity to high blood sugar levels, it does create a correlation. And a correlation is all the lawyers want, even if the correlation is not related to any cause and effect.'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'This case of incorrect readings from a glucose monitor and the resulting lawsuit is an example of just one of the issues Apple has to consider when navigating the legal minefield of medical measurements on their devices I don’t think it is the only reason they have for slowly adopting these features. In general Apple is a deep pocket for someone to target for a lawsuit of almost any kind so they probably plan for a certain amount of this. Without knowing the “state of the art” of glucose monitoring in the technology Apple already has in the Watch it is hard to say if Apple is holding back or hasn’t satisfied itself that their solution is worth the potential hassle or just not good enough. Maybe the best technological solution is not an easy legal one. Same thing with Blood Pressure readings. I see Apps which promise blood pressure readings on an Iphone using an app and the camera but no similar Apple product. Maybe they like the shield of someone writing an independent app or they don’t see the value add of providing their own version yet. I think they are rightly gun-shy at releasing a new feature which makes them vulnerable to a whole host of legal and patent issues so they really have to nail down all of these things before they take the leap. Just look at how difficult the Blood oxygen measurement fight has been. Personally I blame the legal system. But at some point if it is worth it Apple will navigate these issues and provide a solution if they believe in it.'
on Mark Gurman: Foldable iPhone opens into an iPad mini running iOS - 'David: “I think a foldable iPad Mini that expands to the size of an open paperback makes more sense, specifically as an easy to carry book reading device.” The product you’d like will be introduced two years out from the iPhone Fold. It will be called the iPhone Fold Max. Don’t tell Gurman, OK?'
on Premarket: Apple is red - '”I think we will look back on Iran and Venezuela as the start of WWIII” WWIII began in the ‘50s. The difference today is that the main protagonists (the Soviet Union, East Germany, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Cuba, on the State level, and the PLO, ISIS, al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah on the non-State level) have been, or are being, neutralized. Even China walks softly so as to not upset its export economy'
on Tim Cook's letter to Apple's 2.5 billion 'crazy ones' - 'AI on the edge is part of Apple’s “thinking differently” from the mainstream. An article I found on Macworld talks about Perplexity using Mac mini’s for local AI use. “Perplexity’s Personal Computer is a Mac mini running an AI OS Macs are quietly becoming the AI agent PC of choice.” From the story: “On Wednesday, Perplexity announced Personal Computer, an AI agent that “runs continuously, merging your local applications with Perplexity Computer.” The system runs on Perplexity’s “secure servers,” but what hardware does it all run on? An M4 Mac mini. Perplexity explains that its Personal Computer “works in a secure environment with clear safeguards. Sensitive actions require approval, and every session includes a full audit trail. A kill switch gives users immediate control.” The platform was built on Perplexity’s existing foundation and ensures that every query runs in its own “secure sandbox.” It’s not the first time Apple’s tiny PC made headlines as an AI tool. In January, social media was overrun with people running the free, open-source AI assistant Clawdbot on stacks of Mac minis before Anthropic killed the buzz. Perplexity calls Personal Computer “more powerful than any AI system ever launched.” We don’t know yet which Mac mini it will be running on, but we assume it has the maximum RAM (64GB on the M4 Pro) model and a giant hard drive. It’s also unclear whether Apple is supplying the company with Mac minis or whether Perplexity is simply using off-the-shelf units.” It’s a big Mac Mini they require, true, but it IS a Mac mini. Next year, it might not need the fully loaded model. ***I’d share a link, but I can’t seem to comment at all in a post in which I tried sharing a link earlier, so you’ll have to go find the article.'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Hi David. For serious riding I do the North Shore (called “the shore”) in North Van – then Whistler (think “Lord of the Squirrels”) and the bike park. On Vancouver Island it’s the mountains near Victoria and Sooke. Some of the riding is easier and some it downright scary.'
on Tim Cook's letter to Apple's 2.5 billion 'crazy ones' - 'That was a great show at computer museum last night! On the 50 years Apple'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Exactly what David wrote. If using a Libre sensor (mine is Libre3), you are advised to stick your finger to confirm obviously errant readings. I happened to have two of the Libre3 monitors fail in the low-reading mode. They were supposedly ‘good’, as the recall did not include them, but they were obviously faulty. But make no mistake, the monitors are a God-send for folks with type 2. I wear one all the time. (But I choose ‘Smarties’ as my midnight repair 🙂'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Absolutely David – stop making sense. Tell that to the ambulance-chasing lawyers.'
on Mark Gurman: Foldable iPhone opens into an iPad mini running iOS - 'First, let me fix one thing from the title here. Apple isn’t the one under pressure. A more appropriate title would be that the Samsung is under pressure for Apple to innovate in this foldable phone endeavor in order to bring new life to this format so they can copy whatever Apple is doing and hopes it can improve sales. Second, it is an interesting concept but I don’t know if I can justify the cost of this device (which Gurman conveniently doesn’t comment on) for my own personal use if Apple ever releases one. I will have to see this thing in action and will probably wait out the first generation device before making any commitment here. But cost will be a factor as part of the justification. If Apple releases a foldable, I am wondering if they will be able to undercut what Samsung is charging for their foldable device. Will Apple come out with a smaller pencil for such a device if it is launched? What other innovation, if any, will it include if it ever launches? If I ever did buy a foldable, I would definitely get the Apple Care on it and it would probably replace an iPhone so it would have to be small enough to carry around in one of my pockets.'
on Why Apple hasn't released a glucose monitor - 'Spurious readings are a problem. I love using the Apple Watch to track my swimming workouts. The heart rate monitoring seems pretty accurate but every so often there will be some weird reading such as 40 or 50 bpm when the appropriate values during the workout are in the range of 100-130 bpm. This has relatively little consequence but obviously blood glucose measurements are another story.'
