The iPhone Air needs a worthy companion, so it’s time for Apple to introduce the new Apple Watch Air: an elegant ultra-thin smartwatch focused on health.
Category: Opinion
iPhone Air: compromise or innovation?
How does the recently announced iPhone Air make you feel? Look beyond its smaller battery or its single camera lens, and focus on what you feel when you see this quintessential Apple marketing image:
Apple wants it to feel futuristic and exciting, and seeing the beautifully crafted presentation of the iPhone Air brought me back to the days of Jony Ive’s voice-over Apple videos–a bygone era when design and excitement could be associated with an Apple product.
Continue reading “iPhone Air: compromise or innovation?”AI: the good, bad, ugly and everything in between
ChatGPT gained mainstream popularity in 2023 and changed how Big Tech companies approached artificial intelligence (AI). This marked a major turning point in the AI Wars, a race between leading tech companies to develop the most advanced AI technology.
While AI has been studied and developed for decades, Large Language Models (LLMs) have managed to capture the consumer market’s imagination. Conversational and generative AI finally feels human-like, especially now that models are being trained using massive datasets.
Mainstream media has struggled to explain what LLMs are and what they can actually do, often focusing on the most alarming aspects of these AI models’ capabilities. Will AI eliminate our jobs? Will AI cause the end of the world? Will AI abuse your personal data?
Continue reading “AI: the good, bad, ugly and everything in between”I give up on foldable phones
Six months. That’s the time I have enjoyed (and disliked) my first foldable smartphone. I’m going back to the slab form factor. I feel disappointed and even defeated; I truly tried to make it work, but the issues I detected one month after buying the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 eventually became a dealbreaker for me.
Debunking diversity and inclusion myths in Big Tech
I recently stumbled upon a rather controversial post written by a former manager who worked at Microsoft’s AI Platform division from 2021 to 2022. The post defended the thesis that merit is undermined by diversity and inclusion efforts at Big Tech companies. The writer used factual information and sadly twisted it until it matched his false narrative. So today I’m going to dissect his article and explain how this person totally missed the point of all the training he received. Buckle up, because this is going to be a bumpy ride.
Continue reading “Debunking diversity and inclusion myths in Big Tech”Why foldable phones are not the next big thing
When I started using the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 —my first foldable device—, I was convinced that folding phones were going to be the next big thing. I thought that over the next few years most people would end up with a foldable smartphone. Now, a bit over a month into using one myself, I’m not so sure anymore.
I cannot wait for the 2027 iPhone
Another year, another iPhone with minimal changes. Virtually identical to the 2017 design except for the flat edges, the iPhone 12 that Apple recently announced doesn’t surprise. It pleases, but it doesn’t dazzle. 5G and a series of back magnets, named MagSafe, complete the highlights of a device that will sell well, but that won’t do anything to push the envelope.
Is there anything else Apple can do with the iPhone of the future? Of course: a high-frequency display, more and better cameras, eliminate “the notch”, resuscitate Touch ID… all iterative improvements. Fun for some, boring for most.
Continue reading “I cannot wait for the 2027 iPhone”‘Can you hear me ok?’ The benefits of remote work
When I started studying computer science in 2003, working for a Big Tech company was a dream almost impossible to reach for me. I was born and raised in Spain, and that’s also where I went to college. Studying over 5000 miles away from the tech scene of Silicon Valley had an interesting effect on me, I’d watch Apple’s tech events and Microsoft’s product announcements as if they were Hollywood movies. I could never imagine myself being part of them.
The main reason why Big Tech companies felt unreachable was because none of them had software development centers in Spain. The only way of working for companies like Microsoft or Google as a Software Engineer was to move to another country, which made the dream feel more unattainable on top of the already challenging interview process. A lot of talent was left untapped in Spain, and a lot of engineers who dreamed of an opportunity in Silicon Valley never got it.
Continue reading “‘Can you hear me ok?’ The benefits of remote work”Facebook Portal TV in the wild
It’s Saturday morning, and my phone has been burning for the past few hours. Just after I wake up, I stare at the screen and I have several messages from my parents, who live on the other side of the world, telling me that they miss me and that they are ready to talk.
As an immigrant in this country and with all my family living in Spain, this is not an unusual situation at all. Keeping in touch with your loved ones across different time zones and geography is challenging enough already. You have to add the technological breach existing between their generation and mine to make a perfect cocktail for frustration and bad quality communication.
Continue reading “Facebook Portal TV in the wild”The cacophonies of distributed systems
If you have never heard about Deutsch + Gosling’s fallacies of distributed computing, you are missing out big time! I encourage you to check them out here. Those delusions are widely considered in the distributed systems field as some of the most painful assumptions any junior systems designer, or architect can make. I like to call them “career-limiting choices”.
When I first learned about these eight fallacies a few years ago, I decided I needed to keep them around. I wrote them in a piece of paper and taped it outside of my office. The piece of paper is still there, except that it now has eleven statements – I guess some random folks added a few more fallacies.
Continue reading “The cacophonies of distributed systems”
Geek on record 