Tretakoff Musings

Some of you know my ongoing quest to get my TripIt calendar into my iPhone. I've blogged about workarounds with Outlook 2007 and Exchange, but they all involve some degree of manual work. No more. TripIt helpfully sent me an e-mail last week, giving me a tip on how to add my TripIt iCal feed into my iPhone . The process couldn't be simpler: simply copy the iCal feed from TripIt and send it to yourself n an e-mail you can access on the iPhone. Open the e-mail on the iPhone, and click on the iCal link. The iPhone recognizes it, and allows you to subscribe to the link, adding another calendar to your iPhone. That's it. From then on, your TripIt trip details will automatically update and appear in the subscribed calendar; view all of your Calendars, and you will see your TripIt items overlaid on your other calendars. Simple, and brilliant. Look, I love the iPhone's TripIt application , and use it constantly. I even love the new USA Today Autopilot app that integrates with ...

Online bike clothing retailer HuckNRoll sent me this e-mail this week, and it's a brilliant example of irreverence and attention grabbing that fits well with their brand. To deconstruct: The headline: hilarious, attention getting, and clever. The featured sections: note how the features escalate from "Cool Gear" to "Cold Gear" to the piece de resistance, "Holy #$!T It's Freezing Gear" Note the subheads for each of the featured sections, each increasing in irreverence with the purported temperature drop. "Grow a pair" LOL Finally, the piece that really caught my hilarity: the subject line. I had to Google this one. Note: Google's habit of delivering suggested Image search results right away makes this a somewhat NSFW search term. However, unlike my previous annoyance with juvenile e-mail marketing subject lines , this one fits the brand perfectly, it makes great sense and is definitely a grabber...so to speak.

I have another confession: as much as I love my iPhone, I have yet to truly appreciate it as a gaming platform. When the games started to hit in a big way for this new platform, I was excited: I abandoned console games (except for the occasional Wii party game), as I simply don't have enough time to devote to the beautiful but expensive investments console games offer. For the last couple of years, my gaming fix has been occasionally found on a Sony PSP, allowing me the portability to enjoy a good cigar with my skills at driving the Cowboys to yet another Superbowl on Madden . The iPhone promised me the ability to finally take one more step to convergence: one device to rule my communication, productivity, multimedia, entertainment, and now gaming needs. I embraced the Brothers In Arms ability to immerse myself in WWII action. I marveled at the NASA-produced update of the classic Lunar Lander, complete with actual Apollo landing missions and innovative controls. And I breathlessl...

This week is San Francisco's curious tradition of Fleet Week, curious as the traditionally aggressively pacificistic city celebrates the military. In the past, with the busy seaport and two military bases, it was easier to understand, but the days of dominant naval power have gone by, so it becomes an anachronism that Bay Areans guiltily take pleasure in. This year, with the down economy, it became even harder to raise the funds, forcing fundraiser cruises and private donations to help fill the gap. The highlight is the flight of the Blue Angels, who turn San Francisco's picturesque skyline and bridges into a canvas of jaw dropping precision aerobatics. For folks like me who work in the city during the week, the Thursday and Friday before the weekend shows are like sneak previews: twice a day on each, the Angels practice their runs, as the scream of their jet engines reverberate in the canyons of the downtown skyscrapers. While it makes conference calls a bit unsettling, it...