Tretakoff Musings

As expected, at the recent Apple WWDC event, Apple announced a major revamp of iOS, with iOS7. Claiming to modernize the user interface, add updated multitasking, and overall a much more modern and elegant experience, iOS7 was released to developers in a beta at the conclusion of the event, with us unwashed masses promised the final version in the fall (most likely with a new addition to the iPhone/iPad family). But this intrepid iOS user was not to be deterred: I wanted iOS7 now.  So, armed with little more than a vague desire, I launched my quest to get. that. damned. beta. This is my story. So, my first challenge: how to get in the rarified air of Apple considering me a developer worthy of the beta. I expected to have to embark on a crash CodeAcademy course, or a torchlit ceremony of Steve Jobs worshipping. Anything Cupertino could throw at me, I was ready. I'd fool these high priests of code, and escape with the beta prize, with none the wiser. So steeled, I launched my que...

Apple's iOS has routinely been beat up for the user interface in the stock apps that come with the iPhone/iPad. Lately, the criticism has been on the use of "skeumorphic" design (i.e. design elements meant to resemble a real-world analog, like the use of simulated wood and green felt on Game Center or the simulated  brass casing on the compass), but lost in the noise is the real challenge: making the apps much more useful. Today, let's look at the iOS Calendar app and some of the alternative versions that may make you rethink using it. First, the standard app. Like most calendar apps, derives it's look from the classic paper DayTimer from the analog age. Decent information delivery, with the option to switch between List, Day, Week and Month views. Good separation and use of the screen real estate to display all day events vs. timed ones. A separate drawer to manage received calendar invitations. Prominent controls to go to Today, vs. whatever day you are on. ...

For those who have not heard, Google has updated their Google search app for iOS with one of the most sought after features of Mountain View's highest end Android phones, Google Now . Yep, you can update or get your Apple loving hands on it, right now, in the App Store. If you are not familiar with Google Now, it is the next step of mobile and information: learning what you do and like by a combination of your searches, your Gmail account, and your location. For instance, you show up for 8-10 hours a day in one location, typically during the day. Google Now asks if that's where you work, then proactively pops up traffic info for you for your commute home, roughly around the time you usually head out. Neat, right? I'm a big proponent of the fact that our smartphones are actually still a little dumb: they wait for us to ask for help, instead of learning. With Google Now, you take some good steps there. Unfortunately, the iOS experience leaves me a bit bemused, specificall...

A pretty disturbing news story today from my old hometown of Newton, MA. In essence, a 44 year old Chinese woman from the sheltered town of Newton went shopping for a few iPhones in New Hampshire...and ended up writhing on the ground, tasered by two local police officers. Read that again. Now, clearly there are more details to this: The main "issue" is that the woman tried to buy more than 2 iPhones. Apple's policy is only 2. They told her "no." She claims to not have understood, but the Apple store folks say she was being obstinate, and refused to leave. The woman claims to not understand English. She's 44, lives in Newton, MA (a pretty upscale suburb of Boston), is engaged to a resident there, so it's probably a longshot that she did not understand "no." The woman allegedly had $16k in cash on her at the time. The real story behind this is that Apple is trying to clamp down on the fact that some markets do not yet have the iPhone 5...

The iPhone 5 is coming to life, as I write this. I thought I'd share some impressions so far. The design: wow, is this thing light. Like half the weight of my iPhone 4. A perfect blend of light without giving a hint of cheapness: it feels milled, not produced. I opted for the black, as I always have, and I am amazed to be captivated by it. It's like looking at a grand piano on the stage of a concert hall: inky, deep, exuding class without anything other than the blend of the black, both shiny and oh so understated matte. With the Nokia 920 I was trying out, it was all about the screen, and the playful curve and color: this is all about...Apple. The helpful AT&T staff activated the phone in the store. Not necessary, but nice. However, other than knowing that it's, yes, an iPhone 5, and yes, talks to AT&T's network, it was essentially a blank slate. So, when I got home, I promptly stuck my old iPhone 4 into the cradle, synced it...and things got a little we...

Apple launched iOS6 yesterday, with it's much touted Passbook app , allowing you to aggregate your tickets, boarding basses, loyalty cards, payment cards and more. Except a funny thing happened as part of the launch: there's nothing in the app. When you fire it up, you get a nice looking description of what could be there, and an invitation to hit up the App Store to go get some apps that talk to Passbook. What apps did they launch with? Fandango, Live Nation, Lufthansa, MLB.com At Bat, Sephora to Go, Ticketmaster, and Walgreens. What this means is that, on the all-important day for Passbook to be unveiled to the world, the only people who could appreciate it happened to be flying to Germany, heading to a baseball game, concert or movie, or getting a gift card from the place that says you care so much, Walgreens. Wow. In all of the demos of Passbook, we saw United Airlines (the US' largest air carrier), Starbucks, and more. The fact that Apple didn't partner up w...

As I mentioned in my post on the iPhone 5 unveiling , I am underwhelmed by the newest iToy. I wanted innovation, and instead got evolution: good evolution, but nothing like I expected. With the recent strides made by both Android (with the release of Jelly Bean and Project Butter ) and Windows Phone (with the upcoming Windows Phone 8 ), the market finally has some real alternatives. So, much as I did with my exercise years ago when evaluating switching from my venerable Treo to the iPhone , I decided to take a look at the apps I rely upon on an every day basis and see how the competition stacked up. Before I go too deep on this, I want to point out to the iPhone fanboys that I am well aware of just about all of the new features of both the iPhone 5 and iOS6 . I'm also a certified iDevice household: in my home, there are two iPhones (both iPhone 4, not 4S, granted), an iPad, an Apple TV (which I love), a dedicated NAS for my iTunes collection, and yes, a Mac (not really used th...

Listened to the great team at CNet covering today's Apple event. Some notable points: 38% of tablets now belong to non-Apple manufacturers. Whoa. Those are huge inroads against Apple. 91% of tablet web traffic is coming from Apple. So where are the other tablets? Methinks there are some accounting shenanigans, or a lot of disappointed non-iPad owners who've given up. Nice point on the "time shifting" of gaming: able to play against your friends, but not necessarily in real time. For instance, a racing game where you can run your race, then hours later, your friend can race against your race as if it were live. Nice. Good points by the CNet crew: there was a slide on the battery life, but did not mention the impact of 4G on it. 4G is a notorious battery hog; sounds like Apple wasn't able to lick that one. Regarding that "Lightning" connector: Phil Schiller prefaces the intro with this comment: "Many things we do over the wire we now do wir...

Amazon unveiled their newest entry in the tablet wars today, with a new set of Kindle Fires. If you are not familiar with the Fire, Amazon launched this 7", $199 tablet a while ago, taking the Android OS and putting a more pleasing , media focused front end on it. The result? An inexpensive media player with some impressive cloud features that can still take advantage of the Android ecosystem. And it went after Apple where it hurts: the pocketbook. With Amazon's media ecosystem to rival Apple's, and a smaller tablet and a palatable price, looked to be a winner. And in some ways, it was: it became Amazon's top selling product . Win, win, win. Granted, not iPad numbers (or even close), but Amazon will happily take it. Today, the Kindle Fire launches it's new version. And again, on the surface, looks to have the power to hit the iPad where it hurts, as well as aiming squarely and Google's own Nexus 7 tablet. First, there are now multiple Fires: in addition to a...

As you may have heard, the iPhone 5 event was announced today . Well, being Apple, they can't actually announce it; instead, they used a clever graphic shadow to indicate something with the number 5 is coming on September 12th's long rumored event. As much as I am feeling iOS is getting long in the tooth, I have to say that it's still the best option out there. Yes, Android is more open, but it's UI is still very messy and feels like a command line mask, instead of a fluid OS (yes, I know Butter is coming, but alas, not to most Android models yet). And I love the grown-up feel of Windows Phone's Metro interface, but the app support is really lacking, as is the basic functionality. So, I find my upgrade cycle pinned on Cupertino once again, and the newest iToy, with the new iOS 6 to make it hum. While the rumors are flying fast and furious, one delightful graphic invites us to play iPhone 5 Bingo on the day of release: Some of these are clever snarks, other...

From the folks at VentureBeat , this juxtaposition of articles says it all: Yeah, one company focuses on forward vision, a strong product line, and a mature, strong relationship with Wall St., so speculation on their future drives them to the most profitable and valued company. The other spurned the investment community, brushed off concerns about their core business, has leadership that is the poster child for immature, and, while actually focusing on growth categories, failed to give good guidance to the financial gurus, and is on the verge of being punished to the point of humiliation. What have we learned here? Don't take on Wall St. You will lose. Play by their rules if you want to play in their sandbox. Going public is not for everyone. For all we know, Living Social might be experiencing much of the same, but you don't hear a peep about them. You don't have to have the most innovative product (the iPhone ain't), but you have to execute really well (iOS ...

So, after a 4 hour install and a 2 hour restore, my iPhone is finally running the much awaited iOS5. Months of anticipating, over 200 new features, and it's finally here! So, what do I think? It feels like the biggest patch release yet. When I upgraded to iOS4, it felt like a new device. In fact, the strain it put on my old 3Gs required an eventual upgrade to iPhone 4. But iOS 5 is very different. It's quiet. The main theme I can ascribe to it is that it fixes so many of the deficiencies that the iPhone had. Note that: it fixes  them. Not revolutionary; evolutionary. Notifications that take up the whole screen? So last decade; gone. Can't use any tone for system events? Ok, now you can. Rich text email? Welcome to the 21st century. Lots of things like that. Just...fixes that should have been done all along. Even the new features are understated.  Take iMessage. Looks and feels like SMS; the magic happens behind the sce...

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of two things: comic books and the transition from dead tree publishing to digital. Even in my post on why I was not a big fan of the iPad , I mentioned that one area it could potentially dominate is the digital transition of comics, something that Kindles and iPhones simply cannot really capture. In the months since, ComiXology has released several versions of their digital comics app, including the "Big Two" of DC and Marvel. I have happily purchased many a comic since this way, and read them on my iPhone (and yes, it does make me yearn for the tablet size). But yet, maddeningly, the offerings consisted of a microscopic sampling of the titles published by both. Why? This month's Wired magazine answers it very well . In essence, comic book publishing is a razor-thin symbiotic affair, with the slightest threat to the retail stores having a disastrous effect that becomes a maelstrom that pulls down the whole industry t...

I love ringtones. Love using little movie clips for people who call me. Love having a specific song for particular users, making me smile as I know who's calling. I even like customizing the noises the phone makes when an SMS comes in. Just one problem with all of this. I never hear them. No, I'm not deaf. I spend most of the day either in an office, or in meetings and calls. The eruption of Alan Rickman's phenomenal quote during a conference call tends to sidetrack the conversation, so I keep the phone on mute. My carefully selected ringtones are reduced to a simple buzz, as my phone quietly vibrates, and I am left to wonder if the message is about a nearby special, or something more critical. Sigh. One of the great things about Jailbreaking is the ability to add great new functionality to the iPhone at it's core level, not just as an add-on app. Enter Vibrafications . Now, I can add a custom vibration pattern to each person, whether they text or call, so I inst...

As regular readers of this sometimes neglected blog know, I'm a gadget guy. The newer the gadget, the more I want it. And for my gadget habit, Apple is often my dealer of choice: not only do they make some primo gizmos, but they do it with such style, such aplomb, it's hard to imagine any resistance. So, it's with some shock that I find myself strangely immune to today's launch of the latest Apple world-changer, the iPad . I can honestly say I simply don't get this one. For those that somehow have managed to avoid the hype machine, the iPad is pretty much a huge iPod Touch, about the size of a hardcover book and Apple-svelte. It's not a laptop, nor a game machine: it's a brand new category of...what? See, this is my issue: I don't understand what problem the iPad is trying to solve. The iPod solved the UI and synchronization issues that held MP3's from going mainstream. The iPhone made your phone a one-stop device, and finally launched smartphones fr...

A couple of weeks ago, Forbes published a story that swept the interwebs: the iPhone had a security flaw that would allow a hacker to own it with a single text message. As you can imagine, the hue and cry went off loudly: the iPhone was insecure; the iPhone was a cheap piece of crap; the iPhone would never be a serious enterprise device. Except one thing. Way down in the 5th paragraph of the Forbes article was this tidbit: "They say they've also found a similar texting bug in Windows Mobile that allows complete remote control of Microsoft-based devices." Did you get that? The same bug was discovered and communicated at the same time in Windows Mobile. You know, that same Windows Mobile that enterprises recommend because of the secure Exchange integration? The same one that is in a virtual dead heat for handset market share with the iPhone? You know...THAT ONE? I'm a big fan of the iPhone, but journalist and bloggers: you can't have your iPhone-hating cake and e...

Like many others who acquired the latest Apple iPhone bauble, I experienced a very un-Apple like experience. First, in true Apple fashion, the 3Gs arrived without any directions, just a "quick start" guide. It seemed odd that such a product launch would not at least include instructions on how to upgrade from a previous iPhone; instead, I was forced to rely on some outdated instructions on Apple's site...which turned out to be inaccurate. So, for a day, I had the world's most expensive iPod Touch, instead of an iPhone 3GS. Finally, after trying the Apple support experience (fail - an hour wait on the phone and no online chat), I turned to AT&T. Much to my surprise, they had a special phone prompt setup to route you to an iPhone expert, who answered in under a minute. He listened, and immediately solved the problem by instructing me to switch the SIM cards...something Apple says " In the US, iPhone 3G includes a SIM and your original iPhone's SIM is not n...