Tretakoff Musings

In my ongoing newfound desire to share my unrequested opinions on various crowdfunding projects, I bring to you today another entry in the supposed "smart" products. Now, unlike my last screed, this device actually fits the more accepted definition of "smart;" it has sensors, adds functionality to address a problem, and enhances the use of existing solutions. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Bluejay, the worlds' "first" smart mount. Now, upon first glance, this gadget seems to be a winner. Beautifully engineered out of aluminum and carbon fiber, clearly designed with an attention to upgrade the ungainly other solutions, and a plethora of functionality, the Bluejay offers to make the mount for your smartphone in your car far more advanced. There's a clear focus on balancing impressive design with technological wizardry, no wonder it made it's funding goals. What does it do? Well, in addition to offering mounting options on the windshield, da...

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. ...

I've been dipping a toe with trepidation into the world of location-aware social networking. I say "with trepidation" because I have had many primal concerns about broadcasting my location to the world...and I am questioning that trepidation. The immediate fear is about a loss of privacy, yet I am a staunch proponent that privacy is an illusion: with the advance of Google, the growth of social networking, and the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, the reality is that privacy has long been gone. Think those text messages you send are private? Wrong . How about those pictures and videos you publish to Flickr and YouTube? Please. Watching cable or renting a Netflix disc? Yup, those companies know just what you like and can be compelled to share that info. Your GPS and cell phone can't be tracked, surely? Are you kidding me? Every single device we use to make our lives easier with increased communication has a dark side: those same communication paths can be followed bac...

I was pretty excited about a new mashup of Google Maps, called Route You . In their own words: We produce and translate raw route-information towards digital structured data . We also create route-networks for GPS navigation systems. Our focus is mainly outdoor navigation for tourists, hikers, cyclists and motorbikers. During the outdoor activity, the user wants to be navigated via the most suitable and relaxing route , rather than the shortest or fastest. We produce these kind of routes and route-networks which allow route-planning and turn-by-turn navigation for cyclists, hikers, citytrippers, motorbikers... Ok, so the cool aspect of the site is that it would give routes that were custom catered to non-automobiles: walking, bikes, and scooters. Great! Just what I was looking for to avoid those freeway-addicted Google Maps. Easy enough: signed up, headed over, indicated I was looking for the fastest route via bike, plotted my start point and my finish point, and voila: a ...

Ok, gadget fans. With the acquisition of the iPhone , and a few days to play with it, it's time to revisit the " What's Stopping Me From An iPhone " post from last year and see what, if anything, has changed. The rules remain the same: rank each of the day to day functions I use(d) my Treo 680 to do on a scale of 1-10 and compare the score with the iPhone. Got it? Great, then let's get ready to rumble! Contacts . My biggest concerns were how the iPhone, with it's lack of search functions, would handle the over 8K contacts I have. Verdict: not a problem. The flick of the finger interface is complimented by an "Add to Favorites" that makes it easy to distill the most important contacts. The speed of finding a contact is roughly the same as using the Treo, as the unreal lag of the Treo in searching such a large contacts database was about the same. I would still prefer a real search, but the elegant browse interface makes it more than tolerable. Old sco...

I travel a lot for work and fun. I tend to book trips on the individual airline's websites (after I use Farecast and SideStep to find the best deals), so I get the mileage bonuses. The pain of that is that you get all of these different confirmations, emails, and tracking numbers, so it's not easy to consolidate them down to my schedule. I use TravelTracker for the Treo to type it all in, but it's time consuming, and annoying. Enter TripIt . That email confirmation you got? Forward it to plans@tripit.com. In under a minute, you head over to TripIt, and you get this: Want to add more to the trip, like a car rental? Just forward it on, and TripIt adds it to it. Want to track some activities you want to do while on the trip? Use the TripClipper to bookmark it to your trip. I like the service a lot: they focus on ease of use and solving a problem. There is definitely room to improve here, though: syncing with Outlook or Google Calendar, for instance. Consolidating Frequent Flye...

In case you had not heard, the folks who camped out for days to get their hands on the new iPhone sort of wasted their time: unlike the Nintendo Wii, Apple was prepared for the demand. So much so, that today, I wandered over to the Apple store, where I was easily able to get my hands on an actual iPhone to play with (along with dozens of other people). The good: This thing is the ultimate of small and large. The body is incredibly slim and the size is extremely small, smaller than my Treo, or even my old Palm TX. The screen is startlingly large, especially for movies. There is no obvious bezel, so this baby is all screen. The UI is amazing. The perfect Apple UI, it's sexy, responsive, and unbelievably cool. Transitions, scrolling, fonts: this device just screams craftsmanship. The phone is extremely great. Call quality is excellent, UI is superb, and address book integration is stunning. And that's not even mentioning the elegant touch of blanking the screen when you hold it...

Well, it's been nearly a month with my new Treo 680, and I'm pleased to report it's been a significantly better device than I had anticipated. I was moving from a Palm TX, with it's big screen and integrated WiFi, with a Bluetooth connection to my Sony Ericsson Z520 as backup. My biggest concerns were the sacrifice of speed of WiFi and the lack of screen real estate, as well as the purported disastrous Treo 680 battery life. I'm please to report that all of those concerns have been addressed. Ok, let's start with the obvious. The keyboard is phenomenally easy to use, and makes mobile email a reality. Yes, I am now getting enticed by the prospects of checking email at any moment, but even for things like Twitter or detailed messages, it's extremely workable. The form factor of the Treo is the right balance of size and sleekness to me: it allows me to slip the Treo in a blazer pocket or the front pocket of my jeans, equally. Having never had another Treo, I ca...

What is it with Google? They getting scared by Yahoo's recent launches? In any case, they've now released MyMaps, an easy way to create your own Google Maps mashup. Mark your places on the map, add pictures, links, and voila. It took me about 5 minutes to create a map of all of the past places we have lived. Next, a map for my company of all of my clients.

There have been planes. There have been ships. There have been cars. But now? How about Google Maps capturing a cruise missile in flight , over the Utah desert? Big Brother's eye is unblinking.

An amazing example of Google technology layered on over the ever increasing ability of cameras to capture extremely large images with amazing quality. For instance, this gigapixel image of my hometown, Boston, captured from the Prudential Tower's Skywalk, allows you to drill in so tightly, with such clarity, it allows you to be come a virtual peeping Tom. For instance, take a look at the original image here: Now, here's the Hatch Shell (where the Boston Pops plays on July 4th, miles away: The photo of the Hatch Shell is not a separate photo; it's a zoom of the top left of the 1st photo. You can practically read the names of the composers etched into the steps; that's Mozart's name on the right. Amazing; we're finally getting technology that shows like CSI always supposes we have. Enjoy a virtual visit to a still life of Boston in the summer. See you there!

Check out two new WidgetBox widgets I've added in the right column. Man, these things keep coming and get cooler and cooler. The Internet Address Book Pidy. Simple: consolidate all your social networking and sharing URLs into a single "badge." Clever. The Google Maps Widget. Paired with a text Widget for a caption, allows me to display a map of where I'm traveling to this week. With how much I've been traveling, always fun to show. WidgetBox makes these things easy. Now, if they'd only integrate all the Google Gadgets, we'd be all set.

James Kim's body was found today, ending the search for the tech community member. As I wrote last week, James was always a great part of my tech and media consumption, and I am extremely sad for his family and coworkers. Now the question turns to "How could this happen?" Interestingly, MSNBC suggests part of the blame may lie with our ever-increasing reliance on Google Maps. I have been a victim of this myself: in our driving trip to Dallas and the Southwest in 2001, I used Microsoft's Streets & Trips to plan a scenic drive to Taos...and almost got Amy and I killed, careening off a cliff at 60 MPH, Roadrunner cartoon style. The road went from a flat blacktop in the desert to a dirt trail barely large enough for a single car in 50 feet...and the trail ended above a cliff. This, because I asked Microsoft for a "scenic" route. Looks like there's a market for a new map site: one that uses real-world info. Seems like an ideal Web 2.0 idea: combine so...

From the "why didn't someone think of this sooner?" department: a Google Maps mashup showing you near real-time parking space availability in San Francisco. Cool, but I wish it showed all of the parking lots and the cost for hourly and daily parking for each. By the way, if you are looking for a good Google Maps mashup directory, can't go wrong with this site.