Apple Dev Sites Down

Both the Apple Developer Forums (Fora?), which is used by developers to chat and support each other, and the Developer Center (a web portal used by developers to download developer content from Apple, manage security certificates and device provisioning profiles, and more) have been down since Thursday July 19.  Many have speculated that this has delayed the delivery of iOS 7 Beta 4 build because Beta 1, 2, and 3 were 2 weeks apart each, although Apple never promised any schedule for Beta builds.

It came out that security researcher Ibrahim Balic has claimed responsibility, who says he has made Apple aware of the security holes in an attempt to help them improve security on their site.

Meanwhile, my take on it is that Apple must have a huge team of software engineers working around the clock to fix the security holes, and testing to ensure the sites work, because they are still down 5 days after the hack.  The fact that within a couple hours of getting their bug report filed by Balic, they shut down the web sites means they take the privacy and security concerns very seriously.  They know that hundreds of millions of people globally depend on their devices for many important things, and I know that they know there is also huge liability.  So I bet this was a quick executive decision to shut down the web sites, and not turn them back on until the issues have been corrected.  I can understand, but I don't have to like!

Finally, iOS 7 Beta 4 is out!  I can only imagine the kind of hell the Apple team has gone through in the past 2 weeks, but thank you for great products, great support, and your commitment to keeping the integrity and security of your systems.

iPad For Beginners???

The other day I was walking through Costco and noticed a stand of tech books, one of which was iPad For Beginners. That started me thinking, who the heck would buy such a book?  Really?

My son was 2 when he started using the iPad, and he had no issues. Heck, my mom is an early adopter but always feels she is missing how to really operate new gadgets, and even she has no trouble using an iPad. 

You can always drop by an Apple store any time for free classes, or if there aren't any going on there will most assuredly be a blue shirted employee or floating shopper who will show you some ins and outs.

So to spend money on a book that teaches you how to use an iPad is about as enlightening as listening to the flight attendant show you how to fasten your seatbelt. 

Using Rollover Minutes?

Let's get the ball rolling on this - hit Like, or retweet, if you think this is a good idea.

This picture is reminiscent of my first cell phone, circa 1987.  I was selling computers, and Cellular One was a big customer of our store (ComputerLand).  Back then, as a C1 vendor, we got a *great* deal - $7.95 a month for cellular plan, plus $0.65/minute local calls, plus long distance, plus roaming.  Some calls were $1.50 a minute - $15 for a 10 minute call.  Pretty steep for a guy making about $15,000 a year.  However, when I went off the freeway in the winter on I-96 in between Lansing and Farmington Hills, and a tow truck was there in 30 minutes, I vowed never to go without a cell phone again.  26 years later I have not broken that vow.

However, I frequently had $150 a month (or more) bills - just for my phone.  Now, $135 covers my iPhone (unlimited texting and data), much more sophisticated.  However, I have a new problem.

Our family plan has 1,400 minutes a month among 4 phones (under $250 for 4 phones all said and done), and any unused minutes roll over, expiring after 12 months.  That was great at first - many years ago, I actually dipped into my rollover minutes one month.  Once.  However now, mobile to mobile calling is free in US and Canada, and our A-List 10 numbers don't count, neither do evenings and weekends.  So basically calls during the day to non-A list and non-mobile (heck, everyone is mobile nowadays).  So I have been trying for a couple of months now to diligently use my cell phone for work calls, and use up those minutes.  Cause, you know, everyone texts, e-mails, or IM's nowadays instead of calling, so the rest of the family doesn't use very many minutes.

I am now 2/3 through this month's billing cycle, with less than 50% minutes consumed using my cell for conference calls, customer calls, and more.  It is really hard to dip into those minutes.

Great, except what I would really like to do is donate those minutes, like you can airline miles, to charity.  It would be great if I could go on AT&T's web site, and donate say 10,000 rollover minutes to Make A Wish Foundation, and AT&T would convert it to a cash value.  I don't even care if I can't write it off, just would like that to be able to do some good.

Does anyone know anyone at AT&T who might be in a position to make that happen?

All programmers are kids...

From a forum, got this memorable Geek quote:

All programers are kids :P we never grew up out of our sandbox.

-- Michael Wagner, Oro Valley, AZ

URGENT! HELP! iPhone Beta Won't Boot

I've been loosely following Apple's iOS 7 Beta Livability forum.  For those of you who have no clue what I mean, iOS is Apple's operating system to run iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.  7 is the new version we developers are testing, that will be released this fall, and it is a major, complete rework.

So, in the great tradition of "Do you haz teh codez?" (minus the LOLcatz), I have now, as of today, seen 2 posts entitled something like URGENT HELP My phone won't boot.

In the first one, someone replied that Urgent and Beta in the same post were hilarious, and I agreed.  I admit fully, I put Beta on my phone that I rely on, but I fully expected to have some issues, and if they got too hairy, I would revert back to iOS 6.  (They haven't, and I haven't - the update is way too sweet, I won't go back without kicking and screaming!)

Some other posts are funny, but you have to understand this forum.  It is an Apple discussion forum, solely for the purposes of developers to discuss using iOS 7, and developing their apps and resolving issues with them.  However, it never fails, there are posts every day either ranting that there is something broken in iOS (hello, Beta - can you say Beta 1 and 2, not even Beta Gold pre-release?).  Or the posts cry about style, how the redesign is inconsistent, or not good.  Then there are what I imagine to be pimply teenagers with rage issues, who flame features or new concepts.

First of all, Apple doesn't even peruse this forum - it responds to Bug Reports filed in its bug reporting system, not a free-form discussion of God knows what.  Second, what do these people expect us to do about it?  Pull strings with our personal connection to Jony Ive?  Wait, I've got him on iMessage - darn iOS Beta, it crashes sending messages to him!!

Hilarious, but a bunch of noise for those of us trying to resolve serious issues.

A Week on the new IOS 7

For those of you who missed the WWDC MMXIII keynote address last Monday, you could watch it on your Apple TV or online.  There was a lot of exciting new stuff and results discussed.  The new OS X Mavericks looks awesome, amazing statistics that confirm ongoing success of Apple products, and to me the end was a big dream come true - iOS in automotive!  However I'm going to focus on iOS, the mobile operating system.  First, I think it's worth pointing out a few points that Tim Cook made, then I will go into an overview of the new features (from someone who has been using it for a week), and finally a summary of my impression.

Data Points

• 95% of iOS 6-capable devices are running iOS 6.  If you look at Android, fully 1/3 of Android devices are running an Android version that is 3 years old.  Only about 5% are running on the current version.
• This is a nightmare for developers, who have to develop to a myriad of OS versions, let alone a myriad of device hardware configurations (hardware features, screen sizes, etc.)
• This is bad for users, because the latest security patches (even more necessary on Android than iOS), features, performance enhancements, features - all are not available to the vast majority of Android users.
• Of iOS vs. Android users, iOS users use the Internet 1.5x more than equivalent Android users.  That means, they are both using their devices more, and getting more use and value from them.
• Because of all this usage and stronger customer relationship with Apple, iOS devices enjoy a large margin of customer satisfaction (JD Power award 9th consecutive year).  Unprecedented, and unrivaled.

My Summary of New Features

The underlying philosophy change in iOS 7 can basically be summed up in one word: simplify.  Simplify everything to as basically elegant a design as possible.  And yet, under the hood, everything is developed with even more sophistication, features, and capabilities.  This is the true art of creative innovation, to me.  If you can devise something that is even more clever, even more complex and sophisticated - and yet, even more simple and intuitive, you have stayed in the zone.

1. Lock Screen
• On iPhone 4S/5, you get a 3D parallax effect when you tilt the phone, that makes it look like the wallpaper is floating behind the rest of the items on the screen.  Cool.
• Swipe the whole screen to unlock
• When a notification pops up, you can slide just that notification to respond exactly to that one.  If you have a passcode, you will be prompted to unlock.
• Beware: the "Slide to unlock" animation is very subtle, so you want to either choose a backdrop that doesn't cover it up, or modify one to reserve an area to make it more visible.
2. Home Screen
• Same 3D parallax effect with the wallpaper
• Note the flat, simplified icons
3. System-Wide: Notification Center and Control Center
• Swipe down to get Notification Center as usual, but it is enhanced with better, more usable content.  You can look at upcoming calendar, weather, stocks, etc. (customizeable), as well as All, and Missed
• Notification handling cloud synch - if you use the same iCloud account on multiple devices, when you respond to a notification, it marks that response on all devices.
• Swipe up from the bottom of any screen (including Lock screen) to get the Control Center, a quick access to common controls like Airplane Mode, WiFi/Bluetooth on/off, etc.  (One wish: it was customizeable).  New:  Flashlight!  (I feel sorry for all those developers with Flashlight apps.)
4. New built-in Apps
• Calendar rocks - you can zoom out to the year
• Music app - now plays iTunes Radio (like Pandora), plus you can stream your music right from iCloud instead of having to have it local.
• Better navigation across albums
• Missing the 5-star rating function, hopefully they put that back in before release
• Phone app is actually a really cool, "basic" look and feel. The show-through colors from your wallpaper make it seem to match your mood better.
• Friggin sweet Weather app with animations, again pinch to zoom out and see all your locations as an overview.
• Upgrade on Safari simply rocks.  Unlimited tabs, better tab UI, synch of tabs across devices, Keychain (think passwords) synch, etc.
• Photo app is simply breathtaking.  Finally, you browse your pictures the way you are thinking at the moment.  By event?  By face? By year/date? By location they were taken?  And it's easy to share (especially if you have newer devices and can use AirDrop).
5. System-wide control flow
• Swipe to the left to remove/throw out things, pinch to zoom out scale and more, and animated transitions give you a better sense of where you are going to and from, and how to get back.
6. New App Switcher

• Double-tap Home button, you get thumbnails of the running apps.  Swipe up to "throw out" an app.
• True multitasking now allows all apps to continue to run in the background, with an intelligent resource manager that keeps good battery life.  They held off on it until they could get it right, without compromising the already short battery life.
7. Search from Any Page

• Finally, just pull down any home page to get a search bar.  No more having to swipe many times to the right, or home button again, then swipe right.  Very nice.
8. Block Callers
• I can't tell you for how many years this has bugged me!  You want to block that annoying text spam company? That "friend" you unfriended, who keeps calling you?  You can block phone calls and texts from individuals.
9. Siri
• Wow!!  Wow!!  Let me say it again.
• The little voice wave at the bottom and the animations, it is really cool while still minimalist.
• However, the biggest improvements here are truly epic:
• Access to the phone ("Make it brighter", "Turn on Bluetooth", etc.)
• Tap to edit - you can tap her textual interpretation of what you said, and edit it.  Brilliant (my definition of genius - you say "it should have been there all along" but you never thought of it)
• You are supposed to be able to change voices on Siri - mail, female, multiple choices, other languages.  I haven't found how to do this yet, but it sounds intriguing.  One of the things I liked about MotionX was different voices to choose from.

My Impression

I have to admit, initially I really wanted to hate the new look - all flat, all the "real-world" look-alikes (stitches, wood, brushed aluminum, push buttons, etc.) gone to be replaced by muted colors, lack of borders, and the Contacts, for example, words on a blank white page.  However, I find that very quickly it has grown on me. The partial see-through screen sections give it a familiar feel to the wallpaper I set.  The animation transitions give me an instantly comfortable sense of where I am, where I am going, and how I got here, and how to get back.  It is amazingly well thought out.

And, the 3D parallax effect?  Epic.  Those of you with an iPhone 4, you'll have iOS 7 without the 3D.  Bummer.  Those of you on older devices?  Big bummer.  Big.

Now I need to make you aware of a strange phenomenon.  I initially found a lot of bugs, and the first night it crashed on me like 20 times or more.  I reported these bugs with Apple Bug Reporter.  It says, and I fully expect, no follow-up to the myriad of bugs I am sure are getting reported by the tens of thousands of bug reports every day.  However, most of them have simply gone away.  I suspect that either the OS fixed itself, or Apple pushed out updates (in priority order) behind the scenes.  Anyhow, it has only crashed itself once in the past couple of days, and is starting to work like a Released iOS, not a Beta 1.

FYI, that unbelievably cute picture on my wallpaper - my new nephew Isaac.  It is so cool that I can tip the phone to move the icons out of the way and see his face!

Does your kitchen need a firmware update?