Siri Spills It

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is scheduled for June 13-17, as confirmed by multiple sources.

Procedural Failure

Over at MacStories, Graham Spencer wraps up a piece saying:

It is too soon to say, but Apple’s actions today may well be the latest example of policy and procedural failure on App Review.

This seems to be a running theme over the last couple years. The App Store(s) and the review process are both stuck in 2008, while developers and customers are living in 2016.

I’m hoping for big app review and App Store related changes in iOS 10 and macOS come WWDC.

Apple Turns 40

www.youtube.com/watch

Steve Jobs:

It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy.

The Susan Kare-designed Apple pirate flag is flying high today, on Apple’s 40th Anniversary.

Fun fact: despite the troubles Apple had in the ‘90’s, they are the only company to continuously sell personal computers for 40 years.

UPDATE Video has been removed.

Fight Another Day

The DOJ has vacated their order for Apple to unlock the San Bernardino iPhone. They were always on shaky legal ground, and were flat out lying about the technicalities of it all. They now say they’ve found a way to unlock the phone without compelling a private business to write software for the government.

This isn’t over by anyone’s estimation, but the conversation can slow down and be reasonable now, at least.

Both Sides of Their Mouth

So let me get this straight… The FBI is in court right now telling the Department of Justice how it may sometimes need access to information, and Apple has made a…

deliberate marketing decision to engineer its products so the government cannot search them, even with a warrant

while at the same time, telling automakers

The FBI and NHTSA are warning the general public and manufacturers – of vehicles, vehicle components, and aftermarket devices – to maintain awareness of potential issues and cybersecurity threats related to connected vehicle technologies in modern vehicles

So, again, the FBI’s argument is “make it secure, but leave opportunities for us to get in.”

You can’t have both, kids. Interesting-er and interesting-er

Richard Clarke Talks Encryption

Wikipedia

Richard Clarke, former National Security Council leader and security advisor to Clinton, Bush and Obama, in an [interview with NPR][1]

If I were in the job now, I would have simply told the FBI to call Fort Meade, the headquarters of the National Security Agency, and NSA would have solved this problem for them. They’re not as interested in solving the problem as they are in getting a legal precedent.

and later…

Every expert I know believes that NSA could crack this phone. They want the precedent that the government can compel a computer device manufacturer to allow the government in.

According to the guy who would know, the NSA has the ability to unlock the San Bernardino phone. I’ve always had a suspicion that was the case, but now it’s confirmed.

NPR has the whole transcript on the page, but I encourage listening to it to get some of the nuance.

[1]: http://www.npr.org/2016/03/14/470347719/encryption-and-privacy-are-larger-issues-than-fighting-terrorism-clarke-says title=“interview with NPR”

Amicus, Briefly

SUPPORTING APPLE THROUGH AMICUS BRIEFS:

As listed on a Press Info page on Apple’s site, Amicus Briefs supporting Apple’s stance on this issue. 

In no particular order, these companies and groups are in support of Apple’s stance of not creating software to bypass security for government use.

  • A group of law professors
  • Twitter
  • Airbnb
  • eBay
  • LinkedIn
  • Square
  • Atlassian
  • Automattic (Wordpress parent company)
  • Cloudflare
  • GitHub
  • Kickstarter
  • Mapbox
  • Meetup
  • Reddit
  • Squarespace
  • Twilio
  • Wickr
  • AT&T
  • Intel
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
  • Consumer Technology Association
  • Microsoft
  • Oracle
  • IBM
  • Salesforce
  • Autodesk
  • Access Now
  • The App Association
  • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

And, expected later today (the deadline is 11:59 PM on March 3, 2016)

  • Google 
  • Nest Labs
  • Facebook
  • WhatsApp
  • Evernote
  • Snapchat 
  • Mozilla Foundation

Seems like Apple’s in good company, here.

This, coupled with the FBI’s disastrous (in my opinion) showing in the congressional hearings, make it seem like privacy may actually win this fight.

UPDATE

All of the “expected” entities above have signed on, as well as:

  • Box
  • Dropbox
  • Slack
  • Cisco
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Yahoo
  • Center for Democracy & Technology
  • Privacy International
  • Human Rights Watch
  • AVG Technologies
  • Data Foundry
  • Golden Frog
  • Computer & Communications Industry Association
  • Internet Infrastructure Coalition

Tidal wave.  

Law Is Hard

Orin Kerr, writing for The Washington Post, has a great breakdown of the challenges both sides face in the Apple vs. FBI phone-unlocking saga

This case is like a crazy-hard law school exam hypothetical in which a professor gives students an unanswerable problem just to see how they do.

There are two parts to this post, be sure to read both if you are at all interested. Lots of good info and case law.

Disingenuous, At Best

FBI Director James Comey pleads his case

The San Bernardino litigation isn’t about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. 

Bullshit.

(emphasis mine)

UPDATE: And as if on cue, the story comes out today (24 hours after this post) that the FBI has a pile of phones awaiting this decision.  Bullshit, indeed.  

That Wall St Journal link is behind a paywall. Sorry.

Apple’s FAQ on the FBI Request

This page is riddled with corporate-speak and has a bit of hyperbole, but it does try to lay out Apple’s case in the San Bernardino phone unlocking case.

Some hightlights that stand out to me:

Second, the order would set a legal precedent that would expand the powers of the government and we simply don’t know where that would lead us. 

and

The digital world is very different from the physical world. In the physical world you can destroy something and it’s gone. But in the digital world, the technique, once created, could be used over and over again, on any number of devices.
Law enforcement agents around the country have already said they have hundreds of iPhones they want Apple to unlock if the FBI wins this case. 

and most importantly, emphasis mine:

We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology, and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy, and personal freedoms. Apple would gladly participate in such an effort.

Apple is standing up to the FBI’s effort to use a 227 year old law to unlock a smartphone in 2016. Obviously, technology has advanced a bit in the last couple centuries, so new laws need to be written. I, for one, am happy to see this fight, but it’s not without danger.

The big issues, as I see it:

  • There’s a big part of the population that will say Apple is helping the terrorists. It’s their right to say that, but I believe that the terrorists win when Americans voluntarily give up a part of their liberty, freedom, or privacy.

  • There’s also the possibility that Apple will lose and have to open the phone anyway, which would not only look terrible from a PR perspective, but also set a dangerous precedent for government requests for corporate-sponsored malware. (This is, admittedly, a bit of hyperbole on my part, but I see any software written to bypass security as malware, no matter who writes it.

  • The worst case scenario is Apple will win this battle, but lose the war for all of us. If the government can’t get into this phone, there is a slim possibility that laws could be enacted to outlaw unbreakable encryption, forcing some sort of back door into everything.

This is probably the biggest tech story of the year, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, and the implications of it for decades to come.

Tim Cook: A Dangerous Precedent

In an open letter on the Apple Web site, Tim Cook lays out his case against helping the government unlock an iPhone:

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

“No reasonable person would find that acceptable." bears repeating. The thought that any government would have a powerful surveillance tool and never use it is ludicrous. I’m sure the FBI said “just this once, AT&T” when they did the first wire tap also.

The fact is, Apple can’t decrypt the phone. They stopped storing encryption keys on their servers years ago, just for this reason. If they don’t have the key, they can’t unlock the door. The FBI is requesting Apple build an all-new version of iOS that removes the limit on incorrect passcodes so the government can brute-force the phone by trying millions of passcode combinations. Currently, if an incorrect passcode is entered ten times in a row, the data is erased.

Apple is challenging the order, and here’s hoping they win.

We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

Perfectly Reasonable?

Don’t get me wrong. A Lightning nubbin on the Apple Pencil makes sense and is a great way to charge on the go. It requires no extra hardware, cables, chargers, etc.

But can we all agree that it just looks ridiculous?

iPad Pro First Impressions

I bought an iPad Pro. It’s ridiculously huge, and ridiculously gold. I’ve had it for a few days, and here are my current thoughts.

  • Notes in slide over and split view is awesome. I’m typing this in split view now.

  • The expanded keyboard is great, but takes some getting used to. I’m still unnecessarily switching to the number/symbol keyboard instead of reaching for the top row.

  • Trackpad mode is the best thing ever.

  • The aging home screen layout is still terrible.

  • Not exclusive to iPad Pro, downloading apps when setting up a new device still a pain. I have about 400 apps in my purchase history and there is still no way to filter the list. Even a button that says “show me the apps that are installed on my other devices” would save a lot of scrolling.

  • Weight is noticeable. I don’t think it’s too heavy, but it’s not an iPad mini. I find myself resting it on my lap when I’m sitting. When I’m standing, I tend to cradle it between my hand and elbow-crotch (is there a term for that?) with the weight on my forearm.

  • Split view is what this machine was built for. Two nearly-full-size iPad apps side by side is a real boon to productivity.

  • Apps that are updated to use proper size classes look great. Apps that are not updated are fuzzy, scaled up, and use the old iPad keyboard layout. It’s very discombobulating when the keyboard switches layout when you switch apps. Then, there’s Twitter, who released a worthless update. Waiting on apps to update so I can put them in split view is inevitable, but still disappointing. I’m looking at you, Editorial.

  • The keyboard is almost full-size. In landscape, I can easily type without looking at the keyboard. In portrait, I can still (barely) thumb-type, but my hands are ginormous.

  • I may be returning this iPad to upgrade to the cellular model. I rarely activate the data plan on my iPad mini, but traveling with this iPad Pro instead of a laptop may be a huge part of my future.

Productive Watch Faces

Everyone knows the Apple Watch allows you to have several different watch faces, but a lot of people don’t use the faces effectively, and some people don’t customize them at all. Since watchOS 2 was released a couple months ago, I use the crap out of the Modular face. The custom complications make the watch much more useful, and they keep me off the terrible App Launcher screen.

I’m currently rocking six different watch faces for different activities. I know what you’re saying. “Hey, you should write a long blog post about that!” Well, partner, it’s your lucky day.

THE DAILY FACE

*The Darth Maul Look*

This is my daily face. It uses the date, Activity, Dark Sky and Omnifocus small complications, and the Calendar large complication. I tried using the Fantastical complication for the calendar, but found that it didn’t update as often, and didn’t really play nice with the Exchange calendar needed for my jobby-job. I have an unhealthy number of watch bands, and I change the color of the face to match the band. Because I’m classy like that.

I can tap the calendar, Dark Sky, or Omnifocus complication to jump right into any of those apps, no launcher screen necessary. Most days I don’t even open an app, the app feeding information into a complication is all I need.

THE NIGHTLY FACE

*So Soothing*

This is the other face I use every day. Well, actually every night. It uses the battery, alarm, and the wonderful Sleep++ complication. David Smith’s Sleep++ app is a great sleep tracker, but it does take a little adjustment to the way you charge the watch.

You’ll notice this is the only face with the battery complication. That’s because I’ve never had an issue with the battery running out on a normal day. Most days, it’s at 45-50% when I put it on the charger at night. I put the battery meter on this face in the beginning when I worried about wearing the watch 24/7, but I’m probably going to remove it now that I’m more confident about the process. This face also carries my alarm complication so I can quickly set my wake up wrist-buzz and the Sleep++ complication launches the app so I can start the sleep cycle.

THE STAGEHAND FACE

*Back to Work!*

This is my face for my occasional theater gigs. Anyone who’s been following me for a while knows that I was a stagehand in a former life. I still take occasional jobs here and there to stay in practice and keep from getting too lazy in my jobby-job. This face has just the timer complication.

Many shows have a lot of downtime, and this face allows me to easily set a timer to remind me to start paying attention again for my next cue. The red text is the least offensive and visible when it inadvertently lights up. I usually turn off wrist-raise illumination in the watch’s Settings app when I use this face.

THE CHORE FACE

*A Man's Work Is Never Done* This is my least favorite face, for a couple of reasons. First, it's pretty ugly. The multi-colored face is just not well thought out. The day is red, the timer icons are orange, the text is white, and the activity rings are three more colors. It's a little garish to me. The second reason I don't like this face is because I use this face when doing housework. I like using the timer for laundry while setting an alarm for another chore, and I set the stopwatch to track how long the whole process takes.

I know I can set a color for the face, but I leave the multi-color option on because I hate looking at it. It makes me clean faster.

THE DISNEYLAND FACE

*Why? Because we like you*

This one’s just for fun. In my jobby-job, I work for a certain mouse-themed set of television networks, and Disneyland access is one of my perks. I don’t go often, but when I do, I put on the Mickey face. Date and Dark Sky are all I use on this one.

THE FANCY FACE

*Classy as fuck.*

This is my fancy face. When I dress up and go out, I put on the black watch band, and this face. It’s the Simple face with all the complications turned off and the dial details cranked all the way down. Then, I match the color of the second hand to my tie. We’ve already established that I’m classy.

WISH LIST

I obviously use my Watch a ton. It’s become an integral part of my day in a very short time. It got a slow start with the original watchOS. That one felt more like a beta. watchOS 2 feels like a solid 1.0 release, and I’m looking forward to more improvements .

There are a few things I think are missing, though.

  • Per-face settings. I’d love to be able to make settings changes based on the watch face. When I’m using my Sleep++ face, I always put my watch into Airplane mode. When I use my stagehand face, I always turn wrist-raise off. My watch is usually silent, but when I put on the housekeeping face, I turn the volume on. I’d like a way to link these settings changes to activate when I switch to a watch face.
  • Add the Music Glance to the Workout app, for the love of all that is good in this world. They go together like peanut butter and whatever goes well with peanut butter.
  • Time- and location-based faces. This is a watch, right? It’s pretty good at time. If I switch to my Sleep++ face every night at 11:45, then let me set a face to do that automatically.

Adding different watch faces for different activities has made this little computer on my wrist infinitely more useful. Make a few new faces and make the watch work for you.

Hey Siri, Buy Sony

What if Apple buys Sony? Like the WHOLE THING.

Apple has an event next week, and rumor has it that they will announce an AppleTV that will basically run iOS. As a long time AppleTV user (going all the way back to 2010 and the Original Mac mini sized box), I’m happy about this. I prefer my AppleTV because I have a lot of iTunes content, but I also have a Roku because AppleTV is currently limited to apps that Apple “blesses” and works with partners to get on the platform. This model will be busted wide open when AppleTV runs iOS.

Back to Sony…

I think Apple would benefit greatly from buying Sony outright. Sony’s current market cap is about $27 billion. That’s about how much Apple has in the bank right now. I’m not saying to bet the farm on Sony, but they could easily get the financing. Why should they do it? Here’s a list of things Apple will get if they buy Sony:

  • Sony Pictures, Sony Television, Sony Music. All just more content for the new AppleTV. Maybe Apple could start their own streaming service someday.
  • Sony Consumer Electronics. I know, there are iPods all over the place. Apple isn’t going to relaunch the MiniDisc, but having that sweet iOS stack running inside a Sony television would certainly make some people happy.
  • PlayStation and the PlayStation Network. Let’s face it. Game Center isn’t great. It looks like your grandma’s old Bridge table, and finding people to play against isn’t very intuitive. There’s no in-app chat or screen sharing, and real time games are few and far between. Apple can scoop up PS2/3 users and an entire gaming infrastructure and social network in one shot. Imagine if your Bluetooth PS3 controllers work with the fancy new AppleTV for iOS games. Win-Win.
  • Camera Technologies. Carl Zeiss lenses on a smartphone? Why not. Apple already uses Sony’s camera tech in the iPhone 4. Why not own that tech? Seems very Apple. I doubt Apple would sell point-and-shoot cameras, but I could see them using Sony camera tech in phones and high-end pro-level video and photo gear.
  • Medical Devices and Patents. Apple isn’t really into medical tech and health, but they could be. iPhones are very personal to each user. There’s no reason to believe we won’t all have more health sensors on our phones or other devices strapped to our bodies in a few years.
  • Patents, Patents, Patents. Sony has invented so many life changing technologies over the years. BetaMax, MiniDisc, the Walkman and Discman, Memory Stick, proprietary CD formats, and more. Not to mention all the audio and video codecs they own. Having unfettered access to all that IP could be super useful.

I don’t expect this to happen, mind you. I’m just a guy who likes tech and thinks this is a good idea. I haven’t really gotten into the real meat of it, and never will. It’s just fun to think these things through sometimes. From my perspective, Apple owning a content company AND a gaming company AND a stack of patents a mile high is a no-brainer.

Apple September Event

Regarding tomorrow’s Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino…

Well, I’ve put it off yet again. In about 12 hours, all will be revealed.

The Short Version:

What We Know

  • Nothing.

What We Expect

  • New iPhone(s) 6 revealed.
  • iOS 8 ship date
  • OSX Yosemite ship date
  • HealthKit demos
  • HomeKit demos

What We Kinda Suspect

  • 2 iPhone sizes, 4.7" and 5.5"
  • iOS will ship tomorrow, Yosemite will ship next month
  • Some sort of wearable “iWatch” will be announced, but not released until much later.
  • A new NFC-based payment system using the wearable as the second-factor authenticator.

My Abbreviated Thoughts

I’d like to go on for a few thousand words about what I think, but there are a few reasons why I don’t.

  1. I have a real jobby-job now and can’t spend hours blogging.
  2. Most of what I think, other people have already written about. (see links below)
  3. I’m regularly wrong about a lot of this stuff because I predict what I want, not what people want.
  4. Now that I live on the west coast, when I blog after work, most of the country is already in bed, so they won’t see this anyway.

So, here is the long version of the short version.

iPhone 6

All signs point to two phones being released. There will apparently be a 4.7″ and a 5.5″. Recent talks have predicted that the 5.5″ will have a landscape split-screen view. If a 5.5″ iPhone with iPad-like app behavior happens, I may have bought my last iPad mini.

iOS 8

The beta has been very stable. I see no reason not to release it this week. The new phones will obviously ship with iOS 8, so we’re within 10 days anyway.

HomeKit

This is what I’m most excited about. I have a terrible addiction to home automation, and would love to get it all in one place under one app. I believe that giant white building Apple built outside the Flint Center is a “home” they set up as part of their demo area. If his iWatch thing is a thing, I would love to control things like that. I already control my Hue lights through my Pebble watch. It’s a little hacky, but it works and makes me smile every time I turn the living room lights off from bed.

Mobile Payments

I know what you’re thinking. “iCloud was just hacked, putting hundreds of celebrity nudie-pics online!”. Let’s get this straight. THAT’S NOT TRUE. Dozens of celebrities use shitty passwords and someone guessed the passwords. Nothing was hacked, people were stupid.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk payments. Apple has 800 MILLION credit cards on file. That’s a lot. If rumors pan out, Apple has made deals with credit card companies and big retailers for tap-to-pay systems using iTunes payment accounts and tokenized security.

Tokenized security means each transaction transmits a unique code. Basically, every time you make a purchase, you use a different account number. This way, even if a hacker gets your account number in transit, it won’t matter. That account number is only good for one transaction, it’s already been used.

With an iWearable, a modern iPhone, or both, there is built in security. You will be able to set it up so that tapping your wearable on the payment pad only works if your phone is there. If using your phone, you can hook it into TouchID, so it will only work with your fingerprint. Security is built in to iOS, despite the publicity that certain breaches get.

Hopes and Dreams

Pretty simple, really. Give me a big iPhone, and a wearable that works with it. Give the iPhone an iPad-like 2 pane view. Not two apps, but a two pane view of a single app, a sidebar and a main view. I don’t care about NFC, as long as there is some sort of payment system. The wearable should have the typical activity trackers, tell me what time it is, show me notifications, and have basic control over basic functions of the phone.

I really hope there is some really earth-shattering news. I want to be blown away by something nobody ever predicted.

We’ll find out in a few hours.

Smarter People’s Thoughts

The Obligatory pre-WWDC Prognostication

What We Know

We know (based on posted pictures) that Apple will announce iOS 8 and the next version of OSX. (That’s OS Ten, not OS “X”, people. Let’s get it right this year.) Since 8 comes after 7, that makes sense. So does version 10.10 of OSX, since the last version was 10.9. Math nerds get upset at that, because 10.10 is not a real decimal. But 10.10 isn’t a decimal, it’s a version number, so shut up about it already. I get mad at it because I have to say “oh ess ten ten dot ten” over and over again.

And, that’s all we know. And I am happy about that. Apple announcements are an exciting time for nerds and geeks. We wait months to see Apple (and other companies, for that matter) walk out on stage to show us what’s coming down the pipe in the near future. It’s fun to watch, and when too much information leaks early, it takes the wind out of the sails. This WWDC is still pretty much up in the air.

Software

iOS 8 has some rumored changes. It won’t be a big visual overhaul like 7 was, but there will be some new consumer features, new developer APIs (for Healthbook, CarPlay, iCloud, etc.), and maybe a couple of new stock apps.

Healthbook

Image copyright 9to5Mac

Healthbook is rumored to be similar to Passbook. It will aggregate data from different sensors and apps into one place, much like Passbook does with loyalty cards, airline tickets, and Starbucks. It seems these are both the baby steps to a bigger thing Apple is working on. Passbook is step one in mobile payments. Apple is obviously getting people used to paying with a phone, and will expand that service in the coming years. Healthbook is step one in Apple’s wearables strategy. Healthbook now, then come this fall you’ll be buying a health sensor band to go along with it.

Siri, what song is this?

Shazam has partnered with Apple, and it’s pretty obvious that it will be used with Siri.

Maps

Maps get better all the time. I haven’t had any of the problems that plagued the app in the beginning in quite a while. Apple has bought HopStop, Embark, and BroadMap in the last year so in-app transit directions are almost guaranteed. And very welcome for us city dwellers.

iCloud Improvements

Image copyright 9to5 Mac

Have you ever saved a PDF on iCloud in Preview on your Mac and wanted to view it on your iPad? You can’t. Same goes for simple text documents in TextEdit. I am a plain text fiend. I use NVAlt and several iOS apps through Dropbox to keep it all straight. If I could do it through TextEdit, I’d be much happier. I try to keep things simple and use as few apps as possible. These would both be a big win.

OSX 10.10

The banners reveal El Capitain, which is in Yosemite National Park in California. Best guesses indicate the next Mavericks will be called Yosemite. Because spelling Mavericks was too easy. Changes are said to include minor performance and battery improvements, AirDrop between iOS and OSX (finally!), and a more iOS7 aesthetic. I don’t see them going all flat and white and Helvetica Neue on everything, but expect some changes.

Mockups of some of the leaked information are all over the web, but none of them really jibe with each other, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what it will look like. Safe money says more transparent overlays, less grey linen, and flatter icons. Anything else is a wild guess.

Last Minute Addition!

This one really gets my motor revved. iMore, among others, have recently said that Apple is working on a Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) style certification system for home automation.

I love home automation. I have Z-Wave switches all over my apartment. I use iPads and Kindle Fires as touch screen controllers. I have Hue lights, and I use the heck out of IFTTT to trigger things. I have a Vera that controls my lights, and a infrared to ethernet adapter that makes my WiFi things talk to my stereo, TiVo, and everything else. I also have a dozen or so apps in a folder that control all this stuff in wildly different ways. The TiVo App simulates the actual TiVo remote, the Vera App is a page of switches and sliders, the Onkyo App is just horrible in every way. The Hue App is great, but works differently than expected sometimes.

Enter Apple. If this Home Automation convergence is really going to happen, it has to be easy for normal people. Most people won’t mess with a dozen apps to watch a movie.

Imagine if the AppleTV gets a software update to be the controller for the home. Now, when I choose a movie on the AppleTV, it knows to turn down the lights. If I tap a “Leaving Home” button on my phone, the phone can talk to each individual app and turn off the lights, lock the door, set the alarm, and turn on the security camera. Your phone is with you always, so it could do this automatically when you leave home, based on location services. I do a lot of this already with IFTTT, but it’s fiddly. People don’t like fiddly.

I’m all for this. It’s not a “you need an iPhone to operate your house” kind of thing, it’s a “if you have an iPhone, operating your house is better” kind of thing. Hue, Vera, Samsung, and all the rest will still have Android and Windows Phone apps, but the iOS apps will just be better and work together.

Hardware?

WWDC is the Developer Conference. It’s to show developers what new software they will be working with for the coming year. Apple has released new hardware at these events before, but it’s never expected.

Bigger iPhones

Many bloggers are posting pictures of parts from the next iPhone. Yes, it’s coming, it’s bigger, and it will probably be called the iPhone 6. Duh.

It won’t be released at WWDC. There will probably be hints, like Apple encouraging developers to design for more varied screen sizes and resolutions, but a real hardware announcement for the phone is a non-starter.

iPad Pro

See above. Rumors of a 12″ iPad have been circulating, but don’t expect anything concrete here, other than references to variable screen sizes. Bonus points: The rumored split screen apps for the iPad is said to be a no-go right now. If the iPad Pro is a thing, expect split screen apps to be added to 8.1 or 8.2 in the fall when the new iPads are announced. It will be an additional feature for new hardware, much like the M7 chip in the iPhone 5S and iOS 7.2.

12″ Retina MacBook Air

I could see this happening. Many developers code on an Air. I use an 11″ Air as my daily computer. The 12″ is said to be more like a mini 13″ MacBook Pro. More blocky and less tapered. They’ll need the extra volume to fit in more battery for the screen, I’d guess. Apple recently lowered the price of the MacBook Airs $100, so this would leave room in the pricing structure for a new model. And retina screens are so pretty.

Retina Thunderbolt Display

The old thunderbolt display needs an update. It’s currently thicker than an iMac. While a Retina/4K Thunderbolt Display would be awesome, Apple currently only sells 2 computers that can run it, the 15″ Retina MacBook Pro with discreet graphics card, and the Mac Pro. It’s a maybe, but a low-volume seller to be sure.

iWatch

While I would love to see it announced, I find it unlikely. Something this anticipated by nerds would probably get it’s own hardware event, or be bundled into a hardware event with other new stuff. That being said, a wearable of some sort would need developer support, and Apple currently sells nothing like this. Announcing it now for a fall release makes sense. It would give developers time to get apps ready for day one, and Apple would be losing any sales by pre-announcing a product they don’t have an older version of.

Pie In The Sky Thoughts and Wishes.

Inter App Communication

We need this. Say I have a text document, which as I’ve already pointed out, I have several. I see that document in my DropBox App, and tap the “Open In” button to open it in Byword. It works fine. I edit the document, but need to preview the Markdown syntax in a code editor. So, I tap “Open In” in Byword, and open the document in Diet Coda. It works, and I happily see my color-coded brilliance and send it off to Editorial, which is a text editor that runs simple code. All is well and good, except now I have a copy of that document in Dropbox, Byword, Diet Coda, and Editorial. This is an extreme example, but it happens. Well, not to me, I’d just do everything in Editorial, but that’s for a different day. Take a photo, import it into a photo editor, then slide it over to an app that will put meme-text on it, then publish to Instagram. Four copies of that picture are now in four different apps. It happens all the time.

iOS needs a “Send to” command, not an “Open in”. Select a picture, send to iPhoto, then send to Meme Gen, then send to Instagram. When it leaves one app, it’s gone. Same with documents. If I open a Pages document in Word, close it in Pages. I don’t need both versions. Android and Windows Phone both do this to varying degrees of success, and Apple can do it better.

Choose Default Apps

We need a simple screen in Settings to choose default apps. I use Mailbox for email. I use Camera+ for most of my pictures. I use the Safari web browser. I like CoBook for my contacts. Some like gMail, the stock Camera, and Chrome. Certain apps should have user-defined defaults. Bury a screen in Settings to set default browsers, email clients, text editors, cameras, and online storage providers. It won’t add complexity to novice users, because they will never change the settings. Advanced users can choose to open links in a different browser, or have a Mailbox sheet pop up instead of the default Mail.app sheet when composing an email within an app. It’s easy, and developers would have to support it per app. Mailbox would have to create a popover sheet for composing a message within another app, but it wouldn’t be an undue burden, and could be a marketing advantage.

More iCloud Storage

We need to get more iCloud storage. I can buy a 64GB iPhone and a 128GB iPad. Then, I can buy up to 50 GB of iCloud storage for backup. I can’t even do a full backup of my phone. I know, I know. You don’t back up EVERYTHING. Apps, music, and movies can be re-downloaded from iTunes. But what if I have several gigs of video and picures in my Camera Roll? What if I have 200 Keynote presentations? What if my workgroup uses iWork to collaborate on multi-gig projects? I need to be able to have enough storage to handle that if Apple wants me to use iCloud. Right now, stuff is all over iCloud, Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. Would it be so hard to say “You bought a 32GB device, so here is 32GB of storage. It costs $25 a year.” If you buy a 128GB device, you get the same deal. Apple makes money on the memory upgrades, $100 for every doubling. (an 8GB upgrade from 8GB to 16GB is $100. A 64GB upgrade from 64GB to 128GB is also $100. I don’t get it…) At least give us a cloud to go to.

Improved photo workflows

Something, ANYTHING better than Photo Stream, please. Where are my pictures? On the Camera Roll, in the Photo Stream? I delete the picture from the Camera Roll, but it’s still in Photo Stream? What if I delete it from Photo Stream, will it delete it from iPhoto back home? Who knows…

Customizable Control Center

Let me choose the 4 apps in the Control Center, just like I can choose the four apps in my Dock. I never use the flashlight or the Calculator. Just let me put OmniFocus in there, PLEASE.

Notification Center

A few things: Lose the weather sentence and show me an icon and a number. That’s all anyone needs. Also, let me dismiss all notifications at once, and let me reply to messages and delete emails by swiping around Notificaion Center.

Actionable notifications

When a text pops up, let me reply. I don’t need to open Messages to do it. Same for reminders, calendar invites, Twitter messages, etc.

On board Siri

Remember Voice Control? You could open apps, play songs, and look up contacts and call people in your address book. All with the on-board processor of the iPhone 4. Here we are years later, and apparently the magic Siri cloud is necessary for these simple tasks. Move the easy stuff back on to the phone.

Why Do People Give Money To Trip Chowdhry?

From a CNBC story on March 20, 2014:

“They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear,” said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research.

Cut to 60 days later…

Chowdhry is supposed to be a financial analyst in the tech sector, but he is constantly wrong.

On a funny aside, as I was typing this post on my iPad, autocorrect changed “Chowdhry” to “chowderhead” twice. Then, it learned it was wrong and stopped. 

 

Unlike Chowdhry.  

And you wonder why...

Mike Woodward, President of HTC North America, speaking about the Samsung Galaxy S4:

We’re pleased to see no innovation in the design itself

This would explain why HTC has been losing money and market share hand over fist the last few years. Innovation is not changing the way a device looks. It’s changing the way people use it.

iPhones have looked basically the same since 2007, but every year Apple changes the way people can use them. Samsung is doing the same with the Galaxy line, and I think it’s a good move.

The Fixer

Eddy Cue, the new sheriff in Apple Town.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has fired the manager responsible for its troubled mapping software, seeking to win back the trust of users disappointed after the program debuted in September, according to people familiar with the move.