By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

For the record, a link to the letter on Apple's website is here.

One of the commentators who looked at what Tim Cook's apology might mean was Michael Grothaus on TUAW who had been particularly critical of the app, but who also makes the point that the apology does indicate that Apple cares about the customer. Anyone who thought differently has not been watching carefully enough over the last few years. The solution offered by Michael Grothaus -- to return to Google Maps -- is wrong.

There were a number of comments on the apology which is on the Apple site, including from Nathan Ingram on The Verge. The letter is not unprecedented as when the CEO (Jobs and Cook) has deemed it necessary, a letter informing the customers (and the press) is released. Several commentators suggested that Jobs would never have apologised and this is flat wrong. Rene Ritchie on iMore also covered the letter release as did Peter Kafka on All Things Digital who confirms that Cook was careful not to blame Google at all (not Google's fault of course) but does include Google's Maps in one of the suggested alternatives for now.

Writing on CNN Money at Fortune, Philip Elmer-DeWitt examines the responsibility of Scott Forestall in this: after all, he was the one who stood up on the stage at the Developers Conference -- and again at the Apple Event in early September -- and told us all how wonderful the Maps app was. Philip Elmer-DeWitt points out that he did this with Siri as well (which was at least marked as beta) and reprises some of Forestall's career and his ambition.

Of particular interest in the report is the number of faults that a basic run through with checking software was able to find and also the comment that he included from Jean-Louis Gassée that the "demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers". But not the app. How much did Forestall know?

As I commented earlier, the biggest problem with the maps was not the app itself, but the reaction from online and print sources each of whom seemed to try and outdo the next man (or woman). Louie Herr on Digital trends calls this overreaction the biggest problem with the Maps app and mentions "Antennagate" -- a problem that was nowhere near as bad as some press made out and which also affected other handsets, which they conveniently omitted -- as well as the iPhone release record sales which were not enough for some.

I might also mention the record financial results that are never enough. Louie Herr outlines some of the problems with the Maps app (no one says there were none, but then Google Maps is nowhere near perfect) and has a few ideas about repairing the PR damage. My source for this item was MacDaily News.

Also commenting is Jim Dalrymple in a guest column on Tech Crunch who calls this problem a Black Eye: Nothing More. He also points out that the Maps app is just one part of the iOS 6 update.

Something I had not experienced was VoiceOver access to the iPhone App Store which was causing some problems: I had however had problems accessing the App Store from directly within certain apps, like the new Passbook. I fixed that by changing the date from Automatic, setting it forward one year, then setting it back on Auto. Neil Hughes on AppleInsider reports on a fix for the VoiceOver accessibility issues.

The second round of iPhone 5 releases happened in another 22 countries last Friday and, as expected, there were crowds at each of the stores where the sales were available. AppleInsider reports on some of the releases and there are a number of videos included. Darrell Etherington has a related report on the new availability of the iPhone 5 with more carriers.

I also came across a really useful (and long) review of the iPhone 5 by Matthew Panzarino on The Next Web. His conclusion is worth repeating:

The iPhone 5 is the most capable and carefully designed smartphone ever. There is no other on the market that combines the best screen in the world with a completely custom processor and a wafer thin chassis to produce an LTE-fast device with industry standard or better battery life.

The only way that the iPhone 5 could be unimpressive is if you're the kind of person that thinks that the more aftermarket fiberglass fins that a car has, the faster it will go.

I have been using Notification Center for a while, but there are still some who may not be. Some do not update right away and I advised a Phuket user recently who was still on OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard quite happily. He managed to updated to Mountain Lion in one go, and had a few surprises, but should be getting more benefits from his iPhone as well now. Rene Ritchie on iMore has a run down on how users can use Notification Center and there is a lot of useful information in the article.

I am a fan of Find my iPhone, Find my iPad and the other like apps, but there are still a few surprising stories appearing about how these apps have been used. Dave Caolo on TUAW writes about a Nightline report that tracked an iPad that had been abandoned and then tracked it . . . to the home of a TSA agent. It stayed there for 2 weeks until a film crew came to collect it. Ten iPads were left at various locations and the stories made a useful investigation.

Unrelated, but really useful in the context is a hint from Sandro Cuccia on The MacObserver on how to use the stronger passcode with an iOS device. As well as the four-number code, we can turn on a feature that allows us to enter a longer alphanumeric code.

There was another story at the end of last week about increased use of iPads when Daniel Eran Dilger on AppleInsider reported that a large US company, Urban Outfitters had removed all their cash registers and replaced them with iPads which will save space and money as well as allowing better customer interaction.

Over the weekend an update to Aperture was released bringing the photography workflow software to version 3.4.1.

Other Matters

Local Items

Late News

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.