Sep 30, 2012 By Eric Schulze 5 min read

As Wednesday of last week rolled around, I waited with bated breath for the arrival of IOS6. It was in the form of a free download from iTunes on our iPads and iPhones. I know this shows how boring my life may seem to some people, but, hey, to each his own.

I was at Ruby Memorial’s cancer center having the bandage changed on my PICC line and was constantly checking to see if the update was available yet via the hospital’s free Wi-Fi network. Alas, it didn’t appear until about 1 p.m. At this point, I’d become mildly disgusted like a little kid at Christmas who is waiting for Santa to arrive.

I begrudgingly downloaded it and installed it on my iPhone and iPad. As usual, Apple has penalized those with iPhone 3’s and first generation (no camera) iPads by not making it available for those devices. As dedicated Maccies, we have grown to know and hate this routine, but we are used to it.

As I fired up my devices to savor the 200-plus new features, I already knew that in reality, there would probably be few outward changes “under the hood.”

As I’d read beforehand, Apple has fallen out with Google, hence no Google Maps or YouTube app as standard equipment. By now, the shortcomings of Apple’s maps have been well documented on TV and via the web.

The app is pretty sad in comparison with Google, which supposedly is feverishly making a new maps app that we can download from the App Store. I already downloaded a free YouTube application, which seems as good as the old one.

What I did find is that Siri, the voice application, now has all kinds of languages that you can assign to it. My new favorite is a “posh” English male voice that I’ve dubbed “Surrey,” which is a “posh” or “well-to-do” part of England (for the uninitiated).

I’ve been entertaining my guitar students by asking Surrey all kinds of questions. When he replies, we all guffaw. By the way, Siri also has an Australian voice and a Canadian one as well, but I can’t get them to say “G’day” or “Eh” either.

The Surrey thing is also a bit frustrating in that its answers mostly seem to have nothing to do with the question you asked, but I suspect that’s more my fault than his. So far, I can’t get him to call me “Bloody Limey,” so I have to be satisfied with “Rock God.” I’m still working on that.

One thing that thankfully did not happen with any of my applications from IOS5 was incompatibility. I was worried about that, especially since I have quite a few guitar teaching applications on both phone and iPad.

I’m still tinkering away with the new stuff, but, hopefully, Google will get their maps thing out soon, as I miss visiting my old stomping grounds in the UK. It’s amazing to see how different everywhere looks now, even though I’m aware that those images are not totally up to date.

Meanwhile, Doren was counting down the minutes until Friday and the arrival of his new iPhone 5. I sent him an article showing that the new iPhone is now the fastest of all smartphones. There is no truth, however, to the rumor that Doren flew to the Apple factory in China in order to have his iPhone 5 first.

He texted me later on Friday, saying that it was taking three hours to sync, but soon messaged again to tell me that all was well.

On that same day, you could see dozens of eBay ads offering the new phone, with many prices over a thousand dollars. Even scarier was that one seller had 47 phones to sell for about $1,300 each for a 64-gig model. I also saw an online report that the Verizon phones were being sold unlocked, so maybe that’s why I saw so many unlocked models on eBay.

Of course, human nature being what it is, I wistfully wonder if I shouldn’t have maybe waited for the new model. I avoid this subject like the plague with Mrs. Schulze, because I dread hearing the old, “I told you that you should have waited. Now it’s your own fault” or “I’m perfectly happy with my little iPhone4.” I DID get her to update her phone and iPad to IOS6, which, in itself, was groundbreaking.

Now it’s on to what the next big thing from Apple will be. Apple TV? That’s been a big rumor for a while, along with updating the iMac line with the new retina display.

Finally, I also managed to find a new Zagg keyboard/case for my iPad (just like Mrs. Schulze and my mother-in-law, Mary use) on eBay for fifty bucks and I can see why they both love their keyboards as well.

The Zagg also lets you access a few controls by keys instead of making smudgy marks all the time on the screen. They’re coming out with a new model for the iPad 3 next month with backlit keys for about $130. With that “illuminating” thought, I’ll say goodbye until next week.