Samsung Unveils Passbook-Like "Wallet"

Dan Seifert, writing for The Verge:

"The Wallet app is designed to let users store things such as event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards, and coupons in one central location, much in the same fashion as Apple's Passbook app for iOS."

Jordan Kahn of 9to5Google:

"As for the Apple influence, aside from the look and feel of the app and icon (pictured above), the Samsung Wallet app doesn’t seem to provide any additional functionality above and beyond what Passbook already offers."

Passbook has been around for a while now, but I have yet to be impressed by it in my personal life. In fact, I think it was a pretty poor launch on Apple's part.

Say what you want about their penchant for copying Apple, but this could have been Samsung's chance to blow the competition out of the water. Sounds like they blew it.

Cleartones

After Patrick Rhone linked to Cleartones over at Minimal Mac this morning, I realized that I have somehow never mentioned them here on Unretrofied. I aim to rectify that right now.

Cleartones is a set of beautiful, minimal ringtones and alert tones for iPhone and Android that were created by sound designer Hugo Verweij, who also runs the wonderful Everyday Listening blog.

I've purchased both the original and "organic" sets, and just before Christmas, Hugo was nice enough to release six extra tones recorded by a concert harpist, exclusively for existing Cleartones customers as a thank-you gift.

The pricing works this way:

• $10 for the ringtones pack from either set.
• $10 for the alert tones pack from either set.
• $17 for the ringtones and alert tones combo pack from either set.
• $30 for the entire collection of tones from both sets.

Alternatively, you can "pay with a tweet" for either set to receive two ringtones and two notification tones. This is a brilliant move on Hugo's part, allowing you to try out the product in exchange for a little free advertising.

I highly recommend these tones, and hope you'll check them out. I'm sure you'll like them too.