Monthly Archives: October 2011

∞ How Richard Branson started Virgin Atlantic

Written by

kottke.org:

In ’79, when Joan, my fiancee and I were on a holiday in the British Virgin Islands, we were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico; but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was cancelled. The airport terminal was full of stranded passengers. I made a few calls to charter companies and agreed to charter a plane for $2000 to Puerto Rico. Cheekily leaving out Joan’s and my name, I divided the price by the remaining number of passengers, borrowed a blackboard and wrote: VIRGIN AIRWAYS: $39 for a single flight to Puerto Rico.

Brilliant.

∞ The delicious design sandwich

Written by

Jason Gross:

With virtually every website, good UX design can be sectioned into three parts or events: introduction, consumption and reaction. Content is at the core, the meat of what the user is looking for, and on both sides of the content are events that are driven by a well-executed design.

This is what I tried to do with The Loop’s new design. Making a simple design that highlights the content is much more difficult than what I thought it would be.

∞ Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers

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GigaOM: Netflix’s subscriber attrition in the wake of a price hike and separation of its streaming and DVD businesses is even greater than first thought. The company ended the quarter with 23.8 million subscribers in the third quarter, which is … Continued

∞ Trading in iCloud photo stream

Written by

Dave Caolo:

iCloud’s Photo Stream feature is handy, in that it pushes photos shot with a compatible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to Apple’s servers and then back to other authorized devices. It’s a hindrance for the same reason, in that my iPhone, iPad and Mac are now cluttered with space-hogging one-offs I shot for the sake of a tweet or a Facebook update.

I haven’t noticed this myself, but perhaps I just don’t take enough pictures for it to be a problem.

∞ Glenn Fleishman reviews AirPort Utility for iOS

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AirPort Utility for iOS is the perfect tool for configuring and troubleshooting Apple’s gear without having to lug a laptop around, but it needs to improve its handling of password storage. When it comes to networking, Glenn is the man.

∞ New World of Warcraft expansion to feature Pandaren as playable characters

Written by

Over the weekend, Blizzard Entertainment revealed details about the next major installment of its long-running World of Warcraft game – Mists of Pandaria. No release date was offered (standard operating procedure for Blizzard, which won’t ship a product before it’s … Continued

∞ Siri co-founder leaves Apple

Written by

Kara Swisher:

There were several reasons for the departure, which was amicable and has been planned for a while, sources said. They included Kittlaus’s family being in Chicago, a desire to take time off and an interest in brainstorming new entrepreneurial ideas.

∞ Moron

Written by

Sascha Vongehr:

Now it is not exactly news that Apple products are overpriced and of relatively low quality…

To prove his point he shows an iPhone 4S being dropped from shoulder height. I think the writer must have been dropped on his head from shoulder height.

Talking about Siri, Vongehr again shows how moronic he can be.

∞ NYCTruckFood

Written by

Our state-of-the-art interactive map allows you to see which trucks are in your area RIGHT NOW. You can also search for your favorite trucks by cuisine, and hear about new trucks.

One of the best things about New York City is the food…

∞ Tumult Hype [Sponsor]

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Tumult Hype lets you create animated HTML5 content that will wow your website’s visitors. Its output works on all modern browsers and mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. No coding necessary. Tumult Hype has a trial available, and can be … Continued

∞ Congrats on four years of StevieSnacks

Written by

My friend Anthony Stauffer is celebrating his fourth anniversary of running his blues-based guitar Web site, StevieSnacks.com. Stauffer is one of the best blues guitar teachers I’ve come across on the Internet. He delves into the legends like B.B. King, … Continued

∞ Siri's female voice raises questions

Written by

CNN: People describe the app using female pronouns. Her gender has even prompted some users to flood blogs and online forums with sexually suggestive questions for Siri such as “What are you wearing?” (Siri’s baffled response: “Why do people keep … Continued

∞ Steve Jobs on Apple's HDTV

Written by

Walter Isaacson recounting a conversation with Steve Jobs about an Apple HDTV

“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

∞ SoundCloud integrated into Pro Tools 10

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With SoundCloud baked into Pro Tools 10, audio producers from all fields can share their sounds privately with collaborators for feedback or share polished works to the world. Throughout the creative process, Pro Tools and SoundCloud make audio production and promotion easier.

This is a great move for both companies.

∞ iOS 5 Newsstand's impact is significant

Written by

Jeff Sonderman for Poynter:

Since Apple launched it last week in the latest version of its iOS operating system, its impact has been immediate and significant. Many Newsstand apps now rank among the top free apps overall, and magazine and newspaper apps are benefiting from a surge of downloads and subscribers.

And some people said the App Store wouldn’t impact magazine and newspaper subscriptions at all.

∞ Pro Tools 10: Clip-based gain tutorial

Written by

MacProVideo:

The Clip-Based Gain feature in Pro Tools 10 provides a much quicker and visually appealing solution. Using the clip gain line you’re able to adjust the gain for individual clips and match their relative levels. You’ll notice right away how the waveform view updates in real-time to reflect the clip gain changes. Very impressive!

There are some great looking features in Pro Tools 10 — this is just one of them.

∞ PDFpen

Written by

I’d like to thank Smile and PDFpen for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. PDFpen is a great application for editing your PDFs. You can add signatures to PDFs and email them back, instead of resorting to printing … Continued

∞ Steve Jobs called Android a 'stolen product'

Written by

An excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s book looking at a meeting between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt:

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said.

∞ Avid releases Pro Tools 10

Written by

Avid on Thursday unveiled the next major version of its digital audio workstation, Pro Tools.

The company updated its Web site tonight with all of the information on Pro Tools 10, and there certainly looks like there’s a lot to be excited about.

∞ Apps should seem almost magical

Written by

I’m asked to test quite a bit of software and give feedback to the developers. Sometimes that goes well, others times, not so well.

To me, making an app simple to use — whether on the iPhone, iPad or Mac — doesn’t mean stripping out all of the features. All that does is make the app less useful for the user.

∞ Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman on vinyl

Written by

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of Blizzard Of Ozz (U.S. release) and Diary Of A Madman. Both landmark albums took metal in a new direction in the early 1980’s, inspiring new generations of rock bands and fans. Both of these Hard Rock Masterpieces showcase Ozzy’s musical collaborations with late guitar hero Randy Rhoads. These Limited Edition Picture Disc LPs have been restored and remastered from the original source tapes and feature the original cover artwork printed on the LP itself.

Two classic albums with Randy Rhoads on guitar.

∞ MobileMount for iPhone 4S

Written by

The MobileMount is a universal mount/kickstand for virtually any hand held device with a flat surface, like smartphones and tablets. Comprised of two twist-to-lock suction cups and one ball joint, this device’s unique design allows for superior suction and durability. The “Patent Pending” Twist-to-Lock suction cups can hold devices for weeks at a time rather than simply a few hours like other competing mounts. Additionally, the universal design allows for users to mount their phone without removing the case.

This is the best looking idea for a mount I’ve seen. Support the project if you can.