Yearly Archives: 2015

I want to take a minute to thank you all for your support over the last year. The sponsors, the members of the site, The Deck Network and every reader of what we write—we appreciate you all so much.

I’d like to thank Dave Mark and Shawn King for the work they do on the site. They bring another level of expertise and fun to The Loop that has helped the site continue to grow.

I hope you all have a great New Year’s Eve. Please be safe if you’re going out tonight. I want to see you all back here tomorrow, safe and sound.

Jim

CNN:

Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s feature-length Jobs documentary, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, debuts this Sunday on CNN at 9pm ET.

Because of his previous work, I was looking forward to this documentary from Gibney. Sadly, in my opinion, this wasn’t nearly as good as his earlier films.

Apple may offer higher-than-16/44 and/or lossless music downloads at some point, but it would be neither a scam nor an indicator that they believe in audiophile pseudoscience — it would simply be a response to strong demand from a very profitable market. And as long as Apple’s not serving their demands, they risk losing them to competing ecosystems.

Agreed. Also, If people care about the quality of their music, they should also invest in quality headphones. I use Ear Monitors from Future Sonics.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is preparing a session for your mix is very important. It lays out a clear foundation for what you want to do and puts everything in its proper place. You don’t have to follow these tips exactly, but rather use them, and others, to come up with your own plan.

This spring, with the iPhone 6 selling like hotcakes and the stock trading above $124, Ahmad raised his target (to $85) but not his rating. “We sense,” he wrote, “that the company is over-earning, over-loved and, in our view, the stock should be ‘over-and-out’ soon.”

I truly hate seeing people lose their job, but I am glad to see that there are consequences for analysts that don’t seem to know what they’re talking about.

In court papers filed on Wednesday, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) owes nearly $180 million in supplemental damages and interest.

These further damages relate to five Samsung devices that infringed Apple’s patents and were sold after a 2012 jury verdict finding Samsung liable in the dispute.

Good. Those thieves should pay every penny.

What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.

Thanks to Hullo for sponsoring The Loop this week. A buckwheat pillow is kind of like a beanbag for your head. The hull fill provides unique support that’s superior to soft traditional pillow types. Hullo’s features include:

• Quality construction & organic materials.
• Breathable fill that provides cool comfort all night long. No more flipping to the cool side in the middle of the night!
• American-made craftsmanship.
• Free shipping.
• 60-night money-back guarantee.

Drop what you’re doing—go and check out Hullo. Try it for 60 nights. If it’s not your favorite pillow, send it back to us for a refund.

Mental Floss:

In 1917, Bostonians reacted to an unprecedented tragedy in Halifax with an outpouring of support and resources. Nearly a century later, Nova Scotians haven’t forgotten.

On December 6, 1917, a French ship named the Mont-Blanc was passing through Halifax Harbor, making its way from New York to France. The ship was carrying a staggering load of munitions: 2300 tons of pyric acid, 35 tons of benzene, and 200 tons of dynamite. If you think this sounds like an accident waiting to happen, you’re absolutely right. At 8:45 a.m., the Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian cargo ship called the Imo. At first, the French ship simply caught fire, inspiring thousands of people to gather into the harbor to watch.

Then, at 9:04 a.m., it exploded—and the impact was devastating.

As a native Haligonian, We all know the story of this tragedy but few outside the region know of the amazing kindness of the people of Boston. I’ve always wanted to go to the Boston Commons Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony to pay my respects the people of that great city.

Digg:

In America, not many people know much about Boxing Day, besides that it’s the day after Christmas1. In the United Kingdom — and many former colonies of England — Boxing Day, December 26, is a national holiday, yet its origins are still highly debated. Here’s what we know.

For me as a kid in Nova Scotia, Christmas Day was for family and visiting them. Boxing Day was the day you went to friends’ homes.

The story behind a tradition.

This has been around a while, but seems appropriate for this time of year.

Pete Souza:

Throughout the year, I post photographs of my White House work on a regular basis to my Instagram, @PeteSouza. Many followers have inquired about whether a certain photograph is taken with an iPhone or DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera). In choosing the photographs for my year on Instagram, I decided to select only iPhone photographs that were captured in the square format on an iPhone. For many purists, the square format was the original inspiration for Instagram. And I certainly admire those that continue to post only square photos taken with a smart phone.

I love these iPhone shots because it shows that, in the right lighting conditions, the iPhone can take shots every bit as good as a professional’s DSLR. It’s not the camera that is important. It’s the photographer and their view of the world.

Macstories:

Screenshot apps tend to fall into one of two categories: managers and editors. On iOS, screenshot management apps dominate, likely because until Apple added a ‘Screenshots’ album to the Photos app with iOS 9, there was no good way to separate screenshots from snapshots of family and friends. On the Mac there are fewer apps, but their feature sets tend to be deeper.

This article casts a broad net to provide an overview of the top screenshot apps on iOS and Mac and help you find the apps that meet your specific needs.

This is a wonderful ridiculously long list of a number of screenshot methods and apps. You’re sure to find one that does just what you need.

Petapixel:

If you’re a Mac user and are annoyed that OS X automatically launches Apple Photos every time you connect a device or insert a memory card, there’s good news for you: you can disable the program from launching for all devices with a single command.

I find this change by Apple really annoying in particular because, every time you format your memory card (which I do often), OS X/Photos (an app I’m never going to use but can’t delete – thanks Apple!), forgets and treats it like a new device. So being able to kill this activity using a Terminal command is a Godsend.

Universal Audio are simply the best audio plug-ins on the market. They remain true to the analog versions, while giving you the flexibility to make the best music possible. This is all I use.

NSNorth is more than a tech-talk focussed event. It is designed to inspire you to learn something new amongst an encouraging and aspiration-driven group of friends.

I’ve heard great things about this conference. It takes place April 28-30, 2016.

Drum Werks IX is a powerful collection of slow and mid-tempo rock drum loops. A hard rocking addition to Beta Monkey’s versatile Drum Werks line of drum loops and samples, Drum Werks IX offers nearly 600 acoustic drum loops and samples in comprehensive Groove Sets™, from moody 60 BPM vibes through power rock stomping at 90 BPM.

I love Beta Monkey drum loops. They are played by real drummers and recorded in a studio, so your songs sound like your played with a real drummer—because they are. I’ve been buying loops from Beta Monkey for years.

This is kind of cool. You come across a video you want to watch and you bookmark it to Zinc using a Safari extension. You can then bring it up on your Apple TV or other device to watch it later.

ZDNet:

I used the Internet for years before there was a Web, but when Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system, to his boss at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, we didn’t know it but we were on the brink of a revolution.

Berners-Lee’s idea wasn’t new. You can trace it back to Vannevar Bush’s As We May Think article in July 1945. Personally, I think Ted Nelson’s 1960 Xanadu hypertext vision had even more influence on how the Web would turn out. And, of course, Apple’s HyperCard did give us a hypertext system that might have beat Berners-Lee to the Web… except HyperCard was totally network unaware.

The door was open for Berners-Lee to turn the hypertext dream into our Web reality.

Hard to believe it wasn’t that long ago. Us old folks will remember what it was like accessing the internet before the World Wide Web. You kids nowadays don’t know the struggles we had using Archie, Gopher and Mosaic.

“The creation of backdoors and intercept capabilities would weaken the protections built into Apple products and endanger all our customers. A key left under the doormat would not just be there for the good guys. The bad guys would find it too.”

Exactly right. The government—all governments—need to realize that leaving a door open is a door that’s open to everyone, not just law enforcement. They don’t seem to get that.

Good for Apple.

A lot of people have been asking me about guitars this Christmas, so I thought I’d show you the acoustic I’m using. If you’ve ever heard me talk about acoustic guitars, you know I love Taylor—I think they are the best.

The one I’m using is the 612ce 12-Fret. It has a smaller body, which makes it really easy to play, but it’s warm with a huge sound. I’d highly recommend this guitar.

Bloomberg:

Painters put brushes to canvas, sculptors take chisels to marble, potters shape clay on a wheel, but the process for handblown glass is, to put it mildly, slightly more obscure.

“I’ll be out in the world selling my work at a festival, and I’ll ask a child if they know what glass is made of,” says Lisa Aronzon, 58, a glass-blowing artist based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. “I’ve actually had a child say, ‘Plastic?’” When Aronzon explains that glass is made of sand, “Their eyes light up. … It seems like magic, or alchemy,” she says. And in a sense, it is.

I’ve never done it but I’ve always been fascinated by glass blowing. I could watch people do it all day long.

Designed with simple controls, comfortable ergonomics and beautiful filters in mind, allowing you to take photos that are instantly ready to share with the world.

What makes a great camera stand apart is not down to features, per pixel sharpness or the amount of lenses in your bag. What matters is that the camera gets out of the way and lets you take the pictures you want.

I’ve been using this app since it was first released and love it.

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A buckwheat pillow is kind of like a beanbag for your head. The hull fill provides unique support that’s superior to soft traditional pillow types. Hullo’s features include:

• Quality construction & organic materials.
• Breathable fill that provides cool comfort all night long. No more flipping to the cool side in the middle of the night!
• American-made craftsmanship.
• Free shipping.
• 60-night money-back guarantee.

Drop what you’re doing—go and check out Hullo. Try it for 60 nights. If it’s not your favorite pillow, send it back to us for a refund.

Thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. What if you could get 5% of your day back? What would you do?

You already have enough work to do today and shouldn’t have to waste time looking for the things you need to do your job.

Igloo makes it easy to find what you need, when you need it. And it’s not just for locating your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It also helps you find experts, talk about problems and share content with your team. So stop digging through your inbox for that file from 3 months back and give yourself the tools you need to do your best work.

Try it yourself or send your IT guy to investigate Igloo, an intranet you’ll actually like.

Some of these are fascinating. Some are dopey, true, but even those help show what is possible. Good food for thought.