Yearly Archives: 2012

The Loop gets Decked

I’m very happy to announce that as of March 1, 2012, The Loop has joined exclusive ad network, The Deck. You can see ads from The Deck on the right hand side of every page on the site.

Being part of The Deck allows me to keep The Loop focused on what’s important — the content. It also allows me to show relevant ads from top notch companies without impeding your reading experience.

Since The Loop went through its major redesign in September 2011, many of you wrote saying how much better the reading experience is. I truly appreciate that. Joining The Deck will preserve and strengthen that experience.

With the move to The Deck, I am joining some of the greatest sites on the Web including Daring Fireball, Marco Arment, Laughing Squid, Khoi Vinh and Jason Kottke, among many others.

The Deck, like The Loop, is about delivering a quality Web experience. I am committed to bringing that to you with my writing and the way I choose to present advertising on the site.

I hope you will take a minute and visit the advertisers when you see something that interests you.

Don’t forget, we also have $3 monthly memberships available for individuals (with a full text RSS feed) and exclusive weekly RSS sponsorships where companies and developers can reach The Loop’s readers.

Thank you for your continued support.

Reflection brings screen mirroring from iOS to the Mac

TUAW:

Ever wanted to use AirPlay mirroring to show the screen of your iPad 2 or iPhone 4/4S on your Mac? Just released, Reflection ($14.99 for a single license, $39.99 for a 5 pack) offers a well-featured mirroring receiver for OS X, ideal for education and demos — and a great way to eliminate the Frankencable for iPad video capture.

Lytro camera review

The Verge:

The self-titled Lytro camera, a digital camera that neither looks nor operates like any camera you’ve ever seen: it measures megarays instead of megapixels, captures light fields instead of light, and lets you focus your pictures after you’ve taken them.We’ve been following the Lytro since its inception, and there’s absolutely no doubt that the camera represents a huge technological achievement, but will you be ditching your DSLR for a Lytro, or even your point-and-shoot? Read the full review to find out.

Deal of the Day – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for $90

If you find Apple’s iPhoto not powerful enough for your photo editing needs, take a look at both Apple’s Aperture and Adobe’s Lightroom apps. Both apps have free 30 day trials you can download and play with.

Aperture is available on the Mac App Store for the ridiculously low price of $80.00 and Amazon has Photoshop Lightroom available for a limited time for only $90.00.

Neither application has won the war of “Which is Better”. Both have their plusses and minuses. I’ve used both and like Lightroom better but for no other reason than a preferred interface, not functionality.

For those who want to play on the bleeding edge, Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom 4 is now in public beta.

Rock Hard Funk II drum loops

With 400 live acoustic grooves to inspire any songwriter looking for a strong rhythmic foundation, this collection takes the atttiude of rock and pop and infuses it with the groove-centric vibe of funk.

Beta Monkey makes the best drum loops in the business. These are real drums, recorded in a studio with a drummer.

Humor: iPad 3 facts

Joy of Tech: iPad 3 is so kickass it comes with Chuck Norris action jeans.

Samsung admits its tablet are a flop

Samsung Electronics admitted that its attempt to breach the tablet market has largely been a flop, with one executive offering a sobering summary of its performance.“Honestly, we’re not doing very well in the tablet market,” Hankil Yoon, a product strategy executive for Samsung.

So, to boost sales you release a stylus?

Withings brings iOS baby monitor to US

Withings’ Smart Baby Monitor works with an iOS app so you can keep track of what’s going on in your baby’s room if you’re elsewhere in the house.

Apple worth more than Poland

Apple’s valuation pegs higher than the gross domestic product of Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, or Taiwan.

Apple takes its iPad claim back to Chinese court

Apple argued in front of a Chinese court on Wednesday for its right to use the iPad trademark in China – a claim contested by Proview Technology, which Apple secured the trademark from several years ago using a shell corporation.

Andrew Stanton dedicated ‘John Carter’ to Steve Jobs

iFilm:

When Steve Jobs died in October of last year, it was a blow to us all. The loss was felt especially hard at Pixar, the successful film company he helped not only create, but isolate from the Hollywood machine. John Carter, directed by one of Pixar’s most prolific directors, Andrew Stanton, comes out next week and though it’s not Pixar, the film is dedicated to the memory of the legendary businessman and inventor. During the credits, a card says:Dedicated to the Memory of Steve Jobs, an Inspiration to Us AllAt a recent press junket, Stanton was asked why he decided to dedicated Carter to Jobs and his answer was both logisically sound and beautifully poignant.

Santorum woos voters with Apple inspired 1984 ad

The Atlantic:

I do have to wonder what Steve Jobs would have thought if he had lived long enough to see this video – which is Rick Santorum’s application of the 1984 motif in his campaign.

It also has echoes of Apple’s much disliked “Lemmings” ad.

The Department of Homeland Security searches Facebook and Twitter for these words

Animal:

The Department of Homeland Security monitors updates on social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, to uncover “Items Of Interest” (IOI), according to an internal DHS document released by the EPIC. That document happens to include a list of the baseline terms for which the DHS–or more specifically, a DHS subcontractor hired to monitor social networks–use to generate real-time IOI reports.

So – don’t use those words.

Apple loophole gives access to photos

New York Times:

Developers of applications for Apple’s mobile devices, and Apple itself, came under scrutiny this month after reports that some apps were taking people’s address book information without their knowledge.As it turns out, address books are not the only things up for grabs. Photos are also vulnerable. After a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to have access to location information, the app can copy the user’s entire photo library, without any further notification or warning, according to app developers.

Twitter ads head to your phone

AllThingsD:

Twitter is expanding its ad program to iPhone and Android handsets, as the company gets more aggressive about ramping up revenue. Twitter has already been showing some limited advertising on its mobile apps.Just like the Promoted Tweets that Twitter shows on its primary Twitter.com site, these ads will show up in users’ “timelines.” At first Twitter will only allow advertisers to place the ads in front of users who already following their accounts. But within months it will expand the program to allow marketers to reach people who don’t follow them — just as it does on the Web.

Apple announces iPad event for March 7 in San Francisco

As expected, Apple on Monday announced an event to show off the company’s next generation iPad. The invitation, sent to me by Apple, says the event will take place at 10:00 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. […]

Sprint commits to buy almost 24M iPhones

Sprint’s latest regulatory filing shows that the cell carrier is making a huge commitment to Apple to carry the iPhone – to the tune of $15.5 billion.

Thumbtack gives easy access to Pinboard bookmarks

Thumbtack is a menu bar utility that provides quick and easy access to the most recently saved bookmarks in your Pinboard account. It was developed around one core feature allowing it be polished, reliable, and extremely efficient.

The Loop’s full text RSS feed and other sharing options

When The Loop re-launched in September 2011, I took down 99 percent of the ads and made the site easier to read. It’s all about the content. As part of the change, I also added a membership option and full text RSS feed.

Many people have said they didn’t know about the full text RSS, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to mention it again.

A membership to The Loop is basically a way for readers to help support the site. It costs $3 per month and in return you get access to a full text feed. We also have a free truncated feed too, so there are options available.

Even though the free feed is truncated, we try to include the full text for the linked list posts. The goal is not to make it harder to read the site, but easier.

The money from members has gone to good use. We have used the money to upgrade the servers, bandwidth and CDNs we use, making the site much faster than what it’s been in the past.

There are other ways you can follow the site. We have a Facebook page that you can like, a Google+ page, and you can follow The Loop for site updates and my twitter feed for site updates and my personal thoughts.

You can also share the stories using the Twitter, Facebook and Google+ buttons on the bottom of each story.

Thanks everyone for your continued support of The Loop.

Deposit for iPhone helps you count cash

In many work environments, cashiers are given worksheets where denominations are counted, recorded, totaled, then submitted. Deposit was created with this in mind. With Deposit, each denomination is recorded separately, the total is calculated in real-time, and printed cash reports are only a few touches away.

It can also print the total and send an email to your manager.