Yearly Archives: 2012

Unofficial Spotify app on Kickstarter

Written by

As you might or might not know, Spotify terms and conditions don’t allow developers to make money from app sales or advertising. That means I need your support to make this a reality.

A brief history of the iPad

Written by

Dave Caolo’s “A Brief History of the iPad” kicked off today with a prologue that traces the ancestors of modern tablet computing.

Nexus 7 is not a game changer

Written by

Jerry Hildenbrand, Android Central:

The Nexus 7 doesn’t bring a compelling reason to “go Google” when considering a tablet purchase like we were hoping.

[Via iMore]

More ways the iPad can’t create cool things

Written by

Wes Ball goes through his workflow during the production of his short film, RUIN.

Incredible video, but if you go to about 1:30 he talks about using the iPad to create the trees for the project (Yes, I said create). […]

iPad helps scientists

Written by

Joel Mathis, Macworld:

It wasn’t so long ago that Chris Grant would regularly take a whole laboratory’s worth of equipment with him into the wilderness. These days, he just takes an iPad.

This must be wrong. The iPad is only for consumption.

Busy

Written by

An interesting look at being busy from Rob Pegoraro.

RIM’s positive outlook could get it sued

Written by

“They’re going to get sued and they should get sued because I think a closer look at the record is likely to unearth knowing and willful misrepresentation,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, the former president of Apple’s products division and the founder of the software maker Be, who is now a venture capitalist and blogger in Palo Alto, Calif. “When the C.E.O. says there’s nothing wrong with the company as it is, it’s not cautious, it doesn’t make sense.”

Apple kills sites selling iOS betas

Written by

Federico Viticci:

While most of our emails bounced, we heard back from one of the site owners (who asked to remain anonymous), who confirmed his hosting provider took down the site after a complaint for copyright infringement by Apple.

This is a good thing. You’re not allowed to sell access to the beta, so they should be shutdown. Here’s the thing — these OS updates are betas and most people don’t realize the damage they can do to their phones if something goes wrong. As a developer, I have full access to the beta, but I still don’t have it on my phone.

Judge: Samsung ‘not as cool’ as Apple

Written by

Samsung Electronics defeated Apple in the latest spat in the rivals’ patent wars when a British judge ruled Samsung’s Galaxy tablets did not infringe the U.S. company’s designs for the iPad because they were “not as cool”.

I laughed. Hard.

One announcement away from destroying the Nexus

Written by

Abdel Ibrahim:

But unfortunately for Amazon and Google, as good as their impending tablets are shaping up to be, Apple’s got something up its sleeve, too.

I agree with Abdel on Google, but not as much with Amazon. When Apple releases its smaller iPad, all tablet manufacturers are going to feel the heat — there is no doubt in my mind about that. However, I believe people purchase the Amazon products for a different reason. They buy into the Kindle brand as opposed to just purchasing a tablet. While some people may choose to buy the smaller iPad, many will continue to buy the Kindle because it does the one thing they really want from it — read books.

Canadian weather

Written by

I mentioned Canadian weather on Amplified the other day, which lead Dan Ruswick to make this funny page.

Christianity isn’t the only religion?

Written by

It’s an honest mistake, assuming that the Constitution only protects your own personal megachurch faith. But one Louisiana Republican is learning the hard way that religious school vouchers can be used to fund education at all sorts of religious schools, even Muslim ones. And while she’s totally in favor of taxpayer money being used to pay for kids to go to Christian schools, she’s willing to put a stop to the entire program if Muslim schools are going to be involved.

Hate

Written by

Erin Gloria Ryan:

Obscene images, hate sites and a game where people are invited to beat you up have been inflicted on Anita Sarkeesian.

Just terrible.

The bullshit story of the week

Written by

There’s a a lot of shit stories out there, but a site called “Trusted Reviews” outdid everyone. They actually did a comparison between the Microsoft Surface and the iPad to see which one was better.

How in the sweet hell do you compare a product that isn’t on the market, nobody has touched and we don’t know the full specs or even price.

Bullshit.

Toshiba’s sleazy tablet ads

Written by

BuzzFeed:

I honestly can’t believe this was approved by such a major company as Toshiba (212,000 employees worldwide). This is 2012, right? Anyway, creatively, the videos are basically lame. The double entendres are lame. The ending jokes are really lame. If you’re going to be sexist morons, at least push the idea a bit. `

` Agreed. If you’re going to be sexist morons, at least put some effort into it. Thanks to Michael Gartenberg

Who wrote this shit?

Written by

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg talking about his speech at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. […]

Marketcircle Daylite 4

Written by

I’d like to thank Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Marketcircle develops award winning business apps for the Mac, iPhone & iPad. Makers of Billings Pro & the totally redesigned Daylite 4.

Billings Pro is a time tracking & invoicing application for the Mac & iPhone that’s perfect for freelancers, lawyers, designers and more.

Daylite 4 is a productivity manager application designed to keep your entire business & team organized in a Mac, iPad & iPhone environment. Organize your contacts, schedule, tasks, business opportunities, projects, emails and more in a single app.

Learn more and download your free trial at Marketcircle.

Def Leppard will re-record hits to spite record company

Written by

“Our contract is such that they can’t do anything with our music without our permission, not a thing. So we just sent them a letter saying, ‘No matter what you want, you are going to get “no” as an answer, so don’t ask.’ That’s the way we’ve left it. We’ll just replace our back catalog with brand new, exact same versions of what we did.”

The band doesn’t like the way the record company is paying them (or not paying them) for digital downloads, so they will re-record and bypass the company altogether.

25 awesome DIY ideas for bookshelves

Written by

Buzzfeed:

These easy and clever bookshelves look so much cooler than anything you can buy from a store. Finding creative ways to display books can be just as alluring as any kind of art.

I love books and love displaying them. Some of these designs look so simple even I could make them.

The stylus

Written by

I have mercilessly ridiculed products like the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Microsoft Surface for including a stylus. Here’s why. […]

Malware hits the App Store

Written by

Antivirus researchers at Kaspersky say they’ve spotted an app known as “Find and Call” in both the iPhone App Store and Google’s Play market that secretly uploads all of a user’s contacts to a remote server and then sends text message and email spam to every number and email address listed in his or her phonebook.

I hate Malware. I wonder if Apple will change the way it does app reviews now that someone found a way to get through the walled garden?

Google wants to teach you to be a “Power Searcher”

Written by

Good Education:

Dying to become a master of Google’s search engine? If so, look no further than Power Searching with Google, a new, free class offered by the tech giant starting July 10th. The course promises to teach users “tips, tricks and tactics” that’ll help you “find exactly what you’re looking for, when you most need it.” Real talk: Even if you don’t spend your time dreaming about how to improve your searching skills, you should take Google up on their offer to teach you.Google’s education program manager Terry Ednacot writes on the Google Blog that no matter what your current searching ability may be—from those of us who have no idea you can use the search box as a calculator to folks who are already masters of Boolean logic—through the six 50-minute lessons of the class, you’ll learn how to use the search function to “solve everyday problems” and help you “find what you need faster.”

You’d be surprised at how much better your search results, whether for school, work or play, will become if you know how to use and access Google more efficiently.

Ballmer: ‘Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy!’

Written by

Here’s what he told an engineer who left for Google in 2004, after hurling a chair:“Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy!” Ballmer yelled, according to the court document. “I’m going to fucking bury that guy! I have done it before and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.”

Checkmark for iPhone

Written by

Reminders — when and where you want them.

The app is coming soon and I’m excited to see it.