Yearly Archives: 2012

Google kills its Mac blog

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Our Mac and iOS support has now become so mainstream that we realized we just don’t need to keep Mac news on its own blog, so we won’t be posting here any longer.

Apple v. Motorola: Judge Posner dismisses entire patent case, no injunctions to be issued

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The Verge:

In US federal court this evening, Judge Richard Posner just ruled that the case of Apple v. Motorola will be dismissed in its entirety. The case, in which Apple alleged Motorola was in violation of four of its patents and Motorola was left with one claim in return (the patent counts had originally been higher on both sides), had been in litigation since 2010, most recently with a hearing in Chicago this past Wednesday.

Ethically challenged

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David Roth:

I would argue that, in many instances, the record companies’ desire to force people to buy (or rent) music in a way that contradicts their desires as consumers “justifies” (in the users’ minds) the continued stealing.

Great post.

Google to launch cloud services platform

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Om Malik:

Google is very likely to launch a cloud services platform at its annual developer conference, Google I/O next week in San Francisco. It was one of the topics of discussion in the hallways of our Structure 2012 conference. We have since confirmed with multiple sources who are familiar with Google’s plans which include a more comprehensive offering that its current app engine and storage offerings.

This will be very interesting.

Sidecar

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Many thanks to Sidecar.me for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Sidecar re-imagines the traditional phone call for your smartphone.

Sidecar lets you call and share:

  • See What I See Video: Share amazing real-time videos.

  • Photos: Snap brilliant pictures, or share photos from the phone’s gallery.

  • Locations: See where you are in relation to others, and share locations.

  • Contact: Information: Pass along and integrate contacts from their phone’s address book.

  • Whisper Text: Send a private text message to another Sidecar user during a call.

And the price is unbeatable:

  • Sidecar users can call each other anywhere in the world for free

  • Sidecar users can call regular phones numbers in the US or Canada for free over Wi-Fi.

Download the app for free in the App Store:

Nick Bilton responds to criticism

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Nick Bilton:

Why? Well, I didn’t knock their baby teeth out, that’s for sure. Instead, I said something slightly negative about an Apple product.

First of all, when you title your follow-up article “When Apple Fanboys Attack,” you’re probably going to get some shit. […]

App Store reviews

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Matthew Panzarino:

By a huge margin, the number one request by these developers was for Apple to allow them to respond directly to reviews on the App Store.

I agree.

More CNET ‘Hands on’ trickery

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It looks like CNET has done it again — or is at least trying. In it’s latest “Hands On” a CNET reporter films a video while a Microsoft employee flips through the start screen on a Windows phone. So someone had their hands on the device, just not CNET. […]

TabToolkit for iOS now has a Tab Store

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TabToolkit now includes a Tab Store right inside the app, with instant access to hundreds of officially licensed, full-score transcriptions with complete notation for each guitar, bass, drum, and keyboard part, as well as vocal tracks with lyrics.

I’ve been using TabToolkit since it was first released. Love this app.

The Surface and the iPad

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My latest Techpinions column looking at Microsoft’s Surface strategy compared to Apple’s:

From what I’ve seen, it seems to me that Microsoft is trying to do a similar type of dance with the Surface that it did with previous tablets. The company is trying to convince consumers that this device can be a computer and a tablet at the same time. Based on the sales of the iPad, I’m not sure that’s what consumers really want.

TextExpander 4 adds features, leaves Mac App Store

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Macworld:

Smile on Thursday released TextExpander 4, the latest incarnation of its typing shortcut utility. Among the new features are additional options for “fill-in-the-blank” snippets, fill-ins for multi-line text fields, dropdown menus for multiple choices, and optional text blocks that you can trigger as needed when expanding a text snippet.But because TextExpander 4 can’t adhere to Apple’s recently-enforced sandboxing guidelines, the new version of the app isn’t available in the Mac App Store.

TextExpander is an indispensable piece of software for me.

Android app can steal credit card data

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The app, dubbed paycardreader, will skim card numbers and expiry dates, along with transactions and merchant IDs, and was successfully tested against a German PayPass Mastercard.

A big pile of steaming Nick Bilton shit

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Nick Bilton for The New York Times:

The iPad, for all its glory, suffers from one very distinct flaw: It’s very difficult to use for creation. The keyboard on the screen, although pretty to look at, is abysmal for typing anything over 140 characters. There isn’t a built-in pen for note-taking, either. Of course all of this is intentional by Apple. Although there are hundreds of third party products available, Apple doesn’t seem to want the iPad to be a creator, but more of a consumer.

Really Nick, you can’t create things on the iPad? What about the musicians who record songs and albums, the artists that make amazing digital paintings, the authors who write books, or the millions of consumers who create memories with movies and photographs.

You lost some credibility with that one Nick.

Ballmer

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Ben Brooks:

Today, Ballmer is bailing water out of the ship. I don’t know if he can bail fast enough to right the ship, but I do know that I am willing to give him a chance to do that.

AmpliTube 2.5 for iPhone and iPad

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AmpliTube 2.5 is a major update that offers the newly released AmpliTube Slash gear model integration, MIDI and digital audio support, a redesigned recorder and mixer section, audio copy/paste, Retina display graphic updates and much more.

I downloaded it, but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.

Giant Hot Wheels track with double vertical loop and real drivers

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Wired:

A team of engineers and two crazy drivers are preparing for a history-making challenge drawn from the daydreams of every child who’s ever crisscrossed his parents’ living room with plastic race tracks: building, and racing on, a human-scale Hot Wheels double loop track, just like the one you had when you were a kid. The “Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare” is set to take place at this month’s Summer X-Games in Los Angeles.Drivers Tanner Foust and Greg Tracey will attempt to race through a 60-foot vertical loop modeled after the new Double Dare Snare Hot Wheels toy, in what would be the first time in history two cars mounted a vertical loop at once.

I have found memories of playing with this track as a kid so I’m looking forward to this stunt. But, just like the Niagara Falls tightrope walker, they’ve had to remove some of the element of danger by using a safety net in case the cars can’t complete the loop. Chickens.

General Motors to offer Siri Eyes Free

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GM Authority:

Last week, Apple announced a host of planned updates to the Siri personal assistant service found in company’s iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet (Siri integration is coming to iPad in the fall). One of those updates, called “eyes-free”, allows an iPhone or iPad user to use Siri without picking up or looking at the device to initiate the feature, which can be used to schedule a meeting, send a text message, add a reminder, find a local restaurant, check sports scores, and perform a myriad of other tasks — all using natural-language voice commands.Today, GM Authority has learned that The General will soon introduce Siri eyes-free integration in its vehicles and the first ones to get the integration will be the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic. While the automaker’s media representatives didn’t provide specific timing details, we were told that we should expect an announcement within the next 12 months.

Want iOS 6? No problem. Buy it from a scofflaw developer

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Wired:

If you’re a diehard Apple fan who desperately wants to run a buggy alpha version of iOS 6 right now, your only legal option is to shell out the $99 to join the iOS Developer Program. Affordable for a developer, the barrier to entry is high enough to keep out casual fans from accidentally bricking their phones and cluttering up the Genius Bar.But over the last couple years, a cottage industry’s popped up around illicit UDID activations — startups exploiting Apple’s Developer Program to sell access to pre-release iOS software, usually for less than $10 per device. The craziest thing? Apple doesn’t seem to care.

Amplified: A kickstand on everything I own

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Jim and Dan continue their conversation about the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. They also offer perspective on Microsoft’s Surface announcement, purchasing music, page views, proper attribution, guitars, and more.Sponsored by Harvest, and Squarespace.