Many thanks to SuperMegaUltraGroovy for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week with Capo.
Reverse Engineering Rock and Roll: Capo is a revolutionary tool that helps you learn the music in your iTunes library. Available for your Mac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
Download the free trial for the Mac, and check out the new mastering-quality slowing engine that retains the detail in your music all the way down to quarter-speed!
Federico Viticci’s incredibly in-depth look at Apple’s App Store.
Premiering in June of 2012, Big Week is hosted by Dan Benjamin and features the news that matters, regular segments, interviews, reporting from 5by5 Newshounds, listener feedback, and discussion with an all-star panel
Everyone is talking about Samsung’s third-generation Galaxy smartphone and the extraordinary number of pre-orders the company received for the new device. It’s bullshit. […]
Over the past five quarters, the onetime darling of mobile telecoms has eroded its cash pile by 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion) – a rate that would wipe out its entire 4.9 billion euros reserves in a couple years.
Truly amazing how far they have fallen.
Building on state-of-the-art encryption standards, DropKey quickly and easily encrypts any file specifically for your recipients — without the need for a password or the hassle of juggling a bunch of keys!
They are giving away the app until May 20.
Jeremy Stanley:
Lots of tinfoil hat, bat-shit insane talk right there. What annoys me to no end is that Curtis omits an important part of this story.
Dustin Curtis:
I’m not particularly surprised that Twitter is doing this kind of data analysis or collection. Facebook is almost certainly doing the same thing. But it is wrong. People do not expect Twitter or Facebook to know about their movements on the web. But they do. And that information is being stored somewhere. It is a violation of privacy and trust.
After almost forty five years of ownership rock superstar Jay Geils is selling his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. He has owned it since 1967 and it has appeared on every single J.Geils Band recording as well as on live shows around the world. Jay has played it on stage with bluesman B.B King, Duane Allman from the Allman Brothers Band, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells . Jay affectionately calls it his “lunch pail” Les Paul because he made his living for so many years playing it.
Somebody needs to buy this for me.
And, according to J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler, Jobs even envisioned rethinking the automotive industry. Speaking at Fast Company’s recent Innovation Uncensored conference, Drexler clued the audience in on some insider Apple knowledge.“Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar.”
“Every man looks better with a beard. Here’s proof.”
Apple capitulated to Greenpeace and other environmental activists on Thursday, stating plans to build a massive solar farm to power its NC-based data center.
DVICE:
…financial institutions, mobile handset makers and carriers have dreamed of turning your cellphone into a mobile wallet, to use your smartphone the same way you use a credit or debit card.Finally, this year we may finally reach this near field communication (NFC) nirvana, of simply waving our smartphone over a retail payment terminal instead of a credit or debit card to pay for our copiously consumed commodities.There’s only one problem. Using your smartphone as a credit or debit card replacement may be more trouble than it’s worth.
I can’t imagine doing this on a regular basis. Too many concerns about security and data integrity for me.
U.S. Senators on Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s decision to renounce his citizenship to avoid paying taxing:
“It’s infuriating to see someone sell out the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire,” said Senator Charles Schumer at a news briefing. “We plan to put a stop to this tax avoidance scheme.”Facebook plans to raise billions of dollars in an initial public offering that could leave Saverin, still a part-owner of the social networking company, with a big capital gains tax bill, estimated to be $67 million.
Comcast wlll replace its current bandwidth caps with a new “data usage management approach” that will incur $10 fees per 50GB of excess bandwidth.
Blizzard Entertainment has apologized for launch-week woes for its Diablo III game.
After almost 20 years of writing news stories and blogs about Apple, it’s become very clear to me that large media companies do not get blogging. This isn’t new, but it’s not changing either. […]
This update enables sandboxing for OS X Lion and improves overall stability.
This is the very first app I’ve heard of that implements sandboxing.
According to Apple, “sandboxing protects the system by limiting the kinds of things an application can do, such as accessing files on disk or resources over the network. Limiting the capabilities of an app to just those operations that it needs to perform helps keep the rest of the system more secure in the event that an app is compromised.”
Not a big surprise to see the Pixelmator team ahead of the curve on implementing new features.
Philip Michaels:
Verizon wants more of its subscribers to opt for shared data plans which cover multiple devices like smartphones and tablets. To convince subscribers who’ve clung to their unlimited data plans to move to this new setup, Verizon is taking much of the choice out of the decision process: If you want to upgrade to a new 4G-compatible phone, you’re going to have to give up that unlimited data.
The carrot and stick.
Joe Palazzolo:
Apple, which hired Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP to fight the claims, said in a recent court filing that Siri may not be perfect — in fact, she is a Beta release, something the company has been upfront about — but she’s still “cutting edge.”
I don’t believe this blood sucking fools are suing for this. They should be sued for being stupid.
It has been fun to see Mark Zuckerberg go from being the awkward college dude to being a mega-billionaire.
Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone interactively guides you through all the features of iPhoto. With over 200 screenshots, you’re going to get an in-depth look at iPhoto and so many cool and hidden features.
This is what I love about iBooks Author — interactivity and well designed books.
Variety:
Sony Pictures has tapped its Oscar-winning “Social Network” scribe Aaron Sorkin to adapt “Steve Jobs,” Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of the late Apple co-founder.Sorkin, who earned an Oscar for adapting Ben Mezrich’s Facebook tome “The Accidental Billionaires,” previously wrote “Moneyball” for the studio. His other feature credits include the politically-themed trio “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The American President” and “A Few Good Men,” as well as “Malice.”
This announcement alone guarantees the movie will be better than anything Ashton Kutcher stars in.
The first five shots are from mockups as they evolved. The last screen shot is the shipping version — a screen shot from the app.
Reuters:
The service will allow passengers to send and receive text messages, emails and access the Internet on Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus A330-300 planes flying between London and New York.The in-flight service is targeting business travelers and will be available in all cabins, although limited to six users at a time.
The guitar, handcrafted by Gibson Acoustic in Bozeman, Montana, is built with a top made from prized solid Adirondack red spruce and back and sides of solid mahogany. This special edition model is enhanced by a 1930s advanced X-bracing pattern made with scalloped spruce braces to attain optimal acoustic resonance. Together these woods and construction techniques provide a blend of depth, clarity, richness and warmth along with the power and projection that made the Southern Jumbo famous.
Jeff John Roberts for paidContent:
In a strongly worded opinion, US District Judge Denise Cote rejected requests by Apple and five book publishers to throw out a class action suit that accuses them of price-fixing.Citing ongoing state, federal and international antitrust investigations, Cote turned down arguments that Apple and the publishers had acted independently when they changed the pricing model for e-books.
Fascinating, I had no idea this book was even available. Thanks to Ian Hamilton for sending this to me.
For many users, the advent of smartphone technology has dramatically changed what they look for in a cell phone device. Two smartphones makers, Apple and Research in Motion (RIM), enter the ACSI with very different results. At 83, Apple (iPhone) leads the field by a long shot, while RIM (Blackberry) lags behind as the least satisfying at 69.“Companies with weak customer satisfaction often have weak stock performance,” notes Fornell. “RIM’s sales are slumping amid a bevy of problems, from hardware and software issues to server lapses that have caused email and messaging outages. Over the past year, share price for RIM has virtually collapsed.”At 83, Apple’s iPhone is a game changer when it comes to customer satisfaction. No other cell phone company has ever broken into the 80s. Apple’s nearest competitors this year are three companies tied at 75: Nokia (+3%) and ACSI newcomers LG and HTC.
So, Apple is on top and RIM sucks balls. Seems about right.