This will mean thinner MacBooks, yes, but even better are the myriad of ways this can be used in software.
Yearly Archives: 2015
Suspicious Package lets you look inside a third party Mac app before you install
Suspicious Package, from Mothers Ruin Software (got to love that name), is a free QuickLook plugin that reports on the contents of an installer package before you install it. Helps keep you just a bit safer.
Carbon Copy Cloner: What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? [Sponsor]
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.
Oh, Microsoft
Will Oremus, writing for Slate, points out the huge (read that in sarcastic tone, with air quotes) differences between the design of Microsoft’s new Manhattan flagship store and the Apple Store:
Apple TV tips, tricks, shortcuts and useful settings
Joe Rossignol, writing for MacRumors, pulled together a nice list of tips and tricks for the new Apple TV. Worth reading through.
How to disable password prompts for both free and paid downloads on Apple TV
If you’ve got a new Apple TV, you no doubt feel the pain of the long, linear software keyboard and recognize the value of any tip that will save you typing time (especially typing of long, arcane passwords).
How strong your iPhone signal actually is
I tested this on my iPhone and it works as advertised.
TidBITS Apple TV FAQ
Josh Centers, writing for TidBITS, pulled together a well-written assemblage of frequently asked Apple TV questions. Terrific set of questions, well worth scanning through.
Jean-Louis Gassée: The Apple Car and Apple’s software culture
A thoughtful column (as usual) from JLG, questioning the culture that builds software that has the luxury of being allowed to crash and having that culture be required to build software that absolutely cannot fail.
The podcast universe
This is an incredible infographic. Be sure to click on the image to make it full-screen, then click again to zoom in.
Beautiful photos of first Jony Ive designed Apple Store
Check out the images. This is an incredibly beautifully designed store.
The Beatles: A 5 minute drum chronology
This is phenomenal. Note that this was filmed in 4K, so ratchet the video settings up if you have gear that will support it.
Happy Halloween
Some Halloween links to spread the Halloween spirit. Have a great Halloween and be sure to save some candy for us!
Marketcircle: Helping small businesses grow
Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week. Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad apps. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.
Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.
New in Billings Pro: support for El Capitan, and iOS 9, including multitasking support.
Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Billings Pro.
Apple TV Hands On: This Changes Everything
I went to Cupertino to meet with the Apple TV team yesterday, and to pick up a unit to try out for myself. What struck me about the new model was Apple’s attention to detail—this is the most “Apple” Apple TV the company has ever released. […]
The subtle ways in which Pulp Fiction visually inspired Breaking Bad
I am a huge fan of both. Amazing how many of these shots are strikingly similar. I just can’t imagine this is coincidence.
Roundup of best Apple TV apps and games
Got an Apple TV on its way? Spend a few minutes and Christian Zibreg, writing for iDownloadBlog, will give you a tour of some of the best Apple TV apps and games you can look forward to downloading.
Everything you need to know about Apple TV and game controllers
Serenity Caldwell does her usual awesome job laying out the details. There’s one bit in particular I found interesting, about how Apple not allowing games to require a controller. Read on.
The animated biography of Steve Jobs
This was just lovely. Watch the video below, then take a trip over to the home page to read through the time line.
Bluetooth not working or unreliable? Here’s the fix
Another of those tips that you should bookmark and pass along. You never know when you’ll need it. In my post, there’s a TL;DR version.
Apple TV and cord cutting
Hayley Tsukayama, writing for The Washington Post:
The new Apple TV, which launched this week, offers a tantalizing breakthrough: It has the potential to be the only set-top box you will need.
Interesting read, plus a video that lays out some cord cutting options.
Apple has sold more than $1.7B in Apple Watches, and 11 other tasty morsels from its annual filing
There are a lot of interesting tidbits in Apple’s 10-K, including patent filings, dependencies, and lots of discussion of risks in the marketplace. But if you don’t feel like digging through all the cruft, Chris O’Brien, writing for Venture Beat, did a nice job of laying out some of the highlights.
Apple and the hidden challenge standing in the way of their web TV service
Most of what you read about Apple’s rumored web TV service (where Apple provides both the set top box and the content) revolves around the complexities of acquiring rights. But there’s another, subtler issue that is just as critical.
AmpliTube 4 for Mac
AmpliTube 4 is a guitar and bass tone studio for Mac/PC that works as a standalone application and as a plug-in for your favorite DAW. AmpliTube recreates the entire guitar/bass signal chain from instrument to recording device, and does so in a very realistic and intuitive way. But it also does it in ways you never dreamed possible.
AmpliTube has been around for years and is one of the best amp software packages on the market. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
SXSW’s GamerGate debacle shows it’s clueless on diversity
Wired:
Although South By Southwest has long been one of digital culture’s foremost summits, recent events suggest it’s time to re-assess that. SXSW’s organizers have publicly foundered over some of the event’s programming on online harassment—undoubtedly one of the most important and complex topics facing digital culture today. And that they’ve messed this up so monumentally exposes a fundamental problem with the very events that purport to champion the issue.
This may seem too “inside baseball” and uninteresting but it’s actually an important issue on many fronts – it’s about the continuing and vehement online harassment of women by cowards and the companies and organizations, like SXSW, who don’t have the courage to stand up to that same harrassment themselves.
Greenland is melting away
This is a bit terrifying but gorgeous at the very same time. Be sure to scroll through the whole thing, especially that page that zooms in and out from a skyward overhead view of Greenland, to the closeup on the porous ice at the surface.
Android development is 30% more expensive than iOS. And we have the numbers to prove it!
This detailed analysis is from a firm that does both Android and iOS development. Read the blog post, draw your own conclusions.
BBC iPlayer app coming to Apple TV. A tipping point for Apple TV.
As reported by the BBC’s own Leo Kelion, the iPlayer app is being rewritten as a native Apple TV app, which means it can now be searchable, right alongside Netflix, Hulu and other third party apps. This is a tipping point.
Stop doubting the iPhone, the Macintosh company
Ben Thompson, writing for Stratechery, takes on a recent New York Times article, which casts doubt that Apple can continue its success.
Terrific Op-ed by Ben.
73 (mostly) free, essential apps for OS X
This is an ambitious effort. As with all lists, some of these will click for you, others might not. But worth looking through this, I think. Some excellent apps worth having here.