Yearly Archives: 2015

Mapbox:

The Geotaggers’ World Atlas is my long-term project to discover the world’s most interesting places and the routes that people follow between them. Five years ago I first started retrieving photo locations from the Flickr search API and drawing lines between them to make the first version of the Atlas.

Today I’m able to launch the full Geotaggers’ World Atlas covering every city in the world. Thanks to Flickr’s API, it exposes over 10 years of photo locations, and as a web map it lets you explore not just the largest centers of activity but also their context, anywhere on earth.

As an exercise in coding, this is interesting. As a visualization of data, it’s utterly fascinating. The only downside is the interactive map doesn’t have details like street names so it may be hard to find out what is so fascinating about that particular location but look up your own city on the map and see if you can spot “the most interesting places”.

Pictures and videos in this update. The scale of this project is just unreal.

Mathew Ingram:

The idea that someone could monetize Twitter before Twitter itself got around to doing so was what one investor called a “holy shit moment” for the company.

I wonder what would have happened if Twitter embraced the third-parties years ago.

Thanks to HelloTalk for sponsoring The Loop this week. Finally, learning and practicing a new language is easier and more intuitive than ever before. Introducing HelloTalk, the language app where your teachers are native language speakers from around the world. You just pick the language you want to learn—there are over 100 from which to select—and almost instantaneously you’ll be in touch with native speakers of that language … and you’ll start learning and practicing immediately.

HelloTalk isn’t a course you strictly follow; rather, you learn and practice at your pace and in the manner that best meets the way you learn. Practice foreign languages with people around the world. Simultaneously speak and type the language you’re learning. Record your voice before speaking to your HelloTalk friends and compare your recording to standard pronunciations. Change your friends’ audio messages to text for better understanding, and receive help to improve your grammar. Easily translate whenever you don’t understand, and so much more.

With HelloTalk, you’ll discover learning a new language is fun … and fast. Download your copy for iPhone or Android today.

Jim and Dan talk about the Apple’s record second quarter results, the Apple Watch’s issue with tattooed skin, and more.

Sponsored by MetaCDN (Use the code ‘5by5’ for a 10% discount for life) and Macminicolo (Get a full year of hosting for just $100).

The company updated its Apple Watch heart rate support page, noting that tattoos could affect the watch’s ability to read your heart rate.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac]

A new Apple support article covers the steps needed to unfair your watch. Might be handy to bookmark for the future, although it’s easy to find in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

You’d think that all five color bands for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport would weight the same. Turns out, color has weight.

Some great thoughts, although using it must of been kind of freaky.

Shares of LinkedIn Corp, operator of the most popular social network for professionals, fell 20 percent in early trading on Friday, wiping out more than $6 billion of market value, after the company slashed its full-year forecast.

LinkedIn reported on Thursday its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public four years ago.

The surprisingly weak results followed Twitter Inc’s on Tuesday. Twitter’s stock fell by as much as 24 percent, slicing about $6 billion off its market value.

Social media companies are a bit to volatile for me.

The National Post:

Backed by the Quebec justice system and the provincial police, sheriffs have raided sugar shacks down country roads and seized barrels of maple syrup, using trucks and front-end loaders. The federation’s goal: enforcing a supply management system that controls the sale and proceeds of maple syrup in Quebec.

“They have more power than police,” says Daniel Gaudreau, a syrup producer in Scotstown, Que. “They can come into my house anytime they want.”

Quebec is the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup.

We have written about this issue in the past but this story really brings home the enormous power of the The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers – power that looks, on the surface, out of control.

The Daily Dot:

Before you go cancelling your order for Apple’s first smartwatch, it’s important to grasp the facts.

But “Apple Watch Defective!” is such a sexier headline. By the way, it’s a good rule of thumb that, when the headline includes something bad about an Apple product, wait 24 hours before commenting. Invariably, the facts come out and it’s not nearly as bad as the Chicken Littles would have you think.

The Loop Magazine released a new issue today with eight new articles. You can download the app for iPhone and iPad and get a free preview of every article in this month’s issue. You can purchase the issue for $1.99 or get a subscription for just $1.99 per month and get access to all of the issues.

In this issue:

Review: 12-inch MacBook: Jim Dalrymple got his hands on one of the new MacBooks Apple recently introduced and gives you his thoughts, from the Retina display to using the one USB-C port.

Skating To Where The MacBook Is Going To Be: Rene Ritchie takes a look at why the all-new MacBook is ahead of the curve and why competitors will have a hard time catching Apple.

The MacBook: A New Mac Laptop For A New Mac Customer: Peter Cohen tackles the criticism lobbed at the new MacBook and why he thinks they are wrong.

What Entertainment Looks Like In The Cord Cutting Age: Cable TV isn’t gone yet, but Darren Murph imagines what the future of TV will look like.

Behind The Mask: This is a really great piece written by Mateusz Stawecki. He talked to some of the people we hear speaking at conferences and finds out what bothers them about public speaking.

Apple Pay: Technology Done Right: Jim Dalrymple looks at Apple Pay and how the new payment technology is working for developers.

To Live, Or To View? Periscope and Meerkat Are Turning Life Into ‘Show & Tell’: Darren Murph looks at how some new apps have changed we way we share our lives.

My Life with iPad: The iPad recently turned five years old. Jim Dalrymple talks about his love of Apple’s tablet device.

Would you pay $6 to commute in a bus that looks like a cafe crossed with a Virgin America plane?

A luxury-bus startup called Leap Transit relaunched in San Francisco last week, carting passengers from the wealthy Marina district to downtown. It’s the latest company to offer a high-end alternative to public transit.

I’d do it.

App Camp for Girls:

The Quiz Compendium includes 15 personality quizzes created by camper project teams. You’ll learn so many things about yourself, such as what your superpower is, where you should go on vacation, and even what your breakfast choices say about your personality.

I utterly despise these kinds of “personality quizzes” but App Camp for Girls is a great cause started by a wonderful person, Jean MacDonald. The app is only 99 cents and goes to a very worthy organization. So I’ll swallow my disdain and buy the app and you should too.

According to Apple, iOS 8 is at 81 percent, iOS 7 has 17 percent, and earlier OSes are at 2 percent.

Samsung Electronics Co. said its first-quarter net income has plunged 39 percent as the smartphone business saw its profit shrink to less than half from a year earlier.

And

Sales fell 12 percent from a year earlier to 47.12 trillion won while operating income dropped 30 percent to 5.98 trillion won, in line with Samsung’s earnings preview earlier this month.

The wider-than-expected drop in net profit was due to a big profit plunge in Samsung’s mobile business. The maker of Galaxy smartphones said its mobile division generated 2.74 trillion won in quarterly profit, compared with 6.43 trillion won a year earlier.

Ouch, sucks to be Samsung. This may look like the smartphone market is falling, but it’s not. Apple sold 61.1 million iPhones, up 40 percent over last year.

Pixelmator 3.3.2 is out, featuring lots of new stuff — Photos app support, Force Touch trackpad support, jaw-dropping Repair Tool enhancements, and much more.

This is just great software. I use it everyday.