Yearly Archives: 2015

Eric Alba:

Checked my watch for the time, noticed my battery is at 43%, either that or it’s 43F degrees out, I’m drunk.

Looks like the Apple Watch is quite versatile.

Vox:

In April 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope — which was launched into orbit exactly 25 years ago — took its most iconic image: the Pillars of Creation. These gigantic towers of dust and gas, 7,000 light years away, are named because the immense force of gravity causes them to condense into clumps of matter that will become new star systems.

In fact, billions of years ago our own solar system may have been born through the same process — so when you look at this upgraded 2014 version of the image, you’re also looking back at the very distant history of Earth.

We’ve all seen this image a hundred times but the details in this story are really fascinating.

My thanks to Bushel for sponsoring The Loop this week. For some people, IT is a task and not a career. Bushel is a simple-to-use cloud-based tool that anyone can leverage to manage the Apple devices in their workplace. Bushel allows you to easily set-up and protect all of the Apple devices that you distribute to your team, or those that your team already has. Provide access to company email accounts, automatically install work apps to every device all at once, and separate and protect your team’s personal data from company data. And if a device is ever lost or stolen, you can even remotely lock it or wipe company data completely. Do all of this and much more, without any help from IT. All wrapped into one seamless interface so you can manage those Apple devices when you want, wherever you are. Bushel makes the complex simple, so you can focus on what matters most, all while taking back your nights and weekends. Your first three devices are free forever, and each additional device is just $2 per month with no contracts or commitments. Learn more at Bushel.com.

There are a ton of apps coming out for Apple Watch, but if you’re a business user, you might want to take a look at Billings Pro.

Helping a friend in need.

You can now see what apps are available for the Apple Watch, even if you don’t have one of the devices. Just open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, which comes with the latest iOS update, and you can browse the available apps. Currently there are over 3,000 apps for Apple Watch. I expect that to increase very quickly.

CBC News:

Canadians are a relatively happy bunch — the fifth happiest in the world, according to new data from the 2015 World Happiness Report released Thursday.

The report issues a score on a scale of zero to 10 based on Gallup World Poll data collected from people in more than 150 countries between 2012 and 2014.

Researchers then analyze the “life evaluation” data to rank countries, ostensibly providing a comparative overview of people’s “subjective well-being” in each.

For all of our myriad problems and issues, Canada is still a great country. Read the story for the list of the top five and where the US placed in the report – both very interesting.

Natalie Kerris, who spent the last 14 years at Apple in corporate communications, announced her retirement from the company on Wednesday in a Twitter post.

“I just had it,” Lucas Hinch, 38, told The Smoking Gun (via Ars Technica). Apparently the PC had thrown up one too many blue screens of death in recent months, so Hinch took it into an alley, loaded up a 9mm Hi-Point pistol that he’d purchased on Craiglist, and let the bullets fly.

Priceless.

From checking flight status to being in the cockpit, Apple is changing the air travel industry. It’s amazing when you think about how many industries Apple has transformed over the years—music, movies, phone, tablet, etc. The list goes on and on.

John Gruber:

I just can’t see Apple ever allowing these sort of watch faces for Apple Watch — that’ll be left for the jailbreak crowd. A few weeks ago I thought third-party watch faces would be like third-party apps were for the iPhone — something that wasn’t there at the launch, but which came sooner rather than later.

That’s what I thought too. John has some interesting thoughts on custom watch faces and why we won’t see them.

If you haven’t used the Health app on iPhone, it’s something you just consider doing. Here’s a good article on how to easily show the information you’re looking for without overwhelming you.

Learn how Apple Watch measures your heart rate, and get tips for a more accurate reading.

Great information from Apple.

Petapixel:

Adobe today announced its latest version of Lightroom, called Lightroom CC. The update brings faster performance, some revamped tools, and a set of powerful new creation features.

Here’s a look at the major new things found in Lightroom CC, which will also be sold as a standalone program called Lightroom 6.

Now that Aperture has all but disappeared, Lightroom will be the only choice for most professional photographers. Luckily, it’s a very good app on its own and these new features add a lot to its abilities.

For some people, IT is a task and not a career. Bushel is a simple-to-use cloud-based tool that anyone can leverage to manage the Apple devices in their workplace. Bushel allows you to easily set-up and protect all of the Apple devices that you distribute to your team, or those that your team already has. Provide access to company email accounts, automatically install work apps to every device all at once, and separate and protect your team’s personal data from company data. And if a device is ever lost or stolen, you can even remotely lock it or wipe company data completely. Do all of this and much more, without any help from IT. All wrapped into one seamless interface so you can manage those Apple devices when you want, wherever you are. Bushel makes the complex simple, so you can focus on what matters most, all while taking back your nights and weekends. Your first three devices are free forever, and each additional device is just $2 per month with no contracts or commitments. Learn more at Bushel.com.

Re/code:

One of the proposed benefits of wearable technology is the notion of having a health-and-fitness tracker attached to your body 24/7 — or at least for a good portion of the day. This is the case with activity-tracking wristbands, like Fitbit and Jawbone Up, and also the appeal of some smartwatches, such as Apple Watch.

As I wrote in my earlier review, I’ve found Apple Watch to be a capable health-and-fitness tracker — especially for a smartwatch.

As I suspected and as was confirmed by several reviewers, the Apple Watch, while not a perfect fitness tracking device for the hard core exercise buff, will certainly provide benefit to those who use it to track their activities. And the really good news is, once it gets in the hands of developers and users, it will only get better.

CNET:

Twitter is upgrading its popular direct message feature to allow users to receive messages from other users regardless if they follow each other. The move is part of its ongoing effort to try to boost user growth as pressure from Wall Street investors continues.

I’m not sure how or why CNET describes this as a “upgrade”. It’s like the people who run Twitter don’t actually use Twitter. This will open up a whole new way for spammers to abuse the service and, while it might draw in advertisers who want to send “personalized” direct messages to people, it will drive away more users than it could ever to benefit.

UPDATE: The Next Web points out this is “an optional feature” and “The new setting is turned off by default.”