Yearly Archives: 2015

My thanks to Iconic for sponsoring The Loop this week. Looking for a special gift for that mega Apple enthusiast in your life? How about the newest edition of an absolutely stunning coffee table book that features lush, beautiful photographs of Apple devices? ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation is Iconic uses vivid color and detail to document Apple’s journey in design, form and function—and looks back at over 35 years of Apple innovation. Four years in the making, the author captured over 150,000 photos of nearly every product Apple has made, including rare prototypes and even packaging. With a foreword from Steve Wozniak and The Loop’s own Jim Dalrymple and hundreds of amazing quotes from other Apple pundits—ICONIC is the ultimate coffee table book for every Apple fan, and the perfect gift for any Apple owner who ever wanted to explore and discover the true roots of their favorite iMac, iPod, iPad, or iPhone. With free global shipping, see the different editions and use the coupon code THELOOP on checkout for 10% discount.

Jim’s Note: In addition to writing the foreword for this book, I also own two and love them!

Don Henley will not take it easy when there’s a product being sold that references both his name and career with The Eagles, and now everyone knows: After filing a lawsuit against a Wisconsin clothing company that emailed an ad telling customers to “don a henley and take it easy” last October, the two sides have settled the case, with the company issuing an apology to both Henley and his fans for trying to be too clever.

I really like Duluth Trading Co. and their ads, but they did go too far this time.

As with every product we make, we want as many people as possible to enjoy using Apple Watch. That’s why it’s designed with assistive technologies and features that make it easy for people with disabilities to use. Accessing them is also simple, either through Settings on the device itself or through the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

I love that this is a priority for Apple.

This is exceptionally great!

We surveyed a group of over 1,000 nationally representative consumers on 4/11, the day after the preorder window for Apple Watches opened. Our key insights include: (1) encouraging initial demand, with +11% of iPhone users “very likely” to purchase an Apple Watch this year, (2) regular watch wearers are among the most likely to order an Apple or other smart watch, suggesting high displacement rates for traditional watches from smart watch adoption, (3) young consumers are substantially more likely to buy an Apple Watch than older consumers, and (4) those likely to buy a smart watch most often indicate Fossil, Seiko, Casio, Rolex, Timex, and TAG Heuer are the watch brands they wear today.

I find it very interesting that regular watch wearers are among the most likely to order an Apple Watch. I would have thought they would be more reluctant to move from analog to a smartwatch. The brands listed in No. 4 have a lot to worry about in the next year or so.

Create stunning mobile apps simply by placing text, images and movies in a Dropbox folder. Professional results to rival major apps.

This is the platform The Loop magazine is built on. Glide is now ready for the public, so let’s support them.

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives:

Today, Apple and The Conservation Fund are announcing a collaboration designed to help America’s working forests stay working forests. For Apple, this is the beginning of a worldwide effort, one that represents a new approach as it reassesses its impact on the world’s paper supply chain.

Apple believes that paper, like energy, can be a renewable resource. So Apple is striving to supply 100 percent of the virgin fibers used in its paper and packaging from sustainably managed forests or controlled wood sources.

As usual, an interesting manifesto from Apple regarding its environmental initiatives but I also find it fascinating this is a story on Medium, not a press release. Hopefully, we’ll see more of these kinds of articles directly from Apple.

LA Times:

The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking to recoup millions of dollars from technology giant Apple over a problem-plagued curriculum that was provided with iPads intended to be given to every student, teacher and administrator.

To press its case, the Board of Education on Tuesday authorized its attorneys in a closed-door meeting to explore possible litigation against Apple and Pearson, the company that developed the curriculum as a subcontractor to Apple.

This story has been ongoing and includes an FBI investigation, resignations of officials and plenty of blame for all to go around.

Inquisitr:

Dan Price, the CEO of a start-up company located in Seattle, has just raised his employee’s minimum wage to $70,000 by cutting his $1 million salary to that of his lowest-paid employees.

Price is taking upwards to 80 percent of his credit card processing company Gravity Payments’ $2.2 million expected profit and putting it into his employee’s salaries.Price recently announced that over a three-year period, Gravity Payments will be offering its 120 employees a salary of at least $70,000.

Fantastic news for the company’s employees. Some say this will become the model for other companies but I’d be hugely surprised if anyone else followed suit. It’s just not The Corporate Way.

One thing bothered me about this story though.

Price recently told the New York Times that he was motivated to make the radical change after he read a newly released study about how pay raises increase the happiness of those receiving them.

Seriously? You had to read a study to know this? He’s obviously never been poor a day in his life. The vast majority of us know all too well how important money can be to peace of mind, health, happiness and security.

My criticism aside, I couldn’t be happier for the employees of Gravity Payments.

John Siracusa:

Nearly 15 years ago, I wrote my first review of Mac OS X for a nascent “PC enthusiast’s” website called Ars Technica. Nearly 15 years later, I wrote my last. Though Apple will presumably announce the next major version of OS X at WWDC this coming June, I won’t be reviewing it for Ars Technica or any other publication, including the website you’re reading now.

Siracusa’s name was known to many long before he started to write his incredible in-depth reviews of Apple’s Mac OS X but he will be forever known as the guy who wrote in the most detail about the OS.

He says:

Someone else can pick up the baton for the next 15 years.

Sadly, that’s not going to happen. No one can replace Siracusa or his writing style or his passion for writing the most complete reviews humanly possible of Mac OS X.

Gopi Sangha, Director of Technology for Coachella said three-quarters of attendees are using the Coachella app and 90 percent of those are using iOS. […]

Several celebrities like Katy Perry, Drake, and Pharrell Williams have been spotted with the gold Apple Watch Edition ahead of the device’s launch, but Apple gifted designer Karl Lagerfeld with something even more special — a custom gold Apple Watch with a gold Link Bracelet.

I checked and FedEx didn’t leave one of these at my door.