Yearly Archives: 2015

Five years ago today, Apple unveiled iPad, a device that would change the way many people thought about computing, me included.

That all changed back in June when Lanier started playing around with an iPad with the help of her tutor Morgan Tyner.

“The first thing she said was “hi, thank you for releasing my voice”, and there was something about the power of being able to express her voice, her thoughts. It’s really priceless” says Morgan and the next thing Lanier typed out was “Tell my mother I love her.”

According to Leslie “I have never heard her say I love you and later that same day she wrote, tell my dad I love him and that he’s my hero.”

If this doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, nothing will.

My thanks to SnapPower for sponsoring The Loop this week. SnapPower’s Charger — the power outlet cover plate that your home should’ve been built with. A no-hassle, wire-free install that takes just seconds. A flush, 1-amp USB charging port for smartphones, phablets, and tablets. An unbridled sense of joy from never having to hunt for a wall wart ever again. Available now on Kickstarter.

During Samsung’s Galaxy S6 launch, the company had a good time making jokes at Apple’s expense. […]

Turns out Photoshop has a built in money detector. Read on for the details.

Liz Gannes:

A who’s who of leaders from companies such as Yelp, Square, Twitter, Lyft, Airbnb, eBay, PayPal and others signed their names to a petition today urging legislatures to forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone, saying, “Discrimination is bad for business.” Petition leader Max Levchin, a PayPal co-founder and currently CEO of finance startup Affirm, told Re/code: “I am asking all CEOs to evaluate their relationships and investments in states that do not specifically protect LGBT people from discrimination.”

That’s great and even admirable, except that here on the home front, Silicon Valley has its own very obvious discrimination problems. Gender is a big one. Race is another.

Good read.

After successfully introducing a vending machine that dispensed MacBooks for 24-hour student use, Drexel University in collaboration with the Free Library of Philadelphia is introducing an iPad vending machine. Located in the University’s Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, the kiosk will make a dozen iPads available to local residents and Drexel students.

I love seeing organizations using iPad in unique ways. This is a great program.

Apple couldn’t have asked for better news: Sales of iPhone in urban China accounted for 27.6 percent of the smartphone in that country, according to new data released by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. […]

Jim and Dan talk about the MacBook Pro, the legacy of FireWire and Thunderbolt, updated thoughts on the Apple Watch, podcast recording gear, and more. Also Jim is still in his car.

Sponsored by lynda (Visit the link to get a free 10 day trial and access to their 3,000+ courses).

This looks like a great app from Adobe, although it does remind me a lot of Storehouse.

I really like AltConf and everything they do during WWDC.

The Commission is concerned that Apple would use it size, influence and relationships to get music labels to abandon rivals such as Spotify, which rely on licensing with music companies for their catalogue, the FT said.

I don’t understand why regulators are so concerned about Apple, when they are so far behind in the streaming race.

The Verge:

On Thursday, April 4th, 1985, a blast of dystopian satire hit the UK airwaves. Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future was a snarky take on media and corporate greed, told through the eyes of investigative journalist Edison Carter (Matt Frewer) and his computer-generated alter-ego: an artificial intelligence named Max Headroom.

I loved the character in the short snippets we saw. If you ever want to show your kids how weird the 80’s were, you can start by having them watch Max Headroom bits.

I woke up this morning to see that The Loop Magazine was no longer available for download on the App Store. This comes at a time when I’m trying to get the magazine back on track, and it was working. The magazine was climbing the charts on Newsstand and was No. 1 in downloads and No. 3 in grossing for the Computers and Internet section. We’re trying to track down the problem.

Worse, some subscribers were sent the following letter today. All I can ask is for you to check your subscription and make sure it’s active. For a publication that doesn’t offer any ads, I rely on the subscriptions to pay for it every month. I appreciate the support.

Farhad Manjoo for The New York Times:

The S6 phones are made out of aluminum and glass rather than the plastic in Samsung’s older phones. Both the S6 and S6 Edge strongly resemble Apple’s iPhone. The S6 in particular looks like Apple’s brother from another mother. Samsung has also co-opted many of the design ideas for which its fans have long criticized Apple. The new Galaxys no longer offer a removable battery, for example, or a slot for add-on storage cards, and unlike the Galaxy S5, the S6es aren’t waterproof.

And

But if the new phones are beautiful and functional, they are still something of a pain to use. The S6 and S6 Edge run Samsung’s modified version of Google’s Android operating system. Despite Samsung’s engineers’ efforts to clean up the software, the phone’s interface is a hodgepodge of odd design decisions and overly complicated functions.

Hot for Teacher, Eruption/You Really Got Me and if you were wondering why Dave has a bandage on his nose

CBC:

Usually a “mean tweets” video ends in laughter, but this one ends in tears.

A new campaign by the non-profit organization Raising the Roof features people dealing with homelessness reading the mean things people have said about them on social media aloud.

The goal? To get people to see that those who have nowhere to live are human beings too.

Having been homeless myself for a period of time, I felt the pain these people went through as they read these cruel and pointless tweets. If you can help, please do. If you can’t, leave these people alone.

For almost two years, Apple Inc. ’s efforts to go green have been the responsibility of Lisa Jackson, who was hired to oversee the company’s sustainability initiatives after she stepped down as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

She sat down with Jeffrey Ball, contributing editor at The Wall Street Journal and scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, to discuss Apple’s commitment to renewable energy and why a recently announced solar deal is a good one for shareholders.

Apple is one of the few companies that is transparent about its environmental commitment. Sadly, this is the reason that the press goes after Apple more than other companies—Apple makes all the information available, while the others hide it.

Joanna Stern:

A better camera, sharper display and faster charging put Samsung’s new flagship phones ahead in the smartphone race.

Since the dawn of the smartphone wars, there have been basic truths about Samsungs: They’re made of flimsy plastic, their cameras can’t keep up with the iPhone’s, and their modified Android software is ugly and intolerably cluttered.

With the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, which arrive at U.S. carriers on April 10, none of that is true anymore. I am not afraid to say it: I love Samsung’s new phones, maybe even more than my own iPhone 6. Like a child who just found out that Santa isn’t real, I have spent the past week questioning everything I know.

I like Joanna and respect her opinion a lot. I still don’t like the way Samsung does business though.

Autoweek:

This unbelievable Fiat S76, the so-called Beast of Turin, is the one surviving example of a pair of speed-record contenders the Italian automaker built before WWI. Its gargantuan 28.5-liter inline-four was capable of providing an impressive 300 hp — enough to propel the car to 116 mph, and a one-mile land speed record, in 1911.

Plus, it spits hellfire and sounds meaner than anything an army of 10,000 Carlo Abarths could have ever dreamed up.

Watch the video above if you don’t believe us.

First of all, turn your volume down.

I posted about this back in December when they had first restored this fire breathing monster. Now they’ve actually got it out on public roads, scaring humans and livestock alike. Thanks again to Glenn Ramsey for the link.