Yearly Archives: 2015

New York Times:

Steve Jobs prized secrecy from his executives and employees during his tenure at Apple. Now his top lieutenants are speaking out — to help shape the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Through interviews and tweets, Apple brass, including the chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, are throwing their weight behind a new unauthorized biography of the Apple co-founder, “Becoming Steve Jobs,” which goes on sale on Tuesday. In the book, executives take aim at another title, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, an authorized biography published shortly after Mr. Jobs’s death in 2011.

Not unexpected but interesting to think there might be a concerted, organized PR campaign, not just from the book’s publisher, which is to be expected, but also from Apple.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger knew early on that Steve Jobs’s cancer had returned and kept it a secret for three years before it became public knowledge, a new biography of Apple Inc.’s late CEO reveals.

Iger learned about the illness less than an hour before Disney announced its 2006 agreement to buy Pixar, the computer-animation studio run by Jobs

This is going to be a very interesting book.

iBooks:

There have been many books—on a large and small scale—about Steve Jobs, one of the most famous CEOs in history. But this book is different from all the others.

It’s interesting to see the extensive marketing campaign behind this book.

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!

ABC News:

Apple engineers, managers and developers have been secretly volunteering for the past year in this state-of-the-art lab to participate in rowing, running, yoga and many more fitness activities in order to collect data for the Apple Watch’s inner workings.

“[The employees] knew they were testing something, but they didn’t know it was for the Apple Watch,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. “We hooked them up with all the masks and so forth, but we would put on an Apple Watch covered up.”

You can watch the video of this story tonight on “Nightline” at 12:35 a.m. ET.

Quartz:

Apple didn’t just take a heritage watch case, add a screen, and shove in a microchip and a bunch of sensors. Trying to integrate one company’s microchip with another’s operating system and app ecosystem, then reconciling that combination with your company’s century-old design ideals is going to require some major compromises.

I don’t think the Swiss watchmakers have “no chance” but they are definitely behind a giant 8-ball and don’t seem to understand why. That’s lethal to their desires in this segment of the market.

From an article I wrote for Fortune:

The fact that none of these guys brought up or seemed at all concerned about cybertheft may tell you more than any headline that contains the words Apple, Pay and Fraud.

There’s too much fear-mongering going around these days.

Pixelmator:

We’re super excited to finally let you know that the new and awesome Pixelmator for iPad update is out now.

Just to remind you—Pixelmator for iPad is the best image editor on the iPad and it is one of the most innovative and technologically advanced iOS apps ever built. And oh, if you are a Mac user and not that interested in iOS, just listen for a sec: All the cool things we now make for the iPad are coming to the Mac. But more on that later.

In the meantime, read on to find out what we’ve packed for you in Pixelmator for iPad 1.1 Aquarelle.

Along with Snapseed, Pixelmator is my go to app for editing photos on the iPad. I’m really excited to start playing with the new features in this version.

TidBITS:

“The new MacBook’s single port comes with a major security risk,” proclaims The Verge. Gizmodo took The Verge’s story a step further with, “The NSA Is Going to Love These USB-C Charging Cables.” So what’s the big deal, and is there any fire behind all this hot air?

These articles are pure clickbait.

As always, when it comes to Macs and security, always wait for Rich Mogull to weigh in before going off half cocked. I’m looking at you, Tech Media.

On May 17, 2011 we reinvented calendaring; On March 25, 2015 we’ll reinvent Fantastical itself.

I’ll say this: you’re going to love this new version.

Mobile games maker Rovio reported its operating profit fell 73 percent last year due to a drop in its licensing business, a latest sign its breakthrough Angry Birds brand is losing its appeal.

Ouch.

Winclone 5 is the most complete solution for protecting your Boot Camp Windows system against data loss. Winclone is the most reliable cloning solution when migrating Boot Camp to a new Mac. The all new Winclone Backup feature provides scheduled, incremental snapshots of your files so you can retrieve earlier versions or accidentally deleted data.

Looks like a great utility if you have a Boot Camp partition.

Casey Liss lays out the reasons he chooses to use DuckDuckGo as his search engine.

Smile, the developer of productivity applications for Mac, iPad and iPhone, has released PDFpen Scan+ 2.0, a new version of their mobile scanning and OCR app for iPhone and iPad. This new version has a redesigned camera screen with auto-scan mode, which will take the scan, automatically crop, and assign editing presets—all without a tap.

I love Smile’s software.

The Atlantic:

Houshi Ryokan was founded in 718. It is one of the oldest family businesses in the world; 46 generations have managed the ryokan in its 1,300 years. Filmmaker Fritz Schumann profiles the current caretakers, Zengoro and Chizuko Houshi, as they struggle to determine the ryokan’s future after the death of their only son.

Such a sad story about a family seemingly trapped by the weight of their own history and traditions.