Setting the iWatch bar

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[Review and Video] Earlier this year, Motorola ended its short stay with Google when it was sold to Lenovo.

TechCrunch has confirmed reports that Lenovo is buying Motorola Mobility from Google. This is the division within Google that the company purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will go to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Lenovo-owned Motorola quietly released a smart-watch yesterday, the Moto 360. Everyone’s tastes differ of course, but for me, this is the watch that sets the bar for Android and for smart-watches. This is the watch that you should keep in mind when and if Apple announces an iWatch next Tuesday.

NY Times on wearables and Apple’s potential iWatch

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There’s an alleged comment by Jonathan Ive on traditional watchmakers, plus a solid take on the existing state of wearables.

Fine watches are a passion for many people. It’ll take something really special to get those people to turn away from Tag Heuer and the like. If Apple does indeed deliver the goods here, the traditional watchmakers may well be in trouble.

How to make an iPhone app promo video

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This is a postmortem, lessons learned from a sequence of attempts to build a promo video for a specific iPhone app. Some terrific insight into the process.

Why Apple’s mobile payment system might just work

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Dan Frommer makes the case that the existing US mobile payment ecosystem is not easy to tame. What’s Apple’s edge? Unlike Google, Apple controls their ecosystem, makes their own hardware and, most importantly, has a big head start on account holder signup.

This is how you hire a good technical person

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Though this article is focused on hiring developers, it applies to any technical hire, anyone who needs to be able to grasp a complex topic and become useful in that area relatively quickly.

Stealing a pin code with a FLIR iPhone camera and how to prevent it

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[VIDEO] The FLIR ONE personal thermal imager is an infrared camera that snaps on to the back of your iPhone 5, allowing you to shoot infrared videos and stills. I’ve played with one and they are fun, easy to use and work well.

The down side of the FLIR ONE is that it can be used to pick up pin codes and other lock combinations by tracking the heat signature left by your fingers. The video embedded below shows how this is done and how to prevent it. Worth a watch.

The dark side of almond use

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Three things:

  1. 82% of the world’s almonds come from California.
  2. California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in its history.
  3. This year’s almond crop is one of the largest ever.

That water’s got to come from somewhere.

The inside story of how Netflix came to pay Comcast for internet traffic

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Netflix lawyers just delivered this document to the FCC, arguing against Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

From the document:

Comcast made clear that Netflix would have to pay Comcast an access fee if Netflix wanted to directly connect with Comcast or use third-party CDNs. In essence, Comcast sought to meter Netflix traffic requested by Comcast’s broadband subscribers.

On organizing your apps in iTunes

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Kirk McElhearn wrote a nice little rant on the limited organization options iTunes give you when it comes to apps. I weighed in with my thoughts as well.

iPhone camera tricks

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[VIDEO] The Washington Post ran this video showing a series of seven iPhone shooting tricks. Some of them were just OK, but I found a few of them to be brilliant.

Did you know you can use your headphone switch to take a picture? Combine that one with a water glass and you have a clever, albeit slightly risky way to take some underwater shots. I wonder if you could achieve the same thing with a very tall baggie.

Trend Micro report claims Google Play store loaded with fake apps

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Typically, a fake version of an app is created by copying the .apk file and inserting code, with the possible goal of creating malware. While there are certainly knock-offs that have made their way onto Apple’s app store, there’s a review process to prevent this sort of malware factory.

The value of Twitch

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About a month ago, word spread that Google-owned YouTube had completed negotiations to buy game-streaming service Twitch with an all-cash offer of $1 billion.

Yesterday, YouTube had the rug pulled from under them when Twitch announced that they had accepted another all-cash bid for $970 million from Amazon. Here’s the thank you post from Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.

So why would someone care about this? The key is the allure of Let’s Play, the general term for watching someone else play your favorite game. A huge win for Amazon. [Hat tip to Daniel Mark]

L.A. Unified school district halts contract for iPads

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The LA Times:

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy suspended future use of a contract with Apple on Monday that was to provide iPads to all students in the nation’s second-largest school system amid mounting scrutiny of the $1-billion-plus effort.

The suspension comes days after disclosures that the superintendent and his top deputy had especially close ties to executives of Apple, maker of the iPad, and Pearson, the company that is providing the curriculum on the devices. And an internal report that examined the technology effort showed major problems with the process and the implementation.

Jump to the original Loop post for more detail and a link to the internal LA school district document that lays all this out.