Very cool.

Astrophysicist Dr. Brian May is recognized during a July 17, 2015 New Horizons science briefing at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May spent a long birthday weekend with the science team, attending two morning science plenaries, a meeting with the Student Dust Counter group, and working on stereo images of Pluto with the Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet and speak with Brian at some length during one of Queen’s European tours. He is not only smart and a fantastic guitarist, he’s also very humble.

Brilliant Song.

There’s been a number of these types of articles written, but this one has a couple of new tips.

I’ve been around for each version of iTunes, but strangely, I don’t remember it changing so much.

[Via MacStories]

When he got to the hospital, Robson told staff that he had been tracking his heart rate on the watch, and had two weeks of back data. “Going in with the data certainly reduced my stay by a couple of days,” he told MedCity News. It also assured that he could have the operation nearly immediately.

Because the hospital could check his Apple Watch data, Robson did not have to wear a heart monitor for a week before the medical team at Scripps Mercy could confirm the diagnosis of sick sinus syndrome.

These are the types of things that Apple Watch can do. It is truly amazing how this device has changed people’s lives.

More than 100 IBM employees occupy Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., campus helping build iPhone and iPad apps for IBM customers such as Citigroup Inc., Sprint Corp. and Japan Post Holdings Co.

Things are looking different inside IBM, too. Once a company of blue suits, Wintel PCs and BlackBerrys, Big Blue is on track to become the world’s largest corporate user of MacBooks. On Wednesday, the company will apply lessons it has learned to introduce a new service intended to help other companies adopt Macs.

This is an important relationship for both companies. It’s really bizarre how things change so dramatically over time though.

Not just any leather, but the luxury full grain leather used to craft all of Pad & Quill’s handmade goods. So we turned to Victorio, a 4th generation Italian leather tannery artisan. His tannery uses legendary soft-tumbled method to transform full grain American steer hides into a luxury leather watch band that will hug your wrist with pliable comfort, while being as rugged and durable as your active life demands.

I just love the quality of Pad & Quill products. I own a couple of their bags and they are top notch.

I’ve heard of this happening with other people when they lose credit cards. Apple Pay is updated automatically—brilliant.

Releasing classic albums on reel-to-reel, duplicated from the original master tapes. You would expect these tapes to sound good of course, and you should expect they would sound better than the LP and digital sources. But you will be shocked at just how much better they do sound.

This is just outstanding. They are having an event at the California Audio Show to meet Jacqui Naylor, and listen to a full-playback of a new Tape Project release from Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.

Such a great post by Jeffrey Zeldman, and one we can all relate to in one way or another.

For ten years, Macminicolo has been hosting thousands of Mac minis in a high end data center. The minis are used for all sorts of services. The Mac mini “has become Apple’s most popular server system.”

Readers of The Loop can signup for a twelve month trial for just $10/mo. Come see what a Mac mini can do. Signup here.

Cool little utility from the folks at Many Tricks.

“The writing has long been on the wall for any premium Android maker: as soon as low end hardware became ‘good enough,’ there would be no reason to buy a premium brand,” said Ben Thompson, an analyst at Stratechery.com in Taipei.

That’s a great quote from Ben, and so true.

“We have not discussed nor do we have any plans to launch an MVNO,” said an Apple spokeswoman in a statement on Tuesday.

Being a mobile carrier seems like a shit show to me.

Fantastic article from Shawn Blanc. I’ve spent far too much time working and not enough time enjoying life.

James Cook:

Here is how it works: When someone using iCloud Voicemail is unable to take a call, Siri will answer instead of letting the call go to a standard digital audio recorder.

iCloud Voicemail can relay information about where you are and why you can’t pick up the phone to certain people. But the coolest feature of the service is that Siri will transcribe any incoming voicemails, just as it does with anything else you say to it.

This makes sense to me. Google’s been doing this for quite a while now, but the service is surprisingly bad, considering how good Google voice is. Hopefully Apple will be able to figure out how to make the service work reliably.

I haven’t seen this in action, but it sounds cool.

Struggling to return strong profits, Samsung has slashed the retail price of its flagship smartphones — the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge — by €100. After the deduction, the revised cost of the 32GB variant Galaxy S6 is €599, whereas its Galaxy S6 Edge counterpart will slightly break the bank at €699. The smartphones were launched just four months ago.

[…]

The company is also rumored to launch two new smartphones, namely the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5 in the coming days.

Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.

This is very cool. Great find by Tina Roth Eisenberg.

I love this song.

Brett Terpstra:

My point is, optimism is not the shining light of the enlightened human being. I’m tired of reading “inspirational” quotes on Facebook about how optimism is a goal we should all strive toward. Optimism and pessimism are not light and dark sides, they’re complementing halves of the same token. We need each other, you and I.

Interesting read.

Eddie is just such a great player.

When I first wrote my review of Apple Watch review and follow-up in June, I had lost 40 pounds. I noted that I still had a little way to go to reach a goal I had set about 11 months ago—today, I made it. […]

My thanks to Hullo for sponsoring The Loop this week. You already know the ergonomics of your desktop workstation are important; have you considered your sleep ergonomics? Hullo customer Matt writes:

“I’m kind of shocked myself at how big a difference it’s made, and surprised to find myself writing one of those seemingly overenthusiastic reviews, but Hullo deserves it. So worth it—the ability to precisely shape the pillow so that it supports my neck just right is something I’ll never want to give up!”

Check out Hullo for 60 nights. If you don’t like it, just send it back for a refund.

A great read from Jeffrey Zeldman. I especially liked this:

(Hint: if you’re thinking about leaving your job, you probably want to.)

If you ever wondered what swear words are popular around America, this story maps it out for you—literally.

Great app. I’ve been using Reeder for years.

Using insights from our more than 500 million Shutterstock downloads, discover which emotions businesses, marketing agencies, and media organizations are using to design an ongoing relationship with their customers.

I’m not a fan of infographics, but I did find this fascinating.

Are you a metalhead or a bot?

Brilliant.