Max Piantoni presents an exploration of the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the rare Experience CD that accompanied the machine’s release. Including a lengthy and hard to find 1997 interview with Jony Ive.

Max did a nice job with this.

The history of the PBS NewsHour can be traced back to the Watergate hearings.

Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer covered the 1973 hearings for PBS. In 1975 MacNeil began anchoring The Robert MacNeil Report which soon evolved into the 30-minute MacNeil/Lehrer Report.

Om Malik:

How to find originality in a “networked society” is on my mind, because I have recently come across three individuals who have been original for such a long time. During a conversation for my new art project, Pi.co, Frank Clegg, a US-based bag maker put it best when he said, “If I make something different, then I don’t really have any competition. Either people like what I do, or they don’t like what I do.” Such a simple statement, but so hard to implement, because many find such comfort from hiding in the herd.

This is exactly how I see Apple. They make products that we don’t always know we need—people are going to like them or they won’t. Either way, it’s going to be different.

I’m easily entertained, but I love these.

Jacob Gube covers the six ways to declare colors in CSS.

One app that continued to impress and fascinate me in 2014 was Storehouse. Mark Kawano and his team have done a great job with the service and app.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. The new year is here and it’s time to get back to work. If you would like to get your product or service in front of the good looking, intelligent readers of The Loop, now is your chance to book. I’ve opened up the first two months of 2015 on the sponsorship page. If there’s a week that you would like to book later in the year, just get in touch.

What are Samsung Experience Stores? Why, they’re a dying species, if the latest development in Samsung’s efforts to establish its own retail empire are any indication. The flagship Samsung store in London, occupying a large and prominent spot at the Westfield Stratford City shopping center, has now been “permanently closed,” ostensibly in response to the company’s slumping smartphone sales.

As much as Samsung tries to copy Apple, they prove time and again that they really don’t understand the market.

Everyone needs a Zamboni!

Great to see Avid add Yosemite support to the latest release.

To be clear, I don’t think that people who work for Facebook are evil. Instead they are part of a corporate machine whose job is to control all of our attention, for as long as possible. On the other hand, Facebook having empathy would mean a wholesale cultural graft towards a different way of thinking, developing and interacting with people.

Great read here from Om Malik.

This is a funny story from Brad Reed at BGR. For what it’s worth, it does look like a crappy gadget.

It’s clear that Santa is no longer into cookies – he prefers Apples. It was a banner Christmas for the Apple, the company that started the mobile revolution with the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007. Seven years later, Apple accounted for 51% of the new device activations worldwide Flurry recognized in the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (December 19th – 25th). Samsung held the #2 position with 18% of new device activations, and Microsoft (Nokia) rounded out the top three with 5.8% share for mostly Lumia devices.

That’s a pretty substantial gap between first and second.

Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Live and Sony Corp’s PlayStation Network, Internet services that video gamers use to play online, were hit by connection failures on Christmas Day, with the hackers Lizard Squad claiming responsibility.

That would really piss me off.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you, the readers for making 2014 another great year on The Loop.

The Loop is so much more than just a job or somewhere I make money, it’s a place where I get to interact with people from around the world and share my honest opinions on Apple and technology. The Loop is an important part of my life.

If you are a member of The Loop, paying $3 a month, I want to thank you a little more. It may seem like a trivial amount of money, but it helps keep the lights on and make this whole site possible.

Of course, a huge thanks to the sponsors of The Loop. Your continued support of the site is critical to what we do. Thank you!

Over the last year, The Loop has become bigger than just me. Dave Mark and Shawn King work tireless every day to post interesting stories. I could not have done it without you year this year.

Thanks everyone. Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jim

Pixelmator for Mac and Pixelmator for iPad. Two powerful image editing apps that give you everything you need to create, edit, and enhance images. You can work seamlessly between Mac and iPad and even work effortlessly with Photoshop images.

In addition, Pixelmator for iPad is the sole and extremely proud winner of the App of the Year award, as a part of Apple’s Best of App Store 2014 selection.

I’ve heard good things about this software. Something to look at if you’re in the market.

Apparently-Amazon-doesn’t-like-hyphens. They-have-since-seen-the-error-of-their-ways-and-let-the-book-back-in.

Auto-Tune is a great app and one that I’ve used for many years. Sometimes it get used improperly, but that’s not the fault of the app.

So sad to hear that Joe died. Rest in Peace, Joe.

MY thanks to Doxie for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Doxie Go Wi-Fi is the tiny, rechargeable document and receipt scanner that scans anywhere — no computer required — then syncs wirelessly to your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Doxie scans your paper: simply and automatically. Battery power, built-in Wi-Fi, and new SmartMemory let you scan anywhere, then tuck Doxie away when you’re not using it.

Doxie’s elegant Mac and iOS apps handle any workflow — save scans to your desktop, share with your favorite apps, or send to cloud services like Evernote and Dropbox. Doxie’s new open developer API lets you build Doxie support into your service, software, or personal paperless workflow.

The Loop readers get free U.S. shipping and Guaranteed Christmas Delivery for all orders placed through December 21st. Order your Doxie today and give the gift of paperless.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook:

“I’m thrilled to announce that our total donation for this quarter will be more than $20 million — our biggest ever — bringing the total amount Apple has raised for (PRODUCT) RED to over $100 million,” Cook wrote. “The money we’ve raised is saving lives and bringing hope to people in need. It’s a cause we can all be proud to support.”

Much respect Apple people and everyone that purchased a product.

Some of these are really whacky.

There is just nothing like hearing from the guy that sits in the control room and is responsible for the recording. Some great tips in here too.

I’ve had some people ask what microphone I use on Amplified and other podcasts. I use the Samson C01U Pro USB Studio Condenser and it’s on sale at Amazon.

A fascinating piece by Mat Honan on a business that had big plans for journalism, but we’ll never see it.

This course is for Hendrix fans who want to learn his unique style of blues playing. Taking cues from Red House and Voodoo Chile Blues, this course will not disappoint.

Anthony Stauffer just released new guitar lessons teaching you all about Jimi Hendrix, one of the greatest guitarists to ever pick up the instrument.

Bryan Chaffin does a very good job on this piece. I especially like page 2, but it’s all worth a read.

Everything affects your tone when playing the guitar.