The report notes that Beats will continue to be a paid service and will likely be rebranded under the iTunes umbrella. The move could come alongside the launch of the Apple Watch, with users able to push Beats music from their iPhones to the wearable device.

This makes perfect sense to me.

FoundSounds is a unique new mobile app blurring the line between a social network and a collaborative art project. The premise is simple: if you find a sound you like, record it and share it with the world. Recordings are geotagged, and you can browse them by scrolling through a timeline or exploring a map. You can also construct sound collages that create intriguing sonic geographies. If enough sounds have been recorded in your area, consider taking a sound walk, which allows you to listen to recordings made near you. Walking past a concert venue would allow you to hear previous performances from that location, while passing by a new building would trigger the sounds of its construction. The vision of FoundSounds is to create a space where people can listen to sounds they might not normally hear. FoundSounds costs $9.99, the same as the price of an album in iTunes. FoundSounds is available on the iOS app store now.

Answer some questions and The Grid will not only build a site for you, it will also adapt with you. I have no idea if this works, but I can’t wait to try it out and see how it does.

I’ve looked at a lot of blogging/Web site platforms over the years, but I’m really impressed with Barley. There is no admin area, so everything is done on the page itself—you just start typing and it becomes a new post. Very slick platform.

I’m reading this book right now and I’m really enjoying it. Interesting to note that Jony Ive does the Foreword.

No new features, but this is one of the best apps ever made.

Not sure which shirt looks best on you? Wondering if you take the Seahawks or the 49ers this Sunday? Ask your friends with Straw! Get instant responses delivered in real-time right to your phone, in a super visual, easy to decipher way.

I spoke with the developer about this app this afternoon and I really like it. It’s a cool way to get people’s opinion and share the results with whoever you want.

Initial users, fans, developers, even Sergey Brin—nobody seems to have much interest in this piece of shit product anymore.

Apple Watch represents a new chapter in the relationship people have with technology. Starting early 2015, you will be able to deliver innovative new experiences to your customers on their wrist. Learn how your existing app notifications can easily show up on Apple Watch. And by leveraging WatchKit, you can take your apps even further by extending and enhancing their functionality on Apple Watch.

This is a huge day for Apple. It may seem like this is just another SDK release for developers, but this is where Apple learns just how interested developers are in making apps for its new device. We’ve all seen it before with companies competing with Apple for iPhone and iPad apps—they matter to the consumer a lot. Products that don’t have deep developer support have a good chance of failing. When Apple does release the Apple Watch next year, they want to be able to stand up and brag about how many apps are already available. It’s an important day.

Apple is cracking down on Notification Center widgets in iOS once again, this time telling Neato that its note taking widget is unacceptable and will need to be removed due to the fact that it includes a keyboard.

I don’t understand Apple’s overall stance on this issue. I agree that some companies will, given the opportunity, take it too far and clutter the Notification Widget. However, there are times when an expanded widget makes sense.

Even the product page is the same as Apple’s for Nokia’s new tablet.

Sixty-two percent of the weight of the web is images, and we’re serving more image bytes every day. That would be peachy if all of those bytes were being put to good use. But on small or low-resolution screens, most of that data is waste.

A phone leash that fits your lifestyle.

I’m not sure how popular those iPod touch loops were that Apple released, but perhaps popular enough to make it worthwhile for these folks to make it for the iPhone.

A great post here from Allyson Kazmucha, Serenity Caldwell and Rene Ritchie on how to use Apple Pay. I used Apple Pay at Home Depot, Whole Foods and Peet’s Coffee and it always works great for me. Getting your card into the iPhone and using it at a store is easy as can be.

From The New York Times:

Samsung Turns to BlackBerry for Better Security

Dumb and Dumber

Great stuff.

I installed it and am having no issues so far.

You can download the update by going to Settings > General > Software Update on your iOS device.

“Dollar for dollar, the Sound Blaster ROAR produces the best sound of any portable Bluetooth speaker I’ve heard.”

– Tom’s Guide

Thanks to Creative for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. The compact Sound Blaster Roar boasts of two 1.5-inch high-frequency drivers, a dedicated 2.5-inch subwoofer, and a pair of side-firing passive radiators. Now, all these drivers will only sound as good as the music you play through them, and the Roar supports aptX and AAC over Bluetooth for high-quality audio streaming.

All this, while adding other features like NFC support, a USB port for charging, an integrated MP3 player through its microSD card slot that also allows you to record calls taken with the built-in speakerphone.

The Red Dot Design Award-winning Roar has received consistent 5-star reviews on Amazon since its launch. Now available at $149.99 via Creative.com and Amazon.com.

As Manley Labs’ flagship compressor since 1994, the Variable Mu is a tube and transformer-driven classic that exudes hand-made craftsmanship. A gold standard among mixing and mastering engineers, the Variable Mu adds clarity and cohesion to stereo buses or your entire mix.

I love Manley gear and Universal Audio—I can’t wait to load this one into a project.

…estimates that 30% of American smartphone owners plan to use either Apple Pay or Google Wallet to buy things this holiday shopping season. What’s more, 17% of smartphone users surveyed said having the option to buy things with Apple Pay or Google Wallet would cause them to spend more money than they normally would.

Be smart Walmart. Nobody wants your shitty payment service.

Chris Bank does a great job of tackling UX and UI in this post.

When designing a website, you want your UX to be as positive as possible — you want your users to enjoy being on your website, that’s kind of the whole point. But you can’t just say “let’s improve our site’s UX” any more than a business can say “let’s make more money.” It’s the strategies you use to create your UX, namely the UI, that can enhance (or weaken) it.

I love listening to these isolated tracks. There’s some great information about the session here as well.

Anthony Colangelo:

The difference between knowledge and intelligence is key here. Knowledge is the collection of skills and information a person has acquired through experience. Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge. Just because someone lacks knowledge of a particular subject doesn’t mean they can’t apply their intelligence to help solve problems.

I love that.

Google has quietly revealed it plans to retire the Google Wallet API for digital goods on March 2, 2015. The company plans to continue supporting the sale of apps on Google Play as well as in-app payments, but users will not be able to purchase any virtual items offered on the Web through Google Wallet.

You have to love Heineken.

[Via psfk]

I totally agree with Gruber here. Flooding the App Store with one-star reviews because a company needs to make money is wrong.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shook up the automotive and aerospace industries with electric cars and cheap rockets. Now, he is focused on satellites, looking at ways to make smaller, less-expensive models that can deliver Internet access across the globe, according to people familiar with the matter.

Elon is definitely as visionary and the man get’s shit done.

It was one of the most hilarious (and important!) moments of the year: Zach Galifianakis interviewing President Obama about…the Affordable Care Act. And it vaulted Funny or Die—the world s greatest comedy site, brought to you by Will Ferrell and friends—to such stratospheric heights of viral-video dominance that the site has now hired some Wall Street guys to evaluate potential buyers. Amy Wallace embeds in the company’s Hollywood HQ and learns why FOD may soon be laughing all the way to the, well, you know

Joe Wilcox:

Clickbait and linkbait also corrupt longstanding, and sensible practices regarding headline writing that negatively affect audience attitudes about what is valuable content. Good headlines should be aggressive or provocative, such that they pull people to read the story. Emphasis: Read. Deliver value. Clickbait and linkbait headlines and stories aren’t written for people but for Google—to capture search ranking and pageviews.

This is worth a read.