Ben’s been a friend of mine for a long time. I still don’t get the product though.

Those who expressed concern about Google’s acquisition of Nest may have have been right: the company has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may choose to serve ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

You are the product with this creepy company.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella and Executive Vice President Stephen Elop decided that the product in development wasn’t different enough from rivals and probably wouldn’t be a hit, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans weren’t public. Engineers had been working on the device and had planned to unveil it as early as today at an event in New York, two of the people said.

I can’t imagine how bad it would be using apps on a mini version of the Surface. It was probably a smart idea to kill that.

Very interesting article from Benedict Evans.

Samsung lost an appeal in the Netherlands over its infringement of Apple’s bounce-back patent, resulting in a broad injunction against selling accused devices and all other infringing devices that Samsung has introduced or will introduce.

This is what should happen to stealing scumbags. What’s wrong with the U.S.?

Nile Rodgers has a lot of hits under his belt.

Looking at the Surface Pro 3, you have to say that it is better than previous versions of the tablet. However, no one wanted the previous tablet and I don’t see anything that’s changed in the new version to change that. Microsoft put the Surface Pro 3 up against the MacBook Air, but it’s hardware partners aren’t that stupid—they know Microsoft is going after them too.

Apple updated iWork for iCloud on Tuesday that adds a number of new features including:

I hate to be a “Downer Dave” here, but this still does tell me what I can do with it. It doesn’t reach out to me.

Samsung said that Apple were “jihadist” and that this was “Apple’s Vietnam.” Samsung is fucking crazy.

Jim and Dan return to have a deep analysis of beats, music subscription technology, music discovery, a list of people Jim will destroy, Apple settling with Samsung and Google, iMessages SMS issues, and more.

In a joint filing late Monday, the two companies blamed each other for the failure of the talks initiated on May 5 by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

Good. Sue those copying scumbags into the ground.

I’m going to need to think about this one for a bit. I use services from both companies, but I’m not sure how they fit together.

I’ll be honest, I don’t own a GoPro, but it’s one of those devices that I always think about buying.

The device features a 12-inch screen and kickstand, and supports a stylus. In addition, the tablet comes with support for USB 3.0 and Microsoft’s popular Type-covers in multiple colors. The Surface Pro 3 features an Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processor to boost its performance compared to the previous Microsoft slate.

They are comparing it to a MacBook Air. That’s an odd comparison for me, almost like Microsoft still doesn’t get what this is all about.

Ember makes it incredibly easy to capture and organize screenshots, entire webpages and other images that inspire you; and syncs them between all your favorite Apple devices.

I’m sure Dropbox sync will be a popular feature.

Apple’s new retail boss, Angela Ahrendts, reportedly plans to focus on China, mobile payments and the experience. All things that Apple should focus on.

XLTE supposedly doubles the 4G LTE bandwidth.

[Via iMore]

Conor Friedersdorf keeps a list of the best longform nonfiction published each year. This is his list of more than 100 articles for 2013.

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This is an interesting trend for Line 6—a piece of hardware controlled by an app on your iPhone or iPad.

AT&T Inc plans to pay $48.5 billion to buy DirecTV, in the latest sign that the wireless industry and the U.S. television market are set to converge as customers consume more video on their mobile devices.

Yesterday Samsung announced that they’d be kicking off a “revolutionary” campaign that would involve them “taking over signage, wayfinding, website, and every digital screen” at Heathrow’s incredibly busy Terminal 5 and “rebranding” it as “Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5”. iMore has since been informed that Samsung’s “take over” is actually a far more reasonable, more standard form of advertising.

Samsung lied? Shocking.

“Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The agreement does not include a cross license.”

Josh Centers found some interesting differences between Beats and its competitors.

My thanks to Betterment for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

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Samsung is taking over Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and turning it into a giant advertisement. Apple, on the other hand, talks about its customer satisfaction and design—the iPhone sells itself.

I just love the Massey Plug-ins. If you talk to any pro in the business, they will tell you how good they are. I’ve used them for years, but today I got the full versions.

It’s easy to go to someone’s sites and portfolio to get a sense of what they’re about. Product Managers still appear to be stuck in the “Let me tell you how awesome I am” rut, though. This is a generalization, of course, but what I’m mostly seeing right now is resumes that excel at vagueness.

I’ve seen many of those types of resumes over the years. It makes you sit back and say, “what does that even mean?”

An unpublished story flagged last week during our editing process led to an internal investigation that uncovered other examples in about 50 published stories, and our investigation is ongoing.

I guess it happens everywhere, I just don’t expect it from CNN.

[Via Poynter]