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Sam Rijver:

I’m using quite a few iHealth products to measure a few things regarding my health. I have measurements of my blood pressure, blood-oxigen levels, weight, activity and sleep patterns and more. I do this because it’s useful information I can use to monitor my own health. More importantly I can (choose to) provide this information to my physician during my yearly check-up. I have yearly check-ups due to heart disease running in the family and with the iHealth products I can provide a great amount of data points for about 80% of the tests they run on such a check. It’s great. It’s useful. It’s also scaring the crap out of me that Google might go out and buy the company for an insane amount of money. I just can’t shake the feeling that if that happens I would feel worried about the implications of Google getting their hands on that kind of data.

For me, all of this commentary comes back to simple point: people don’t trust Google. Eventually that has to come back and bite them in the ass.

That’s quite a headline from Consumer Reports. And the FTC goes after Apple.

Don’t forget to hit reload, there are some real gems in there.

I would lose my fucking mind if this happened to me.

Matt Drance:

Put simply: the Internet we know and depend on will become something very different. The business relationship with your provider will change its focus from consumption (how many ones and zeros came over the wire) to behavior (what kind of ones and zeros). The latter is much more discriminatory and insidious.

This week, Merlin Mann sits in to chat with Jim about the Nest acquisition, the problem with Google’s opaque creepiness, Jim’s upcoming trip to NAMM, plus some special interactive tips from Jim on working the pentatonic blues solo.

Homework: Practice on GnR’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”

5by5’s bandwidth for January provided by CacheFly: The fastest, most reliable CDN in the business.

Sponsors this week:

• Ting ($25 off)
• Shutterstock (25% off everything with discount code “DANSENTME114”)
• Freshbooks (They’re giving away birthday cakes!)
• Squarespace (10% off everything with discount code “NEWYEARS”)

In this issue, Don Lehman examines what “Post PC” really means; Darren Murph looks at how Land Rover is investing in brand loyalty; Kirk McElhearn looks back at the beauty of mono recordings; Dermot Daly discusses the iPhone’s 20 year reign; and Chris Domico gives us an inside look at the life of a freelance musician.

Share your world through Storehouse. It’s the easiest way to create and discover beautiful stories.

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This looks like a great app, and it’s free.

I laughed out loud at this comic.

Are you kidding me? The deal for Apple to reimburse parents for money their kids had spent on apps was already done and then the FTC swoops in.

Very interesting, but I’ll stick with my jeans and t-shirt for now.

This is very cool.

[Via Swissmiss]

Apple Inc will refund consumers at least $32.5 million to settle a longstanding complaint that the technology company billed U.S. consumers for charges incurred by children through mobile apps without their parents’ consent.

Or, you know, you could just look after your kids and take responsibility for what they do.

This an odd device.

This is the best sounding Boss pedalboard I’ve heard in years.

First, let’s get the most mysterious thing about the Galaxy S5 out of the way: Yes, it will come in both metal and plastic versions as has been rumored, with the metal version costing around 800 Euros and the plastic model coming in at around 650 Euros. It’s pretty much similar to what Apple has done.

Maureen O’Connor writing for New York Magazine:

There is such a thing as too much information for you. There is such a thing as information the speaker will later regret. But if an audience is willingly and pleasurably consuming the information, then by definition, that is the right amount of information for them. Assuming the information in question is yours to share — your life, your ideas, your stories, your pictures, your theories about elf genealogy in Lord of the Rings — you cannot share too much of it. There are no captive audiences on the Internet.

I enjoyed this article.

Such a great article by Dan Hon at Wired.

In this interactive storybook app for kids, step into a dog’s world and experience the arrival of a family’s first baby from a lovable canine’s perspective.

As a father and a dog lover, I love this.