Rethinking the Mac mini

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Peter Cohen:

The Mac mini is overdue for a major refresh. It’s been well more than a year, and it’s been several years since the Mac mini had any significant work done to it. That’s got me thinking about what Apple could do it and probably should do to it.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Apple does with the Mac mini. Clearly, Apple’s interest has been with the iPhone and iPad, as well as the MacBooks and Mac Pro in recent years.

St. Louis TV station causes school lockdown, then reports on it

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On Thursday night, KSDK in St. Louis reported on a high school lockdown. And it was one that they had caused. Kirkwood High School went into lockdown earlier that day and, after more than an hour, people in St. Louis began finding out why.

I would be pissed off.

Enable proximity solutions with Bleu Station from Twocanoes Software

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My thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Integrate iBeacon support in your iOS app or enterprise solution today. Twocanoes Software is now shipping Bleu Station beacons with full iBeacon support. Bleu Station beacons are a simple and secure way to add iBeacon support to your app or solution. Check out Bleu Station, the Bleu Starter Kit, sample code and white papers at Bleu Station from Twocanoes.

Bleu Station beacons are powered with a standard USB connection for maximum flexibility in deployment without requiring ongoing battery replacement.Bleu Stations can be securely configured during deployment and plugged into any standard USB port.

Bleu Stations are shipping today. Twocanoes offers hardware, software and integration support to quickly make iBeacons an integral part of your apps and solutions. Learn more at Bleu Station from Twocanoes.

It’s all about lack of trust with Google

Written by

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.

Transfer files from Pro Tools to Logic Pro and back again

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Everyone has their favorite DAW to work in, and most people are very attached to their workstation of choice, but eventually there comes a time when it becomes necessary to transfer the individual elements of a project to a different program.

Transferring projects has always been problematic, but there’s some good tips here.

Logic Pro X Skins

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I kind of like the default look of Logic Pro Pro X, but if you want a different look, the modding community has been hard at work.

Net Neutrality Endgame

Written by

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.

Apple widens US smartphone lead

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Research firm NPD today announced the results of its latest Connected Home Report, showing that Apple increased its share of the U.S. smartphone installed user base by seven percentage points, from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 42 percent in the same quarter of 2013. Second-place Samsung increased its share of the market by a smaller margin from 22 percent to 26 percent, while other major manufacturers saw their shares drop.

There are only two players in the smartphone business.

Amplified: Nobody’s Getting My Panties

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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”)

The Loop Magazine Issue 19: What “Post PC” Means

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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.

Visual Storytelling for iPad

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

Combine photos, videos, and text to meaningfully document your experiences. Publish your stories for friends and followers, or share them by email, Facebook, or Twitter. Explore stories created by your friends and our community of storytellers from all around the world.

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

Apple and the FTC scam

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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.

Apple to refund $32.5 million for disputed kids’ app purchases

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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.

Slimy Samsung bastards

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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.