Some of this stuff is just great.

Pro Tools updates have been coming fast and furious. I like it.

Gretsch makes some fine instruments.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has big balls. They should have let him stay.

It’s nice to see someone starting out put so much time into thinking about the right ways to monetize a Web site.

I’m thinking not enough rehearsal time.

Despite running Android, the devices come with a Windows 8-style tile interface called “Magazine UX,” which Samsung says is better optimized for large screens.

There is just no stopping these guys.

Access your iPhone’s data on your computer with iExplorer. Easy to use, fully loaded and well polished—this app is a great tool for anyone upgrading to a new computer or iPhone.

Text messages, playlists, songs, voicemail, voice memos, photos, notes, files and more—iExplorer makes it easy to transfer or backup an iPhone to a Mac or Windows computer. Download the app, connect an iPhone and click transfer. Your files are now on your computer.

Use coupon code LOOPSWAG and receive a free Macroplant branded USB thumb drive with any purchase of iExplorer placed before January 13th. Get the free trial version today.

Speaking of Randy Rhoads, this show is coming up on January 25.

Randy Rhoads is one of the greatest guitar players to ever pick up the instrument. Alex Vollmer shows you how to play the solo from “Crazy Train.”

Happy Birthday Strat. Fender posted a great timeline of the guitar too.

There are a lot of great elements to webOS. I’m really looking forward to seeing what LG can do with it.

My thanks to Focus for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Focus is a beautiful and easy to use pomodoro timer. Built exclusively for iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, Focus is the best way to focus on a single task for a period of time.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management philosophy that aims to provide the user with maximum focus and creative freshness, thereby allowing them to complete projects faster with less mental fatigue.

The process is simple. For every project throughout the day, you budget your time into short increments and take breaks periodically. You work for 25 minutes, then take break for five minutes.

Each 25-minute work period is called a “pomodoro”, named after the Italian word for tomato. Francesco Cirillo used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal timer, and thus the method’s name.

After four “pomodoros” have passed, (100 minutes of work time with 15 minutes of break time) you then take a 15-20 minute break.

Focus lets you enter and manage your task, work with customizable session length, see you completed tasks and incorporates the latest technologies. It helps you to focus on your tasks and stay productive all the time.

Focus is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with iOS 7 and also for OS X Mavericks.

They say it’s coming January 23, which would be at NAMM.

A new amp in Fender’s Pawn Shop Series. I bet this sounds great.

Ben Bajarin:

Folks claim that because Apple’s competition is doing something that Apple should also or they will lose. Yet what I love about Apple’s strategy is that it is never around what the competition is doing. Apple marches to beat of their own drum. This is fundamentally mis-understood by so many.

I agree with Ben. Companies will release products that may be in a category Apple is interested in, but Apple is not going to change its strategy to release something before it’s ready. The so-called experts fail to realize that many of the products introduced are guesses by companies to try to beat Apple to a market. Often times, these products are not thought out very well and eventually fail. Apple enters a market because it feels it can dominate that market. It makes products for its customers, with the expectation that the money will follow—exactly the opposite of how most other companies operate.

As Michael Mulvey points out, it’s not just fragmentation, but Google’s lack of attention to design.

Blackberry has today filed a lawsuit against startup Typo Keyboards, which is backed by Ryan Seacrest. The company alleges that Typo copied BlackBerry’s patented ‘iconic’ keyboard design.

I actually agree with BlackBerry.

Our mission is to take the pain and tediousness out of the DMCA takedown submission process. We make this as easy as possible by creating tools that help you quickly create submissions, track existing submissions and organize the results.

Great idea.

Snapchat, the red-hot private messaging service, said on Thursday that it knew for months about a security loophole that allowed hackers this week to harvest millions of phone numbers and announced changes to its systems.

Assholes.

In this issue Wil Shipley talks about why developers ask you to rate their apps; Darren Murph wonders why American companies don’t give employees more time off; Jonathan Rhyne looks at some steps developers should take to legally protect themselves and their business; Matt Dusenbury tells of a sad story between a mother and daughter; and Doyle Armbrust talks about the new classical music scene.

I don’t even know why I posted this. Just for a chuckle I guess.

Jim travels to Austin, Texas to join Dan in person for this very special episode. Along with 5by5 Producer Haddie Cooke, they discuss the new Mac Pro, Bitcoin, iPad keyboards, the iA Writer patent controversy, Tim Cook’s thank you to Apple employees, and more.

Sponsored by HostGator (coupon DANSENTME), SquareSpace (coupon DANSENTME1213) and Shutterstock (coupon DANSENTME12).